Worcester Business Journal

28 Worcester Business Journal • February 16, 2015 www.wbjournal.com A bout five feet of snow in two weeks. That's more than enough to slow down a lot of businesses. In our poll for the week of Feb. 2, just after the second of two major snowstorms in less than a week, more than half of voters said their businesses had had enough. How have the last two snowstorms impacted your business? Snow, snow, leave us alone — now! Best Advertising Agency Best Web Design Firm Proud Winner of Two 2015 Best of Business Awards COMMENTS: Join the WBJ's LinkedIn discussion group by scanning the code to the left on your smartphone. To scan the code, you need the NeoReader. Visit get.neoreader.com to download it onto your phone. Want to participate in the conversation? W hen we conducted our annual Economic Forecast survey for 2015 in November, four in five respondents projected revenue increases this year. More recently, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of private companies found that they expect a healthy, on average, 9.2-percent revenue growth this year. Now that we're about six weeks into 2015, those optimistic outlooks continue to prevail, with about 37 percent predicting double-digit percentage gains. By how much will sales at your company change in 2015 compared with 2014? 2015 revenue projections continue to point upward COMMENTS: Increase 1-5% 38% F L A S H P O L L T A L K B A C K Very negatively - no more snow! 52% "The storms forced us to close a total of three days." Increase 11-20% 31% 6% Somewhat negatively 30% (No comments were offered for this question.) Somewhat positively PRO SOCCER FOR WORCESTER? Citing a report that Patriots and Revolution owner Robert Kraft wants to move the Revs to a soccer-specific stadium, a LinkedIn group member launched a discussion about offering Worcester as a home, specifically the old Wyman-Gordon site off Madison Street, as the potential locale for a 20,000-seat stadium. It picked up a good amount of buzz. "The Revs have an up-and-coming team. … Having the Revs in Worcester would be great but at the end of the day, you will see them eventually in the Metro Boston area." LinkedIn group member Brian Davis "With the impending exit of the 'Sharks' it makes sense to try … " LinkedIn group member Kenneth Turgeon WASTE OF FEDERAL MONEY? Our Feb. 2 online story about researchers at University of Massachusetts Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute securing a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help develop a smartphone app to help curb overeating got a negative reaction from this reader: "Premise and implementation (are) a waste of $2 million. Better off giving money to food banks." Online reader Grafton Realist 2% "We operate a home care business, providing care to fragile seniors in many communities. We also employ over 150 caregivers whose safety we need to ensure as well. Snowstorms are a nightmare." "We make the SnoBrum for clearing snow off of vehicles right here in Worcester. Usually the season has died down by now, but all this snow has extended the selling season and has allowed to keep our seasonal staff on longer." Neither negatively nor positively 14% 2% It's been great–we want more 6% 6% Sales will be flat 13% Increase more than 20% Increase 6-10% Sales will decrease

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