In an increasingly digital world, the financial landscape has witnessed a significant increase in online lending platforms. However, are local bank loans still a viable and advantageous option? Join us in this thought-provoking podcast as we delve into the realm of borrowing and explore the key differences between online loans and the benefits of turning to your local bank for home loans with our guests Amanda and Jo Lea, Vice President of Real Estate Lending and Assistant Vice of President of Real Estate Lending for Farmers National Bank in Illinois.

Farmers National Bank Website

An agricultural bank, also known as an AG bank, is a type of financial institution that provides specialized financial services to farmers, agribusinesses, and other rural clients to help them manage their finances, invest in their operations, and grow their businesses. In comparison to other types of banks AG banks often have a more specialized understanding of the unique risks and opportunities of associated with the agricultural sector.

We recently spoke with Brandt Hutchcraft and Steve Taets, who are loan officers with Farmers National Bank in Illinois to better understand the services and differences agriculture banking offers.

Famers National Bank Website

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In a previous episode, we learned about Dr. Allen Kramer and his extensive years of research at the National Institute of Health doing years of research on proteins and how he turned that experience into a small business manufacturing type 2 collagen supplements. Since then, we have had many listeners contact us about companies offering a 30-day collagen challenge for joint pain. We reached out to Sr. Kramer to get his view on the subject and wanted to follow up with another podcast to see if these claims were realistic and if not why. Our podcast goes into an understanding of how collagen works and what type of collagen works best and most importantly what is a realistic time frame to see results.

SB-EDGE website

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Every company has a story on how they got started or why they went into business. Our feature small business had extensive experience in the biochemical field and used that knowledge and experience to become a collagen supplement manufacturer to help those with joint pain.

Learn how collagen works and how it may help people with joint pain and learn how Dr. Allan Kramer turned his extensive knowledge and experience into a business to help others. 

Company Website: sb-edge.com

Small Business Talks Blog: Collagen Suppliments & Joint Pain A Company’s Journey to Help People

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As more and more companies look to solar energy for power many new challenges come along that need a solution for it to all work. In this case The Rock River Lumber and Grain Company needed help getting their solar batteries to communicate with the utility grid. We talk with Jake Thompson a Network Engineer at Twin State Technical Services who explains how they got involved and created a network for their solar battery array and the challenges they faced in order to get it to work.

Twin State Technical Services:  https://www.tsts.com/  | Phone: 563-441-1504 

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Let’s face it, businesses today are facing a mountain of challenges, the urge to focus on product sales and not your customers are at an all-time high. Some believe price is the only way to get sales and that quality or focusing on solving customer’s problems is no longer important.

A good business is concerned with the customer's needs and how they can help their customers be successful because they recognize that a successful customer is a return customer. That statement is from our guest today, Jon Gainer, President and owner of Stake World, a manufacturer of yard sign stakes. Jon will share his experience on how focusing on delighting your customers has grown his business in the face of the Pandemic and Supply Chain issues. He shares with us on how this approach works and why more businesses need to adopt this philosophy.

StakeWorld Website: https://www.stakeworld.com/

Small Business Talks Blog : Delighting Customers & Lawn Sign Stakes

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a financing tool that has been used by municipalities for redevelopment, and infrastructure, projects for over 40 years. TIF was designed to help with the unexpected additional costs of a project like an environmental issue or developing streets and storm drains. TIF can help reimburse some of the additional developer’s costs. Emily Blaylock, president of Untamed Equity explains how TIF helps both municipalities and developers with redevelopment projects. We also discuss TIF Monetization as a way to supercharge the tool to handle TIF eligible costs over time by monetizing the future cash flows through the reimbursement of property taxes paid by the developer, based on the net present cash flow stream to offer a lump sum loan amount based on a margining of the net value upfront.

More About TIF Monentization at Untamed Equity: www.untamedequity.com

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For small businesses and manufacturers, the past two years have been full of challenges, even ones that continue to cause production problems. Many companies can get the parts they order from their manufacturers because the manufacturers can’t get the raw materials to fill the orders. This supply chain disruption affects products, workers, and our economy.

One company, Plas-Tech Tooling is helping companies who rely on cast parts or components in their products and manufacturers a way to get around the supply chain bottleneck. By converting the cast item into a machined part. By way of production machining the part can be delivered to the buyer and production can get back to filling orders. The conversion process is a great workaround, and the podcast goes into details to explain what situations it would work best in and steps for an effective transition from casting to machined part.

Plas-Tech Tooling | www.plastechtooling.com

Small Business Talks Blog | Casting Conversion Post

More than ever manufacturers are having to rethink the materials they choose for product design for a variety of reasons, costs, quality, and more recently availability and supply given the supply chain disruption of 2021-22. Therefore, many companies are looking at die casting over other manufacturing methods for their products.

In doing the research for this topic, we noticed a large amount of information on die casting or die cast parts focusing on aluminum, steel, or plastic. So, we wanted to see if Zinc Die casting offers any advantages or benefits to companies and manufacturers. We spoke with Dave Magner, Director of Sales, and Marketing, of DECO Products in Decorah, Iowa who specialize in zinc die casting to get his expert knowledge on the subject.

As Dave explains in the podcast, Zinc most certainly offers advantages to manufacturing parts and products but there is more to understand of what parts it is best used for making.  

Many Thanks to Dave Magner – Deco Products – www.decoprod.com

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Metal fabrication is the unique process of cutting, bending, shaping metal or steel into parts and products from a specific design or set of drawings. Manufacturers use metal fabricators to develop prototypes or small production items that would be cost prohibitive if they were to fabricate it themselves. Likewise, many small businesses may need a custom shelf or piece of equipment to make their operations run smoother and more productive. A Contract Metal Fabricator has both the equipment and expertise to help businesses meet this need and may often be more price economical than expected and may offer a better solution then a generic product that doesn’t meet their requirements.

John Nelson from NSMC has invited our listeners to call him about their metal fabrication needs and will be happy to recommend a reputable fabricator if they cannot produce what you need.

Many Thanks to John Nelson – NSMC – www.nsmc-steel-racks.com

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