Small Business Talks

Creating a Network Connecting Solar Batteries to Communicate with the Grid!

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 
Read About the Story on Our Blog: Small Business Talks

Delighting Your Customer | How Focusing on Customer’s Needs & Problems Helped Sell Yard Sign Stakes

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

Monetizing Tax Incremental Financing for Municipalities and Developers

Monetizing TIF
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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Converting Castings to Machined Parts: A Manufacturing Solution for the Supply Chain Disruption.

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

What Advantages Does Zinc Die Casting Offer Businesses and Manufacturers?

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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What do Contract Metal Fabricators Do? and How to Choose the Right One!

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
Visit our Companion Blog Site “Small Business Talks” for more details.

Technology Advancements in Indoor Grow Lighting

An Interview About Indoor Grow Lights & Technology
Grow Lights have been around for decades and have evolved from fluorescent to high pressure sodium to most recently LED. Grow lights are critical to indoor growing operations because they supply the light which is converted into plant energy through a process called photosynthesis. As technological advancements have been made so to has the understand of just how indoor light affects plant growth. New terminology like Far red, UV, and full spectrum have become more important. The other factor in grow lights is the costs, both in initial investment as well as operating costs. The problem is that one can get quickly overwhelmed with all the information online as to which type is the best for indoor growing, what characteristics are important and innovations in the industry.  
We recently interviewed had the opportunity to speak with Jeff Nall a Technical Advisory Board Member for gGRO Horticulture. And talk about what you should know about grow lights and the innovations the gGro lighting system brings to the marketplace.
 
More information on the best indoor grow lights is available at biz-reps.com.
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All About Small Business Talks

Do you own or work for a small business or manufacturing company? Are you looking for answers or ideas to help you with the challenges you face as a small business? Or maybe you just looking for inspiration or to hear what other companies like you are doing?
Hi, I’m Neal Rabogliatti, for over 25 years I have been helping small businesses and manufacturers to develop strategic and tactical ways to improve their business online. Over the years I have met some amazing people and companies who have some great ideas and interesting stories that could help other small businesses find solutions to their challenges.
I know how hard it is for a smaller company to get their message out to the world compared to resources large corporations have, that’s why I had the idea of creating a podcast that highlights small businesses and let them do the talking. My goal is interview companies and let them tell their stories of success, challenges, or inspiration. As a small business owner, myself, I wanted to create a community of listeners that can share and benefit from all the great people I meet and hopefully help other small businesses along the way.
I hope you enjoy the pod casts we have schedule and will contact me if you have something to share with our community!
 
Thanks