SBA Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

by Marie Johns, SBA Deputy Administrator

Created: May 30, 2013, 9:32 pmUpdated: May 30, 2013, 9:32 pm

As we mark the end of Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month this May, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recognizes how important the success of America’s 1.5 million AAPI- owned businesses is to the strength of our economy. 

With more than 2.8 million workers, these firms are fueling job creation and strengthening our communities at a critical time in our economic recovery – and SBA is here to help them grow and succeed.

Four years ago, America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs were struggling in the face of the worst economic environment since the Great Depression – and a banking sector that was frozen.  Since that time, President Obama has worked to expand opportunities for AAPI business owners – particularly through increased access to credit.

And we’ve seen real progress.

We already know that SBA loans are three to five times more likely to be made to minority- and women-owned businesses than conventional small business loans made by banks.  And between January 2009 and March 2013, over $19 billion went to AAPI small businesses through 27,485 SBA loans.

We’ve also been working closely with our partners at the White House and throughout the Administration to reach more AAPI small business owners across the country - owners like Mei Xu, the founder of Chesapeake Bay Candles.

Mei’s is a classic story of American success.  In early 1994, she and her husband both left their jobs to follow their entrepreneurial spirits and establish Pacific Trade International and their premier brand Chesapeake Bay Candles.  They used an SBA loan in 1995 to invest in their business and scale their operations, and Mei recently opened Chesapeake Bay’s first American manufacturing facility in Maryland, which will employ over 100 people and produce 16,000 candles a day.   

At SBA, we’re constantly looking for more ways to help business owners like Mei, who have the creativity and drive to build a successful small business.  And while we’ve made progress, we know that there is more work to do.

Private sector partners like the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ACE) play a key role in connecting America’s entrepreneurs with the opportunities they need to start a business, or take an existing company to the next level.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of joining ACE Chairman Bill Imada and members of the Chamber’s board to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between our two organizations.

This strategic alliance lays the groundwork for our future partnership and will ensure that entrepreneurs across the country have the tools they need to start and grow businesses and create jobs.

As President Obama has said, “The story of America’s success is written by America’s entrepreneurs; men and women who took a chance on a dream and they turned that dream into a business, and somehow changed the world.”

This memorandum brings us one step closer to helping AAPI men and women achieve this dream.

And together we’re building a more resilient and more inclusive vision of entrepreneurship – one that creates jobs and strengthens our economy nationwide. 

Marie Johns is Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. She is responsible for management and oversight of the agency, and leads the agency’s efforts to reach underserved communities.Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, SBA News and Views

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SBA signed symbolic connection with the native American Contractors Association

The U.S. small business administration and the native American Contractors Association (NACA) have to extend a strategic alliance memorandum our reach to Indian entrepreneurs and boost business opportunities signed.

To continue working, SBA affect to our native American small business owners. This Alliance strengthens both our organizations goals: creation, development and expansion of small businesses in the American Indian Alaska Native and native Hawaiian communities support.

NACA promotes the common interests of the tribal influences in the ownership of companies, native Hawaiian organizations (NHO) and Alaska Native companies (ANC), and also promotes the advantages of using native state-owned enterprises with high-quality products and services in the federal marketplace and supports the SBA 8 letter a business development program. In addition, NACA monitored business Federal economic and development policies and their uses member driven perspective for pension contributions to enter.

By combining our resources with NACA, we can stimulate new business growth and innovation for the nearly 240,000 Indians to small businesses.  I would like to NACA for their commitment to this effort to thank, how we work, to extend to the strengthening and development of small businesses in the Indian economy.

In my last blog, I have that SBA our focus continues our training and training for companies owned by increasing of the Indians, and we do just that.

The SBA Office of native American Affairs which is town of BARROW, Alaska, one of the northernmost communities in the United States visited in June. We had shared the good ideas for the improvement and development of tribal businesses the chance to talk with the leaders of the Alaska Native village Corporation, in Northern Alaska.

And in may former Deputy Administrator Marie Johns, region 8 Administrator Matt Varilek and I visited Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Lake traverse reservation in South Dakota, North East. We talked with tribal leadership and tribal divisions including economic development and planning through the innovation entrepreneurship.

In may, I had arranged permission to participate in a small business Roundtable, of the Navajo nation in New Mexico. We met with small business owners to talk about the regulatory fairness, customer, and business development.

The signing of the Alliance, as well as our tribe visits SBA include proactive outreach to native rural communities in an effort to business growth and tribal businesses by providing the necessary tools and resources.

As a result, add SBA of entrepreneurial thinking and acting, and workshops to develop of the Lake traverse reservation and the Navajo nation.

Tags: official SBA news and views, open to trade, SBA news and views

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The Government intelligent, innovative and efficient for American entrepreneurs

America's 28 million small business owners pushing job creation and innovation in our economy. You are responsible for two of the three net new private sector jobs in our communities. Many of these companies start with a tight budget and small staff dedicated people who are looking to transform their industries. These men and women work hard. You sacrifice. And the last thing, for a time, is the bureaucracy, bunch of unnecessary paperwork and navigating Byzantine processes, time, money and resources to waste. You have run companies.

Last week announced to interact with the Government for these companies to make easier management agenda President Obama of a second term. The goal is to ensure that the Government is a reliable partner and a catalyst for these entrepreneurs and chances of success to help. This agenda builds on a successful four-and a half year effort to make Government more efficient, more transparent and more responsible.

At U.S. small business administration (SBA) are we doing this by the harnessing of technology, reduction of bureaucracy and make our programs more rational, and respond. Our goal is to create tools that can beat with that small businesses about their weight.

We have eliminated more than 100 pages of paperwork, some of our loan products and simplified products to address working capital of for small enterprises and better fill in gaps for small dollar loans must be launched. This helped fuel record years for SBA loan in 2011 and 2012.

For example, we have simple application for our small loan advantage program, the main product of 7a for loans under $350,000, which we call SLA 2.0 creates. Because we have seen these changes, a tripling participating lenders and one of more than 280 per cent increase in the number of loans available to set.

We also know high-growth businesses, to get especially those who fight outside traditional startup hubs, often to the investment capital that you need to turn great ideas into viable and successful companies. These companies are crucial to the creation of jobs and innovation in key sectors of our economy.

At the SBA, we run a program called small business investment company (SBIC)-program. This program is entitled to invest up to $3 billion, investing in growth companies annually in funds. In the past, this program was too cumbersome and underutilized. It fixed. We reduced machining times, new SBIC Fund under five- and -a-half to license months from about 15 months in 2009. Indeed, SBIC funds are often the new fast-track process for SBA in less than two months be approved. Today this optimized program as a model of public private partnership and it had its third consecutive record in 2012.  Licensed investment funds according to SBICs more than $3 billion in growth capital and over 1,000 small businesses, an increase of 17 percent by FY 2011 and an increase of 83 percent by FY 2010.

We also know that small business owners don't have the time or the resources to all day on the phone or on the computer trying navigate various government programs to spend. Therefore, the Administration has started BusinessUSA, a one-stop-shop for access to business related programs of the Federal Government.

Our aim is to ensure that small businesses have the tools they need to compete globally. Small business owners want to new markets, including overseas export opportunities and to develop important trade and Government supply chains. Many of these companies have not the manpower or the resources for research and go after these opportunities.

We will change that. We recently an inter-agency pilot called US global business solutions. It combines trade finance loans, export, insurance, and marketing support, which previously delivered over a variety of government agencies in a streamlined package products. We have a full scale roll-out of the global business solutions in January 2014 our entire credit portfolio.

We have the American supplier initiative. The objective of this initiative is to help small businesses, which more easily create both the Government and the commercial supply chain opportunities. As part of this effort, we are hosting cooperation exchanges and offers special tools and programs to ensure that small businesses what they need have to successful suppliers.

We also use technology to break down barriers, the small businesses of the winning commercial and Government contracts. For example, we worked with the IBM Foundation on supplier connection, a portal, that makes it easy to connect people with the right procurement in hundreds of major corporations across the country just for a small company.  And we started RFP-EZ, an online marketplace, that tightens the Government contracting process, which find it easier for small businesses and provide low dollar contracts from federal agencies. It also lowers the costs for technology services, to save taxpayer money.

RFP-EZ was built by the presidential innovation Fellows entrepreneurs-in-residence at the SBA. These men and women know what entrepreneurs need and the format they need it. And we will want to use these entrepreneurs, and solicit up advising the entrepreneurs continue to streamline and improve the programmes of the Agency, us to help the country including, how we can leverage data, to create supply chain opportunities for small businesses.

The goal of all these efforts, the SBA and the administrative bodies is to ensure that we deliver, as the President said, "the kind of 21st century Government, to which the American people."  In this way, we make sure that the American entrepreneurs and small business owners have the tools, resources, and the business environment they need to do what they can do best: innovative new products to create the drive jobs and accelerate economic growth.

Karen Gordon Mills is the administrator of the U.S. small business administration. The SBA helps both main street and high-growth small businesses get access to capital, federal contracts, emergency help and much more.Tags: official SBA news and views, open to trade, SBA news and views

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A Wealth of International Resources for the American Small Business

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

One of the biggest challenges to both current and potential exporters is access to accurate, reliable information about the markets they want to tap. One of the most common ways large exporters address this issue is by contracting “expert” help in each country or region where they do business, that is, a local representative or source in position to provide both information and market analysis. This type of service can be -and usually is- costly. If you happen to be a large exporter, cost may not be a major issue, but for small exporters this challenge can be daunting.

Enter Direct Line. The State Department’s Direct Line to American Business program allows small businesses direct access to U.S. Ambassadors, mission teams and foreign government officials to explore market opportunities in their respective countries. Through one-on-one conference calls with U.S. officials abroad, Direct Line provides important and timely information to interested American exporters about how to do business in any particular country. Discussions range from what the best investment opportunities are in the current climate, to analysis of subsector activities in your business area. After a brief overview and guided discussion, participants ask questions to get further insights from experts in the field and the foreign government officials directly responsible for planning and procurement in specific areas. Whatever your focus, Direct Line has the answers to your questions. 

Exporting is increasingly becoming one of the most important factors in the U.S economic recovery, as clearly reflected by the priority given the National Export Initiative. It is in that context that the U.S. government, through several agencies, provides a wealth of information, resources, counseling and many other services to help U.S. exporters expand their share of the international market.

One such resource is the new Business Tab found at the top of every U.S. Embassy and Consulate homepage, which offers further support to U.S. small businesses interested in expanding their international portfolio. Business Tab provides a wealth of country-specific information, from key financial reports to news on other agency programs, such as what the International Trade Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture  are doing to assist U.S. businesses overseas. Explore where your business fits in by visiting http://www.state.gov for links to all embassy and consulate websites.

Also, be sure to watch out for the launch of a new interactive platform known as the Business Information Database System (BIDS), which is likely to rollout in the next six months. BIDS will internally manage and deliver information on foreign government business and procurement opportunities to U.S. companies, expediting and informing your business decisions.

As always, visit http://www.sba.gov/about-offices-content/1/2889 to learn more about the SBA Office of International Trade and see the various types of export assistance that are available to your small business. 

Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, International

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SBA Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

by Marie Johns, SBA Deputy Administrator

Created: May 30, 2013, 9:32 pmUpdated: May 30, 2013, 9:32 pm

As we mark the end of Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month this May, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recognizes how important the success of America’s 1.5 million AAPI- owned businesses is to the strength of our economy. 

With more than 2.8 million workers, these firms are fueling job creation and strengthening our communities at a critical time in our economic recovery – and SBA is here to help them grow and succeed.

Four years ago, America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs were struggling in the face of the worst economic environment since the Great Depression – and a banking sector that was frozen.  Since that time, President Obama has worked to expand opportunities for AAPI business owners – particularly through increased access to credit.

And we’ve seen real progress.

We already know that SBA loans are three to five times more likely to be made to minority- and women-owned businesses than conventional small business loans made by banks.  And between January 2009 and March 2013, over $19 billion went to AAPI small businesses through 27,485 SBA loans.

We’ve also been working closely with our partners at the White House and throughout the Administration to reach more AAPI small business owners across the country - owners like Mei Xu, the founder of Chesapeake Bay Candles.

Mei’s is a classic story of American success.  In early 1994, she and her husband both left their jobs to follow their entrepreneurial spirits and establish Pacific Trade International and their premier brand Chesapeake Bay Candles.  They used an SBA loan in 1995 to invest in their business and scale their operations, and Mei recently opened Chesapeake Bay’s first American manufacturing facility in Maryland, which will employ over 100 people and produce 16,000 candles a day.   

At SBA, we’re constantly looking for more ways to help business owners like Mei, who have the creativity and drive to build a successful small business.  And while we’ve made progress, we know that there is more work to do.

Private sector partners like the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (ACE) play a key role in connecting America’s entrepreneurs with the opportunities they need to start a business, or take an existing company to the next level.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of joining ACE Chairman Bill Imada and members of the Chamber’s board to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between our two organizations.

This strategic alliance lays the groundwork for our future partnership and will ensure that entrepreneurs across the country have the tools they need to start and grow businesses and create jobs.

As President Obama has said, “The story of America’s success is written by America’s entrepreneurs; men and women who took a chance on a dream and they turned that dream into a business, and somehow changed the world.”

This memorandum brings us one step closer to helping AAPI men and women achieve this dream.

And together we’re building a more resilient and more inclusive vision of entrepreneurship – one that creates jobs and strengthens our economy nationwide. 

Marie Johns is Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. She is responsible for management and oversight of the agency, and leads the agency’s efforts to reach underserved communities.Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business, SBA News and Views

View the original article here

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Make Our Economy Stronger; Create Good American Jobs

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

by Karen Mills, SBA Administrator

Created: June 28, 2013, 12:25 pmUpdated: June 28, 2013, 12:25 pm

Eight years ago, a Turkish immigrant living in upstate New York saw an ad for a shuttered yogurt plant not far from his home. Where others saw an outdated, old factory, he saw an opportunity and a burgeoning business plan. He purchased the facility using a U.S. Small Business Administration-backed loan, hired five of the employees from the original operation and went to work.

Through hard work, perseverance, long days and sleepless nights, he steadily grew the business into one of the world’s most successful yogurt companies. 

That company is Chobani and the entrepreneur is Hamdi Ulukaya.  Today, Chobani employs nearly 3,000 people and it was able to reach $1 billion in revenue, as Fortune Magazine reported, as quickly as technology companies Google and Facebook.

All across the country today there are immigrants who are starting and building successful businesses that create good American jobs and support their local communities. These are the mom-and-pop shops that form the fabric of our communities and the high-growth startups that will one day revolutionize their industries.

These small business owners possess the same entrepreneurial spirit, drive and determination as the generations who came before them. They remind me of my Grandpa Jack, who came to America from Russia in the early 1900s, and built a successful textile business in the United States.

As President Obama said in a speech earlier this month, “in recent years, one in four of America’s new small business owners were immigrants.  One in four high-tech startups in America were founded by immigrants.  Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies were started by a first- or second-generation American.”

Immigrants over-index in entrepreneurship. According to a study by the Partnership for a New American Economy, immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business in the United States as non-immigrants, and in 2011, immigrants started 28 percent of all new businesses while only accounting for 13 percent of the U.S. population.

These businesses inject vitality and a global vision into our economy. Immigrant-owned businesses are exporting and opening up markets around the globe. New immigrants ensure diversity and new ideas in our society. Approximately 26 percent of all U.S.-based Nobel laureates over the past 50 years were foreign-born. And immigrants are strengthening our communities, fueling job creation and fostering innovation in key industries. According to the Partnership for a New American Economy study, every additional 100 foreign-born workers in STEM fields with advanced degrees from U.S. universities are associated with an additional 262 jobs among American workers.

To build on our nation’s economic momentum and to accelerate job growth, we need an immigration system that works for America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. We need an immigration system that allows us to better compete in the 21st century global economy.

Comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate yesterday, has three key pillars: smarter enforcement and border security; a path to citizenship for those who work hard and play by the rules; and an updated legal system that allows us to continue to attract and retain the most talented, hardest working men and women from around the world.

Last year, I spoke at a citizenship ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston. There were people there from countries all over the world coming together to pledge their allegiance to the United States of America. Each had their own story about how they came to the United States, but when I was done speaking, the vast majority wanted to talk to me about one thing: how they can start their own business.

America needs more men and women like that.  Our economy needs that energy. Our communities need that stability. And passage by the House of Representatives of a balanced, comprehensive immigration reform bill that reflects the fundamental American belief that we are both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants will help make that possible.

Karen Gordon Mills is the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBA helps both Main Street and high-growth small businesses get access to capital, counseling, federal contracts, disaster assistance and more.Tags: Official SBA News and Views, Open For Business

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