Posts by John Mehner

May is National Historic Preservation Month May is National Historic Preservation Month and understanding the purpose is good for business and community. The National Trust for Historic Preservation led the charge in 1973 to establish this recognition and many groups across the country celebrate the theme. Locally, the city of Cape Girardeau and Old Town…

Mothers in the Workforce On this day after our country celebrated Mother’s Day, I thought it would be interesting to look at the role mothers play in our work force. Statistics tell us in January 2020, right before the pandemic, there were more women on payrolls in the U.S. than men. Working mothers made up…

Promoting the Southeast Missouri Region to Potential New Business and Industry Many times people ask what we doing to actively market our area to potential new business and industry. Because our efforts are directed externally, they are not readily apparent to our local citizens. But through the Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET, we consistently strive to…

National Small Business Week The President of the United States has issued a proclamation annually for more than 50 years announcing this…. Next week, May 3rd through May 9th, we will celebrate National Small Business Week which recognizes the critical contributions of small business owners and entrepreneurs. According to the Small Business Administration, more than…

Missouri March 2021 Employment Numbers The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) released the Missouri monthly jobs report for March and it contains a lot of interesting information. According to the report, Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March decreased to 4.2 percent from 4.3 percent in February. This rate has declined or remained…

The Lack of Available Workers a Rising Concern Just when the pandemic led us to believe we’ve seen it all, many businesses are now facing an issue completely novel in anyone’s memory. Lack of available workers is a rising concern across the country. And let’s be clear, I’m not talking about the issue of a…

Upcoming Tourism Events in Cape Girardeau Area Let’s not forget this important part of our local economic development efforts. The tourism industry which includes meetings and conventions, visitors tied to events, and tourists or travelers, is really gaining additional steam in our area. As you may recall, we have talked about the importance of the…

Professional Development and Business Success According to Zig Ziglar, “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is not training them and keeping them.” Professional development is an important ongoing part of business success. It should permeate all levels of organizations large and small. And while most employers would agree with the importance,…

Evaluating Workforce Needs for Southeast Missouri Questions about a quality labor force in our area are about to get a deeper dive. Certainly workforce needs are an ever evolving situation. And emerging from this pandemic, it will continue to be an important focus of any economy. Several months ago, a group of business people began…

SEMO’s Harrison College of Business Reaccredited An important recent announcement affecting the local business community may have flown under the radar but that certainly doesn’t make it any less important. The Donald L. Harrison College of Business and Computing at Southeast Missouri State University was reaccredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.…