Business memo 12/30/02

Business counseling sessions available

The Small Business Development Center at Southeast Missouri State University will be conducting counseling sessions for area small businesspeople planning business ventures. The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 15 at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, 1267 N. Mount Auburn Road. Call 335-3312 for an appointment.

Degenhardt will also be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 16 in Perryville, Mo., at the Southeast Regional Planning Commission, 1 W. St. Joseph St. Call (573) 547-8357 for an appointment. The counseling sessions are free and take about an hour.

HMO profits skyrocket in first quarter of 2002

The nation's HMOs recorded an $868.1 million profit for the first three months of 2002, representing a 162 percent surge over the same period last year, according to Weiss Ratings, Inc., the nation's leading independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services company, stocks and mutual funds.

First-quarter industry profits were more widespread among the 441 HMOs studied by Weiss, with 73 percent reporting a profit during the period, compared to 60 percent of the plans reporting a profit during the same period in 2001. However, just 3 percent of the HMOs, or 14 companies, contributed $267 million, or about 50 percent, to the industry's first-quarter profit increase. HMOs with the largest increase in net income were Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Aetna Health, Blue Cross of California and California Physicians Service.

Region gains 55 new firms in second quarter

Business expansion continued in Southeast Missouri region into the second quarter of 2002, despite the sluggish national economy. A total of 62 new business starts were reported during April, May and June, while seven businesses closed. Twenty-three businesses reported physical or personal expansions. Cape Girardeau County led the region with 23 new businesses reported, followed closely by St. Francois County, which saw 21 new businesses open.

According to the Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission of Southeast Missouri, retail and service industry growth continues to account for most new business development occurring in the region. Of the 62 new businesses, 30 were retail operations and 31 provided services of some kind.

About 776 jobs were created in the region during the quarter as a result of new business starts. Expansions resulted in the creation of 93 job starts, the group said. Among the Cape Girardeau retail businesses that opened were Quizno's Subs, Annie Em's Collectibles, Dexter Bar-B-Que, Aeropostale at the mall and Petco.

Spam now 30 to 50 percent of all e-mail

If you think you're seeing more unsolicited commercial e-mail, jokes and chain letters than you did last year, your hunch is right, according to researchers and Internet security experts.

They say spam -- the generic term for these annoying messages -- increased to somewhere between 30 percent and 50 percent of all e-mail in 2002.

While ads for pornography sites and sexual aids grab the public's attention, the largest single category of spam, 32 percent, is financial in nature, according to Brightmail Inc., an anti-spam technology company that tracks spam. These include mortgage offers, debt consolidation, insurance pitches and schemes for making thousands of dollars working from home.

-- From staff, wire reports