Small Business Spotlight - RSM Survey

Susan: Global product incorporated as the name suggests manufactures and distributes product around the world. Rebecca Herwick: I have large volume of costumers in the Pacific Rim area, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea they deserve the same products and services as my costumers in the United States, in Canada and then Europe. Susan: Global Product is among the 96% of US manufactures classified a small to medium size operations. But these Midwest operations global sales set them apart from those manufactures as similar five, according to research on the nations manufacturing and distribution system. The RSM McGladrey 2007 manufacturing and wholesale distribution national survey found just 36% of US manufactures have plans to develop international markets for their product. Tom Murphy: The small and midsize companies generally are getting involved on the supply side as far as getting some of their material from Oak Shore maybe working with other companies Oak Shore to help provide some of the services they may need. So they’re looking at about in the cost side but we found once again very surprise is they’re not taking advantage of the opportunity to access new markets by exporting. And we thought that to be quite interesting. Susan: The RSM McGladrey 2007 manufacturing and wholesale distribution national survey found working globally to be the strategy for 45% of the survey respondents, with the large firms, more likely to enjoy revenue growth in four markets. The researchers found some of the leading barriers to pursuing global growth include financing, to writ of intellectual property of that and the lack of expertise and exporting and importing. Tom Murphy: It’s all about risk and on one hand is that companies don’t necessarily want to take the risk that comes associated with doing business globally. And as we all know there’s lots of examples of companies that have tried to business globally and have it been very successfully and cost them a lot of money. So we have a tendency to kind of remember the ones that didn’t work versus the ones that do work. And then department of commerce itself has international trade administration group which has great resources available to help small and midsize companies navigate the global environment and be able to export effectively. And what happen is companies try and figure out how to do it on their own and it’s just very complicated. So they need some help. And one of the things that I like to tell companies is you know your taxes have been support in this in this programs that at least talk to him and see if there’s something in our view. Susan: The RSM McGladrey 2007 manufacturing and wholesale distribution national survey found a number of firms described as driving and growing though 10% points from the 2006 research. More than 60% of the companies reported expansion of their workforce while only 15% reported decreases. Labor shortages are on and on going challenges for 30% of responding firms and more than half of the firm’s survey reported no use of government programs. Tom Murphy: Not very many companies are utilizing government assistance programs what issue we did ask for wire to use in those programs. And you know the number one respond to us we don’t know about those programs. Which I thought was kind of interesting because the government has said, “You know we got all this ways to promote them all this things we’re talking about and at the same time people are saying they don’t know about them. So t hey also don’t want government involvement, on one hand. They don’t know where to get started. So there’s several reasons why we’ve heard about this for several years but we really need to try and take advantage on me because they are some very advantageous programs for small, midsized companies. Susan: More manufacturers are taking advantage of available tax strategies but the rights are still surprisingly law. So just thing missed saving opportunities for many firms. The 2007 survey found 58% of the respondents utilizing research and development tax credits but only 43% taking your advantage of the domestic manufacture deduction. The research suggests many too many companies are missing opportunities to increase cash flow. I’m not taking in advantage off all available tax credit since strategies. To learn more about the research on the United States in 2007 go to www.rsmmcgladrey.com and look for the complete manufacturing report under resources, Susan Wilson Solovic, reporting for sbtv.com where small business is our only business.