Small Business News Roundup - 4: Celebrate Small Business Week
This week is National Small Business Week and among the many events marking the week, the SBA is holding a conference in DC [Apr. 23-24] that focuses on small-business accomplishments, including disaster recovery, federal contract procurement and entrepreneurial success. The celebration honors the nation’s most outstanding entrepreneurs, and culminates with the selection of the National Small Business Person of the Year for 2007 from among the 53 state small-business winners, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
JK as chair of the Senate Small Business Committee has been busy as well. He’s marking the week with a Live Chat event that’s jointly sponsored through Constant Contact, Slate.com and the washingtonpost.com. The 3 organizations have joined together for special coverage of Small Business Week. Here’s the washingtonpost.com version of the event and note that they are soliciting questions for tomorrow.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Sen. John Kerry, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, will be live online Wednesday, April 25 at 12:30 p.m. to answer your queries on small business. Issues like affordable health care; tax incentives to encourage investments in small businesses; the SBA Disaster Loan Program and entrepreneurial development all affect small business.
I did as much poking around as I could and my guess is that they’ll have more info about joining the live chat here tomorrow. Please post a comment below if you know more about where to join in on the live chat tomorrow.
The ivantohelpyou blog by ivan notes that JK is speaking at the State Small Business Awards Luncheon today, where the award for National Small Business Person of the Year will be given to a person “selected from the 53 State Small Business Persons for the Year.” Congratulations to the 53 finalists and the winner.
And onto the Small Business News Roundup…
The HispanicBusiness.com blog highlighted the Boston Herald article in a post titled “Small Biz Hits Sarbanes-Oxley Law”.
Lawmakers and regulators in Washington, D.C., yesterday heard an earful from small-business owners, including some from Massachusetts, who claimed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is burdening firms and stifling growth.
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Business executives got a sympathetic ear from Kerry, who voted for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 but thinks it needs to be modified.
The act, passed in the wake of the Enron scandal and other corporate controversies in the late 1990s, has worked in making companies’ accounting more transparent, Kerry said. But it’s proved to be a financial burden on smaller firms, he added.
The Sox Center blog also noted the Boston Herald article here as well as one by Yahoo Finance News in which “Chief Counsel for Advocacy Thomas M. Sullivan today commended the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship for holding a hearing on the impact of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on smaller public companies.”
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The Boston Business Journal covered the SBA’s failure to reach out to reservists and returning soldiers with assistance in an article titled “Reservists want business loans; vets seek contracts”. They noted JK’s action on the Small Business Committee concerning these issues.
Kerry, who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, wants to expand the SBA’s military reservist disaster loan program.
The Senate included some of Kerry’s proposals in the recently passed appropriations bill funding the Iraq war. The legislation extends the time a reservist-dependent small business can apply for a disaster loan from 90 days after the reservist’s discharge to one year. It also directs the SBA to create a pre-consideration process for the loans so businesses can get the money as soon as the reservist is activated.
Kerry also thinks the SBA should offer grants of up to $25,000 to reservists who own small businesses and make loans of up to $100,000 to reservists without requiring collateral.
“We shouldn’t just say thank you to the men and women who fought to protect this country; we should show them we’re grateful and help them get back on their feet,” Kerry says.
William Ellmore, the SBA’s associate administrator for veterans business development, says the agency is “certainly open to exploring” changes in the military reservist loan program. He agrees the current deadlines for applying for the loans are “problematic” and says a pre-application process is “probably a good idea.”
The Army Times noted the actions as well in an article, “Small-business aid urged for vets, reservists“
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., wants the government to do more to help veterans and reservists who are entrepreneurs or who own or work for small businesses.
Kerry, the former presidential candidate and now chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, recommends providing more loans for small businesses hurt by the mobilization of National Guard or reserve employees, creating a loan program specifically to help recently discharged veterans create new businesses, and giving more tax incentives for small businesses to hire reservists even though they could be mobilized.
The recommendations are part of a report Kerry released that says government policies are “shortchanging America’s veterans.”
The article goes on with a nice summary of the report. I encourage you to check it out if you haven’t heard of the report.
The MicroEnterprise Journal blog has a post and a podcast about JK’s efforts to help the vets as well. Here’s the intro in the blog post which is titled: Podcast: Kerry Proposes More Support for Entrepreneurial Vets
One gets the distinct impression that Senate Small Business Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) has very vivid memories of what it was like to be a military veteran returning from a tour of duty in Vietnam, and he wants to make sure that returning veterans and reservists from Iraq and Afghanistan don’t get a similar raw deal.
I’d imagine that’s the main reason why, with a pretty lengthy to-do list as incoming Chairman, Kerry has elected to focus quite a bit of time and energy of veterans, service-disabled veterans and reservists as some of the first things he’s doing in the 110th Congress.
The Boston Business Journal reported on JK’s actions on disaster loans for small businesses in an article titled “Senate panel approves disaster loan reforms“
A Senate committee approved major changes to the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program.
The legislation allows banks to make SBA disaster loans after a large-scale disaster and directs the SBA to offer short-term loans to small businesses while they’re waiting for disaster loans or other long-term assistance.
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“Allowing the private sector to get involved in making disaster loans will expedite the process of getting capital to businesses when they need it—in the days immediately following a disaster,” says Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
Gulf Coast businesses and residents criticized the SBA for responding too slowly to Hurricane Katrina. The agency now has disbursed more than $5.3 billion in low-interest disaster loans to around 117,000 homeowners and businesses damaged in 2005 by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
“While the current administrator has done an admirable job cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor, we believe that he requires additional tools to effectively respond in the event of another large-scale disaster,” Kerry says.
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“We are seeing predictions for an active storm schedule in 2007,” Kerry says, “and we need to make sure that these policies are in place in the event that another large-scale disaster strikes.”
The text of the Small Business Disaster Response and Loan Improvements Act (S. 163) is available at thomas.loc.gov
Forbes Magazine comments on the cut in funding for small businesses under the Bush administration in “Funding For The Little Guy”. They note JK’s comment on the reduction of the SBA’s budget by 45% since Bush took office and acknowledge JK’s and Sen. Olympia Snowe’s efforts which secured an additional $97 million of the SBA in the Senate’s budget proposal.
American Business Daily notes that “SBA may get additional $97M”.
The budget resolution passed by the Senate includes additional money for the SBA’s counseling, contracting and export assistance programs. It also calls for continued funding for the SBA’s Microloan program, which provides small loans and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs. The president proposed eliminating this program.
“Small business programs have been on a starvation diet for too many years, and we’re trying to reverse that,” says Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
“We have shaped a bipartisan measure that specifically strengthens the ability of minority, women and veteran-owned small businesses to compete, succeed and create jobs,” says Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the committee’s ranking Republican. The budget resolution is not binding, however. Final decisions on SBA funding will be made later this year when Congress votes on agency appropriations.
Kerry says he wanted to include another $79 million for the SBA’s 7(a) business loan program, which would allow the agency to reduce fees on these government-guaranteed loans.
“I am very disappointed that the Republican leadership would not allow any funding for the 7(a) loans to be included in our amendment,” he says.
Congress stopped subsidizing the 7(a) program in October 2004. Loan fees now cover loan defaults and other program costs.
Peter Mool on the Online Success Business blog posted a piece about “The Microcredit Boom” which acknowledges Senators’ Kerry and Snowe’s leadership in “restor[ing] funding—a mere total of $2 million for fiscal year 2007 in direct loan funds (used to leverage another $28 million of private money) and $10 million in microloan technical assistance” for the microcredit loan program.
GoodBiz113 blog has a great summary of the activities of the Senate Small Business Committee in the entry, “Before Spring Recess, U.S. Senate Committee Takes Bold, Bipartisan Steps on Behalf of Small Businesses”.
The summary is followed by another post addressed to the leaders of small business related committees in the House and Senate including JK as chair of the Senate committee. Check out Kari Larson’s appeal in “During National Small Business Week, GoodBiz113 Appeals to Congressional Leaders for Enforced Compliance, Accountability and Transparency“
Loony Business blog highlighted a CNN Money story in “Entrepreneurs hope for help from new Congress” which notes JK’s focus on making health care affordable for small businesses.
slackerhacker on Help Thing blog highlights an article by Paul M. J. Suchecki on ehow.com titled “How to Run a Green Small Business Part 1” which talks about JK’s and the Small Business Committee’s focus on encouraging small businesses to become more energy efficient and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
And finally, speaking of environmental things and Live Chat, here’s one more item sure to be of interest:
JK has an online book chat about This Moment on Earth scheduled with the good folks at firedoglake at 10 am ET tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. Hop on over here for more details.
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That’s certainly an exhaustive list of links and info about the Senator’s activities with the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and it’s good to see his activities in this area get some much-deserved attention.
Some armchair pundits tend to think that only a few committee chairmanships are worth noting. Senator Kerry is am influential member of long standing in other committees like the SFRC as well, of course, but it’s in the dozens of other less-glamorous but essential committees like the SBEC where the real business of government gets done.
So it’s good to see him getting the credit he deserves for his efforts on behalf of small businesses and individual entrepreneurships, especially those that are owned by and/or giving employment to the veterans whose needs are being so shamefully ignored by the current administration.
And it’s especially worth noting that Senator Kerry will be participating in not one but two online chat conferences tomorrow morning. He’s one of the relatively few politicians who really gets what the internet community and the netroots movements are all about. Props to the Senator for doing this, and to the people who have helped set these chats up and will be making them happen in real time tomorrow.
Oh, wow. I feel like it’s Christmas morning with all these small business links! I’ve actually been spending Earth Week trying to green my own small business, and it’s nice to know there are so many people with the same priorities out there.
Wonderful posting, Violet. Very informative.
I won’t probably be tuning in to the chats, but it will be interesting to hear what comes out of it, or them—I guess there are two. I’m especially interested in what Senator Kerry has to say about small business entrepreneurship since I was looking into opening a small business myself several years ago—a self-serve dog-washing place called Tubs & Suds. I don’t imagine I will ever actually follow through with that particular idea now, but it was going to be fashioned after the U-Wash-Doggie franchise. I don’t know if you all are familiar with the place, but they pipe in music, and the tubs are at waste level so you can conveniently wash your dog and bond with him at the same time. I used to take my two dogs, Tiggy and Yogi to wash them at the U-Wash-Doggie in North Hollywood, Ca; and they both enjoyed it as much as I did.
Tiggy is no longer with me—she was an Australian cattledog, a miniature and the runt of the litter—very cute; but she died several years ago. But I still have my other kid, Yogi, an Australian shepherd, and I wish I had one of those self-serve facilities around here in El Paso so I could take him in for a shampoo and blow dry. He loves that.
There are many good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information.
For an all-volunteer site, dedicated to small businesses who wish to succeed in federal government contracting, please see the below site:
http://www.smalltofeds.blogspot.com/
The federal government will contract in excess of $80B to small businesses in the next fiscal year.
There are over 50 agencies or “Departments” in the federal government. Each of these agencies has a statutory obligation to contract from small business for over 20% of everything it buys.
Contracting officers must file reports annually demonstrating they have fulfilled this requirement. Not fulfilling the requirement can put agency annual funding in jeopardy. Small business has a motivated customer in federal government contracting officers and buyers.
Large business, under federal procurement law, must prepare and submit annual “Small Business Contracting Plans” for approval by the local Defense Contract Management Area Office (DCMAO) nearest their headquarters. These plans must include auditable statistics regarding the previous 12 month period in terms of contracting to small businesses and the goals forecast for the next year.
The federal government can legally terminate a contract in a large business for not meeting small business contracting goals. Approved small business plans must accompany large business contract proposals submitted to federal government agencies. Small businesses have motivated customers in large business subcontract managers, administrators and buyers.
There are set-aside opportunities available for small entities,veterans, disabled veterans, women and minorities. All it takes is navigating the system, persistance, asking questions, registering, marketing, teaming and working hard.
Small Business America is good at that.
Green Entrepreneurs
Senator Kerry has often noted that there are business opportunities in environmentalism, and a friend pointed me to an example yesterday that I was really glad to see. I think she told me Matt Damon was discussing this on Oprah.
http://www.greendimes.com/
Greendimes will reduce your junk mail and plant a tree a month for a $36 annual fee.
The greendimes website has a lot more info, and even a blog!
I’m not sure what kind of results I’ll get, but it’s worth $36 a year to me not to get angry every time I go to my mailbox.
Granted, you can sign up at DMA (which greendimes does for you) for a buck, but that doesn’t come with 12 trees.
https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing
No more junk mail! Yay!
Off topic, but had to comment that I was watching CSPAN replay of interviews with David Halberstam, in his honor. One in particular with and Neil Sheehan (2002) , shows the depth of knowledge of the war they had covered, Vietnam, and even Korea and their wisdom of the history of times. It makes you realize again what great journalist David Halberstom was - and how poorly our media has served us in this war.
Because marketing is critical to business succcess, and because junk snail mail is so damaging to the environment, it’s appropriate that Sen Kerry’s live chat today is co-sponsored by Constant Contact, an e-marketing firm. Business really does need to look at alternative marketing methods, and I think e-marketing is one good solution.
As a long time employee of a large corporation, I’m encouraged to see that the company I work for is taking steps to go green, including document recycling, live meetings over the web that reduce the need to travel, teleworking so that some employees can work from home and eliminate their commute (employee and environmentally friendly), and e-signature for documents to decreases paper use.
Both small businesses and large corporations need to address their impact on the environment. And there’s a lot of opportunity for those with the imagination and initiative.
I’m curious to see if any of this will come up on the Senator’s business live chat today.
So, Firedoglake at 10 and the Slate business chat at 12:30.
Cool. I’ll try to catch the Slate chat at lunch.
Jeanne,
David Halberstam was a great journalist who will be missed. The ESPN web site had the following comment on his death from Senator Kerry.
“He was a brilliant journalist who set the standard during the war in Vietnam for courageous and accurate reporting,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., a Vietnam veteran who knew Halberstam from Nantucket, where both had vacation homes. “He was wonderful company, and I always learned something when I talked with him. I’m very sad to hear we’ve lost him.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2847054