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January 13, 2012 | Copy Desk | News
Copy Desk

Survey Says: Striving to Survive

“I will survive” is the anthem for a majority of Florida small business owners, according to the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, a biannual sampling of attitudes among owners/managers of companies with fewer than 100 employees.

Fifty-five percent of owners say they are “staying afloat,” with their businesses managing to survive despite being negatively affected by the economy. Forty-five percent believe the most important thing to do to stay motivated is to focus on their work, and 73 percent are stressed out by the economy. In addition, only a little more than one-third (39 percent) of Florida small business owners are paying themselves a salary.

Other noteworthy Florida highlights:

  • Business owners are less likely to have a positive outlook for their business prospects over the next six months (32 percent) than are their counterparts in the South (46 percent) and than they were last fall (49 percent).

  • Seventy-six percent plan to grow their businesses over the next six months, down significantly from last fall (87 percent).

  • Twenty-six percent will make capital investments over the next six months, down dramatically from last fall (46 percent).

  • Twenty-six percent plan to hire within the next six months, down from last fall (35 percent).

  • Twenty-seven percent will spend marketing money on search or social media advertising. On average, they will spend $3,400, a much higher amount of marketing dollars than their counterparts in the South ($1,800) or overall ($1,600).

Economic Healing

The Nicholson Center, housed in the campus of Florida Hospital Celebration Health, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary by opening a new 54,000-square-foot facility. The center also has the distinction of being the world’s largest facility solely dedicated to physician training.

Can you say “economic driver”?

The center brings together physicians, clinical industry leaders and researchers to advance technology in the latest minimally invasive and robotic surgical techniques. In the past 10 years, more than 43,000 clinical learners have been trained. With the new facility, it's projected that more than 20,000 clinical learners will be trained annually, as more patients demand that their physicians perform minimally invasive, more precise procedures that reduce hospital stays.

The center features some of the most advanced medical technology and equipment, including six da Vinci robots, more than 40 fully equipped endoscopic surgical stations, two 935-square-foot team-training operating rooms, a medical simulation and robotics center of excellence, and an innovation and technology accelerator. It has more surgical stations and trains more physicians on the da Vinci robot than any other location worldwide.

Its prowess and potential have caught the attention of regional promoter Gary Sain, president of Visit Orlando, who believes the center can draw professionals from around the world.

Broadband Bonanza

How powerful is the Internet for businesses statewide? Plenty, reveals a report by Connect Florida, in coordination with the Florida Department of Management Services.

The Business Technology Assessment report confirms that Florida businesses with a broadband connection generate more revenue and jobs than those without one. In fact, Florida businesses with high-speed Internet connections report median annual revenues $130,000 greater than businesses that lack those connections. Currently, 74 percent of Florida’s business establishments use broadband, and Internet-connected businesses in Florida earn 32 percent of their revenue from online transactions. The research estimates that approximately 134,000 Florida businesses still don't use broadband technology. Another interesting tidbit: Nearly one-quarter of state businesses allow employees to telework.

Connect Florida, as the contractor for the Department of Management Services, is working to expand broadband, with funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration under the State Broadband Initiative.

New Snail Mail

E-mail may soon become the new snail mail, a new Robert Half Technology survey shows. More than half (54 percent) of chief information officers interviewed said real-time workplace communication tools will surpass traditional e-mail in popularity within the next five years.

Robert Half Technology, a provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis, outlines three workplace benefits of a transition to real-time tools:

• Speed. Instant messaging (IM) allows employees to have conversations at the click of a button without opening e-mails or waiting for responses. IM also enables employees in different locations to have real-time conversations, thus resolving issues more quickly.

• Convenience. Many programs include a host of features like IM, microblogging, forums, and document collaboration and management. This eliminates the need to switch between programs to communicate. Not only does this have the potential to improve efficiency, but it can also increase collaboration on projects and reduce the need for meetings.  

• Social aspects. Enterprise social networking sites such as Yammer or Chatter are useful for collaboration and for sharing ideas and best practices within a company. This technology also has the potential to foster teamwork and camaraderie among employees.

E-mail—err, IM—this to a friend.

Swimming Success

Add another notch to the belt of the Sarasota sports industry.

The 2013 Pan American Masters Championship will be held at the Selby Aquatic Center, part of the Sarasota YMCA’s Evalyn Sadlier Jones branch. This marks the first time the United States has hosted the biennial event, which includes synchronized swimming, Masters swimming and open water swimming. U.S. Masters Swimming, the national governing body for adult swimming, was awarded the event by the Union Americana de Natacion, an organization that oversees amateur aquatic sports competition in the Western Hemisphere.

To be held May 31-June 10, the championship is expected to attract up to 2,000 swimmers. The result: Sarasota County, home to the U.S. Masters Swimming organization, stands to gain an economic boon. The 10 days of competition will deliver adult participants and their families from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, along with Canada and the United States. Nearly 90 percent of the participants will come from outside Florida, and more than half from outside the country.

The First of Many?

Orlando's first transit-oriented, mixed-use development tied directly to SunRail has been announced. Called Central Station, the project will be designed as a model for aligning mixed-use development with multimodal connectivity and maximized access to public transportation.

Occupying an entire city block along Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando, Central Station will sit directly alongside the region’s most active transit hub and include the existing LYNX Central (Bus) Station in its site design. Aside from connectivity to public transportation, the development will include a mix of residential, retail, office, hotel and meeting space. It will also incorporate several public spaces, including a pedestrian breezeway, for SunRail and LYNX riders’ access to the central business district.

As the developer of Central Station, RIDA Development Corp. has committed roughly $100 million in private investment for the project. Upon completion of Phase I, targeted to occur with the implementation of SunRail in second quarter 2014, RIDA will move forward with Phase II. Total project cost is penciled at $200 million. Central Station will create 650 full-time construction jobs for Phase I and more than 1,000 in its entirety.

Ships, Ahoy!

One of the Super Region's chief assets cruised home with a year as gigantic as one of its liners.

For the first time in Port Canaveral’s history, it had more than 3 million multiday cruise passengers, contributing $40 million in cruise revenue during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Cruise traffic rose 16.08 percent to 3,100,199 passengers, as newer and larger cruise ships as well as 66 additional ship calls boosted the count. Overall, Port Canaveral’s revenues surged dramatically to nearly $57.8 million, eclipsing the previous port record of $51.2 in 2006.

The port’s year began with arrival of the new Disney Dream and ends with Carnival Cruise Lines’ expanded presence and the addition of the Carnival Ecstasy in November.

ETC.

Cenek, a learning content management system firm headquartered in Medellin, Colombia, is the first company to join the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program’s Soft Landing Program. The firm specializes in simplifying the process of training large groups of employees geographically dispersed by using its cloud-based platform, Cenek 3.0. The UCF Business Incubation Program’s “soft landing” enables companies to test their products and services in Florida and elsewhere in the United States before locating permanent offices here.

Cancer patients may benefit from the research findings borne out of the first medical research collaborations between UCF and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona. Two independent teams of cancer researchers, chemists and bioinformatics engineers have published discoveries that may lead to new methods of diagnosis and treatment. One team has pioneered an invention that may someday replace biopsies with a new, noninvasive technique to detect cancerous tumors, while another has documented the role of specific microRNAs— small pieces of genetic material—in melanoma. While both teams are years away from creating FDA-approved products that will benefit patients, the union of expertise between disciplines and institutions is especially noteworthy.

The Nursing Program at Seminole State College of Florida received the 2011 Chancellor’s Best Practice Award in the Workforce Education category, presented by the Association of Florida Colleges. Seminole State’s Nursing Program won the award for its integration of simulation throughout its curriculum, including sophisticated patient simulators and lab settings that replicate a hospital environment. Area healthcare organizations report that Seminole State’s simulation-enhanced curriculum prepares nursing students to excel in skills such as prioritization, delegation, communication and conflict resolution. In the most recent testing, Seminole State graduates achieved a 97 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination, surpassing the state average of 88 percent and the national average of 85 percent.

From Tampa to Orlando: Burger 21, a Tampa-based fast-casual concept founded by the owners of The Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., has targeted Orlando as its first-priority growth market for franchise expansion. In October, the company launched an aggressive growth strategy to bring its 21 chef-inspired burger creations and hand-dipped signature shakes to more cities nationwide. According to company officials, Orlando was chosen because of its proximity to Tampa and potential for economic development. The first corporate-owned Burger 21 restaurant opened in Tampa in November 2010; a second opened in October.

From Hernando County to Turkey: NAC Dynamics, a manufacturer of airport safety equipment located at Hernando County Airport Industrial Park, has been awarded a $2 million contract to produce equipment that will be used in 32 airports in Turkey. It's also establishing a service center in Istanbul to provide mechanical and training support to airport operators. The company specializes in making friction-measuring devices used to evaluate runway surface conditions during inclement weather. Having a service facility in Istanbul, cites one company official, ensures at least a decade of presence there as well as bolstering efforts at additional overseas expansion.

Having a hotel built near a college isn't such a big deal. Having it built by the college is bigger. Rollins College recently broke ground on The Alfond Inn at Rollins, a roughly 100,000-square-foot facility that will feature approximately 112 guest rooms, along with ballroom and meeting space, an iconic conservatory, a signature restaurant, an elevated pool deck, a bar, a fitness center and a series of courtyards. Moreover, located at the former historic Langford Hotel site, one block from the campus, the hotel will enable Rollins to host events and attract professional and academic conferences that cannot currently be accommodated on campus. In late 2010, Rollins received a $12.5 million gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation to construct the facility, with the gift structured to create a permanently endowed fund from the hotel’s revenues to provide student scholarships.

In a celebration of America’s young people and the communities most dedicated to helping local youth graduate from high school, America’s Promise Alliance announced the 2011 list of 100 Best Communities for Young People—and included Manatee County, St. Petersburg and Tampa/Hillsborough. More than 300 communities across the nation and Washington, D.C., were nominated. The winners came from 39 states, chosen by a panel of judges that included well-known civic, business and nonprofit leaders. Founded in 1997, America’s Promise Alliance is a partnership of 400-plus corporations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and advocacy groups that seek to improve lives and change outcomes for children.

On a related topic, the National League of Cities has named Tampa one of the 27 most advanced cities in the nation for its efforts to coordinate after-school opportunities for children and youth. Among the other cities were Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, the only other Florida city represented. The announcement identified six key elements as being essential for building sustainable, coordinated after-school systems: committed leadership, a public or private coordinating entity, multiyear planning, reliable information, expanding participation and a commitment to quality.

The Port of Tampa has a new golden goose: the 2,348-passenger Norwegian Star. Through early April 8, the vessel will make a series of seven-day Western Caribbean cruises, resulting in significant local economic impact. Over the season, it's estimated that passenger and crew spending resulting from the Norwegian Star will have an impact on the area's economy of more than $8 million. In total, Norwegian Cruise Line’s presence will bring some 130,000 guests to the port’s growing passenger numbers; projections call for 950,000 passengers to arrive and depart via Tampa in 2012.

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