Review, prepare and re-energize for tourism

With summer quickly approaching, many Valley businesses are gearing up for their “100 days” tourism season.

The Mat-Su Valley is home to hundreds of tourism-based businesses that are feverishly preparing for the first cruise ship to dock.

I recently viewed an excellent Web-based presentation, or webinar, that you should find incredibly useful for reviewing and preparing not only this year, but for the complete financial future of your business.

You can view the achieved version of the webinar at commerce.state.ak.us/oed/toubus under “What’s New”.

The Alaska Office of Economic Development offered the webinar, “Increasing Financial Stability for Remote Alaskan Seasonal Tourism Businesses.”

It was designed to provide assistance to remote tourism businesses with borderline financials or those that may be struggling to stay profitable after several seasons. Small business owners will learn how to attack their profit & loss statements and head to financial health and/or further enhance their profitability.

The instructor, Neil Darish, owner of the McCarthy Lodge, Ma Johnson’s Hotel and several other properties located in McCarthy, has more than 9 years’ experience in the Alaska visitor and hospitality industry.

For most small business owners in remote Alaska, logistical challenges have a unique impact on long-term financial stability. This presentation focused on creating a low fixed-cost approach, a key to thriving or even surviving in an economic downturn, while maintaining high-quality standards across every aspect of your company. Darish illustrates relevant ways of using financial data to target specific financial ratios in management decisions.

The information presented within this webinar is ideal for established businesses — particularly small, remote tourism companies including hotels, food and beverage establishments, gift shops, as well as adventure and tour businesses. After viewing the webinar, if you would like to gain additional knowledge, the Alaska SBDC offers a workshop called “Profit Mastery.” This two-hour workshop helps business owners understand the financial side of a business.

After taking the workshop, business owners will understand the ratios from a financial perspective for making strategic decisions for their company.

If you would like to sign up for a workshop, explore your business ideas, or would like assistance with your small business, the Mat-Su SBDC is here for you. We help existing and start-up small business owners develop management skills, thereby improving their potential for success.

Counselors maintain the highest ethical standards of confidentiality, and provide one-on-one counseling services at no cost to you, our client. Our counselors have access to additional resources for you our client, through the Alaska SBDC’s family of services (Buy Alaska, PTAC, Trend, ROPE and APEX). For additional information, please contact Julie Nolen (anjin@uaa.alaska.edu), central regional director SBDC, at 373-7232.

Julie Nolen is director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center — Central Region (Mat-Su).