Business, big and small

Tips for covering big business

Covering small and local businesses

Most small papers don’t (or can’t) cover businesses in the sense of corporate profits and CEO job changes. But business is crucial in how it affects the individual lives of owners and employees, along with municipal fiscal health.

Some ideas to start:
- At least three-fourths of people now work for small companies. Covering local small businesses is far more important than dissecting Hoffmann-La Roche.
- Many local businesses are family-run operations with deep roots in the area. Looking at these family trees is fascinating. Many of these individuals have played rolls in the greater civic life of the area.
- More people are running home-based businesses. These range from concierge services to computer consultants. Some of these people were laid off from corporate America; others are stay at home moms; still more need to supplement their full-time income with part-time work.

Opportunities for business coverage:
- Anniversaries-look out for those bread trucks that say “founded in 1907.”
- Holidays-to honor Valentine’s Day, what’s the story of the local candy story? How about looking at the Peruvian business for Peruvian Independence Day?
-Openings/Closings-these need to have an extra hook, because our policy is to not cover balloon-festooned grand openings. Maybe the opening represents some larger trend of economic growth in the area, or is bucking a trend. Closings of old businesses is always a wonderful opportunity for poignant nostalgia. Closings of big companies are notable for the jobs/ratables they will shed.
- Expansions-things are going so well for business X, that they expanded and are hiring more employees. What is the key to their success? Is it paying part time workers and denying people benefits. Overseas contracts? More government work?
- Quirky businesses-old school Italians printing Hip Hop CD labels? The former coffin business now selling party tents? These are out there.

Data sources:
- Census: A great source of data is the County Business Patterns, which gives annual business stats by county. It lists firms broken down by size for hundreds of different trades and professions.
- State Labor department: They have salaries and number of employees for dozens of professions. It’s in their occupational employment statistics.
- Federal Labor department: They track monthly job growth nationally (and some things for the state), wage trends for industries, along with dozens of other interesting things (like which line of work is the most dangerous.)
-
Local/state Groups:
- William Paterson Small Business Development Center
- North Jersey Regional Chamber of Commerce
- New Jersey Women Business Owners Association
- New Jersey Business & Industry Association
- Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey
- New Jersey Retail Merchants Association

- Heather Haddon, Herald News, Aug. 2007