Mar/Apr Newsleer 2016 biz news… New York financial technology company SmartAsset released the rankings from its second annual Healthiest Housing Markets Study. Altoona made the list at number 4 in Iowa, up from their rank of 21 in 2015. The study measures market health by the average number of years residents spend in homes, home values, ease of sale, and the costs associated with ownership. A healthy housing market is both stable and affordable; homeowners in a healthy market should be able to easily sell their homes, with a low risk of losing money over the long run. Therefore, in order to find the healthiest housing markets in the country, the following four factors were considered: stability, affordability, fluidity and risk of loss. Altoona’s ranking on the list is aributed to a growing community. By 2019, Altoona’s populaon is expected to reach more than 17,000–that’s a 17% increase since 2010. With over 70% of the populaon aged 18+, our growing residenal community is already taking advantage of the entertainment scene. We’re raising families, too. Of Altoona’s 5,800 households, 71% are families, and nearly 75% are owner-occupied. Our people are building on Altoona’s strong foundaon, and it’s happening now. DART (Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority) is updang it’s 2035 long -range plan and needs your help. There are several ways to give input. Click on the link below for the full press release and more informaon about how to get involved. Congratulaons to House Representave Zach Nunn on his nominaon for the 40 under 40 honoree status! The 40 local business leaders, who were chosen by past award winners, are under the age of 40 and have demonstrated impressive career achievements and unparalleled community involvement. Each of the honorees will be profiled in the March 18 edion of the Business Record and recognized at an event on March 30. The Chamber’s Annual Awards Dinner drew a record crowd February 20 at Prairie Meadows Events & Conference Center. Lori Slings was awarded the Cizen of the Year and Brian & Tonya Hotze of Pizza Ranch were awarded the Small Business of the Year. Both winners give of their me and resources to support the Altoona & SEP Community. Altoona’s Young Professional of the Year goes to Ashley Gumm of Great Western Bank for her volunteerism and support of the Chamber’s Young Professional Group acvies and charitable projects. The Newell/Franklin Award is given in recognion of an individual’s dedicaon to community service and reless support of the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce, as was exemplified by Bill Newell & Chuck and Paulee Franklin. This award is in recognion of Mr. Newell’s dedicaon to founding the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce and Chuck and Paulee Franklin’s overall passion for the success and development of the business community in the area. This year’s recipient was the Altoona Police Department. We wanted to give recognion and honor to a group of individuals that give reless support to the Chamber and serve the cizens of Altoona with the highest degree of professionalism, compassion and defense. The Cinemark Theater opened the week of February 8 with incredible numbers and the Chamber was on hand to help celebrate! In this Issue: President’s Leer Pg 2 Events Pg 3 Biz Tips Pg 4 Welcome New Members! Cellular Advantage, Phillips Stafford Insurance Group, Altoona Eye Care, Classic Frozen Custard, Heartland Storage & UHaul, AKC Markeng, Mary Voss & Anyme Fitness Biz Spotlight I Athleco Physical Therapy Pg 5 Photo Gallery Pg 6 Biz Spotlight II Dawson Chiropracc Pg 5
Transcript
Mar/Apr Newsletter 2016
biz news…
New York financial technology company SmartAsset released the rankings from its second annual Healthiest Housing Markets Study. Altoona made the list at number 4 in Iowa, up from their rank of 21 in 2015. The study measures market health by the average number of years residents spend in homes, home values, ease of sale, and the costs associated with ownership. A healthy housing market is both stable and affordable; homeowners in a healthy market should be able to easily sell their homes, with a low risk of losing money over the long run. Therefore, in order to find the healthiest housing markets in the country, the following four factors were considered: stability, affordability, fluidity and risk of loss. Altoona’s ranking on the list is attributed to a growing community. By 2019, Altoona’s population is expected to reach more than 17,000–that’s a 17% increase since 2010. With over 70% of the population aged 18+, our growing residential community is already taking advantage of the entertainment scene. We’re raising families, too. Of Altoona’s 5,800 households, 71% are families, and nearly 75% are owner-occupied. Our people are building on Altoona’s strong foundation, and it’s happening now.
DART (Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority) is updating it’s 2035 long-range plan and needs your help. There are several ways to give input. Click on the link below for the full press release and more information about how to get involved. Congratulations to House Representative Zach Nunn on his nomination for the 40 under 40 honoree status! The 40 local business leaders, who were chosen by past award winners, are under the age of 40 and have demonstrated impressive career achievements and unparalleled community involvement. Each of the honorees will be profiled in the March 18 edition of the Business Record and recognized at an event on March 30. The Chamber’s Annual Awards Dinner drew a record crowd February 20 at Prairie Meadows Events & Conference Center. Lori Slings was awarded the Citizen of the Year and Brian & Tonya Hotze of Pizza Ranch were awarded the Small Business of the Year. Both winners give of their time and resources to support the Altoona & SEP Community. Altoona’s Young Professional of the Year goes to Ashley Gumm of Great Western Bank for her volunteerism and support of the Chamber’s Young Professional Group activities and charitable projects. The Newell/Franklin Award is given in recognition of an individual’s dedication to community service and tireless support of the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce, as was exemplified by Bill Newell & Chuck and Paulette Franklin. This award is in recognition of Mr. Newell’s dedication to founding the Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce and Chuck and Paulette Franklin’s overall passion for the success and development of the business community in the area. This year’s recipient was the Altoona Police Department. We wanted to give recognition and honor to a group of individuals that give tireless support to the Chamber and serve the citizens of Altoona with the highest degree of professionalism, compassion and defense.
The Cinemark Theater opened the
week of February 8 with incredible numbers and the Chamber was on hand to help celebrate!
In this Issue:
President’s Letter Pg 2
Events Pg 3
Biz Tips Pg 4
Welcome New Members! Cellular Advantage, Phillips Stafford Insurance
Fireside Grille Jill Meyer/ President-Elect Matt Haberman/Secretary
Jimmy John’s Elaine Castelline/Past President
Prairie Meadows
Board of Directors Desirae Sanford—Altoona Auto Body
Bill Ludwig—Royal Flooring Luke Sibley-Edward Jones
Peggy Harmeyer-ReMax Real Estate Group Amanda Dufner—Sam’s Club
Dr. Angie Atzen—The Iowa Clinic Staci Fjelland—Prairie Vista Village
Stephanie Riding—Ted’s Body Shop
Board Liaisons City of Altoona-Jeremy Boka
East Polk Regional Development-Alex Lynch Southeast Polk Schools-Dr. Dirk Halupnik
AACC Staff Melissa Horton—Executive Director
Victoria Tracey—Event Planner
President’s letter… What's up Altoona!! We love our "small" large city and are very excited about the recent growth. The nice thing about Altoona is the small town feel it has managed to retain through all the growth it has experienced. We have great community leaders throughout the community that all have vested roles in making Altoona the best city in Iowa; thanks to them our business community is quickly becoming the best in the Des Moines metro. "*Mic drop*" Did you know that Altoona has among the highest retail sales per capita over $30,000 ~ nearly twice that of the state of Iowa and higher than any other metro city?!
Our Community & Business guide will show you the abundant resources and amenities available to our community. Look for it in your mailbox in April. Altoona offers several retail stores and restaurants exclusive to our city. We also host a brand new top of the line Cinemark Theater, The Altoona Campus, Adventureland Water and Amusement Park and Prairie Meadows, the best Casino in the state. We have these local businesses and corporations to thank for being such huge supporters of our school district, Kids Café, Dollars for Scholars and Caring Hands just to name a few. The year 2016 will offer many community events, including the Chamber Golf Outing, Wine and Craft Beer Fest in our beautiful enabling garden, Taste of Altoona, Nippy Hippie 5K, Music on the Plaza and Altoona Palooza, which will be celebrating its 7th anniversary this August. For any entrepreneurs or corporations out there, Altoona is the place to be. Please visit us at www.altoonachamber.org and experience #Altoona Now. "We're Big Enough & Small Enough, We're Just Right"
Brett McAllister
2016 President
Gold Members Adventureland of America, Inc. Altoona Living Magazine Bank Iowa Bankers Trust Company Bass Pro Shops City of Altoona Great Western Bank Hy-Vee Food Store Legacy Bank Prairie Meadows Sam’s Club Skinner Law Office, PC Wal-Mart Supercenter Ziegler, Inc.
Silver Members Altoona Herald – Mitchellville Index Altoona Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Community Choice Credit Union Community State Bank Deery Bros. Chevrolet, Inc. Dealership Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority, DART Edward Jones Investments/L Baldwin, A Kline & L Sibley Facebook Fareway Stores, Inc. Gilcrest Jewett Lumber Co. Helena Industries, Inc. Iowa Donor Network Iowa Realty Jethro’s BBQ and Jake’s Smokehouse Steaks Luther Care Services Neumann Brothers, Inc. Perkins Restaurant & Bakery Shive-Hattery, Inc. Snyder & Associates Timmins, Kroll, Jacobsen LLP Turner Construction US Bank
Altoona Area Chamber of Commerce President’s Club 2015
March: 1 — Noon Networking, 11:45am at Pizza Ranch. Cindy Metge and Jim Ellingson from Coldwell Banker present. 2—Government Affairs Comm Mtg, Noon at Perkins 3—Ambassador Comm Mtg, Noon at Prairie Vista Village 4—AJ’s Steakhouse Ribbon Cutting, 4:00pm at Prairie Meadows 4—AAYP Charity Pub Crawl, 5:00pm at The Brewhouse No. 25 5—Legislative Coffee, 10:00am at HyVee Club Room 8—Retailer’s Council Meeting, 8:30am at Sugar Shack 9—Community Dev Comm Mtg, Noon at Great Escape in P Hill 11-18—SEP Spring Break—Hootie Hoo! 13—Daylight Savings—Spring Forward! 17 & 19—NCAA March Madness Downtown 21—Economic Dev Comm Mtg, Noon at Claxon’s BBQ 24—Chamber Night at Iowa Energy 29—Construction Tour of Facebook 3, 1:30pm. Contact office for more information. 31—Business 101: Social Media Beyond the Basics with Melissa Wilder of Facebook, Noon at HyVee Club Room. FREE. Seating is limited, RSVP to [email protected].
April: 1—SEP Education Foundation Gala, 7:00pm at Prairie Meadows 2—Legislative Coffee, 10:00am at HyVee Club Room 7—Ambassador Comm Mtg, Noon at Sugar Shack 11—Membership/Marketing Comm Mtg, Noon at Prairie Meadows Café 13—Community Dev Comm Mtg, Noon at Fireside Grille 14—Government Affairs Comm Mtg, Noon at the Capitol with Representative Zach Nunn 18—Economic Development Comm Mtg, Noon at HyVee Market Café 20—Women of Vision, 11:30am-1:00pm, Prairie Meadows Prairie Rose Room. Women’s Health Panel. RSVP to [email protected]. Investment: $20 pp 27—Administrative Professional’s Day—show a little love to your employees today.
For more details or reservations go to www.altoonachamber.org or call 967.3366.
Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K Glei
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant
Super Bosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sydney Finkelstein
The Top 7 Online Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016 by Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers The online marketing industry is complex and volatile, but an exciting one for anybody who stays up on modern trends. Each year, new hardware, new software, new companies, and new user preferences dictate a host of sweeping changes that either get adopted or ignored by the businesses of the world. Early adopters get a leg up on the competition, appealing to new markets or cementing their reputations as industry leaders, while those l agging behind miss out on a key opportunity to retain their positions. 2016 looks to be a great year for online marketing, and I anticipate it shaking up the game with these seven trends: 1. Video ads will start dominating. Video ads are certainly nothing new, with social channels like YouTube dedicated to hosting billions of videos and advertising platforms like Facebook and Bing already offering advertisers video options. 2016 is set to be different because Google is finally getting on board with in-SERP video advertising. It’s a sign that users are becoming more accepting of video ads online, and as that trend continues, expect to see more types of video ads popping up in more unexpected places. With Google’s ownership of YouTube, the possibilities are virtually limitless. 2. App indexing will lead to an explosion of apps. Google has offered app indexing for a while, but as the ranking possibilities for apps become more complex, 2016 will be the year more business owners realize the online visibility advantages of a dedicated app. A mobile-optimized site works wonders for appealing to the mobile crowd, but soon, apps will begin to replace them. Apps can do everything that websites can, except in more intuitive, convenient, accessible ways. We’re still several years away from apps completely replacing websites as a medium, but 2016 will be a pivotal year in app adoption from business owner’s perspectives. 3. Mobile will completely dominate desktop. 2015 was a big year for mobile—not only did Google announce that mobile traffic finally overtook desktop traffic in 10 different countries, it was also the year they released the “Mobilegeddon” algorithm update to phase out sites not optimized for mobile. But apparently, you don’t have to have an optimized desktop site in addition to a mobile version—according to Google, a mobile-only site with no desktop counterpart is perfectly acceptable. This alone won’t be enough to drive down desktop traffic, but it’s clear what side of the fence Google’s on; they’re banking on desktop traffic fading away, meaning the smart money rests on mobile-focused online marketing. 4. Digital assistants will lead to a new kind of optimization. Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are two highly pop-ular strategies for getting your site seen by thousands of previously unknown visitors. But the rise of digital assistants is going to lead to a new kind of optimization. Digital assistants like Siri and Cortana do utilize traditional search engines, but only when necessary to find information. The key to optimizing in this new format is to make sure your business information is easily accessible to these assistants, rather than trying to funnel people to your site specifically. 5. Virtual reality will emerge. There are dozens of different virtual reality devices set to release in the next few years, some of which are dedicated for specific applications like video games, and others which are available for general use. Oculus Rift, arguably the most hyped VR device, is set to release in the first quarter of 2016. Oculus Rift and other VR devices will introduce an entire new medium of online advertising, with integration to popular social media platforms, video channels, and even forms of direct messaging. There’s always a chance VR could fizzle as a temporary fad, but there are billions of dollars of funding in limbo, ready to bet otherwise. 6. Wearable technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) will pave new ground. While not quite to the level of virtual reality, wearable “smart” devices should start gaining more traction into 2016. 2015 saw the unveiling of the Apple Watch, a first-generation smart watch, but more smart watches and similar wearable devices should start emerging next year. Such devices will change the landscape of local marketing, and will do more to blur the lines between “online” marketing and “real” marketing. 7. Advertising will become more expensive. Competition in the online marketing world has increased dramatically over the course of the past few years. 2016 will see it increase even more. As the basic laws of economics suggest, an increase in demand is often accompanied by an increase in price, so all those new online marketing competitors will drive the prices for online advertising even higher. Realistically, online ads are pretty cheap, but the increases in price may drive some smaller companies out of the landscape.
Dawson Chiropractic, 507 8th Street SE, Altoona 967-3007
Dr. Marcus Dawson was born and raised in Altoona and is a proud graduate of the Southeast Polk District. His interest in chiropractic began when he was participating in high school football. His senior year he suffered a back injury that caused severe pain and was told by his family doctor there was little to be done and the odds of him competing in sports again were not favorable. As someone who played multiple sports year ’round this news was devastating. Thankfully he was referred to a chiropractor who worked with him to get his body on track to not only finish his senior season of football, but also wrestle and play soccer. In turn he was offered an athletic scholarship to play soccer at Grand View College, which he did successfully for four years with regular chiropractic care and no back pain. He received his Bachelors Degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Grand View College. After graduation, he went on to attend Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, the founding institute of chiropractic. He graduated magna cum laude as a Doctor of Chiropractic in February 2013. The primary focus is paid to the spine because it protects the nervous system, which controls our entire body. If there is interruption or misalignment, it can cause problems or dysfunction with one or more body systems. Whether young, old, healthy or sick, it is important to have the spine checked even before there is pain. Pain is often a late sign of dysfunction so continued chiropractic care is a proven way to stop pain before it starts. At Dawson Chiropractic they value your individual path to wellness. Whether you are recovering from sickness or injury, or seeking information and support to live a healthier and more active lifestyle, they take pride in helping you reach your goals. For more information go to www.dawsonchiropracticaltoona.com
Athletico, 3160 8th Street SW, Ste M & N, Altoona 967-4580
Accelerated Altoona was recently acquired by Athletico Physical Therapy and has changed its name to Athletico Altoona. As highly trained professionals, their physical therapists create personal treatment plans that meet the patient’s healthcare and post-operative rehabilitation needs. Their rehabilitation services keep patients moving forward.
They offer a variety of physical therapy and rehabilitation services that will help you get back to what you love to do. Their therapists have years of experience and are highly skilled clinicians who provide individualized, one on one treatment.
Women’s Health Therapy Their devotion to women’s health therapy starts with a select group of Athletico physical therapists who have received specialized training in the treatment and education of women’s health issues. Not only will patients undergoing women’s health therapy receive one-on-one treatment with a female therapist in a private and comfortable setting, but they will also receive the latest research and treatment methods for the most advanced plan of care. Whether it is for preventive or restoration services, Athletico physical therapists are the experts women can trust.
Headache Rehabilitation Athletico Physical Therapy’s headache specialists focus on treatments for patients that experience headaches that fall into the cervicogenic and migraine categories. Physical Therapy has proven to be successful in decreasing and/or resolving the intensity and frequency of symptoms, improving an individual’s function and mobility, and improving a patient’s quality of life.
For more information or a complimentary injury screen call 967-4580 or by visiting their website www.athletico.com.
