women that come to la cocina what they have is incredible powerful and what a lot of entrepreneurs are looking for in san francisco which is a talent and product. there are restaurants built on marketing and perception and they're looking for a chef and we have women who are incredible chefs and don't have an idea how to bring that talent to market so we divide the business in a couple categories and i mention that because they're different in terms of getting into the marketplace. direct foods and direct to consumers and there is language around that in san francisco and why they do that but you will see a dirkt in san francisco -- not a absence but proportional of who is cooking at home and there is one of the that we try to address. some things that

are economic and have to do with the opportunities afforded entrepreneurs but they seem impossible for the entrepreneurs to climb until they get to la cocina and one of the things to think about what is what making the informal marketplaces successful and any solutions that we can formalize and make it more successful in the transition. for us at la cocina that are micro-communities and small communities with a city as diverse as san francisco don't have the micro-community to support it economically so you might have a regional mexican kri seen but not with enough mexicans to support that but not knowing how to move outside of that micro-community or an opportunity to move out they will stay in the informal bucket and not get to the asset generation. what make it

successful? low cost of entry, flexible hours are things that you can address in the industry so we identified things that women need at our organization to be successful. one is a sharing community and san francisco is engaged in right now but leaves out low income entrepreneurs and as the ideas come about to share resources and find ways they're accessible to folks not comfortable in the media rulm and child care and ride share are huge ones and to develop resources or work with developers to bring in resources that others need and provide that need in lower risk than currently available. the current economic opportunities are really so high risk it's not a good idea to make that recommendation to enter into that opportunity no matter what

the reward would be and on technical assistance that understands the complications and are gender specific and in la cocina and how you could leverage around child care when starting a catering business and what solutions can you afford for that so we have outcomes for you. you can have a look at what la cocina has done over the years. you can taste it if you are around here and go to local areas and there is an article what it is to be a chef in san francisco and what we can do to support her more and i thank you for your time. it's been incredible. in thinking about solutions one thing to point out there is a cottage food law that was passed and does offer the opportunity for some folks to income patch from home. there are few spanish accessible

information about that law and i'm not sure whether the department of health is enforcing that law but you see tamale makers or mole paste makers, women prepping out of the home and illegal to this point there is an opportunity to legalize that for under $35,000 net revenue a year and good to reach all communities where that is vibrant and not support just the cake and biscuit makers but others as well. >> thank you very much. do we have any commissioner comments? >> i just want to say -- go ahead. >> [inaudible] sure. i just want to say that i feel like la cocina so much represents all that is good about san

francisco and its entrepreneurial spirit and i just have to complement caleb because i have a past connection to your father. i worked with him when i worked at hud and i can imagine how incredibly proud he is of you as a social change entrepreneur as well, so i hope that we can do more things to support more ethnic communities as well to really see this type of enterprise move forward. thank you. >> my thing doesn't work. i also just want to commend i know several of your clients. i work with metaand i know how it is and growing up in the mission my mom owned a restaurant and just umpowerment of strong women, the impact they have on the

communities is immeasurable and without my mother having patch income i wouldn't be here today so what you do you can't quantify the impact it has on our communities. thank you. >> i want to say when we support women then our families thrive and studies have shown even with micro-lending among women that's when societies thrive and the default rate is nearly zero and i commend you caleb for sustaining la cocina and there are barriers for business even with people with substantial background and income and it's good to see this for these hard working women. >> any others? i just got to say caleb i love la cocina. i have your stand at the ferry building, and you helped --

especially women in the community start businesses, and they're all over the city and san francisco is such a foody town, and they do just great work, and i am really proud of the work they do and i am proud they're part of our community. thank you. any other commissioner questions? comments? >> yes, i have -- yes. am i on? >> yes. >> great. i applaud the work of la cocina and also correct us the correct pronunciation is la cocina because that means in the kitchen, from the kitchen. but i do remember when the concept of la cocina being discussed between the various partners that caleb had discussed, the foundation, other folks in small business, et cetera coming together to form this really strong collaborative movement,

and clearly it's a shining example of what can be done to advance the cause of women in small business and really giving them the tools that are necessary and needed in order to not only survive the trials and tribulations of a small business with you to thrive, and so again i also want to applaud what you're doing. i have actually one question if i might for caleb in terms of where you are right now with -- i think you said right now there are 38 different businesses that are involved. that's for this year or just -- >> they're 33 businesses are currently in the incubator program. as an organization we serve low income and very low income entrepreneurs so you saw the demographics and we have 55 businesses are use the kitchen

and 22 don't qualify for the incubator program so they don't receive that and we have 15 graduates that have moved out of the kitchen in the last seven years so we generally accept four to 12 new businesses per calendar year so some of them can be in the incubator for as long as five years. the idea is have enough proof of concept to access the capital to move into a brick and mortar building of their own. >> i have one more question and clearly one of the challenges as i have understood it over the years and moving into the brick and mortar space. >> yeah. >> and now we have alternative small business options that people are utilizing with the food trucks and carts and certainly a number of these businesses are already catering services as well i imagine. can you -- i know that we have other

presentations but quickly elaborate this particular challenge in terms of moving into brick and mortar places in san francisco where the real estate can be very cost prohibitive. >> yeah absolutely. i can't speak to other industries but the capital cost of brick and mortar restaurant is absurd even with somebody with years of experience. the amount of capital you have to leverage to open the restaurant and the years it takes to pay that back it's a fool's errand for the majority of restaurant owners so food truck has afforded a low cost entry. they used to be taco trucks and it was immigrant opportunities and it's broadened and it's great but it's finite. there are so many spaces in the financial district that you can park a truck. one of the things that we work arizona an organization is relationship with the city. >> >> and developers building

spaces where there is opportunity on the retail ground level where is where they tent not to make their money and allow that. in the restaurant industry you have make a fortune and name for yourself but not work that long and we are looking at other countries and low costs with stands and the market is inflated there and they're great to let us in there which we operate as a plan get but i think there are opportunities in new sectors when tech companies or new companies come into the city and take interest in the resources that are here and businesses that have a track record and support those businesses so that's what we're working on and thanks again guys for all the

kied words. thanks. >> thank you. >> thank you. commissioners next we have the womens' initiative presentation by nicole levine executive director of the san francisco hub. welcome. >> thank you. one moment here as i get this up. is that going to come up on there? beautiful. thank you so much for this really amazing opportunity to get to present to you all today. it is really an honor. it's special for us to come here and talk about what we do and how it fits in with what you do. again my name is nicole levine. i am the director of the san francisco center for the

womens' initiative and i grew up in san francisco and i absolutely seen the power of this organization to change womens' lives, to change our neighborhoods, to change your communities, to change families and you can imagine i have been there a long time and really believe in what we're doing and i am excited to share with you a little bit about our impact and ideas that we may focus on to continue to help so just a little bit for those that don't know about us. we are celebrating our 25th anniversary. we have been providing high potential low income women with business training and funding and on going support to start and actually expand their businesses and become economically self sufficient. a little bit about who we serve. we've actually served over 26,000 women since we began in 1988. 700 women will be served this year in san

francisco alone. 99% of our women are low income or extremely low income. fort% are latina. 13% have a documented disability. 23% are over 50 years old and we see women with 15 kinds of barriers as sail ebb talked about. >> >> . women come in with isolation, with domestic violence situations and language barriers and limited education. the average education is 11th grade of our women and many have poor or limited or no credit at all, but really i think the bullet point that is not on here is the lack of self esteem and lack of confidence that our women come into the program with, and it's something that makes our program so special is what we're doing is not just providing the business

assistance but also the personal development ills that are so critical to be able to succeed at running a business. so very quickly -- i'm not going over this in detail. you can look at this yourself. it's a three step approach that we have perfected over the 25 years. we train, fund and provide on going support. the training -- the core training program is an 11 week 22 session course where women emerge with a business plan so they do everything from market research to cash flow in addition to developing a personal development skills like i mentioned and learning to present elevator pitches and develop a community and network which is so critical. that's the training. we then offer access to micro-loans and up to $50,000 and we estimate about 20% of the women that go through the program needs capital so

it's not everybody but it's some and the on going support. we launched that program six years ago and it has become the key to our success. this is you have a business, you have a business plan. you may have a business loan but you're back on your own so we continue to provide this on going support through what we call success link and in spanish it's called. [speaking spanish] . i think i didn't mention we teach our classes in english and spanish and we have been like that since the beginning of the organization. this is a three legged stool to help our women succeed. we know it works. this is just 2012 for most of the statistics. women served in 2012 were 868. seals revenue generated is enormous is this is incredible ripple effect and women that went through the program in the last five years. we have touched a lot of lives

you can see and jobs in 2012 from the women that we reached in 2012 and 2008 jobs retained and business expansion. can you see all the numbers and that is just for 2012 and you can imagine what is happening after you accumulate all of the years and the women. also -- thank you for noting the statistic. 70% are still in business five years after going through the program and we know it's due to the technical assistance and the personal support networks that the women gain going through the program. annual income almost doubles one year after training and our women are providing jobs far above minimum wage and $22 on average and our statistic -- one of the statistics that we love the most is 1 dollar invested 30 goes back into the community and sales and job creation and sale tax revenues spent locally and in the packet

we have a paper on economic inpact that goes into depth about the ripple effect of this return on investment. why do women enroll in women initiatives? they want to be their own boss, self sufficient and independent. they want to give back to the community. they want to fill full their dreams and passions and a role model for their namly. you may know nancy there and went through the program 10 years ago. she has a beautiful shop that sells traditional mexican hand crafts. she employs five single women from the neighborhood all of whom are immigrants. she has a thriving online business as well so really a welcome success story. the top businesses that the clients start in order of popularity food which is why the partnership with la cocina is critical and food and personal

services and this is in order of the businesses that women want to start. the biggest obstacles our clients face certainly economic instability. that is number one. second is lack of business skills, and knowledge, which is again everybody you hear from it's important that we're here today to provide this assistance. entrepreneurs and business owners that have been through this that know the ropes. lack of basic computer skills. i would say the majority of the latina clients still don't have email. we're not talking about the digital divide but we need to be. it's still an issue and lack of financial literacy so really big obstacles so thinking about the resources needed and potential policy ideas. certainly child care. you will hear it over and geafer. it's a barrier. and taxes and continued access to

funding and support, everything that you're going to hear today. free business licenses would be huge. it's hard to imagine that the cost of a license can prevent them from starting their business and this is something that many years ago the city did for lease holder grants. anybody remember these? these were amazing. they helped women come into the mission district into store fronts where it was vacant and couldn't have done this without the program. many of those businesses are still in the mission district today. i would love to bring that back and some questions for to you consider. thinking about including the tax breaks and supports as you're looking at that what percentage is going to women owned businesses? another area we have been talking about as a group is this funding and this funds work force development but it hasn't been fund whag we do, small business development. we're creating jobs. it should be and we have

been working hard as a field to make that happen so something to think about and finally taking a look at what is the comparison from women owned businesses to men owned businesses? and i want to just to finish with a couple things. i'm also the chair of the san francisco economic development alliance and this is amazing alliance of everyone you will hear about today and plus a few more organizations. we came to advocate together, to partner and make sure the city is gaining access to the businesses -- accesses to the resources that we have to provide. we welcome the opportunity to come back and present to you as the san francisco economic development alliance if that would be helpful for you, and finally i just included -- oh also it's small business week which you named which is great and we will have a happy hour mixer and we invite you to that and i included an overview of

job creation and impact and fund businesses that i encourage to you take a look at and enjoy. thank you so much for this opportunity to present to. >>you thank you. >> any questions? >> do we have any commissioner questions or comments? commissioner rodriquez. >> yes. i know you're speaking about san francisco and you noted the other -- that you served many other communities but can you just mention for a minute the other cities that are now benefiting from this innovation. >> thank you. i appreciate that. so we're in san francisco. we're also in the beast bay and just now as of the end of 2012 in new york city, so we've just become a national organization. very exciting. thank you. >> commissioner dooley. >> i just wanted to thank you for the presentation and say i certainly wish you were around when i opened my business. you

certainly described a lot of the pitfalls that i fell right into and i also wanted to mention it's so important for the small businesses to get support. we are constantly being inundated with chain stores, out of area companies, and we need to keep our neighborhood corridors with our local neighbors and especially as women owners i know that we serve more than just what we're selling. we're there to meet people's children after work. there is a real community feeling that you cannot get any other way, so thank you for working towards that goal in our neighborhoods. >> i have a question. you serve a lot of people, and where is your funding coming from and what's the size of your staff? >> oh great question. where does our funding not come from?

we get a little bit of government funding. we get city of san francisco funding. we get funding from san francisco foundation. many corporations and banks in particular have an interest in funding what we do and individuals who are long-term donors, so our overall staff is 25, and we depend -- that's out all of the our locations so in san francisco we are a staff of seven but that is only because we have lots of volunteers and amazing mentors and people that help us leverage what the work that we do. >> great thank you. >> thank you. >> any other commissioner questions or comments? commissioner shorter. >> thank you so much for your presentation. it's an incredible program, wise and we're very lucky to have you all here in san francisco. i have

two questions related to the income increases and also the revenue, sales revenue generated. it's indicated that the sales revenue generated i am presuming wise graduates 85 million. >>i know it sounds crazy and i had to double check that with the statisticians on staff so that is women in the last five years and it's cumulative and every year plus the second, plus the third, plus the four, plus the fifth and you can see more info about that. >> that is very impressive and 85 million here in the bay area? >> yes just in the bay area. >> great. the next question regarding the annual income increases from less than 13,000 to $25,000 after one year of training so that is the annual income per graduate. that's the average and do you have a sense

of what the increases five years after? >> such a great question. >> after graduation. does it increase to $50,000? $100,000? i mean you're generating $85 million of revenue, sales revenue. >> this is a really great question. we are looking at this deeply now. the biggest increase -- and this is for to you consider and i should have brought this up. the biggest increase happens the first year after they graduate. it's almost double. it continues to go up but not in such a drastic amount and we realize we need to do a better job at supportive services and specialized training and more access to capital to make sure that number keeps going up. it's not where we want it to be so it's where the next work is. >> this raises a question for me so a couple years ago then

secretary of state hillary clinton talked at a conference and declared the policy to have more access to capital for women and how have you been working on the federal side and that side to get more capital for women? >> we haven't. we have been working on the local side to do that. i have to tell you we have a lot of things going. we have fabulous partners. will hear from working solutions. we provide with others that provide advisors and partnering with banks in an innovative way. first public bank has a million dollar fund and increased it and they're waving their under writing criteria for graduates of the program and banks have an interest to lend money. they have to lend money to our population but they don't do a very good job of it so they out source it to us and then get

tax credit frs it. that's the federal piece. that the tax credits for the banks have helped us form partnerships like first public bank so they're lending money directly to our clients. does that make sense? >> yeah. but what could we do as government agencies, commissions, to assist you in increasing that pipeline of capital access? >> well, i think you could actually -- let's see. so you could help spread the word about this to the other banks that maybe unwilling to lend to our population possibly. you could also -- let me think. well, where the sba comes in. are you on the agenda? yeah mark is on the agenda and he can talk best to this. i will pass this to mark. great. >> thank you. >> any other commissioner questions or comments? thank you. it was a very good presentation.

>> i really appreciate your interest. >> thank you. >> commissioners next you have the renaissance center presentation by paula conley director of the womens' business center. >> welcome. >> thank you. hi everyone. my name is paula conley. i'm the director of our womens' business center and the program manager for the south of market location for the center. the reason san

center also braiting in bay view sudden fran and we have locations in marin and east palo alto as well. at renaissance we provide comprehensive services that attend to the business needs of entrepreneurs through start ups, launch and growth of their businesses and we do that through different services. we take a bird eye's approach and offer classes, workshops. we have technical assistance, one-on-one consulting. we own a building in the south of market neighborhood and we rent office space on a sliding scale that comes with supportive services. we're very nice landlords. we don't hook people into long lease focus it's not a good space for them. we let them move out. we have the bay view assistance center and loan packaging. last year through the ce