W H A T ’ S IN S I D E
JuLY 2014 • The CSRA’s Only Monthly Business Magazine
Making the grade
Georgia, SC both ranked among most business friendly By Gary Kauffman Remember the excitement of bringing home a report card with good grades on it? Businesses in the CSRA can feel a bit like that after a survey that found Georgia and South Carolina to be among the most business-friendly states in the country. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, in conjunction with Thumbtack.com, surveyed small business owners in each state and based their rankings on those responses. Georgia earned an A– and South Carolina a B+. Only 12 other states ranked that high. “It doesn’t surprise me,” said Susan Caldwell, area director of the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center. “Georgia is an entrepreneurial-friendly state.” While relocations of large companies to a state usually garner the headlines, Laura DiSano, co-director of the University of South Carolina Aiken SBDC, said a state’s impact on small businesses is vital to economic success. “Big companies are important, but we need to be able to go beyond that and cultivate entrepreneurship at the local level,” she said. The third annual Small Business Friendliness Survey ranked the states in 10 categories, then averaged them to attain the overall grade. South Carolina actually received more A’s than Georgia – in six categories compared to two – but had its overall rating dragged down by a D+ in Training and Networking Programs. DiSano said that is misleading because there are plenty of programs in place. Finding them, though, is sometimes difficult. “There’s such a plethora of information but it’s the navigation to them that is not always easy,” she said. “A lot of times people have to go to multiple places to achieve things.” Georgia also received its lowest grade, a C, in Training and Networking. “That did surprise me a little bit,” Caldwell said, “simply because I see what is out there with our resource partners. See BUSINESS FRIENDLY STATES, page 16
Take your business to next level............3 Buzz Bits...................................................... 6,7 Exit 5 gets Park & Ride............................ 12 Taking time off from your business... 14 Businessperson of the Month.............. 15 2015 ACA compliance checklist.......... 19
Poised for a boom?
Housing market on the rebound with steady growth anticipated
By Gary Kauffman The housing market in the CSRA finally appears to be loosening up, and that’s good news for homeowners, would-be home owners and businesses. Although the diverse economy of the Augusta area kept the economy more stable than in many parts of the country, the recession of 2008 had a negative effect on home sales. But that is changing. “It’s been congested for a while because of the recession,” said Bert Dean, executive director of CSRA Home Connections and president of Clarion South Communications that works with Century 21 Larry Miller Real Estate. “By the time the market crashed in September 2008 real estate was already tightening up. Then it just slammed down in 2009 and 2010.”
Things began picking up in 2013 and numbers for 2014 are running about the same, although Doug Reese, general manager for Blanchard & Calhoun, said the ice storm and bad weather in January and February have skewed those numbers. But new construction is booming now. “Inventory is at an all-time low,” Reese said. “Builders can’t get the inventory up fast enough.” There are several reasons for the upturn in the housing market, the most simple being that people have finally decided enough is enough. “People had been taking a wait-and-see approach,” Dean said. “But now people have started saying, ‘we can’t wait to see what will happen.’” See HOUSING MARKET, page 2