Business Strategies for Long Island
Long Island, NY is one of the most popular islands in the country. Nassau County and Suffolk County have one of the highest median household incomes in the nation. Historically, Nassau County and Suffolk County have been known for their affluent business and economy. Long Island is also where Hauppauge Industrial Park is, one of the largest industrial parks in the US – employing over 55,000 Long Island residents. Despite this, residents and business owners of Long Island struggle financially. Many younger residents have moved, others commute to work in Manhattan.
The Long Island Association (LIA) Monthly Economic Report, May 2011 by Dr. Pearl M. Kamer – Chief Economist wrote the following:
The Long Island Economy
Long Island is slowly generating private-sector jobs but growth remains confined to industries with a preponderance of low-wage jobs. Regional consumer prices are rising, sales tax revenues have been flat and both home sales and home prices are continuing to decline.
Long Island, NY - Labor Market
Nassau and Suffolk Counties gained only 8,000 payroll jobs in the twelve months ending in March. Job growth was confined almost entirely to health services and restaurants and eating places, a component of the leisure and hospitality sector. These industries contain relatively large numbers of low wage jobs. The government sector is continuing to shed jobs. Long Island’s leading goods-producing industries – manufacturing and construction – are also losing jobs. Relatively high-paying industries like information technology, finance and professional and business services have shown virtually no job growth in the twelve months ending in March.
Unemployment remains a problem on Long Island. Although Nassau-Suffolk’s March unemployment rate was only 7.1% as compared with 7.8% last March, it nevertheless exceeds the current unemployment rate in the northern New York suburbs of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties, 6.6%. An estimated 103,100 Long Islanders were officially designated as “unemployed” in March, which is relatively close to the peak level of unemployment, 121,100, reached in February 2010.
Long Island, NY - Consumer Sector
March sales tax revenues increased by 2.4% in Nassau and by 1.0% in Suffolk when compared with March of last year. Increases in sales taxes barely kept pace with the March regional inflation rate of 2.3%. For the first quarter as a whole, sales tax revenues declined by 1.0% in Nassau, rose by 1.0% in Suffolk and were completely flat for the bi-county area as a whole when compared with sales tax revenues during the first quarter of 2010. Clearly, consumer spending is no longer an “economic driver” for Long Island.
Personal Income on Long Island
Newly-released data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Nassau ranked third and Suffolk ranked sixth in New York State in terms of per capita personal income as of 2009, which was a recessionary year. Nassau’s 2009 per capita personal income was $61,871 and Suffolk’s was $48,691.
The aggregate 2009 personal income of Nassau County residents was almost $84 billion and the aggregate personal income of Suffolk County residents was almost $74 billion. This puts aggregate bi-county personal income at almost $157 billion in 2009. Nassau and Suffolk Counties, with 14.7% of New York State’s 2009 population, accounted for 17.4% of New York State’s aggregate personal income of almost $909 billion.
Two-thirds of the aggregate personal income of Nassau-Suffolk residents consisted of earned income. Interest, dividends, rents and transfer payments accounted for the remainder of this income stream. Earned income by Long Islanders from employment outside of Nassau and Suffolk Counties contributed substantially to the Long Island economy in 2009. This category includes earned income from jobs in New York City and elsewhere. Such earnings accounted for half of the earned income of Nassau County residents and for one-third of the earned income of Suffolk County residents in 2009. This underscores the importance of well-paid commuters to New York City.
Long Island, NY - Housing Market
Home prices and home sales on Long Island are continuing to decline. The March median price of newly closed homes was $402,500 in Nassau and $305,000 in Suffolk. In the twelve months ending in March, median home prices were down by 3.1% in Nassau and by 1.6% in Suffolk. The number of homes sold declined by 11.5% in Nassau and by 14.2% in Suffolk between March 2010 and March 2011. Home sales peaked in June 2010 as a result of federal tax incentives for first-time buyers. Sales numbers fell dramatically when those incentives expired. It is apparent that the incentives merely postponed inevitable adjustments in the housing market.
The number of Long Island homes entering the foreclosure process, getting auction notices or being repossessed fell 28% in the first quarter of this year when compared with the fourth quarter of last year. Some distressed homeowners may have been able to refinance their mortgages. However, it is equally likely that a backlog of paperwork and problems with foreclosure documentation postponed some foreclosures. Until the foreclosure crisis abates, home prices and sales are unlikely to recover.
Long Island’s Economic Outlook
In the first quarter of 2011, the Long Island economy was characterized by weak employment growth, flat consumer spending, and declining home sales and prices. These statistics make it apparent that the economic recovery has yet to gain a foothold on Long Island. High gasoline prices act as a tax on the entire economy. If high energy prices persist, the economic recovery will be further delayed.
*Information above is an excerpt from LIA Monthy Economic Report, May 2011 by Dr. Pearl M. Kamer, LIA Chief Economist.
http://www.longislandassociation.org/economic_development.cfm
Long Island Businesses
While the forecast looks bleak, there is still hope for the striving business owner on Long Island. There is still an abundance of money to be made, and plenty of business transactions to close. It’s just a matter of finding it – or rather, letting it find you!
How to Increase Business – Low Costs, High Returns
The web has become a necessary and powerful tool in promoting business everywhere. Knowing how to use the web as a tool for marketing is key. Where to start and what to do is outlined in the steps below.
Web Design
Every business needs a website. It’s your virtual store-front. There are a numerous options available to business owners. The right option for your business will depend on the type of product or service you sell, how big your company is, what your budget is, and the type of functionality you need within your site. For example, ABC Plumber may need just one, two or three pages with an overview, and contact information. The online clothing retailer on the other hand, will be looking to sell a variety of products, and would need a more comprehensive web site with 30+ pages, products, a shopping cart, payment processing, etc.
Pricing for a website can range anywhere from $0 - $100,000 depending on the complexity and functionality within a site. There are website providers that let you create a template-based website for free. Hosting fees in these cases is minimal (approximately $10 per month) along with a minimal domain registration fee (approximately $15 per year). However, these inexpensive sites usually look that way… inexpensive/cheap.
On the other end of the spectrum, sites for large corporations like Target.com for example – have teams and teams of people managing the security and functionality of their website. Designers, programmers, marketing consultants, among many other specialists are constantly updating and maintaining all the content on the website. Some of these specialists are “in-house” and other aspects of the website are outsourced to a web specialization firm.
For the small to medium size business owner, it makes sense to invest a reasonable amount of money into a website. You can find out more about pricing, and what is considered “reasonable” by visiting - designquote.net
Working with a local company helps so businesses can meet face-to-face.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Ok, so everyone wants to show up first in a Google search. And “everyone” is doing “everything” they can to come up in an organic (non-paid) spot. The following items describe a few ways to optimize your website for good search results.
- Develop good content. That is, content that is authentically useful and relevant for the end-user. This is the most important strategy and should be creatively thought out. There are professionals who “write” specifically for SEO – knowing how to write for the user, as well as the search engine.
- Set up websites to have the best page architecture, proper XHTML structure using CSS for presentational content
- Include specific page titles
- Name links descriptively
- Include image “alt” attributes
A website with truly good content and a great user experience will naturally gather links back to it’s site and increase in search results over time. The goal is to have a site that people genuinely find useful and want to revisit and recommend to others! A good website designer usually includes the option to set up some type of analytics account to monitor visitor traffic and evaluate website performance.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is sometimes thought of along the same lines as Search Engine Marketing (SEO) - in the sense that you are trying to increase traffic to your site, and gain web exposure. But in fact, they are complete opposites in how they work. With SEO, you are setting yourself up to be found when someone performs a search. With SMM, you are the one doing the searching and pursuing networks or virtual communities. Both are important.
Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, YouTube (among many others) offer an informal way to connect to your market. Developing a plan to connect to your market can provide a powerful way to reach them.