Business Briefs

Safety compliance rep will speak at session

A free Environmental Health Specialists Network training session will be from 12:30 to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Bethany Homes, 321 N. Chestnut St., Lindsborg.

Guest speaker Lorraine Lawson, a safety compliance officer, will speak about the “HAZCOM-Global Harmonizing System.”

The OSHA standard changes take effect in 2013, so you won’t want to miss this free training.

The annual 10-hour General Industry course will be May 1-2 and the annual 10-hour Construction course will be May 8-9, both at Triumph Aerospace, Wichita.

Class size is limited, so RSVP is required by April 15 by notifying Lorraine Lawson at llawson@bethanyhome.com or call (785) 227-2721, ext. 127.

Small businesses that do exports are sought

Do you sell bowling balls to Bangladesh? Or dish towels to Delhi? Maybe you send laser technology to Lisbon? If you export your goods or services around the world and have used a federal government program or assistance to get there, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Visa Inc. want to see your story.

Enter the “2013 SBA-Visa Export Video Contest,” where participants will have a chance to win up to $10,000 in prize money. Eligible small business exporters are encouraged to submit a video to http://exportvideo.challenge.gov/ that will highlight how the small business became a successful exporter, the benefits of exporting, and government programs available to help them export.

To participate in the contest, the company must be a small business as determined by SBA’s size standards and comply with a set of requirements that include successfully completing at least one export transaction and using at least one federal program or service to support such transaction.

Contest participants must register and create an account with www.challenge.gov, the contest portal that also will serve as a repository for the submissions. Registration is free.

The videos must meet specific criteria that include duration no longer than 3 minutes and high-resolution format. Content should be educational, not promotional. The contest is open now through April 5. Winners will be announced no later than May 31.

Area accounting firm is member of group

GREAT BEND – Adams, Brown, Beran Ball announced it is now a member of LEA Global/The Leading Edge Alliance, ranked by the International Accounting Bulletin as the second largest international association of independent accounting firms for 2013.

The LEA Global is an international alliance of independently owned accounting and consulting firms. Established in 1999, the LEA has more than 190 member firms worldwide, with collective revenues of 2.7 billion USD. About 100 countries are represented in the association.

Adams, Brown, Beran Ball, Chartered provides a wide range of traditional and nontraditional CPA and consulting services to clients throughout Kansas. Founded in 1945, today the firm maintains 12 office locations throughout the state.

New rules aim to ease loan application process

Borrowers and lenders of loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration will have greater access to capital and less paperwork as a result of a proposed regulation aimed at streamlining the SBA application process, while also strengthening oversight and the integrity of the agency’s loan programs.

The SBA proposes the new measures after extensive consultations with lenders and borrowers to identify the greatest challenges they face and find ways to reduce barriers to making and accessing loans, while still maintaining strict oversight.

Among the proposed changes are: eliminating the Personal Resource Test; revising the Rule on Affiliation; eliminating the Nine-Month Rule for the 504 Loan Program; and increasing the accountability of the Certified Development Companies’ Board of Directors while eliminating requirements for membership.

For more details on the new rules and their benefits, visit http://www.sba.gov/content/revised-oca-regulations-504-and-7a-loan-program.

Grant is approved at Dodge CVB meeting

DODGE CITY – The Dodge City Convention and Visitors Bureau announced that an Attraction and Event Print Grant was approved at the February advisory board meeting for printing promotional materials.

Main Street Dodge City applied for assistance in printing a rack card to promote downtown businesses. The printed piece will be distributed regionally to bring visitors to town by raising awareness of what there is to see and do in Dodge City’s downtown area. A grant of $500 was approved for this project.

Other grant recipients have included the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame, the Carnegie Center for the Arts and the National Barrel Horse Association.

The grant is a reimbursable grant and requires a proof of the final project before the grant is awarded. It will cover 50 percent of the artwork, printing cost and other expenses, up to $500 per project. Some timeline limitations apply, and all applicants are required to use the “Get the Heck into Dodge” logo on the material, and provide the completed printed piece to the Visitors Center in Dodge City, as well as other Travel Information Centers throughout Kansas.

The CVB wants to aid local attractions and event coordinators in getting the word out to tourists, and to aid in bringing overnight travel to Dodge City. Anyone interested in applying, or needing more details, should call Jan Stevens at the Convention and Visitors Bureau at (620) 225-8186 or visit the CVB website: www.visitdodgecity.org, under the “More Information” tab.

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