Catholic Health Services of Long Island CEO Lawrence McManus

ROCKVILLE CENTRE – Catholic Health Services of Long Island has named Lawrence E. McManus, the former CFO and COO of a Connecticut hospital and a certified public accountant, as its new president and CEO.

McManus will take the helm April 16 at the health care arm of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

One of Long Island’s largest employers, Catholic Health Services includes six hospitals, three nursing homes, hospice and home care programs, senior residences and a community-based agency for individuals with developmental disabilities.

McManus succeeds Richard J.J. Sul

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Whether or not you believe we’re in a recession or just headed towards one, there’s no getting around the fact that we’re experiencing an economic downturn. Declines in consumer confidence and decreased sales threaten all businesses, but small businesses are particularly vulnerable as they often don’t have the reserves to help them weather difficult times.

How, then, can you recession-proof your business? Implementing these practices will help ensure your small business’s survival and even allow it to thrive during tough economic times.

1. Protect your cash flow.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business; to keep your small business healthy, cash needs to continue flowing through.

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Farmer on cotton farm near Townsville.

AUSTRALIA’S largest cotton ginner, Namoi Cotton, may be forced to abandon its co-operative structure as it seeks an investor to help recapitalise the company.

In an update yesterday, Namoi said it would make an operating loss of between $95 and $99 million in the full year to the end of February, indicating it had lost roughly $40 million in the second half of the financial year, since it reported a $57 million interim loss last October.

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Forty global businesses have held talks with Manchester University about the possibility of locating at the city’s new graphene hub.

IBM, BAE Systems, Samsung and Siemens are among those to have expressed an interest.

The £50m research and development hub will be on Booth Street East, opposite the Aquatics Centre.

Its purpose will be to find ways of commercialising graphene, the super-strong material discovered by Nobel Prize-winning scientists at the University of Manchester.

It will be funded by £38m of government cash, awarded last month, as well as money from the university and public funds the city is seeking to secure, costing a total of around £50m.

The hub, which will be operational by 2015, will also include space for start-up businesses launched by university graduates looking to exploit the potential uses of graphene.

Mike Emmerich, chief executive of think tank New Economy,  told delegates at the MIPIM property convention in Cannes it was hoped the hub could be the first step towards creating something for Manchester on a par with Silicon Valley in California.

He said: “The challenge is to create a hub, part of which will provide space for major global companies, who will hopefully put large numbers of staff on the ground.

“But it is also about enterprise and, at the request of Andre Geim, one of the scientists who discovered graphene, all  of his doctoral students will study enterprise, because he profoundly and passionately believes it is not just about big companies but about entrepreneurship and innovation.”

Chancellor George Osborne announced last year that £50m would be invested in commercialising graphene, the lion’s share of which was given to Manchester.

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One of the biggest challenges for a small business is getting word out when you add something new and excited to your product or service offering. Your social media presence can help immensely, but it doesn’t happen automatically … so, here are seven key DOs and DONTs for getting the most out of social media on your next product launch.

1. DON’T wait until your launch to start using social media.
I can’t tell you how many inquiries our agency gets along these lines: “Hi, we’re launching a new product next week and want you to set us up a Facebook page to promote it.” Nope. It takes mont

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As the nation is still recovering from the ill-effects of the global economic recession, the small business organizations are the worst-hit. They have already incurred huge amount of commercial debt and many more are desperately trying to get back on the right financial track. A huge balloon of business debt has been created in the US and the most common reasons why the businesses incur huge amount of debt is poor financial management, sudden unexpected expenses and not enough generation of revenue. What would you do in order to reduce the level of business debt when you’re the business owner? Would you take help of a debt consolidation program or would you take out a business debt consolidation loan in order to make ends meet? Read more…