University of Arizona reports on Impact of White Mountain Stewardship Contract for 2007

At a meeting held February 21st in Eagar, Economist Lay Gibson with the University of Arizona reported on the economic progress for the last year on the impact of the largest landscape scale contract ever awarded by the U.S. Forest Service. According to Gibson, the results shown by their analysis was "generally comparable" to 2006 findings, which show a substantial economic contribution from the contract. Highlights include 15 firms harvesting and/or utilizing material, with 228 full-time equivalent jobs and an annual expenditure amount totalling over $20 million. When asked at the presentation what the impact would be of losing the contract, Gibson responded by indicating the numbers described above would represent a substantial loss to a community the size of the White Mountains.

For a copy of the full report, click on the link shown below:

The Bill requires that the SBA Administrator submit a report to Congress by December 31, 2008 regarding a plan to implement an education and assistance strategy. Additionally, SBA is to provide energy efficiency assistance through the national network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). SBA has already responded by adding a link on their home page at www.sba.gov to ENERGY STAR Small Business, and has worked with EPA to build on ENERGY STAR's Putting Energy into Profits guide with much additional information at www.business.gov.

Thanks to SolutionMatrix.com for their Financial Metrics Lite Excel Workbook and contributions to this article. There are a few simple financial metrics to summarize the meaning of projected cash flow values. Some popular financial metrics include ROI (return on investment), IRR (internal rate of return), NPV (net present value), TCO (total cost of ownership) and PBP (payback period). I have heard senior managers say, for instance: "We'll choose the investment with the better ROI," or "We don't undertake any major spending unless there's a payback period of 18 months or less." Each financial metric has strong points (it tells you something useful about projected cash flows). Each has weak points (it can mislead you when used blindly). Different metrics from the same projected cash flow statement, moreover, can point in different directions: one action has a high ROI but low NPV, the other action has a low ROI but high NPV. Which metric do you follow?

It's now Spring, and you still have time to get ready for the flock of customers that will hit the region during the busy summer months. Have you considered spending time on refining your marketing strategies? It all begins with doing market research, and the great thing is it is never too late to work on your marketing.

Market research must be used in each of these six steps to help define your business for your customer's interests, not your own. It is the process of learning what customers want or need and determining how to satisfy those wants or needs. It is also used to confirm whether the customer reacted to a marketing program as expected.