Cincinnati [sigh]

How does the saying go ... anything that isn't bad news is good news. Actually, I don't know if that is the saying or not. However, I do know that it has been a long time since those glory days in the mid-1990s when Cincinnati was being touted as the 'best place to live' in national magazines. I run a small business incubator. Our main purpose for existing is to help emerging businesses create jobs and encourage economic development in the urban core of our town. So, it was tough to see the news that Forbes Magazine's "Best Cities for Jobs" listing ranked the Cincinnati area at 56 (our of the top 100), using five criteria: unemployment rate, job growth, income growth, median household income and cost of living.


The good news is that our town's 2007 ranking (#56) is up one place from the 2006 ranking ... and we are ahead of most other cities in our Tri-State (Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio) ahead of most cities in the region. The Tri-State did best in the cost-of-living area, where it ranked 15th, and worst for income growth, at 84th.

Among regional cities, only the Indianapolis area did better, at 41, although that was a drop from its 18th-place ranking last year. Akron moved up to 61 from 74 in 2006; Columbus dropped to 65 from 54; Louisville fell to 79 from 76; the Cleveland area moved up to 92 from 94; Dayton dropped to 95 from 88; and Toledo inched up to 96 from 97.


Folks in my family are employed, however, if they were to seek jobs they would be interested to know that Atlanta (#22), Los Angeles (#88), San Diego (#31) and Washington DC (#5) were also on the list.

I guess if you are looking for employment ... it would be good to move to Raleigh-Cary, NC. That is the #1 city for jobs according to Forbes. Detroit area ranked at the bottom of the list. I guess if you're from Motown the good news is that there has to be a 101st city someplace in the country !


Click here to see a slideshow of the top 25 cities. Did your city make the list?

Who Sez I Ain't Got No Class

Today was interesting at the Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI). One of our clients who brought in $1.5 million in business last year decided that he would be shutting down his LLC in order to focus on some excellent career opportunities with his employer of the past 17 years. He had been working 48 hours per week on his job ... and another 30 hours per week on his business. He worked through various alternatives and determined that he wanted to focus on career advancement with his employer. I met with this entrepreneur early in the morning. His last day at our incubator will be March 31st.

Later in the morning I met with a branch manager from Huntington Bank. She is currently working on a potential loan package for another of my CBI clients. My client is looking for a $50k line of credit. My meeting with the branch manager focused on the idea of Huntington Bank becoming a corporate sponsor of our non-profit incubator. I think that that meeting went well. Time will tell.


I had a lunch-time meeting as a guest for the community advisory committee of our Cincinnati-based Public Broadcast Service (PBS) --> WCET. One of the delightful aspects of the meeting was a live webcast of their 1-year old project known as CET-Connect. The amount of content available on this portal was amazing to me. I am hopeful that CBI will become the 31st "partner" for CET-Connect. We may be able to have one or more of our lunch'n'learn seminars webcast on this portal. We would do other cross-promotion. I would love to see interviews and discussions on topics of interest to small business owners in this portal. The most amusing part of the meeting came at the end when the hostess asked if I would be interested in becoming a member of their community advisory committee.


However, the coup-de-grace for the day occurred just a few moments ago when I was informed that the "Cincinnati Opera could use your assistance". It turns out that the Cincinnati Opera is planning a remarkable project for delivery in October 2007. They plan to stage a newly commissioned opera inspired by the life of Underground Railroad conductor John P. Parker. Cincinnati Opera has engaged distinguished composer Adolphus Hailstork to create a new work, aimed at informing young people and families about this admirable man. Parker moved to Ripley OH, after purchasing his own freedom. He launched a successful business as an iron maker and inventor, but he also helped people fleeing from slavery -- often imperiling his own life in the process.


This October project will be known as RISE FOR FREEDOM ... and it will be about 60 minutes in length, and presented at the Aronoff Center in downtown Cincinnati. Anyhow, I've been asked to serve on the advisory committee for this event. I replied that I would be honored to do so ... as long as I wouldn't be disqualified for only attending one opera in my life. I attended San Francisco Opera (by accident!) in the early 1980s. Our group thought we had bought tickets to a Whoopi Goldberg concert ... an example of why you shouldn't drink too much at happy hours .


Anyhow, today was a good day at the incubator. Public television ... the opera ... who sez that I ain't got no class!

Microenterprises

Cincinnati Business Incubator (CBI) is a non-profit incubator designed to support growth of emerging businesses. Most of the clients that we work with start off as microenterprises (less than 5 employees). As such, I am always trying to learn more about ways to support these businesses in their efforts to create jobs and grow profits. I was pleased to recently learn of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) and the microenterprise.org website that they host. Several microenterprise fact sheets developed by AEO and its partners are currently online. These fact sheets were designed to promote microenterprise to key populations, supporters, and partners. I encourage anyone interested in the idea of entrepreneurism and microenterprises to take a look at the fact sheets.