Tips For Beefing Up Your Franchise Development Plan In 2021

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Tips For Beefing Up Your Franchise Development Plan In 2021

February 23rd, 2021 Chris Buitron Leave a comment

The franchising industry has often been resilient, and 2020 was the latest, and perhaps greatest, example. As COVID-19 caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and ravaged our economy, franchises from various sectors found ways to adapt, survive, and in some cases thrive.

So how do we do it again in terms of franchise development in 2021 – despite more economic uncertainty ahead? At some point later this year, hopefully, thanks to vaccines, we can put the pandemic behind us. But what can we learn from last year’s trying circumstances, how can we apply those lessons this year, and what should we consider adjusting or doing differently? Here are five tips to help your franchise development and keep it ahead of the curve as the economy tries to recover:

Extend your digital marketing and communications. This includes building out your social media, including YouTube, for immediate, consistent, and far-ranging reach. Accentuate your message with video and posts geared to solutions for your target audience. Join neighborhood Facebook groups to connect with your company’s demographics. The pandemic took digital technology to another level as companies saw upgrading it as a necessity, incorporating Zoom calls with employees, franchisees and clients. Stay on top of the ways technology can connect your franchise with customers and make operations run smoothly.

Open a career path for the unemployed. With unemployment still a big problem due to the recession caused by COVID-19, entrepreneurship has become a more attractive option for those seeking work. For franchisors, a larger pool of potential franchisees and people whom franchisees can hire is available. Franchisees can be drawn to the freedom, growth potential, company support, and other attributes that their former career didn’t have. Entrepreneurs of any age can turn to franchising to build their own legacy while still having the support of an established brand. Another selling point: with low interest rates, entrepreneurs are in a better position to receive the funding needed to start a franchise business.

Find different ways to expand your in-person grassroots efforts. Obviously, door knocking isn’t as easy in COVID times. But we find that partnering with HOAs is a good way to attract new customers. Also, you can host local events and organize giveaways, or set up a booth at such events to inform the community about your business. Combining this old-fashioned kind of networking and marketing with the digital approach can help fill your pipeline.

Give back, and create good will. In these challenging times, giving back to the community has taken on heightened importance. Get involved with your community, show that you can be used as a resource, and for more than just your service. For example, one of our Mosquito Authority franchisees is giving 100 free treatments per week to frontline COVID workers. And after the hurricanes in Louisiana this year, our franchisees treated work camps for utility workers who were helping to restore power. Good will goes a long way and leads to customer loyalty.

Be a dependable means of support for franchisees. Most people starting their own business don’t have the built-in benefit of company support. That reassurance and reinforcement in myriad ways certainly aided our franchisees during the challenges of 2020. Across the country, franchisors in our business and other sectors stepped up to help. Whether it was financial restructuring or providing infrastructure, supplies, or employees in a pinch, franchisors learned how doing these things strengthened franchisees and their commitment and the companies as a whole. Keeping this mindset of always being there for their franchisees is a crucial piece of the overall development plan.

There is a lot of promise in general for franchising in 2021. Technology has provided the tools and new ways to do business. Many talented, enterprising people are eager to seize new opportunities and reach their potential. People are trying to help each other more in trying times, and franchisees not only fill needs, they are all about reaching out. Finding and maintaining business success is never easy, but a development plan geared to different times, and the discipline to stick to it, can make the journey fulfilling and rewarding.

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Chris Buitron is president and CEO of Mosquito Authority® (www.mosquito-authority.com), a nationwide leader in mosquito control with franchises serving communities across the U.S. and Canada. Buitron has an extensive background in franchise industries. He was chief marketing officer for Senior Helpers, vice president of marketing for Direct Energy (home services division), and director of marketing for Sunoco Inc., where he supported the company’s 4,700 franchised and company-owned rental facilities across 23 states (over $15B in annual revenues).

Archives, Dispatches, Global Trade Daily

GT Magazine’s Good Reads

February 21st, 2021 GT Staff Leave a comment

-The New (Ab)Normal – Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19 by Yossi Sheffi, the Elisha Gray II professor of Engineering Systems, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Center for Transportation & Logistics at MIT. The New (Ab)Normal paints a compelling picture of how the Covid-19 virus is changing many facets of human life and what our post-pandemic world might look like, making the book a must-read for logistics and supply chain professionals.

-Eurasia Group’s Top Risks for 2021, the New York-based global political risk research and consulting firm’s annual prediction of the 10 greatest threats to the trajectories of nations, global politics, industries and institutions. Co-written by Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer and Chairman Cliff Kupchan, the report finds Joe Biden’s presidential victory as the No. 1 risk in the world due to half of America’s voters believing he was elected illegitimately. Other top risks of 2021 include U.S.-China tensions that include disagreements over trade and climate policy that could place bifurcation pressures on the clean energy supply chain. Find the full report here: www.eurasiagroup.net/issues/top-risks-2021.

-“Expanding Your Business Into Mexico,” a new business guide from global recruiter Leap29. The guide covers employment laws and regulations, key tax and labor authorities, the immigration process and more. Find it here: info.leap29.com/mexico-business-guide.

–Blackcat360.com, a new business development and international trade listings website that was developed to assist businesses in finding what they need in specific countries or regions of the whole world. Totally free, the website has listings available for 50 categories of products and services to cover every sector of the economy. “[T]he only exclusions are pornography, hate, spammers, scammers and anything illegal,” states the company. “The focus is very much business to business but for example, a hotel or bar may wish to list to develop more business in the corporate sector.”

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Charlotte on the Board Again with $5.8 Million Corporate Expansion

February 20th, 2021 GT Staff Leave a comment

InterContinental Capital Group announced that it is expanding its presence in Charlotte, adding 500 new employees and investing $5.8 million to expand its corporate office in North Carolina’s most-populated city.

Headquartered in Melville, New York, InterContinental Capital is a direct mortgage lender that specializes in providing home financing for single-family residential properties. The company currently employs about 180 people in Charlotte’s Montford area.

InterContinental Capital’s expansion comes on the heels of the previously mentioned Centene Corp. project from July and fintech firm Retirement Clearinghouse’s August announcement of a 300-job expansion at its Charlotte location.

“Even amidst a global pandemic, Charlotte continues to prove it is an attractive market for businesses to expand and relocate due to our strong talent pool, low cost of doing business and our commitment to creating a great place for both people to live and do business,” says Fran West, assistant director for Economic Development/Business Recruitment.

The project was a collaborative effort between the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the North Carolina Community College System, Central Piedmont Community College, University of North Carolina Charlotte and the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance.

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Cities Most Prepared to Work From Home

February 13th, 2021 FilterBuy Leave a comment

Since March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused record numbers of Americans to transition to remote work. As COVID cases have surged across the country, recent CDC guidelines suggest that workers should be allowed to work remotely if they can. While many jobs are suitable for a remote work environment, most are not. Using data from the Census Bureau as well as a recent study by University of Chicago researchers, about 31 percent of U.S. workers are employed in remote-friendly jobs, but this varies substantially on a geographic level. Additionally, not everyone who works in an occupation that can be performed remotely is well-positioned to do so. Differences in computer and high-speed internet access, as well as available space in the household, all impact an individual’s preparedness for remote work.

Working from home typically requires both a computer and a high-speed internet connection. According to data from the Census Bureau, nearly a quarter of U.S. households don’t own a computer and close to 30 percent lack broadband internet, such as cable, fiber optic, or DSL. Not surprisingly, owning a computer and having high-speed internet tend to go hand in hand. At the state level, states, where more households own computers, are also home to more households with high-speed internet. On a regional level, the South is less prepared to work from home—Southern states tend to have lower rates of home computer ownership and fewer households with broadband internet.

In addition to having the necessary hardware and internet access, being able to create a clear boundary between your home life and work-life can make all the difference when working from home. Having a suitable home workspace is associated with increased telework satisfaction and self-reported productivity. Workers with a spare bedroom at home will find it easier to create a dedicated workspace than those whose only option is a shared living area, such as the kitchen or dining room table. For example, while the San Francisco metropolitan area is home to a disproportionate number of laptop workers with high-speed internet access, a majority of these workers don’t have extra space for a home office, making full-time remote work more challenging in the Bay Area than in areas with more affordable housing.

To find the most prepared places in the U.S. to work from home, researchers at Filterbuy analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Chicago. They created a composite telework preparedness score based on the following factors:

-Percentage of workers in remote-friendly jobs

-Percentage of households with a laptop or desktop computer

-Percentage of households with broadband internet, such as cable, fiber optic or DSL

-Percentage of households with at least one spare bedroom that could be used as a home office

-Median number of rooms per person in each household

At the state level, many of the most-prepared states to work from home are on the East Coast. The two states flanking Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, rank the highest in the country according to the composite score. Over one-third of jobs in each of these states can be performed from home, and a large proportion of households in both states have computers and high-speed internet access. The South tends to be less prepared to work from home. Arkansas ranks the lowest in the country according to its composite score. Just 26 percent of jobs in Arkansas can be performed from home, while less than two-thirds of Arkansas households own computers. Only 56 percent of Arkansas households have high-speed internet.

To find the metropolitan areas in the U.S. most prepared to work from home, researchers at Filterbuy ranked metro areas according to their composite score. To improve relevance, only metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 people were included in the analysis. Additionally, metro areas were grouped into the following cohorts based on population size:

-Small metros: 100,000–349,999

-Midsize metros: 350,000–999,999

-Large metros: 1,000,000 or more

Here are the large metros most prepared to work from home.

Metro	Rank	Composite score	Percentage of workers in remote-friendly jobs	Percentage of households with a laptop or desktop computer	Percentage of households with broadband internet	Percentage of households with at least one spare bedroom	Median household rooms per person
Raleigh-Cary, NC	1	87.69	35.9%	84.6%	78.6%	66.0%	2.7
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA	2	86.99	35.0%	82.8%	76.8%	65.6%	3.0
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	3	85.72	38.1%	87.6%	82.7%	58.8%	2.7
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	4	85.67	35.1%	83.8%	77.1%	63.3%	3.0
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	5	85.40	35.8%	86.1%	80.6%	61.5%	2.7
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	6	84.48	35.9%	81.4%	75.6%	63.3%	3.0
Richmond, VA	7	83.74	33.4%	78.1%	70.4%	70.9%	3.0
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	8	83.36	32.9%	79.0%	76.1%	66.7%	2.7
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	9	83.32	33.9%	80.0%	77.6%	61.8%	3.0
Columbus, OH	10	82.01	32.9%	80.4%	77.3%	62.2%	2.7
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	11	81.97	31.8%	81.3%	75.9%	64.4%	2.6
Salt Lake City, UT	12	81.70	34.7%	86.6%	76.6%	61.8%	2.5
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	13	81.58	36.6%	87.1%	82.3%	57.0%	2.3
Pittsburgh, PA	14	81.55	32.6%	75.8%	73.5%	67.2%	3.0
Kansas City, MO-KS	5	81.35	32.2%	79.7%	73.5%	64.0%	3.0
United States	–	N/A	30.7%	77.3%	70.8%	60.8%	2.5

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Filterbuy’s website: https://filterbuy.com/resources/cities-most-prepared-to-work-from-home/

Archives, Global Trade Daily, State Spotlight

Cities Most Dependent on Small Businesses

February 12th, 2021 Construction Coverage Leave a comment

Small business is often held up as a key driver of the U.S. economy, and for good reason.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses account for 64 percent of net private-sector jobs created since 2005. Collectively, small enterprises employ around 60 million Americans, which represents nearly half of the private workforce in the U.S. Compared to larger firms, small businesses tend to be more nimble, which promotes competition and innovation in the economy. Additionally, small businesses help strengthen communities, and entrepreneurship is a common route through which immigrants assimilate into the social and economic life of the U.S.

But with fewer financial resources than larger firms, small businesses are especially vulnerable during economic downturns. Where large firms can more easily turn to banks or capital markets for an infusion of funding in tough times, small enterprises are more likely to respond by scaling back operations, letting go of employees, or closing altogether.

While the recession of 2008 and the slow recovery that followed were hard on all sectors of the economy, small businesses struggled even more than large firms. Thousands of small businesses failed in the wake of the recession. Many would-be small business owners decided not to take on the financial risk of starting a business during the weak economic recovery, and lenders proved more risk-averse in financing new businesses as well. As a result, industry concentration in large firms has increased over the last decade, and employment growth at large businesses has far outpaced that of small businesses over the same period.

Today, COVID-19 is creating more difficulties for small businesses. Some of the industry sectors that tend to be most densely populated with small firms have also been the sectors most affected by shifts in consumer behavior and government restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus. Notably, accommodation, food services, and retail businesses together employ nearly a quarter of all small business employees. But with more people staying at home, these firms—many of which have already been forced to close—face dire circumstances.

The continued success of small business matters more for some locations than others. Rural states in the Upper Plains, like Wyoming and Montana, and in New England, like Vermont, have a much higher share of small business employees in the workforce than other states. Because these areas tend to have few large employers, failures in the small business sector could create job shortages and prolonged economic hardship in these areas.

At the metro level, some of the areas most dependent on small businesses are in the aforementioned rural states, but other factors are at play as well. Some are Rust Belt communities where employment was formerly dominated by now-offshored manufacturing operations, leaving smaller businesses to generate most of the economic activity. Others have strong startup ecosystems that encourage entrepreneurs to create new firms.

To identify the locations most dependent on small businesses, researchers at Construction Coverage used U.S. Census data to find the percentage of employees in each metro employed at small businesses, defined as those firms having fewer than 500 employees.

Here are the large U.S. metropolitan areas most dependent on small businesses.

Metro	Rank	Percentage of employees at small businesses	Total number of small business employees	Total number of small businesses	Percentage of total payroll paid by small businesses	Total small business payroll per employee	Total large-firm payroll per employee
New Orleans-Metairie, LA	1	53.65%	265,378	23,960	49.26%	$43,602	$51,989
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	2	53.50%	1,184,791	167,326	48.27%	$43,392	$53,498
Oklahoma City, OK	3	53.32%	269,939	28,210	48.62%	$40,574	$48,974
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA	4	52.36%	333,667	33,162	47.72%	$43,098	$51,898
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA	5	51.98%	4,356,853	499,998	41.10%	$56,279	$87,294
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	6	51.93%	2,764,749	313,657	46.12%	$52,115	$65,764
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	7	51.41%	538,511	55,667	41.79%	$45,280	$66,725
Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY	8	50.93%	245,969	21,132	46.54%	$40,162	$47,880
Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI	9	50.36%	253,133	19,092	48.50%	$43,895	$47,283
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA	10	50.31%	1,090,428	104,849	37.81%	$67,798	$112,911
San Diego-Carlsbad, CA	11	50.06%	634,069	69,216	42.59%	$49,023	$66,233
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	12	49.64%	1,327,443	116,882	45.11%	$60,027	$71,999
Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, CA	13	49.45%	367,438	38,300	41.78%	$45,280	$61,702
Austin-Round Rock, TX	14	49.39%	413,394	40,661	42.47%	$48,145	$63,651
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	15	48.53%	573,447	52,387	42.56%	$48,700	$61,994
United States	–	47.09%	60,556,081	5,976,761	40.32%	$44,777	$58,996

For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, you can find the original report on Construction Coverage’s website: https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-most-dependent-on-small-businesses

Archives, Foreign Trade Zones, Global Trade Daily

New CFIUS Regulations Formally Implemented: What Your Business Needs to Know

February 5th, 2021 Alan Enslen and Julius Bodie Leave a comment

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS or the Committee) is an interagency government committee authorized to review, modify, and block foreign acquisitions of or investments in U.S. businesses that could adversely affect U.S. national security.

In 2020, new regulations went into effect that broadened the scope of foreign investment transactions subject to review by the Committee. Historically, CFIUS national security reviews were limited to transactions that could result in a foreign investor obtaining “control” of a U.S. business. However, the scope of transactions subject to potential CFIUS review has been expanded, and now includes certain non-controlling foreign investments in U.S. businesses involved in critical technologies, critical infrastructure, or sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens. In addition, CFIUS has instituted new mandatory filing requirements for specific types of foreign investment in U.S. critical technology companies.

It is now more important than ever for non-U.S. companies doing business with or investing in the U.S. to understand how their business can be impacted by the revised CFIUS regulations. If a non-U.S. company is considering buying or investing in a U.S. business, conducting an assessment of potential CFIUS risks and obligations must be included in the due diligence process. To assist with this assessment, below is an overview of CFIUS, as well as a breakdown of the key CFIUS regulatory changes implemented in 2020 that stand to impact your business.

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)

CFIUS is chaired by the U.S. Department of Treasury and has the authority to review any transaction by or with a foreign person which could result in control (or in certain non-controlling interests) of a U.S. business by a foreign person. This includes proposed or completed mergers, acquisitions, or takeovers by foreign governments, foreign entities, and those controlled by foreign governments and entities. When CFIUS has jurisdiction over a proposed transaction, parties can voluntarily notify the Committee of the transaction and its terms. CFIUS is authorized to commence reviews unilaterally, but it rarely uses this power.

Foreign investors often seek to file for CFIUS approval voluntarily because once a transaction is cleared by the Committee, it qualifies for a “safe harbor” and is generally considered cleared indefinitely, thereby eliminating CFIUS-related risks. On the other hand, if CFIUS does not clear a particular transaction prior to its closing, there is a chance that the Committee will unilaterally initiate an investigation and ultimately require divestiture of the foreign party, potentially even years after the transaction has closed.

If CFIUS determines that a covered transaction presents a national security risk, it has the authority to impose certain mitigating conditions before allowing the deal to proceed, and may also refer the transaction to the President, who has sole authority to block a proposed transaction or unwind a completed transaction. However, U.S. Presidents have rarely used their power to block transactions because CFIUS generally enters into mitigation agreements with the parties to high-risk transactions in order to alleviate any identified national security concerns.

If CFIUS opposes a foreign investment or acquisition, and mitigating measures cannot be implemented by the transacting parties, it is often the case that the foreign investor withdraws the deal prior to CFIUS escalating its recommendation to the President. While to date only five investments have ever been blocked by a President, numerous proposed transactions have been withdrawn by the parties involved to avoid the risk of having the transaction formally blocked.

CFIUS has become much more active in recent years, particularly under the Trump administration, where the Committee reviewed 697 transactions between 2017 and 2019. Recent high-profile examples include the following:

-In 2017, President Trump blocked the acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor Corp. by the Chinese investment firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners due to national security and intellectual property concerns.

-In 2018, President Trump blocked the acquisition of U.S. telecommunications equipment company Qualcomm by the Singapore microchip maker Broadcom.

-In 2019, CFIUS raised concerns over Beijing Kunlun Company’s investment in Grindr LLC, an online dating site, over concerns of foreign access to personally identifiable information of U.S. citizens. The Chinese firm subsequently divested itself of Grindr.

-In 2020, President Trump announced plans to ban the popular social media platform TikTok based on its ownership by Chinese technology company ByteDance and its potential access to sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens. CFIUS and ByteDance are still in the process of negotiating the terms of prospective mitigating measures that would allow TikTok to continue its U.S. operations.

Changing Landscape: Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act

In recent years, there has been a push for CFIUS reform by government officials who viewed the process as inadequate to face modern geopolitical threats to U.S. businesses and technologies posed by foreign direct investments into U.S. companies – particularly from Chinese foreign investment. This led to the passing of the broad CFIUS reform legislation known as the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) in August 2018.

FIRRMA was designed to expand the scope of foreign investment reviews conducted by the Committee, and overhauled the CFIUS review process to more effectively address modern U.S. national security concerns. The revised CFIUS regulations provided for in FIRRMA formally took effect in February 2020.

Historically, CFIUS reviews have been based on voluntary notice submissions by parties to a covered transaction. Only transactions that involved foreign control and that raised national security concerns would be filed by the transacting parties with the Committee for approval. Under FIRRMA, the Committee now also has the authority to review non-controlling “covered investments” by a foreign person in a U.S. critical technology, critical infrastructure or sensitive personal data company. These “TID Businesses” (i.e., U.S. Technology, Infrastructure and Data companies) include companies that engage in one of the following activities:

-Produces, designs, tests, manufactures, fabricates or develops one or more critical technologies;

-Owns, operates, manufactures, supplies or services critical infrastructure; or

-Maintains or collects sensitive personal data (e.g., health or financial data) of U.S. citizens that may be exploited in a manner that threatens national security.

A “covered investment” includes circumstances where a foreign investor obtains:

-Access to material non-public technical information;

-Membership or observer rights on the board of directors or an equivalent governing body of the business or the right to nominate an individual to a position on that body; or

-Any involvement, other than through voting of shares, in substantive decision making regarding sensitive personal data of U.S. citizens, critical technologies, or critical infrastructure.

CFIUS has also instituted new mandatory filing requirements involving inbound investment in U.S. companies involved with “critical technology.” When FIRRMA was initially implemented, filings became mandatory for certain transactions involving U.S. critical technology businesses that were included among 27 specified industries identified by their North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.

However, beginning in October 2020, CFIUS implemented a new rule tying the “critical technology” definition to U.S. export control regulations. Now, filing a declaration with CFIUS is mandatory for covered transactions involving a U.S. business that “produces, designs, tests, manufactures, fabricates, or develops one or more critical technologies” where a “U.S. regulatory authorization” would be required for the export, re-export, or transfer of such critical technologies to the foreign investor. Accordingly, having a clear understanding of U.S. export control classification regimes and licensing requirements, including those promulgated under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), is now a significant component of any CFIUS analysis.

In addition, FIRRMA added mandatory filings requirements for certain types of foreign government investment. If a foreign government holds a “substantial interest” in a foreign investor that in turn obtains a “substantial interest” in a TID Business, a CFIUS filing is now mandatory. This filing requirement is triggered when a foreign government holds at least a 49% (direct or indirect) interest in the foreign investor, whereas a foreign person will obtain a “substantial interest” in a TID Business if it seeks to obtain at least a 25% (direct or indirect) interest. In such scenarios, the parties must file a mandatory declaration with CFIUS at least 30 days prior to the transaction’s closing.

Global Impact

In terms of global impact, U.S. businesses and foreign investors previously unfamiliar with the CFIUS filing process, or that were previously outside the jurisdiction for a covered transaction, will now have to analyze the potential implications of a mandatory or voluntary CFIUS filing when considering even passive forms of foreign investment. This includes businesses ranging from health care companies, telecommunications companies, technology start-ups, related infrastructure industries, venture capital funds, emerging technology companies and manufacturers, and any company that maintains or can access sensitive U.S. consumer personal or health data.

Robust due diligence on proposed foreign investments will be more important than ever to ensure compliance with any mandatory CFIUS requirements. This will result in cross-border deals becoming much more time-consuming processes that will require significant scrutiny and attention to detail when drafting contractual rights afforded to foreign investors. Importantly, this will also require increased “up-stream” due diligence on any proposed non-U.S. investor’s corporate structure and ultimate ownership.

The business decision that a potential non-U.S. investor will need to make regarding which type of filing (if any) should be made with CFIUS is based on factors such as the complexity of the transaction, the working relationship between the parties, the national security implications and risk-level of the U.S. business, the likelihood of a successful resolution with CFIUS, the economy of legal resources, the evolving definition of what constitutes a “national security concern,” and current CFIUS enforcement priorities.

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Alan Enslen and Julius Bodie are attorneys at law firm Baker Donelson, they can be reached at aenslen@bakerdonelson.com and jbodie@bakerdonelson.com. Jiri Mestecky, Takanori Nakajima and Yunosuke Hirano are are attorneys at Kitahama Partners. They can be reached at JMestecky@kitahama.or.jp, TNakajima@kitahama.or.jp and YHirano@kitahama.or.jp.

Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

10 Tips For Navigating Business Growth

January 29th, 2021 Joel Patterson Leave a comment

When running a business, you are constantly striving to promote growth. Once things start to take off, there’s often a whole new set of challenges that must be addressed. Here are a few tips I’ve found useful when navigating a period of business growth and expansion.

1. Don’t Lose Sight of Your “Why.” Seeing your business grow and thrive is exciting, but it’s important to stay focused on your mission. A rapidly growing business can sometimes take off in a direction that doesn’t align with your core mission. Periods of growth are an opportune time to reflect and realign with your “why.”

2. Learn to Delegate. As an entrepreneur, you often begin by handling almost every aspect of your business. As your business expands, you must delegate to manage your workload. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by your organization’s growth recently, look over your responsibilities. Are there aspects of your workload that could be handled efficiently by someone else?

3. Hire with Culture in Mind. Retention of quality talent is essential to the long-term success of a business. When searching for new hires, consider how candidates will do in your company’s unique culture. Of course, credentials are important, but the candidate that looks the best on paper is not always the best fit.

4. Listen to Your Customers. Your customers are the life force of your company. Never lose touch with what your customers want out of your brand. Especially in periods of rapid growth, be sure to focus on customer experience. You can show customers you care through meaningful communications and requests for feedback.

5. Encourage Employee Feedback. Speaking of feedback, it’s vital to listen to your employees as well. During periods of growth, lots of things shift and employees are invaluable sources of information. Their insight into what needs revision or improvement can help your business grow with grace and agility.

6. Analyze Your Inefficiencies. In addition to listening to employee feedback regarding ways to improve your business, seek out inefficiencies in the processes you currently have in place. Is there a manual task that could be automated? Are employees spending too much time on tasks that don’t benefit overall productivity?

7. Reduce Regulation Risk. A growing business has to be on the lookout for new government and industry regulations! Growth can take many different forms﹘ expanding your markets, utilizing new sales channels, teaming up with a distributor, rolling out new products, etc. Big changes like these might mean dealing with new or different regulations. Be sure to do your homework to ensure that you’re in compliance.

8. Integrate Your Processes. When a business is just starting out, the decision is often made to go with the most economical software solutions. This can mean patching many different systems together, which can be especially problematic during high-growth periods. Disparate systems will struggle to keep up with the demand, causing internal issues as well as a diminished customer experience. Switching to a comprehensive business management system allows all departments to communicate effectively and efficiently. It also allows you to access all the data you need at any time, rather than having to gather it from multiple programs.

9. Make Scalability a Priority. When thinking about how to navigate growth in your business, always consider the scalability of your decisions. Demand fluctuates over time, and (if things keep going this way) you will need to account for more growth in the future. Make sure the solutions you implement now can support growth in the future as well.

10. Bring in an Expert. All of this may sound daunting to tackle on your own, but the good news is you don’t have to! Partner with someone that can help grow your business and find software solutions that make business processes more fluent and efficient.

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Joel Patterson (www.JoelPatterson.com) is the founder of The Vested Group, a business technology consulting firm in the Dallas, Texas, area, and ForbesBooks author of The Big Commitment: Solving The Mysteries Of Your ERP Implementation. He has worked in the consulting field for over 20 years. Patterson began his consulting career at Arthur Andersen and Capgemini before helping found Lucidity Consulting Group in 2001. For 15 years he specialized in implementing Tier One ERP, software systems designed to service the needs of large, complex corporations. In 2011, Patterson founded The Vested Group, which focuses on bringing comprehensive cloud-based business management solutions to start-ups and well-established businesses alike. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Baylor University.

Archives, Global Trade Daily, State Spotlight

Cities With the Most Construction Workers

January 27th, 2021 Construction Coverage Leave a comment

The COVID-19 pandemic has had sweeping impacts on the economy and virtually every industry sector. While the construction industry has weathered the storm better than some hard-hit industries—such as leisure and hospitality—construction is facing some unique challenges. Construction companies are currently contending with project cancellations and delays, supply chain disruptions, and COVID infections among workers. Some parts of the country are more reliant on the construction industry than others, and some are facing worse COVID outbreaks and more stringent business restrictions, meaning the pandemic’s impact on the construction industry has had differential geographic impacts. While construction jobs account for 5.2 percent of all jobs nationally (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), some cities rely more heavily on the construction industry for employment.

Historically, construction employment tends to follow the business cycle, fluctuating with economic expansions and recessions. During the Great Recession that lasted from late-2007 to mid-2009, construction employment fell by 20 percent and then continued to fall until early 2010. It then steadily increased until early 2020. Along with overall employment, employment in the construction industry fell sharply in the spring during the early stages of the pandemic. It started rebounding in May but is still below pre-pandemic levels. Compared to a year ago, construction employment is currently down 2.4 percent.

Construction employment varies substantially on a geographic level. Some cities and states are much more reliant on the construction industry than others, with some areas employing large shares of construction workers. The West tends to depend more heavily on the construction industry while the Midwest and Northeast have lower shares of construction employment. At the state level, Wyoming and Utah boast the largest shares of employment in construction, at 8.5 and 7.6 percent, respectively. Connecticut has the lowest share of employment in construction in the country at just 3.6 percent.

Compared to a year ago, most states experienced declines in construction employment. Down 25 percent from the end of 2019, Vermont had the largest drop in construction employment out of all states. Some states, including Virginia and Missouri, saw employment in construction increase from 2019. Construction employment grew by 5.7 percent in Virginia and by 8 percent in Missouri.

To find the metros with the most construction workers, researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metro areas according to the share of employment in construction. Researchers also calculated the construction employment share compared to the national average, the total number of construction employees, and the year-over-year change in construction employment.

Here are the metropolitan areas with the most construction workers.

Metro	Rank	Share of employment in construction	Share of employment in construction (compared to average)	Total number of construction employees	Year-over-year change in construction employment
Lake Charles, LA	1	19.0%	+267.9%	18,600	-16.2%
Baton Rouge, LA	2	11.8%	+129.3%	46,800	-3.7%
Vallejo, CA	3	9.7%	+87.4%	12,800	-3.8%
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	4	8.6%	+65.9%	16,600	-5.1%
Coeur d’Alene, ID	5	8.0%	+54.3%	5,200	-13.3%
Salem, OR	6	7.7%	+49.5%	12,300	-1.6%
Tacoma-Lakewood, WA	7	7.5%	+44.5%	23,600	-6.7%
Casper, WY	8	7.5%	+45.5%	2,800	0.0%
Reno, NV	9	7.4%	+43.3%	17,800	-2.7%
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	10	7.3%	+41.8%	107,300	+1.9%
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV	11	7.3%	+41.2%	68,800	-6.6%
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	12	7.2%	+39.5%	220,000	-9.3%
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL	13	7.0%	+35.5%	85,500	-2.8%
San Rafael, CA	14	7.0%	+36.1%	7,600	-2.6%
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, CA	15	6.9%	+33.2%	107,200	+1.6%
United States	–	5.2%	N/A	7,430,000	-2.4%

Archives, Global Site Selection, Global Trade Daily, Site Selection

How to Expand Your Business Internationally

January 25th, 2021 Christian Kruse Leave a comment

Running a successful business in a domestic market is easy for experienced business people. Opening a shop abroad is harder, but not very much. What can be extremely tricky is actually attracting foreign potential customers, turning them into paying customers, and surmounting the many challenges that come with international business. These challenges include cultural and language differences, unfamiliar employment and overall business laws, unclear taxation and VAT remittance regulations in different countries, and international marketing challenges. If you wish to expand abroad, you can overcome the said challenges by following these best practices in international expansion:

1. Leverage PEO services

PEO service providers help to expand businesses to hire staff, manage payrolls, and manage employees in foreign territories. Basically, a professional employer organization (PEO) will provide comprehensive human resources support for your business so that your senior executives can focus on actually running the corporate side of the business. They provide your international teams with the professional and personal support they need to be optimally engaged and productive for the benefit of your business. They help you bypass the cultural barriers that overwhelm employers when hiring and managing new talents in unfamiliar cultural settings.

In most cases, PEOs run a co-employment model where they ensure that your business meets all set employment and compliance laws without necessarily having a physical presence in a given country. The advantage of using such a model for your international expansion is that your business can dip toes in multiple foreign markets without committing to building physical offices. It also offers your business a flexible human resource capability; the flexibility and fluidity that businesses need when upscaling/downscaling workforces in new markets. Therefore, if your company operates in India, you can see that partnering with an India PEO would be the proper solution for the rapid growth of your company.

2. Leverage local influencers

The biggest marketplace in the world right now is the digital space, notably social media. That is why you must have a workable digital marketing strategy (and a strong online presence for that matter) whether your business is local, national, or international. A key component of digital marketing is social influencing.

You probably already understand what online influencing is about but in case you don’t, online influencers are celebrities who already command huge followership on social media. People who can influence shopping decisions either by directly campaigning for your products or by sharing their videos or photos while using your products. Studies show that about 66% of all customers across all industries trust the opinions other customers post online, and the surest way of influencing these opinions is through social media influencers.

Now, this is the catch: When expanding internationally, you need to meet your prospective customers during their research phase. You need to capture their attention immediately; they search for products in your niche, convert them to business leads, and close the deal on the spot. It is probably the first time they are interacting with your brand/content, so you have to make the best first impression otherwise they will be lured by the brands they are already familiar with. Subtle product mentions and testimonials from influential people will help you create the best first impression. You, however, have to identify and connect with influencers who appeal to your audience if you are to effectively leverage influencer marketing for international expansion.

3. Find the right expansion partners

It is hard to navigate new markets by yourself. You need the help of local partners who understand the unwritten laws of the land, local supply chains, and distribution channels. But not all local partners are good for your business. You need to find industry leaders who, on top of understanding the nuances of the local market at hand, have substantial experience in international business expansions in other markets. You can always contact their previous collaborators for reviews, something you cannot get from partners who have never been out of their comfort zone/market. It is also wise to choose expansion partners with whom you share a common ground- a company whose business culture doesn’t conflict with your vision and mission.

Now you know the kind of partners to look for, but where exactly do you look? One way to find the partners you need is through your business and professional networks. Your business associates can recommend their international associates to you who’d turn out to be very helpful in your expansion plans. Another source is the government of your current market. If you operate in Europe, for example, you can tap into the database of the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) for trading advice and collaborations. Foreign embassies, as well as trade commissions back home, also have databases filled with the knowledge that can come in handy during your quest to find international partners. And if you already have a set base in the foreign market, attending local expos and trade shows can give you access to a pool of potential partners.

4. Leverage government resources

Most governments help their ambitious entrepreneurs to go international as a way of encouraging the exportation of locally-produced products and talents. Your government probably holds Trade Events where successful multinational companies’ CEOs and other industry experts train local entrepreneurs on how to go global and actually succeed. You can learn a lot in such events, from exporting fundamentals, understanding international buyers, working with foreign distributors and product representatives, to how you can market your products or services to customers who don’t speak your language. The events also put you in touch with other ambitious business owners from whom you can gain insight and insider perspective about your chances abroad. Other resources that can help your international expansion plans are catalogs that contain special country-specific market reports authored by prolific market experts. In the US, such catalogs are accessible online through the Market Research Library.

Conclusion

International expansion is, to many people, chaotic and stressful. But it doesn’t have to be. You can tap into other entrepreneurs’ experience to formulate a workable expansion plan or, if you have the budget, conduct your independent country-specific market research. Our 4 tips will get you started, but you must consult wider if you are to succeed with your first expansion attempt.

Airports, Archives, Global Trade Daily

Alexandria International Airport Confirms Expanded Service with American Airlines

January 20th, 2021 GT Staff Leave a comment

Competitive options for travel through Alexandria International Airport (AEX) in Central Louisiana have officially been added for passengers and businesses. Beginning in April, American Airlines will expand its daily service by offering a non-stop option to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in addition to various flight options to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

“We look forward to introducing our second largest hub, CLT, to customers in Alexandria,” said Brian Znotins, American’s Vice President of Network Planning. “Flights to CLT introduce several new connections up and down the east coast as customers begin to resume travel. American has taken every effort to ensure the well-being of customers throughout their journey, while offering more flexibility and choice than ever before.”

According to an announcement on Facebook by England Airpark & Community, passengers can begin booking flights as early as this week. This new service adds to the already competitive economic climate found in Central Louisiana, providing businesses and the community safe and reliable travel opportunities.

“Having robust air service is critical to achieving economic development success in Central Louisiana,” said Sandra McQuain, Executive Director of England Airpark and Alexandria International Airport. “We value our partnership with American Airlines and thank them for their continued investment in our community.”

“We are excited to see new and expanded air service being offered at AEX,” said Scott Gammel, Deputy Director of Aviation for England Park. “This would not have been possible without the community choosing to fly AEX and supporting our local airport.”

Tips For Beefing Up Your Franchise Development Plan In 2021

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