Brainerd Lakes Area Featured in Farm & Ranch Magazine!

Click Here to read the article from Midwest Farm & Ranch Magazine featuring the Brainerd Lakes Area. The article, titled "Brainerd Lakes, A Land of Plenty, in One of Many" features photos and verbaige provided by Close~Converse, and even makes mention of the numerous acres of Potlatch land now on the market with LandRadar.com at Close~Converse. The magazine does an excellent job highlighting the areas year-round recreational activities, and local tourist hotspots!

Getting the Edge by Lynda Gutierrez

These might not yet be the times that try men’s souls but they’re certainly trying our patience. Besieged by troubles, we’re slowing down, cutting back, doing without. But the longer we continue, the more everything grinds to a halt. The only real solution? In the words of Winston Churchill, “If you're going through hell, keep going.”
Too many companies are attempting to stay afloat by metaphorically tossing overboard everything they can get their hands on. Unfortunately – although this might lighten the load and temporarily keep the corporate ship steaming ahead – an awful lot jettisoned as dead weight may turn out to be the toolkit, the compass, and the crew. Some businesses are dead in the water; they just don’t know it yet.
It’s, of course, not a time for extravagance or conspicuous consumption but cutting expenses by doing without the tools you need to build a future is just plain foolish. Some companies are saving themselves to death.
Survival of the fittest doesn’t come into play when the living is easy – it’s when times are tough, when resources are limited, that the competition heats up. But even in nature “red in tooth and claw” as it is, survival isn’t a matter of brute strength or mindless ruthlessness. It is the innovative, adaptive, and clever that find – or carve out – niches that not only survive bad times but emerge stronger and more fit than before. (After all, we humans have only brainpower to thank for having continued to exist in, let alone dominate, a world filled with animals far fiercer than ourselves!)
Everyone out there in the business world right now is desperately vying for scant and diminishing resources. Only some will survive. It will not be the mindlessly brutish. And it will not be the timid souls fearfully guarding their pennies. The ones that will make it through this particular incarnation of hell will be those armed with the vision, the knowledge, and the tools that give them the edge.

Sales of small businesses on the rise

The economy is struggling, but sales and valuations of small companies are up, according to the latest data.

By Emily Maltby

time to spruce up the window displays and organize your accounting records: Despite the economic downtown, sales of small businesses are starting to boom.
Business marketplace BizBuySell's latest quarterly Insight Report on nationwide sales trends shows a 48% jump in the number of businesses listed on its network that sold during the first half of 2008, compared to the year-earlier period. A total of 3,894 businesses found buyers, up from 2,640 in the first half of 2007.
Listing rose in tandem: BizBuySell.com had 41,674 active listings on its site in 2008's second quarter, up from 29,468 during the same period last year, a 41% increase. Most promisingly for business owners, the prices buyers are paying have also increased. The median sale price for businesses tracked by BizBuySell was $200,000 in this year's second quarter, up from $186,000 during the same period last year.
BizBuySell, the largest nationwide marketplace for buying and selling small companies, compiles its sales data from closed-transaction reports sent in by brokers. For-sale-by-owner deals closed directly are not included in the totals.
BizBuySell General Manager Mike Handelsman was surprised by the listings jump, considering the slumping economy. "We expected to see a decline, but all metrics are on the rise," he said.
But to William Bruce, president of the American Business Brokers Association, an inverse trend between small-business sales and the health of the overall economy isn't unusual.
"When the economy slows, business executives want to downsize and employees have a fear of being transferred, outsourced or fired," he said. "As a result, these employees see small-business ownership as an attractive and viable opportunity." Plus, layoffs often bring with them severance packages - a good source of capital for people considering launching their own ventures.

Read the rest of the article here: http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/29/smallbusiness/smallbiz_sales_up.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008090209

Click here to see some of the great business opportunities that we have listed:
http://www.closeconverse.com/page.cfm?pageid=5724

"How Not to Ruin Your Life"

Making the Sale in a Tough Economy by Ben Stein

SBA's Deputy Administrator Carranza Promotes Patriot Express Loans to Vets

WASHINGTON - Speaking at an American Legion post in Frederick, Md., today, U.S. Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator Jovita Carranza, U.S.
Representative Roscoe Bartlett (Md.), and SBA Maryland-area District Director Stephen Umberger, highlighted the benefits of SBA's Patriot Express loan guarantees and encouraged military members who want to start or grow small businesses to use them.
SBA's Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative, started a little over a year ago, continues to successfully help veterans and their spouses reach their dreams of small business ownership and expansion. To date SBA has approved more than 1,850 loan guarantees for more than $181 million at an average loan amount of $98,000.
"SBA is committed to helping America's service members and commends them for all they have sacrificed for our country," said Carranza. "Veterans tend to have the characteristics necessary for small business success: courage, discipline and a strong work ethic. We believe that Patriot Express, supported by SBA's other services, goes directly to the needs of these American patriots who wish to start or expand businesses, and create jobs and growth."
Patriot Express, launched last June 28, builds on the more than $1 billion in loans SBA guarantees annually for veteran-owned businesses, and the counseling assistance and procurement support the agency provides each year to more than 100,000 veterans, service-disabled veterans, and Guard and Reserve members.
Patriot Express is a streamlined loan product based on the agency's highly successful SBA Express Program, but with enhanced guaranty and interest- rate characteristics. The Patriot Express loan is offered by SBA's network of participating lenders nationwide and features SBA's fastest turnaround time for loan approvals. Loans are available up to $500,000 and qualify for SBA's maximum guaranty of up to 85 percent for loans of $150,000 or less and up to
75 percent for loans over $150,000 up to $500,000. For loans above $350,000, lenders are required to take all available collateral.
The Patriot Express loan can be used for most business purposes, including start-up, expansion, equipment purchases, working capital, inventory or business-occupied real-estate purchases.
Patriot Express loans feature SBA's lowest interest rates for business loans, generally 2.25 percent to 4.75 percent over Prime, depending upon the size and maturity of the loan. Local SBA district offices will have a listing of Patriot Express lenders in their areas. Details on the initiative can be found at www.sba.gov/patriotexpress.
Interest rate maximums for Patriot Express loans are the same as those for regular 7(a) loans: a maximum of Prime + 2.25 percent for maturities under seven years; Prime + 2.75 percent for seven years or more. Interest rates can be higher by two percentage points for loans of $25,000 or less; and one percentage point for loans between $25,000 and $50,000.
Patriot Express is available to military community members including veterans, service-disabled veterans, active-duty service members participating in the military's Transition Assistance Program, Reservists and National Guard members, current spouses of any of the above, and the widowed spouse of a service member or veteran who died during service, or of a service-connected disability.
Patriot Express loans have been approved in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam and generally range from $5,000 to $375,000 in individual loan amounts. The average loan amount is almost $98,000. Nearly 15 percent of those loans have gone to military spouses. After loan applications are approved by the bank, they are submitted to SBA for approval. Most applications are approved by SBA within 24 hours.
SBA has veterans' business development officers in district offices in every state and territory able to provide military community members full access to the SBA's range of programs and services. There are also five Veterans Business Outreach Centers located in: Albany, N.Y.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Lynn Haven, Fla.; Edinburg, Texas; and Sacramento, Calif.
In addition to district offices, SBA's resource partners SCORE, Counselors to America's Small Business; Small Business Development Centers; and Women's Business Centers provide local and online assistance with: writing a business plan, financing options to start or grow your business, managing the business, expanding the business and selling goods and services to the government.
For those who are already small business owners and who expect call-up, the SBA and its resource partners can assist with preparing their businesses before deployment, managing their businesses, selling goods and services to the government, obtaining other SBA financing and financial assistance, and obtaining loans for economic injury - Military Reserve Economic Injury Disaster Loans (MREIDL). Loans of up to $2 million are available for small businesses sustaining economic injury because an owner or essential employee has been called to active duty as a military reservist.
The SBA and its Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD) provides comprehensive assistance, outreach and support to veterans. Each year the SBA assists more than 100,000 veterans, service-disabled veterans and Reserve Component members. Go to www.sba.gov/vets.

A Dud of a Thriller? Commercial Real Estate Drama Lacks a Killer

Commercial Real Estate Industry Doesn't Know Where the 'Play' is Occurring, Whether On-Stage or Off, but That's Not To Say Someone Still Won't Get Hurt
Just as a good thriller can bring an audience to the edge of its seat in anticipation of that pinnacle of dread, the anxiety has mounted in intensity this summer within commercial real estate markets waiting for that long-predicted moment of economic distress when it will all come crashing down. The problem, if that's the right word, is that the market so far has not played out to a well-scripted ending. And while a jolt could still come, the end of this market drama could likely play out as more of a dud. It's no secret why people in the business feel anxious. Even the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which has been an energetic cheerleader for the economy - and just as incredulous in many ways - is now saying the softening of economic conditions in recent months should impact commercial real estate markets in the months ahead.
(Will Commercial Real Estate Topple or Stay On its Feet? What is your take on the outlook for commercial real estate? What could bring the industry to the same fate as residential real estate or what will help it muddle through the economic mire? You can reach me by clicking on the byline above or e-mailing me at Mark Heschmeyer. The story will be updated throughout the day with ertinent comments attached to the end of this story.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said commercial real estate activity is projected to weaken over the next six to nine months, as measured by net absorption and the completion of new commercial buildings. "The pace of decline has intensified due to job cuts and very sluggish economic activity since the beginning of the year, particularly in those industries requiring commercial building spaces," he said. "We anticipate the weakest commercial brokerage activity in nearly three years as a result." "The U.S. commercial real estate market continues to have an uneasy 'Waiting for Godot' feeling about it," wrote Philip Conner, principal U.S. Office of Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) in Parsippany, NJ, in a new report this month titled "Waiting for Distress." "With the credit market troubles still hampering the orderly flow of capital and growing uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the economy, bid-ask spreads have widened as activity throughout the commercial real estate market, from lending to leasing to transactions, has slowed to a crawl," Conner wrote. "Though signs of distress remain largely confined to highly leveraged deals consummated at the peak of the investment cycle, in late 2006 and early 2007, there is an undeniable and growing sense of anticipation among investors that U.S. commercial property values are poised to fall and that widespread distress is just around the corner." From a personal perspective, it's hard to ignore the Down Under diggery doo sound from the media, economists and financial bloggers. At the same time, there has been no single triggering event that would appear to throw the commercial real estate industry into a tailspin. With the residential markets, the collapse of subprime market was the triggering event that wiped out a huge chunk of the buying market. The deterioration in value of those loans then prompted the credit market crunch. And those events have clearly spilled over into a slowdown in commercial transactions, but not with severity. In drama, the adage is that if a gun or other weapon is introduced in the first act, then someone will be killed in the third act. But as the commercial markets have played out this summer, if there is a weapon in the picture, it remains hidden. If there is a killer, it hasn't emerged. Commercial real estate fundamentals have continued to hold up this year. Conner of PREI only set up the overriding tone of the industry, but he also sees countering trends. "While today's low cap rates make it fairly easy to arrive at some sobering estimates for how far asset values can fall in the near term, it remains to be seen what kind of role distress will play over the next year or two," Conner wrote. "Property values already appear to have fallen 10% or more from the pricing at the peak of the market, and they may continue to decline over the near term." he continued. "But with property market fundamentals still relatively balanced, a modest supply pipeline, soaring construction costs, and a wall of capital waiting in the wings, prospective investors anticipating a repeat of the capital-starved distress in the early 1990s and the deeply discounted transaction market it produced may be disappointed." Then going back to his reference to the Samuel Beckett play, Conner noted that Godot never appears onstage. "His off-stage presence, whether real or imagined, and his expected arrival largely dictate what does and does not happen in the play," Conner wrote. "To be sure, more distress will surface in the transaction market before the credit market normalizes, and the combination of higher capital costs and lower rent growth will depress asset values in the near term. Though it's hard to generalize, it would not be surprising if property values decline 15% to 20%, on average, from peak-to-trough before values stabilize, which, if property values are already down by 10%, would mean that the correction is about halfway done, if not more. But most of the distress - and opportunities for investors - should remain "offstage" in the capital markets."
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