Story Archives of 'small business'

President Obama has introduced his own version of a federal health care overhaul.

He hopes to create a federal insurance rate-setting body, designed to hold down skyrocketing premiums.

But as Governor Lynch has discovered, designing an affordable health plan is a lot harder than it looks.

NHPR health reporter Elaine Grant has the story.

The president put forth a number of tax credits and loan guarantees designed to short up small firms and encourage hiring. We'll look closer at what his administration is offering, and whether or not it'll help New Hampshire's small business sector.

Guests

• Jim Roche, president of the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association
• Witmer Jones, district director of the federal Small Business Administration

We'll also hear from

• Mary Collins, state director of the Small Business Development Center

As health care premiums continue to skyrocket, Granite State businesses large and small are considering outside-the-box strategies to keep a lid on expenses, from lowering obesity and smoking rates to treating depression and teaching employees how to shop for the most affordable medical care. We’ll talk to a roundtable of benefit managers and analysts on what ideas are being tossed around and which are sticking.

Guests

• David Whelan, health care staff writer for Forbes Magazine
• David Larrivee, principal consultant at Workplace Benefit Solutions in Manchester
• Peter Hayes, longtime health care consultant with Hannaford Supermarket and now owner of the consulting company Health Care Solutions

Guests

• Jeremy Hitchcock, CEO and CFO of Dynamic Network Services in Manchester

The economy took its steepest dive last fall when the financial sector began to implode. That choked off the supply of credit to businesses which slowed the economy even more.

Today, money is again flowing to companies in the state, particularly small businesses. But the commercial lending landscape has changed. NHPR’s Jon Greenberg has the latest installment in our series on the economy, Working It Out.

Laura Lynch runs a small web services and printing business in Berlin. Her husband, Keith, runs an interior painting business. When they needed help making their businesses thrive, they turned to Micro Credit NH, a program of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, for information, support and small loans.