Upcoming Events
 
9/6 Capital City Bank “Renovation Celebration” 5pm-7pm ET
9/29 Paws in the Park, Centennial Park, 9am-1pmET
9/29 Bow Wow Bash, Centennial Park, 6pm-10pm
 
What’s Inside…
New Members
Thank you to Scallop Festival Sponsors
Chamber Events and Ribbon Cuttings
The Future of Health Insurance
Protect Yourself from Email Scams
The BestSmallTown Business Promotions
Business Interruption Insurance
 
Scallop Festival Sets Pace……
 
To those who attended the Scallop Festival in Port St. Joe last week, you will know what I’m talking about….it was a “darn good” event! On Friday night the “Tip Tops Band” out of Mobile, Alabama performed and to the grandeur amazement of all in attendance. On Saturday night the “Kevin Jacobs Band” entertained with equal vigor an enthusiastic crowd. Neither band likely has much fame outside our immediate region, but had you been there either night, you’d have thought Port St. Joe was a big time venue for all that was happening. In between and on Sunday, the Lions Club and its membership cooked up a record amount of scallops for a crowd that could hardly get its fill. Also there were about 100 vendors, which included several local businesses, set up to promote their goods. Festival-goers shared comments that this is how a festival should be done…some said its quaintness reminded them of the Florida Seafood Festival in Apalachicola 25-30 years ago.
 
All in all, it was a great festival and indicative of what could be perfected upon if it can receive “total” community support. Even the News Herald Squall Line commented that the Panama City Beach Festival folks could take a lesson from the Port St. Joe Scallop Festival, whereby it is put on by locals who have the local interest at heart. As chamber President, I can honestly say that without the volunteer help of so many involved, the Scallop Festival would not, nor will it continue to exist. In the end, the Scallop Festival was successful due to the efforts of dozens of people who are community minded and want our town to continue the traditions of the past….some might even conjure thoughts of Mayberry on the Gulf Coast. Minus a few roadblocks along the way, more and more tourists will come to our community to share in the downtown fun and entertainment. Any way you shuck it, the Scallop Festival can serve for a long time to come as a prelude to the nicest season along our GulfCoast – the Indian Summer, Fall! So if you missed this festival, don’t miss all the things about to happen around Port St. Joe and GulfCounty.
 
A Scallop Festival Special Thanks goes out to: The St. Joe Company, PSJ Lions Club, Galati Yachts Sales, Sandra Chafin, Sonny Chafin, Jimmy Rodgers, Rich Wynn, Elizabeth Wynn, Mike Lecour and all the volunteers that made the event a success.
 
Thank You to the sponsors of the 11th Annual Scallop Festival
 
13 Mile Seafood
Beach Realty
Boyer Signs
Carpet Country
City of Port St. Joe
Coastal Community Bank
Duren’s Piggly Wiggly
Mexico Beach CDC
Panache Tent and Event
Port St. Joe Lions Club
Progress Energy of Florida
Raffield Fisheries
St. Joe Rent All
Star Publications
Sunset Coastal Grill
Vision Bank
 
New Members
 
Bayside Animal Hospital, Inc.
Dr. Leslie Biagini
324 Long Avenue
Port St. Joe, FL32456
Phone: 850-227-7270
Fax: 850-227-7299
 
Broke-A-Toe Horseback Riding on the Beach
Julie Wester
5787 Hwy 71
P.O. Box 1292
Port St. Joe, FL32457
Phone: 850-899-RIDE
 
Frost’s PotteryGarden
Dena and Jay Frost
2950 W. Hwy 98,
Port St. Joe, FL32456
Phone: 850-229-1221
Fax: 850-229-1220
 
Ake’s Septic, Inc.
Lyle R. Ake, Owner
760 N. Hwy 71
P.O. Box 211
Wewahitchka, FL32465
Phone: 850-639-6000
Phone: 850-899-6000 C
Fax: 850-639-3351
 
GPM Financial, LLC
Guerry Magidson, Principal
101 Reid Avenue, Suite 105
Port St. Joe, FL32456
Phone: 850-227-7090
Fax: 850-227-7091
 
Ann Mazzanovich, Realtor
1005 B Cypress Lane
Mexico Beach, FL32456
Phone: 850-340-0563
Phone: 800-411-3717
Fax: 850-647-3330
 
Prodigy Payment Systems
Lisa Szczepaniak, Business Consultant
339 Selma St.
Port St. Joe, FL32456
Phone: 850-647-2777
Phone: 850-340-1458
Fax: 850-647-2777
 
Beach Baptist Chapel
Stephanie M. Richardson, Treasurer
311 Columbus Street
Port St. Joe, FL32456
Phone: 850-647-3950
Phone: 850-227-8386
 
 
 
 
The Future of Health Insurance
Far too many people in America today are currently without health insurance. One of the conditions exacerbating the problem – a problem affecting millions of American workers and their families every day – is the federal tax code’s imbalanced treatment of those who purchase health insurance.
Under the current system, those who work for a large employer get a tax benefit to purchase a health plan; those who purchase health insurance on their own do not.
Among those most affected by this situation are entrepreneurs and the owners and employees of small businesses – two sectors of our economy most responsible for driving the American economy into prosperity.
The unbalanced tax treatment is wrong and Congress should address this problem now. Ultimately, it’s a question of fairness. A tax break for health insurance should not be applied depending on where you work; tax policy should apply to all seeking quality health care coverage.
The solution relies on streamlining the tax code, so that regardless of your place of work—whether that’s in corporate America or at the neighborhood bakery—American workers have the same opportunity for equal and affordable health care coverage.
This summer, I’ve joined with several colleagues in urging Congress to begin the debate on how to update our tax code as it relates to health insurance. We simply must remove the current inequity and level the field making tax benefits for health insurance available to all.
If we widen the availability of affordable and portable health care plans and remove some of the pressure that leads to higher health care costs, we all will see the benefit of lower health care costs.
The federal government should not prohibit workers from purchasing insurance on their own with pre-tax dollars. Taxpayers who do not have access to employer-provided plans should be allowed access to a health tax credit equal to the benefits enjoyed by workers whose employers provide health insurance.
Understanding that those in lower income brackets might still struggle to come up with the funds to take advantage of this new tax benefit, we should also increase the tax credit to those families and individuals. With a credit in place, money would be immediately available to make coverage more affordable for more families.
I believe that everyone in America ought to have access to affordable health insurance. Adjusting the tax code has the ability to provide more benefits to more workers across America, regardless of their employment situation.
The greatest barrier between the uninsured and health care coverage is the prohibitive cost. Congress needs to take steps now toward helping millions more American workers and their families afford the coverage they need.
The debate over health care needs to take place on Capitol Hill. When it does, I will encourage all of my colleagues to suggest solutions and find innovative and fiscally responsible ways to tackle the problem of the uninsured. Americans must have an effective way to access the type of care coverage they are looking for at a price they are willing and able to pay.
 
Martinez is a Republican U.S. Senator for the state of Florida. On January 1, 2007, Senator Martinez introduced Senate bill 297, the Tax Equity and Affordability Act. On July 26, 2007, Senator Martinez introduced Senate bill 1886, the Every American Insured Health Act of 2007.
Protect Yourself from Email Scams
            Over the past few months financial institutions have seen an increase in the number of fake e-mails targeting customers. One of the most common ways of stealing personal information using e-mail is called “Phishing” because criminals are fishing for information. The Anti Phishing Working Group, a national association that collects data and educates consumers about the dangers of phishing, estimates that 75 million to 150 million phishing e-mails are sent daily. Consumer education is the best defense against phishing attacks.
What exactly is Phishing? Phishing attempts are when criminals hijack brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, sending e-mails in the hope that the recipient will respond with their personal and/or financial information. These types of e-mails are scams and you should never share confidential, personal information via unsolicited e-mails.
What to do if you receive a fraudulent e-mail: Banks or any of its subsidiaries would never contact customers via e-mail to verify or request security information of any sort, nor would the bank ask non-customers to provide any confidential, personal information via e-mail.
How can you avoid becoming a victim of an e-mail scam? First, remain calm. Most of us receiving an e-mail like this might be alarmed that our account was frozen or our credit card information had been stolen. These statements are often untrue and, by being calm, you can make sure you assess the situation rationally instead of just following the instructions in the e-mail.
Next, DO NOT RESPOND to e-mail requests for sensitive financial or personal information. Recognize that legitimate companies never request this information via email. When you get this kind of e-mail, realize the chances are excellent that it’s a scam and the e-mail should be deleted.
If you have a question about the legitimacy of an e-mail, go to the company’s official website directly by typing the address into the browser’s address bar. Never click on the link in the e-mail.
Source: The Chamber of Commerce Pacesetter, Volume XXIX/Number 5/May 2007
BBB ISSUES ALERT FOR PHISHING ATTACK USING THE BBB NAME
 
Pensacola, Fla. (August 3, 2007) – Your Better Business Bureau of Northwest Florida is warning businesses and consumers in Northwest Florida of a spoofing scam using the BBB name and a false BBB e-mail address to entice recipients to access potentially damaging hyperlinks and attachments.
None of the BBB’s computer or e-mail systems is involved in this hoax and the attack has not affected the computer system of the BBB or compromised any BBB-held data. The BBB and authorities are working together to stop these continued attacks.
The e-mail address, , is a fake.
The message begins: “This is an automated email that confirms the registration of your complaint case number: [CASE NUMBER] filed by your company on 7/29/2007 concerning Online Identity Theft. While The Better Bussiness [sic] Bureau Online does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint helps us investigate fraud, and can lead to law enforcement action.”
If you have received a fraudulent E-mail, do NOT click on any of the links or open any attachments. Please help us in our work with the authorities by forwarding the e-mail and its headers to .
For more information about phishing and for tips to avert other scams, please visit www.bbb.org.
 
 
Chamber Events
7/26 Bayside AnimalHospital Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting
8/9 Bay St. Joseph Care and RehabilitationCenter Open House
8/11 Expressions from the Heart One Year Anniversary
8/16 Wine Tasting Benefit for St. JosephBay Humane Society at Sunset Coastal Grill
8/17 Per·snick·e·ty Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting
Visit from Congressman Allen Boyd
Our congressman was at a luncheon in Port St. Joe recently to visit with locals and to address any questions they may have had.
Harry Potter Book Release Party at Palm Tree Books
The Best Small Town Business Promotions
by Tom Egelhoff
If you are a new business or a struggling business promotion is one of the best marketing tools to move your business towards success. Your promotion must do two things. One, it must be profitable. It has to produce more in customers’ profits to the business than the promotion costs. Two, it must be cost effective. You need to attract the largest amount of potential customers at the lowest possible price.
When is comes to promotion, small towns present some problems not found in larger cities. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the demographic numbers. The smaller the town the more it costs (per customer) to attract that customer. For example, in New York City there are 27,000 people per square mile. In Montana, there are five people per square mile. In New York, a sign and a few balloons may attract enough street traffic to make the promotion successful.
But in a small town you may not get that much walk by traffic. So you may have to advertise your promotion in several community newspapers and radio stations to attract the same traffic. What happens is the very thing that you don't want to happen. Your promotion costs more than it produces. And if that's the case you shouldn't do it.
The way to overcome the problems sited above is to deal with them as you would any business problem. Create a plan with goals that are realistic. For example, if you are a new business your goal may be to finish your first month with x amount of sales. Once you have the objective established then you need to ask yourself some questions. How can I bring enough customers to my business to achieve this goal? What costs are involved? When should I plan this promotion?
The time of the promotion can be very critical for some small towns. For example, if you have an industry in town that employs a lot of the town’s population, when are their paydays? If it's rural with a lot of agriculture when are those people going to have money? At the beginning of planting season or at the end?
Once you have established some objectives there is another important question you must ask yourself. What types of promotions should I use?
SAMPLING
Stop in any grocery store in a large city, and you will find people giving away free samples at the end of almost every aisle in the store. You don't find much of this in small town grocery stores. This technique is especially effective for small and home based businesses.
There is a low cost way to sample and a high cost way to sample. The low cost way is to distribute coupons good for a free sample either door to door or by direct mail. This way you get less people but the ones you do get are probably more interested in your product. The other advantage of this method is that the customer comes to your place of business to redeem the coupon. This gives you an opportunity to expose the customer to other products and services that you offer. The high cost way is to have free samples available at high traffic areas of town. You may want to create a list of people in the community who you especially want to know about your products. These are people who are active in the community and will help spread the word about you in their circle of friends.
The hardest part of sampling is judging how effective it is. You give away a sample and it may be weeks or months before that customer ends up using your product.
INCENTIVES TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT
The sale is probably the oldest form of promotion ever. The customer can see a perceived value. Buying something for less is a powerful incentive to make the purchase. For most of the twentieth century, stores had January "white sales”, sheets and blankets and the like. Consumers would wait for these sales and it was a great way for stores to sell various patterns that they were no longer going to carry in inventory.
In small towns, sales need to be special events. They need to have more substance than big city sales. Here's the problem. Because of the smaller population base sales figures are smaller. A sale will dilute your profit margin on each item sold. You may do a large volume but make a relatively small profit. In a large city you can do enough volume to offset some of this but in a small town it's much more difficult. In a small town quarter or semi-annual sales are probably better.
CREATING YOUR ON NEWSLETTER
A newsletter can be a valuable source of information for your customers or it can be a serious waste of money and paper. The problem with a newsletter for most business owners is finding the time to create it. Usually it's farmed out to some desktop publishing design person who puts it all together or some reluctant internal company volunteer.
If you decide to go the newsletter route as one of your promotional methods here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
·        The content must be interesting and informative to your customers.
·        There must be some value to the customer. (Coupons, private sales or offers not available to the general public) There should be a reason to open it and read it.
·        It should encourage the customer to contact your business on some kind of regular basis.
·        It should not be wall-to-wall print. It should be inviting to read. Use pictures and illustrations where ever possible and lots of white space. A type size of 12pt to 14pt type will be easier for most middle aged and older customers to read.
·        Write in conversational style - As though you were talking to the customer one-on-one. The customer should feel the newsletter was written specifically for them.
If you have the time or expertise to produce it a newsletter can be a great promotional tool and is relatively inexpensive.
PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS WITH CIRCULARS, FLYERS AND BROCHURES
Every business needs a tool that talks about the business when you aren't there to do it. That tool is usually the brochure. This tool will explain to current and potential customers what your business is all about and how your products or services can benefit them. Flyers and circulars have a slightly different purpose. They are usually used to highlight something special happening at your business. It might be a sale, announcement of new products or services or some other important information about your company. Flyers and circulars are usually placed in non-competitive businesses where customers can pick them up. Caution: If they are time sensitive make sure you pick up any surpluses that may be outdated.
They can also be placed on bulletin boards in laundromats, office buildings, grocery stores and at your local Chamber of Commerce (if you are a member who you should be).
THE LAST WORD ON BEST SMALLTOWN PROMOTIONS
The most important tip I can give you is to be sure you have clearly defined objectives. Then define the best promotional technique that will produce the results you are looking for.
Don't be discouraged if some of your early efforts don't produce the expected results. There are no positives in marketing, advertising and promotion. It's a matter of testing, testing, testing. The important part is to clearly understand why your promotion didn't work and learn from it.
Start small and when something clicks make it bigger. Good promotions can overcome competition and many other business obstacles.
Source: SmallTownMarketing.com
Consider Getting Business Interruption Insurance
With hurricane season heating up, business owners might consider talking to their local agents regarding business interruption insurance. Although most small business owners know they need property and casualty insurance for their premises, many don't realize they need specialized insurance coverage to limit their losses from a disaster.
Perhaps the biggest omission owners make when buying a commercial policy is business interruption insurance.
``They fail to think about what would happen if their business couldn't open again,' said Loretta Worters, vice president for communications of the Insurance Information Institute, a New York-based trade group.
Worters noted that business interruption insurance should be part of a company's business plan, the blueprint needed for any kind of loan or financing. But even the many owners who fund their companies themselves should buy this type of insurance - or they could see their hard work and dreams become a casualty of storms, fire or flood.
LOSSES COVERED
Business interruption insurance covers profits that are lost and expenses that continue to be incurred when a company is forced to shut down by a disaster, or even by an event such as an extended power outage. Policies typically have a 48-hour waiting period before coverage starts, but, depending on how much coverage a business buys, interruptions up to 360 days can be covered.
Among the expenses that business interruption insurance covers are salaries, rent and electricity - costs that still need to be paid even though a company can't operate.
But not all policies are created equal, said Mark Thaw, a partner at a South Florida accounting firm. Interruption policies are often riddled with exclusions that can narrow their usefulness. After Hurricane Wilma, some business owners discovered that their policies would have covered power outages within their building but would not cover expenses incurred because of a blown transformer down the block.
Avoiding such pitfalls starts with ``understanding what you bought, not what you are being told by someone,' said Thaw, who has helped clients collect more than $1 billion in insurance claims. ``If you are a small business guy, you probably don't have an insurance department, so you need to read and understand the policy yourself.'
As many companies have learned, property and casualty insurance can also have its limits. Damage from flooding is not covered by a typical commercial package; it must be purchased separately.
How much business interruption insurance a company should buy should be considered along with a disaster recovery plan. If you are certain you could quickly relocate your operations to another site and keep working, you might not want to buy the maximum amount available.
But Hurricane Wilma - which cut off power for days and weeks, in some cases, across South Florida - showed how disruptive even a lesser hurricane can be.
``The biggest hazard of all is being shut down,' said Carol Chastang, a spokeswoman for the Small Business Administration. ``Business interruption insurance is absolutely vital.'
But for many small ventures, business interruption insurance seems more like a luxury than a necessity.
BE SPECIFIC
Companies in specific industries should consider purchasing policies tailored to their line of work. For example, food purveyors should have food spoilage insurance to cover losses from a power failure.
Worters noted that many small businesses are cost-conscious and are likely to be concerned about spending a great deal of money on insurance. But even if you're tempted to put the money you might spend on insurance into another part of the company, you need to think about what you stand to lose if disaster strikes, she said.
But it's also important to weigh the costs of your insurance choices, said Thaw.
Business interruption insurance is very similar to disability insurance, he said. ``It's very expensive, so you want to make sure your dollars are spent wisely and you aren't wasting your money.'
Excerpts taken from MiamiHerald.com/Associated Press Writer JOYCE M. ROSENBERG