This month featuring...

Headlines

East County EDC to Reach Out to Manufacturers

Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Greater San Diego Vision

Free Expert Advice to East County Businesses

Selling to Government Small Business Workshop

Congressman Hunter Hosts Spring Job & Resource Fair

Locally Based Manufacturers Find the Right Niches for Success

San Diego County Employment Up by 4,100 Jobs Over the Month and Up 26,900 Jobs
Over the Year Survey Finds

Snapshot on California Landscape Contractors Assocation

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Snapshot on
"California Landscape Contractors Association"

The California Landscape Contractors Association is a non-profit trade organization of licensed landscape and landscape-related contractors. Also included among its approximately 3,200 members are landscape suppliers, landscape architects, public officials, educators, and students.

The association's state and local activities provide members with a forum for open discussion, networking and learning. The association provides a large menu of services to its members, including educational resources, contract forms, educational events, publicity, access to legal consultants and peer advice, group insurance, political advocacy, information, a landscape awards program, certification programs for landscape technicians and water managers, and an industry trade show.

Our research team analyzes workforce needs and trends in San Diego County for educators, trainers, employers and researchers. We report on San Diego County’s overall economy, including wages and salaries, occupational projections, and employment statistics

For more information about the California Landscape Contractors Association check their website http://www.clca.org/

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Connectory.com® Member Spotlight: Flint Aero, Inc.

Connectory.com is the East County EDC's award-winning flagship project that began as an East San Diego County resource and has expanded to become the premier business-to-business information tool for the United States.

The Connectory focuses on primary industry/technology companies and their suppliers of goods and services. It combines the unparalleled speed and navigation capability of the Internet with a high quality company database that focuses on company capabilities and capacities at every level of the supply chain -- all at no cost to the company.

To post your company's profile on the Connectory, go to www.Connectory.com and click on "Profile your Company."

This section of the newsletter is dedicated to shed light on a Connectory member and feature its services and capabilities. This month's spotlight is on:

Flint Aero, Inc.

Name: Flint Air
Address:1942 Joe Crosson Dr.
El Cajon, CA 92020
Phone: (619) 448-1551
Website: ww.flintaero.com

About: Flint Aero is a family owned business that has been engineering FAA-PMA approved auxiliary fuel tanks for Cessna airplanes since 1967. That's all Flint Aero does, just aux tanks for Cessna aircraft. Flint Aero's long range fuel tanks not only add fuel capacity but can also increase the gross weight of many 185, 206 and 337 models.

Flint Aero tanks give you greater flight scheduling flexibility and provide an ever important reserve capacity for an additional margin of safety. Flint Aero kits are quite complete and come with just about everything you will need to complete the installation: hardware, fuel line, electric transfer pumps, wiring, switches, gauges, detailed installation instructions/drawings, and an STC.

To view Flint Aero Inc's full Connectory profile, click here or go to http://connectory.com/search.aspx and type the company name in the search box. If you are a Connectory member and would like your company featured in this section, please contact Gladys Selfridge at
(619) 258-3670 or email gladys.selfridge@eastcountyedc.org.

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East County EDC to Reach Out to Manufacturers

East County EDC staff will be conducting an outreach effort to manufacturing companies to develop a clearer picture of business and economic conditions facing manufacturing companies throughout the East County region. Companies will have an opportunity to tell staff about their business needs and frustrations, as well, as have the opportunity to hear from East County EDC staff regarding resources available to companies (often at no-cost).

This project is funded by the San Diego Workforce Partnership in collaboration with the South County Economic Development Council and the North County Economic Development Council.

One-on-one discussion sessions will center on key questions designed to gain general and statistical information.  Specific information about individual businesses will remain confidential and will be destroyed once all data is tabulated.

If you would like to participate in a one-on-one discussion session, contact Gladys Selfridge at (619) 258-3670 or gladys.selfridge@eastcountyedc.org.

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February 2012 Score Workshops

Workshops for Small Business Development

The SCORE workshops are designed to help you "fill in the holes" of your knowledge and to provide new ideas and perspectives for your business. Each workshop delivers information to you quickly, with practical examples and lots of discussion (laughter, too). Our workshop leaders are experienced and successful business-people who will guide you through subjects as diverse as business startups or Internet Marketing. Profit from their experience!

View the upcoming workshop schedule by visiting SCORE's web site at www.score-sandiego.org. For more information on SCORE workshops or the SBA/SCORE Business Resource Center, call SCORE at (619) 557-7272.

Proud Resource Partner of the US Small Business Administration

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Small Business Development Center

The SBDC provides a variety of services to clients in San Diego and Imperial counties. Their services are designed to assist small business owners expand their operations profitably. Additionally, they help businesses interested in international expansion navigate the complexities of importing and/or exporting.

What is Offered?

-One-On-One Counseling
- Training Programs.
-Procurement Assistance
-Research, Information and Referral Services
-Internet and Web Business Strategies

To schedule an appointment call (619) 258-3670 or contact Gladys Selfridge.

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San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center

A Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)

The San Diego Contracting Opportunities Center (SDCOC) is a program of Southwestern College/Foundation. It is a Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), funded by local government agencies and the Department of Defense. Our mission is to assist San Diego small businesses in how to do business with federal, state and local government agencies. This assistance is provided at no cost to the small business owner. Small businesses (as defined by the Small Business Administration) that have a product or service needed by a government agency are welcome to apply for services. Learn more about our services and the benefits of government contracting.

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Free Workshops by

&

If you are interested in learning about the latest in energy-efficiency or demand response technology, attend one of SDG&E and CCSE seminars. Their workshops offer training to business customers looking to help their bottom line through energy savings. These free seminars are open to the public and are jointly presented by SDG&E and the California Center for Sustainable Energy.

Seminars are held at either:

SDG&E's Energy Innovation Center:
4760 Clairemont Mesa Bvld.
San Diego, CA 92117

San Diego Energy Resource Center (SDERC) at the CCSE:
8690 Balboa Ave., Ste. 100
San Diego, CA 92123

Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Greater San Diego Vision -- Vote for your Vision of East County and the entire SD Region

The public choosing period is open for only two more weeks! It’s time for you, your family and your friends to VOICE YOUR CHOICE of what you think East County and the entire San Diego region should look like 30 to 50 years from now.

During the planning process East County EDC and fellow East County stakeholders participated actively in the San Diego Vision Task Force. We were encouraged by the openness of the process and hoped to see exciting live-work-play scenarios that specifically addressed the East County as well as the greater San Diego County. Similar past efforts to develop and promote a regional vision have ended up focusing only on metropolitan San Diego and the coastal communities. Unfortunately, this appears to have happened again.

So we asked Greater San Diego Vision representatives to present to the East County EDC board the underlying data that specifically reflects East County and what these data mean in the four scenarios. They did and you can see it at www.eastcountyedc.org. The presentation was instructive but not enlightening. To read more about East County's role missing in the scenarios read Jo Marie Diamond, East County EDC President & CEO, op-ed in the San Diego Union Tribune here.

If you care about good jobs, housing affordability, excellent education and a great quality of life in East County and the San Diego region, we need your voice!

www.OurGreaterSanDiegoVision.org/ECEDC

Voting to close on February 14, 2012.

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Free Expert Advice to East County Businesses

The East County EDC is working the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to bring East County businesses free expert advice. Expertise is available in the areas of financial management, financing, strategic growth, regulatory compliance issues, lease/rental issues, human resources and more.  If you are seeking ways to make your business more profitable or need an analysis of how to increase market share or decrease costs, contact the East County EDC.

On-site assistance is available at the East County EDC on Wednesdays from 8:00 –12:00 p.m. or by appointment until 4:00 pm. These resources are offered at no cost to companies that are ready to grow! To schedule an appointment contact the SBDC office at (619) 258-3670.

SBDC is a leading provider of small business management consulting and training services. They have the knowledge and resources to help you build and maintain a successful business. The SBDC is dedicated to increasing the economic vitality of the community by helping small businesses and entrepreneurs build a foundation for SUCCESS! Center staff and consultants are available to assist in answering your business questions along with providing many resources that can help you expand your business or develop a new enterprise.

For more information about the SBDC, please visit www.GrowMyBiz.org or call (619) 258-3670.

Selling to Government
Small Business Workshop

The Santee Chamber of Commerce and the Santee Contracting Opportunities Center will be hosting a new Forum on Selling to the Government, on February 24, 2012, starting at 7:30 a.m., in the Santee City Hall Community Rooms, 10601 Magnolia Ave, Santee, CA. Congressman Duncan Hunter is confirmed to provide opening remarks at 8 a.m.

This forum will focus on government technology needs. All types of small businesses are invited, including contractors, consultants, service providers, product suppliers, and manufacturers, to assist them in marketing to federal agencies and their prime contractors. There will be discussions on defense and information technology needs with government procurement personnel and program managers; collaboration opportunities with government agencies, prime contractors, and potential teaming partners; and free and low cost assistance to help your business grow.

To learn about this event click here.

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Congressman Hunter Hosts Spring Job & Resource Fair

Congressman Duncan Hunter is hosting a Spring Job & Resource Fair on Friday, February 24, 2012, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in partnership with East and North County Career Centers and the San Diego North and Poway Chambers of Commerce. The Job Fair will be taking place at the Poway Community Center Auditorium, 13094 Civic Center Drive, Poway, Ca 92064. Admission is free to the event.

They are still accepting employers to participate. If your company has three or more positions available, please contact Andrea Jones Andrea.Jones@mail.house.gov or call (619) 448-5201.

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Locally Based Manufacturers Find the Right Niches for Success

San Diego Business Journal

San Diego retains vestiges of an aerospace industry that counted major plants operated by the likes of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Rohr. The latter business remains here under Goodrich Aerostructures, and still makes the engine cowling systems called nacelles for the world’s biggest commercial aircraft manufacturers including Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier. So is GD, although the unit here makes ships through its National Steel and Shipbuilding unit.

In the last decade, the region has carved out a niche as a maker of a new type of military hardware, unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones. Aerospace is always in flux, but the area still has a good chunk of it, said Kevin Carroll, regional vice president of TechAmerica San Diego, an industry trade group.

Change in the Air- “If you would have told me 10 years ago that there would be manufacturers in San Diego making planes, I would have said you’re nuts, but if you look around today, we’ve got General Atomics and Northrop Grumman who are making planes, but those that don’t need pilots,” Carroll said. Together the two companies employ about 10,000 workers locally, part of a robust defense sector that will likely undergo some downsizing as the national defense budget gets cut. At Goodrich, employment grew by 4 percent last year to about 2,000 workers, thanks to a backlog of orders from the biggest commercial aircraft makers, including Boeing with its 787 Dreamliner. The cutting edge plane was finally delivered to All Nippon Airways last month, late by three years. In addition to scores of engineers and skilled technicians, Goodrich also hired more production workers last year. San Diego continued to lose lower skilled manufacturing jobs last year to lower-wage economies like China and Mexico. But in a twist, some of the thousands of jobs outsourced to Asia have been returning here, according to a few observers. “I’ve been seeing some companies that were manufacturing in China bring it back here,” said Michele Nash-Hoff, a manufacturing consultant. “They’re doing it because of the rising labor costs in China, rising shipping costs, and the rising costs when there are problems.”

Another positive trend is San Diego’s burgeoning clean-tech sector that received positive news last month when Soitec Solar Inc., a French manufacturer of semiconductors, announced plans to build a solar panel plant in Rancho Bernardo, with some 80 employees by this July. According to CleanTech San Diego, a nonprofit industry advocacy group, the region has more than 800 companies in the solar sector here and more than 50,000 employees. But local economists doubted that number. One said employment in the hard to pin down group was closer to 7,500. While the manufacturing sector is nothing remotely like it was in the 1980s when the Cold War was roaring, San Diego remains a hotbed for new product development. In 1999, Maxwell Technologies had 12 business units, most of them related to defense research, said company spokesman Mike Sund. By 2002, the company consolidated and focused on three segments, with the most important being power storage systems called ultracapacitors. The devices receive and dispense transferred energy in short bursts and are included in hybrid buses and cars, as well as in wind turbines. “We decided to make ultracapacitors the centerpiece of our company and it’s working,” Sund said. “In 2004, sales of ultracapacitors were about $5 million. This year sales of the devices will reach just under $100 million.” Business MovesMaxwell’s success and recent maneuvers underscores a continuing problem of keeping such high-tech manufacturing here. Last year, the company decided it had to set up an electrode production line outside the one it operates in Kearny Mesa. It had to move as a precaution in case a disaster shut down the plant, Sund said. Despite looking at several sites in California, Maxwell decided to build its new line in Peoria, Ariz., near Phoenix. The cost of land, costs to operate the plant, taxes, and incentives were all far cheaper than anything in this state, Sund said.

Throughout the year, states adjacent to California and some others continued to target local manufacturers, with some offering major incentive packages to entice companies to relocate. One Vista developer of longer lasting brake pads called PureForge said it received an offer from the state of South Dakota worth about $30 million to set up a production plant in Rapid City, S.D. Nash-Hoff said she expected continued manufacturing job losses this year, but things could get worse, “if the tax increases proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown are passed.”

Written by Mike Allen, San Diego Business Journal

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San Diego County Employment Up by 4,100 Jobs Over the Month and Up 26,900 Jobs Over the Year

Prepared by the State of California's Employment Development Department - Labor Market Information Division.

The unemployment rate in the San Diego County was 8.9 percent in December 2011, down from a revised 9.2 percent in November 2011, and below the year-ago estimate of 10.1 percent. This compares with an unadjusted unemployment rate of 10.9 percent for California and 8.3 percent for the nation during the same period.

Between November 2011 and December 2011, total nonfarm employment increased from 1,256,900 to 1,261,000, a gain of 4,100 jobs. Agricultural employment declined by 800 jobs, or 8.2 percent.

• Professional and business services reported the greatest month-over gain, adding 1,900 jobs. Professional, scientific, and technical services added 1,200 jobs, while administrative and support and waste services increased by 700 jobs. Management of companies and enterprises recorded no change in employment levels over the month.

• Five other sectors also posted month-over employment growth: trade, transportation, and utilities (up 1,600); leisure and hospitality (up 1,300); construction (up 900); other services (up 800); and information (up 100).

• Four nonfarm sectors recorded job losses over the month, but the most notable came from government (down 1,300).

Between December 2010 and December 2011, total nonfarm employment increased by 26,900 jobs, or 2.2 percent. Agricultural employment remained unchanged over the year.

• Educational and health services reported the greatest year-over gain, adding 8,000 jobs. Health care and social assistance (up 7,000) accounted for roughly 88 percent of the job growth in this sector, primarily from ambulatory health care services (up 4,400) and hospitals (up 1,200). Educational services increased by 1,000 jobs.

• Six other sectors also added jobs over the year, but the most significant gains came from professional and business services (up 7,900); leisure and hospitality (up 6,700); and trade, transportation, and utilities (up 4,400).

• Three sectors posted year-over job losses: other services (down 1,100), construction (down 300), and manufacturing (down 100)..

For more information, contact Joe Briceno at (760) 639-3760.