have sat through many of their classes there and it's almost like a boot camp for small business beginners and if you have a business plan and it's not right they tell you it ain't right and you need to redo it or it's not a good fit and i admire that, so i just got to say you guys are one of the best and your involvement in the san francisco community is awesome so thank you. >> commissioners next is discussion on licensing and permitting in the city of san francisco and we have director are gina dick-endrizzi of the office of small business. >> good evening commissioners. so i am pleased to be able to present to you tonight to give you an overview of the licensing and permitting process, and the key that the office of small

business and our business assistance center play in this role, so as you have heard from our technical assistance providers, which the city does fund, the office of small business our key role with business assistance center -- one is to help businesses navigate the licensing and permitting process and as you have heard from some of the presenters this evening that process can be expensive. how to go about it can be complicated and but what we also see are new businesses that are planning start so in our conversation with them at our counter we first assess have they done the business plan? do they know how they're going to finance the business? and in that conversation before we get into the licensing and the permitting regulations that they need to know we want to make

sure they're starting off on solid footing so it's great that we have the san francisco economic development alliance, and we also are very fortunate to have the sba district office in san francisco because we get to be able to refer these businesses for free or very affordable resources to help them grow their business. perhaps the one drawback we see for every individual that we do counsel there really in terms of room at our economic development alliances partners there's not enough room for them to be able to obtain those services, so but with that when we have an individual come into our office we sit down and after we have established the fact whether they have their business plan or financing we walk them through what are the licenses, what are the permits that they need to

get? so in the packet you will see we have a check list that we work with each business. each business requires key things that are entitle required like a business registration fee but depending on the business you may require to register yourself at the state. you may not. so we walk them through that. so we have each of the state and federal government offices that they would need to engage in and of course our local offices as well. we start off by -- especially for many businesses that we see they want to open a brick and mortar business, so everything starts with planning. what you can, what you can't do, and also determines the cost, so we have that conversation. where do they want to be? where do they want to open up their business? in certain areas of

the city to open up a kof a is permitted as a right and in certain areas it's a conditional use and a conditional use process could be up to four to six months and additional timing to get your business open, and approximately additional $4,000. then for businesses that are corporations or llc's they need to form -- they need to do a business formation and that is registering with the state. sole proprietary tors do not need to do that but they need to get a registration with the city and county of san francisco and then the irs to obtain their tax id, employer identification number. the tax and treasurer's office -- any entity or business that does business within the san francisco boundaries for seven days or more in a calendar year needs to obtain a business registration and that is -- in

san francisco we call it a business registration. that business registration. they may need to and most businesses do business under a different name so they need to file a fictitious business name with the county clerk and they need to post that filing in a public publication so if there are other businesses out there that might want to use that same name or have that name but it's not registered in the city and county of san francisco then they can find out. the assessor recorders -- any business that has any unsecured property which is your telephones, your computers, any equipment you need to file with the assessor recorder and the state collects

unsecured property tax on business equipment. in addition to san francisco permits and licenses that may apply we have our street artists programs. our street artist program so there is specific licensing regulation for that. dbi or department of building inspection. there are permits for construction change of use and change of use would be if business is going into a place where it may have been a retail book store and then now what's is moving in is a cafe. dpw permits mobile foods, sidewalk encroachments, sidewalk tables and chair. the entertainment commission does entertainment permits and limited live permits. the fire department permits open flames so if you

have candleos the restaurant you need a special permit from the fire department from that. they do restaurant inspections and they are also involved with permitting for mobile foods depending on the type of mobile food you are. dph permits all food and beverage related businesses, massage, tatoo and tobacco businesses. the police department covers the peddler's permit and it's individuals who are selling wares not in the street and programs but on the sidewalk. the secondhand dealer and tour guides. the puv has covers the wastewater charges so one conversation that we make sure that we have with businesses that if they're opening a -- any kind of food place if it's a cafe, a corner store, those tend to be

businesses that tend to have a high volume of water output and so depending on what was in the property previously if there was a low intensive water output in the previous use then businesses that move in that have a higher capacity of water output are charged wastewater impact fees and we see for many small businesses these wastewater impact fees can be from 10,000 to $25,000. and then of course we talked to businesses in regards to -- are you going to hire employees? and if they are going to hire employees we have a packet for them in terms of all the things that need to know in terms of hiring employees but making sure they're aware of the san francisco unique employer mandates with the minimum wage, paid sick leave and of course if they're going to be a business

with more than 20 or more employees the health care security ordinance. additional california permits and licenses that may apply that we make sure businesses are aware are the abc and we are able to talk to businesses pretty early on before they're starting the process. we make sure we inform them of the timing of the abc because the abc -- obtaining an abc license can take a good deal of time. there is the state board of equalization with the seller's permit, the california utility commission permits limousines and shuttles. the industrial relations department permits car wash, garment manufacturing. consumer affairs permits cosmetology, auto repair, driving schools, contractors, state license

construction licenses, department of social services, child care, senior care, department of public health as we talked about and deal with wholesale and pet food and now dealing with the new cottage food law. additional federal permits that we often advise businesses are on copyright office for protection, u.s. patent and trademark for protection, u.s. customs for imports and exports. we have a fair number of individuals that want to do importing and exporting and the u.s. commerce for resources and then in addition some additional information that we talk to businesses about is financing resources, so we have -- the city has a resolving loan fund but we also partner with the

nonprofits, the micro-lender nonprofits to provide micro-loans. legal resources. we have nonprofits that provide some legal resources. technical assistance. obviously you have met some of our key partners with our economic development organizations or as we -- as the city calls them we call them our neighborhood economic development organizations. that's our internal language for entities like womens' initiative. renaissance center, la cocina, urban solutions, working solutions, meta. and of course one of our key things that we need to talk to businesses about in terms if they're going into brick and mortar is ada compliance. making sure they're aware of potential aba liabilities that the property may have. tax credits associated with that. are they in a enterprise zone

and can they engage in tax credits and what are the counseling services out there? we do see quite a few businesses that are already established but they want to know how do i become a certified vendor with the city and county of san francisco and we connect them with that division. the green program. we let them know what resources are there when starting the business with the sf energy watch, the green programs that they have, and of course other initiatives such as our jobs now program with subsidized funding for employment. the new program with the mayor's office and invest in neighborhoods. the sf shine programs and do facade improvements. encourage businesses that might have low wage workers to encourage them

to use either -- currency sf is to inventivize employees not to use check cashing entities to check their cash but maybe provide like a credit card that they replenish with their wages, and then any other sort of current programs or initiatives that we may have. in your packet i also provided -- we recently launched license 123 which allows a business to go on to our website. we offer our services monday through friday eight to five in city hall so there are people that are working and may not be able to access our services during that time so we launched license 123 to provide businesses with an

overview what it maybe to licensing and permitting regulations so i just did a profile on a pizza shop and somebody wanted to open it and what it may involve in terms of the key licenses and permits, and as can you see there is a listing. some things we have listed as optional so under the department of public health you might -- you have the health department permit, but if they wanted to be a piss realia cooked on the inside and just a window and served then that is a take out,, so that maybe a different department of public health food establishment permit so that's why under item eight it's optional. if they were a pizza shop and had out door dining in the back and wanted speakers and music they need to

get an out door loud speaker permit and of course if they were a pizza rhea and sell the dough they might need a weights and measures permit if they're selling by the ounce so we hear what the business model is. we have a conversation with them and then really tailor what are the licenses and permits that they may need based upon their business model. and as you can see the fee from all the state -- from the local and the state level and federal level if they were to engage in all those activities could range between $18,492 to $20,046. so i think

you heard from our previous service providers about the cost of doing business, and that that is definitely a barrier. a couple things that i also wanted to note that our office worked with la cocina right after we opened and that is san francisco has sf car and so as a means for individuals who are not able to get a drivers license or a government issued id and so the state board of equalization had an internal memo that said it would accept sf card to be able to obtain a seller's permit but they were having difficulty in getting the local office to be able to recognize that, and so with our office we were able to call the state board of equalization and be able to talk to betty yee's office and with that she reissued that memo to the local office, so that that

would no longer be a barrier for those individuals being able to obtain their seller's permit, and then if there are some policy recommendations in addition beyond -- excuse me, first i want to talk about people's credit, and understanding their financing. we do have individuals that not only -- for those that are low income and navigating their financing and being able to understand their credit score and really understanding that. i think it's a conversation that we really need to be having in our schools starting in junior high. to do you manage your money? what does it mean for the future? and if we're going to talk about womens'

empowerment women tend to be more likely to be able to loan money, to be able to share money, to keep the family floating, so sometimes their credit gets maybe a little affected because of that, and with the lack of understanding of what it may mean, so i do -- i don't think we do enough of educating about financial management, and what credit may mean to individuals in the future, and then secondly we do -- with the presidential election was conversation with student loans and what does that debt mean and we also see this at our office in terms of individuals with student loans and what does it mean in being able to access capital? so i think those are just two kind of points that i wanted to identify with some of the things that we have seen in

our office, and i know that it's kind of getting late so i will take any questions that you may have about our office and our role in partnering with our organizations that you have heard from tonight. >> any commissioner questions? commissioner shorter. >> sure. i have a question. regina thank you very much. very thorough and very much appreciate all that the small business assistance center in your department d a couple questions. it's really related to your overall theme of presentations this evening. there is a presumption that many of the businesses will seek to become brick and mortar, and have the shop and certainly all of the necessary tools that go along with it, transportation, vehicles, that sort of thing.

but one thing that i am not hearing much about, and maybe it's the nature of these businesses because we're talking about women in business, small business, is e commerce, and how that is being integrated into these businesses and how when one starts a business in san francisco, and you have an online component, or if your business is purely online driven are there particular -- i don't see anything that really suggests sort of a 3.0 world of business online. >> right. and what i would say is that yes we do see businesses that come into our office that are planning be virtual businesses so we do advise them on what is required their

business registration. they may need a seller's permit. are they dealing with exporting /importing things so we tailor the counsel to that. i would say that the requirements are much smaller -- the heavy licensing requirements around and costs are around the brick and mortar . so we do -- i think most businesses it's almost for those that deal in any kind of commerce having an on site -- an online to be be able to exchange money is something that most businesses have. while we as government may not be able to say these are the best types of means of business able to take payments and how do handle that, that's kind of where we might defer to there are classes at the sba that provide that kind

of information, but we can't do that kind of advisement but to point them in the direction for them to get that information to figure it out. >> thank you. >> any other questions? comments? >> i had a comment. i really commend you working with the elected officialos the state level to overcome particular problems with the government id and the permitting process so i encourage that in anything that we could do because although we're not overtly political we do in our individual capacities have access to our elected officials at the state level and federal level so thank you. >> and i will definitely keep that in mind. >> any other? okay. great. before we head on to the next section do we have public comment on starting your

business, a, under new business ? and public comment -- oh are you presenting or public comment? >> (inaudible). >> presenting. pardon me then. would you like to close public comment? anyone want to make public comment? seeing none public comment is closed. next section. >> commissioners we're on section b, financing your business and we're starting off number one. san francisco resolving fund by working solutions. kelly lovien director of operations.

. >> good evening everybody. my powerpoint is somewhere in an

email so i'm just going to present what i have to you today, so thank you regina and the office of small business, the small business commission and the department on the status of women for this opportunity to speak to you today. i am kelly and i am with working solutions and we provide loans to entrepreneurs who are ineligible for bank financing. our mission is to serve low income women, minority entrepreneurs who are lacking the access to conventional financing. a little bit about the terms of our loan. we offer loans from 5,000 to 25,000 to start a business and 5,000 to 50,000 to existing bs businesses. loans have a typically five year term. it's

a fixed interest rate between four and 6% to businesses that are through our san francisco resolving loan fund loan pool and to our creating jobs. otherwise it's an interest rate of eight to 10%. we have minimal fees. 50-dollar application fee. 5% loan closing fees and additional fees for pulling credits, late payments and returned checks but what makes the program unique and contracts to the 98% repayment rate is working solutions provides up to five years of post loan business coaching and advising to every entrepreneur in our loan portfolio. this means that every entrepreneur that receives a loan from us must meet with our director of business services quarterly the length of the loan to review their financials, go over their marketing, talk to them about any legal issues they maybe

having, any hiring issues they're having, basically anything that is on their mind or making them struggle through day to day business operations. we also provide workshops on topics that are pertinent to them at that time so they're ad hoc workshops. i know regina hosted a workshop on ada compliance issues. we've done a lot for hiring like i said, hr like i said, marketing and one thing that's been really great we had a lot of legal assistance, so i think upwards of 50 of our micro loan borrows have received legal assistance pro bono. we also provide access to capital workshops so they can learn about equity financing, government subsidies and the rest. we also provide opportunities to promote their business such as grand opening

events with mayor lee and his staff, our annual holiday gift fair and social media. finally as you know working solutions is san francisco working intermediary and title nine funding and other funding and soma stabilization funds and general funds. 49 loans approved or funded today or 33% of our loan portfolio have come from these pool of funds. that's 1.32 millions to small businesses and average size of 25,000. districts include every district except one and four. to date our impact stretches over the entire bay area. we made 3.6 billion to small businesses and like i said we

have 98% repayment rate. we have seen the borrowing leverage 3.6 million which means that the loan we provide them makes them eligible for funding from banks, other nonprofits and credit unions and the rest. 21 businesses have graduated to conventional financing. 65 new businesses have been created and 80 have been able to expand and 8400 entrepreneurs have been educated to date and 1200 have received resource referrals. 63% of our women entrepreneurs are women. about 40% are minority and 63% are low income. now i want to talk to you about women entrepreneurs in san francisco and these statistics really impress me when i lo