The Small Business Association of Michigan's Small Business Weekly Podcast

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with SBAM Elite Member Dave Rosenberg, owner of Asphalt Sealcoating Services LLC, serving the Bay Midland Saginaw County areas. "The way I always put it is if there's two stores next to each other that sell the same thing, one has a cracked parking lot, they don't take care of the building, the other one has a beautiful parking lot, the building's taken care of, you're probably going to go that business instead, right?" he says.

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Sara Moylan, founder of a great Michigan small business success story: SHEFIT, based in Hudsonville. "I believe some of the best products are born out of one's desire to solve a problem and that was me," she says. "I never had any intention of starting a company, I was just a frustrated fed up consumer who decided to take matters into her own hands, because every sports bra I wore was not doing what I needed. And that's really how SHEFIT was born. It was really truly born out of a desire to change what wasn't working."

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Blake Ratcliffe, the principal and founder of contract furniture company TMC, also known as The Makers Creative. "Being a small company that we started at at our kitchen table and in Ann Arbor, and then working on the back of our suppliers to get rolling to bootstrap, we really had to be good at spotting trends," Ratcliffe says.

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Kristine Kletke, president of PMSI Marketing Group, celebrating 25 years of business in 2024. "We wear so many hats as entrepreneurs and the way that we're doing business, depending on your thought process, marketing can take a kind of a backseat to some of the other things that we're doing," she says. "So I think that one of the things that small businesses don't realize is that there are a lot of opportunities out there and the people who can help them aren't as expensive as you think."

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Monica Mitidieri, owner of Monica's Gourmet Cookies. "Our corporate gifting program really took off on its own [just before Covid] and it just grows and grows and grows. And so that has been very instrumental in our success, as well as a lot of the gourmet stores that we are in locally here in Grand Rapids and outside of the state," she says.

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Dave Kelly, Co-Founder and CTO of SensCy, based in Ann Arbor. "We've seen over the last year a 424 percent increase in cyber attacks against small businesses," Kelly says. "This is a trend that's been increasing over time. The media are not going to do stories on the small mom and pop store down the shop or down the street, or the 30 person manufacturing company. They're looking to do stories on large publicly traded companies because of the impact. So it's sort of lulled us into a false sense of security that I must be too small to be attacked because I'm not hearing about it in the news media."

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Jessica Starks, President & CEO of Transworld Business Advisors of Grand Rapids and Lansing. If you're thinking about selling your small business "you need to feel that this is the right time in your life and what your future looks like," she says. "Some questions to ask yourself: what comes next? Where are you financially? What is the value of my business? And what does the process (of selling) look like?"

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Jen Julien, who with her husband Jon owns Braveworks, a real estate development/management company based in Houghton. "A couple of our businesses have developed because we saw a need in the community and it wasn't being filled," she says. "So we took it upon ourselves to fill that need and create the jobs and to create the services that help our community prosper and thrive,"

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with Scott Ringlein, founder of the Energy Alliance Group of North America, a family of for-profit and nonprofit companies that share a common goal and expertise to develop innovative solutions to energy waste and environmental challenges. "We help business building owners, including those in Michigan, find ways to become more energy efficient, reduce their utility cost, improve cash flow both short term and long term, and then have an option to give back to others in the same community that they're located in," he says.

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)

On today's SBAM Weekly Podcast, Michael Rogers talks with tax planner Stephanie Squires, owner of SCS Capital in Livonia. "One of the things that I think small business owners can do is look at the IRS rules when it comes to taking salaries," she says. "One or two things can be done. They can take a salary, and take some hours of distributions, because they're bypassing a lot of the Medicare and Social Security taxes. And the other option that I see a lot of times is doing employee benefits. The employer or the small business owner providing these, it actually is an expense for them, and therefore reducing the amount of taxes that they owe on the overall income of their business."

The Small Business Association of Michigan is the only statewide and state-based association that focuses solely on serving the needs of Michigan's small business community. We have been successfully serving small businesses like yours in all 83 counties of Michigan since 1969. We're located in Lansing, just one block from the Capitol.

Our mission is to help Michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy. When small businesses band together through the Small Business Association of Michigan, they achieve more than they could on their own.

Our 32,000 members are as diverse as Michigan's economy. From accountants to appliance stores, manufacturers to medical, and restaurants to retailers, what unites the SBAM membership is the spirit of entrepreneurship…a spirit that drove you to start and continue to operate your own business because you believe you can do something better than anyone else is doing it!

(music licensed from www.jukedeck.com)