Maryland Chamber of Commerce Blog » Small Business

Maryland Chamber – In Reality

Will Burns — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:28:05 +0000

The Maryland Chamber: In Reality Episode One from Storyfarm New Media on Vimeo.

New Maryland Chamber of Commerce member Storyfarm New Media is partnering with us to create a monthly reality video series chronicling the company’s first year of membership.

The goal of the video series is to call attention to the many ways the Maryland Chamber helps member companies grow, while working to enhance the state’s economy and business climate. Follow along as Storyfarm Managing Partner John Sherman attends Maryland Chamber events, connects with other members, gets involved in Chamber committees and activities, and learns more about the organization’s legislative advocacy efforts in Annapolis.

We’re pretty excited about this new collaboration, and we hope you find it entertaining and informative. This new format is being pioneered by Storyfarm, and we think it’s a great fit to showcase our efforts and get real-time feedback about our events and activities.

In the first episode, Sherman begins the series by going to the joint Marketing and Membership committee meeting at McCormick & Company headquarters in Sparks. Watch as John makes new contacts, learns about the Chamber’s legislative agenda for 2011, and shares what it’s like to be be a part of it from a newcomer’s perspective.

A Call to Leadership – Part II: The Foundation of Leadership

Krysten Appelbaum — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:46:46 +0000

In our last segment of the Call to Leadership Series, David Utts, Founder and CEO of the Columbia Academy of Executive Leadership and Executive Skillworks, Inc., spoke about the definition of leadership and why it is essential in difficult times. In this segment, Utts talks about your personal power as the foundation of leadership, and what qualities make a true leader.

For more information about the topics presented, or The Leadership Breakthrough Experience starting October 1, visit www.executiveskillworks.com, or call David Utts at (410) 381-9155.

A Call to Leadership – Part I: The Era of Leadership

Krysten Appelbaum — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:15:13 +0000

What is leadership? Why is it especially important in difficult times? What impacts does poor leadership have on an organization?

David Utts, Founder and CEO of the Columbia Academy of Executive Leadership and Executive Skillworks, Inc., recently sat down with us to answer these questions and more in a four part video series. In this first video, Utts explains the importance of leadership, presents research on the positive impacts leadership development can have on your business, and how you can develop your leadership skills.

For more information about leadership development research or techniques, visit www.executiveskillworks.com, or call David Utts at (410) 381-9155. The remaining three videos in the Call for Leadership series will be published over the next two weeks.

July 19: Free Small Business Lending Event

Will Burns — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:25:27 +0000

The Maryland Chamber is partnering with Congressman John Sarbanes, the Maryland Bankers Association, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Anne Arundel Community College to present a small business lending event on July 19. The event will be held from 7:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Anne Arundel County Community College’s Cade Center for Fine Arts.

This is an outstanding opportunity to learn about small business loan products and SBA loan programs and to meet with national and community-based lenders and business counseling partners. Participating lenders include CitiBank, Suntrust, M&T Bank, Bank of Glen Burnie, Sandy Spring Bank, Essex Bank, BankAnnapolis, Hamilton Federal Bank, Severn Savings Bank, Arundel Federal Savings Bank and more.

The event is free. Register online or contact Kristen Solis at (410) 269-0642, (301) 261-2858 or ksolis@mdchamber.org.

Background Checks and Drug Screenings

Krysten Appelbaum — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:03:21 +0000

So far, our series of posts on the hiring process has covered writing good job descriptions, finding innovative ways to identify candidates, screening applicants and interviewing prospective employees.

Now that you’ve chosen a final candidate and preparing to make an offer, it is important to consider conducting background screening and a drug test. HR Anew President & CEO Deborah Stallings said that this is critically important for small businesses.

“For many small businesses this is a step that is skipped, and it is very, very important. Making a bad hiring decision can be much more costly for a small business than a large corporation. It is important to protect yourself, and get as much information on a candidate before extending an offer of employment to them,” she said.

There are several free resources, as well as paid services that can be used to conduct background checks. A simple Google search of a candidate’s name can bring up additional information about a candidate.

Drug testing is also something employers should consider.

“Drug testing is something a lot of small businesses do not conduct and a lot of candidates know this and they seek out employment with small businesses for that reason,” Stallings said. According to the U.S. Department of Labor alcoholism and drug abuse have a profoundly negative affect on the workplace in terms of decreased productivity and increased accidents, absenteeism, turnover and medical costs.

It is important to protect yourself and your business and to evaluate your potential new employee before extending an offer to them. Here are some resources for conducting background checks and drug testing, from the Maryland Department of Labor and Licensing.

Tips For Interviewing Potential Employees

Krysten Appelbaum — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:01:58 +0000

Interviewing a candidate is one of the most important steps in selecting a new employee. The encounter with the candidate can give you a sense of how they will conduct themselves in your workplace, and often it is apparent very quickly whether the candidate is the right fit for the position.

If you’ve narrowed down resumes to several final candidates, starting with a brief phone interview may be best to screen applicants. This can give you a sense of their professionalism and preparedness, as well as their phone-style if this is an important factor for the position.

Once in-person interviews are set, prepare questions ahead of time, as well as criteria by which to score candidates.

“It is important to develop scoring systems based on the job descriptions and specifications,” Deborah Stallings, President & CEO of HR Anew, said. The scores can be based on personal appearance and conduct, actual responses to questions and the manner in which they are answered (for example: you’ll most likely want simple yes and no questions answered briefly, not for the candidate to go into a long dissertation or concrete examples given when asked about specific situations the candidate has experienced). It is also a good idea to have others interview a candidate as well, since they may gain insight that you missed in your interview.

When preparing interview questions, it is important to be aware of what is legal to ask and what is not. Illegal interview questions include any questions related to a candidates age, race, ethnicity or color, gender, country of national origin or birthplace, religion, disability, marital or family status or pregnancy. Visit www.eeoc.gov for more information on this. To be safe, keep interview questions focused on behaviors, skills and experience needed to perform the job, even if the discussion becomes more relaxed.

There are different techniques to use when interviewing to learn more about a candidate. Stallings said that there are four interview question styles that can be used:

Open ended – What are your five-year goals? Would you help me understand a certain aspect of your resume?

Probing – How did you resolve a particular situation? Why did you leave your last position?

Closed ended – These are ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ questions. Did you find the location easy to reach? Are you willing to relocate? When can you begin?

Behavioral – Tell me about a situation in the past where you had to manage a conflict. This is where you’re trying to get the person to tell you about situations that help you to assess what their behaviors are at work.

Using a combination of these styles may help you gain additional insight about your candidate.

For more information about interviewing techniques and questions, visit www.hranew.com.

How to Screen Applicants

Krysten Appelbaum — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:31:32 +0000

Now that you’ve done your recruitment and posted your job ads, it’s time to start sorting through the applications you receive. Reports have said that due to the current job market, employers are flooded with resumes from potential applicants. Keeping this in mind, it is important to narrow your applicant pool to the top candidates, which will help make the time you spend contacting and interviewing candidates be more productive.

Here are a few tips from HR Anew President and CEO Deborah Stallings on what to look for when reviewing resumes and cover letters:

Demonstrated achievement: Look for specific examples of goals that were accomplished during the candidate’s time with past employers.

Contributions to the mission, effectiveness, and/or profitability of past employers.

Patterns of stability and career direction. Stallings said that some candidates demonstrate a pattern of staying with past employers for six months, a year, or a year and a half. “The recruitment and hiring process is very expensive. If this pattern shows, it is likely it will be the same case with you. That is an important thing to pay attention to,” she said. Stallings suggested making a rule on a minimum amount of time an applicant should have worked with a past employer.

Lengthy descriptions of education.

Gaps in employment history- If an applicant has been unemployed for some time, look for what they have been doing in that time to keep their skills fresh, whether they have been volunteering, interning, etc.

Too much personal information.

Overabundance of qualifiers, such as “had exposure to” or “knowledge of.”

Sloppy resume: Look out for typos and grammatical errors. This may indicate a lack of attention to detail, as well as reflect negatively on the candidate’s seriousness about the position.

An additional note on reviewing resumes is that a resume is not a legal document, Stallings said, allowing the applicant to write things that may not be true. An employment application that requires the applicant’s signature, however, is a legal document and binds the applicant to what they’ve written.

When reviewing an employment application, make sure the applicant has completed it in its entirety.

“Sometimes an applicant will write ‘see resume’ in sections of an application. You should have the expectation that applicants will complete each section of the application,” Stallings said. “This gives you the opportunity to compare what they’ve written on their resume and application and determine whether they have been honest with you about their qualifications.”

Stay tuned for the next entries in our hiring series about conducting background checks and drug screenings, as well as the how to interview someone and the legality of your interview questions.

Innovation with Recruitment Efforts Can Attract Top Talent

Krysten Appelbaum — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:33:44 +0000

For small businesses, finding the right employee for a position can be a daunting task and present several challenges. Smaller firms may have difficulty gaining enough visibility to attract top talent and traditional recruiting methods, such as posting on job boards or classifieds, can often flood them with overwhelming amounts of applications, many from unqualified applicants.

Being innovative and using new technologies to support your recruitment efforts can pay off. Social media, industry associations, and networking events provide the opportunity for small businesses to gain visibility in their community and industry, as well as the possibility of identifying potential hires.

“Social media provides us with this great technology at our fingertips, and it’s a great way to find talent and gain visibility,” HR Anew President & CEO Deborah Stallings said.
Posting company profiles and advertising the benefits of working for your business on a profile on LinkedIn, a Facebook page, or a video on YouTube, is an easy and free way to promote your company to potential candidates.
“Social media also provides us with the opportunity to maintain our professional relationships and contacts, which can be incredibly valuable when looking for talent,” Stallings said.

Stallings said many great candidates for small firms are ‘passive job seekers,’ or those who do not apply directly to a position, but instead are referred through a professional contact. “Recently HR Anew hired six new employees, and all of them were passive job seekers,” she said.

Even your current employees can serve as recruiters. They can advertise the benefits of working for your company to professional contacts and friends. Industry associations and networking events can also provide you with the opportunity of identifying potential hires without having to go through the process of posting an ad and sifting through applications. Attending job fairs and working with career centers at local universities is another option to indentify new talent.

Wherever your recruitment efforts take you, it is important that they are continuous, and do not just start when a new position needs to be filled. Maintaining professional contacts and relationships will make the talent-finding process easier when it is time to bring on that new hire.

Maryland Chamber Honors Small Businesses of the Year

Krysten Appelbaum — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:50:44 +0000

Three small businesses, one non-profit organization and one large company that has made a significant contribution to local small businesses were honored this afternoon during the Maryland Chamber of Commerce annual Small Business of the Year Awards Luncheon at the Westin BWI Airport Hotel.

“Congratulations to the 2010 Small Business of the Year Award winners,” said Kathy Snyder, CCE, President & CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. “Through their vision and hard work, they are helping Maryland’s economy grow. Today we honor their financial success, as well as their commitment to their employees, customers and communities.”

This year’s winners are:

Small Business of the Year – 1-10 Employees:  Café 611 is a downtown Frederick restaurant providing catering and event services to the Frederick community. Founded in March 2007, Café 611 has turned major challenges from potential adversity into customer growth, increased sales, and profitability. Prior to owners Randy and Karen Jones buying business, a nightclub that had a nefarious reputation in the community inhabited the space. In addition, a construction project with resounding noise and building vibrations blocked off the street, detouring both vehicle and pedestrian traffic from Café 611’s front door. This, combined with the economic downturn, created a formula for failure. But Café 611 innovated and created a new business plan that included new hours, products and services, and launched a campaign to create a positive public relationship. It thrived. Today Café 611 continues to grow and offers services such as off-site catering, and an affordable venue for large social gatherings. Café 611’s nomination was supported by the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce.

Small Business of the Year – 11-50 Employees:  Miller’s Minuteman Press is a full service marketing, design, print and production company that supplies and manufactures printed materials, graphic design, direct mail and promotional products. In 1999, after obtaining the necessary immigration visas and work permits, Keith Miller relocated from South Africa to Baltimore without any print experience and no business network in the area. He obtained a Minuteman Press franchise in December 1999 and has since grown the business substantially by acquiring four additional stores and a central production facility. The company has also seen steady growth in sales and employees over the past ten years. The growth Miller’s Minuteman Press has been in large part due to holding customer service and delivering top quality products as top priorities, as well as actively staying on top of trends and looking for ways to capitalize on the changing business landscape. The company provides its employees with continuous training in the latest technologies and the use of equipment. Miller’s Minuteman Press will add a Digital Communications Division in 2010. Its nomination was supported by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

Small Business of the Year – 51-200 Employees:  Murthy Law Firm, which practices exclusively in the area of U.S. immigration law, was founded in 1994 by Sheela Murthy, Esq. with the belief that the country’s strength lies in its diversity. Today, Murthy Law Firm employs nearly 70 qualified professionals to serve its clients, which include small and mid-sized companies, Fortune 500 companies, as well as individuals going through the U.S. immigration process. The practice is focused on business immigration, and helps American companies grow stronger and center their operations in the United state by building their workforces from the best and brightest highly-skilled workers in the IT, medical and other industries. Murthy Law Firm works to provide employers and employees with immigration strategies, and the firm has clients in almost every state in the U.S. and in countries around the world. The Maryland Chamber supported Murthy Law Firm’s nomination.

Non-profit Partner in Business Award : The Maryland Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure partners with Maryland businesses to further its mission to save lives and end breast cancer forever. The Race for the Cure began in Maryland as a 500 participant 5K in 1992. Since then, it has blossomed into the largest footrace in the State of Maryland and is in the top eight affiliates out of 125 Komen affiliates across the country. Partnerships with Maryland businesses have helped the Race become the largest sponsored event in the state. In addition to sponsorships, area businesses partner with the organization on workplace giving programs and pink dress down days to raise funds and awareness. Each year, 75 percent of the money raised in Maryland through the Race for the Cure remains in the state to fund breast health services and programs. This year, it is funding 27 local non-profit organizations offering breast health outreach and breast cancer screening and support programs statewide. Its nomination was supported by the Hunt Valley Business Forum.

Large Company Partner in Business Award : Pepco, which supplies electricity to 778,000 homes and businesses in the District of Columbia and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, has demonstrated a partnership and commitment to small businesses through ongoing involvement and outreach by advocating for small and diverse businesses throughout the service territory. In 2009, Pepco’s direct spending to diverse suppliers and subcontracts totaled $47.5 million or 20.39 percent of its total utility procurement for goods and services. Pepco’s supplier diversity initiative is widely recognized as a model for the utility industry nationwide and its external outreach is aggressive and wide reaching in engaging suppliers who are interested in learning more about contract opportunities processes and practices. Pepco’s nomination was supported by the Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce.
Nominees for the awards program are required to be a member of the state or a local chamber of commerce, have a permanent business location with employee(s) in Maryland, and have been in operation for a minimum of two years. The judging panel for the awards program was comprised of representatives of Maryland’s business media, including the Gazette of Politics & Business, Baltimore SmartCEO Magazine, Baltimore Business Journal, and Corridor Inc.This was the awards program’s ninth year.

Office Copier Hard Drive Shredding Offers Additional Protection

Krysten Appelbaum — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:24:15 +0000

In response to growing concerns about data stored on office copiers being stolen if a machine is later resold, office equipment dealer and document management services provider Advance is offering hard drive shredding services to destroy hard drives, and the data stored on them, when a machine is no longer in use. Advance is partnering with a National Security Agency approved specialist in data destruction, which will provide the equipment necessary for the hard drive shredding to Advance.

Though every copier Advance leases or sells comes equipped with security features to overwrite data that’s stored on the hard drive and there are additional options to enhance protection, shredding a hard drive is one extra step that can be taken to protect sensitive information.

When a hard drive is being destroyed, it is run through a machine that erases all of the data. It then goes through a shredder and afterward, all of the leftover scraps and metals can be recycled.

Watch the video to learn more about the hard drive shredding process:

To learn more about services available through Advance, visit www.advancestuff.com.