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 center reason san packaged

16 loans totaling $591,000. people starting businesses tend to be feel isolated so we provide them with the communities through all these approaches. last year renaissance soma and bay view searched 800 low to moderate income men and women and start businesses. 576 of those or 72% were women and 442 of those or 75% were women of color. renaissance is a small business administration womens' business center. we get sba funding for a womens' center here in san francisco and allows us to do enhance marketing for women and fashion programs and classes for women with day care and child issues. since its inception in

1999 the womens' center has served 10,000 women including training and classes and workshops. financial resource center, the fashion program and our speaker in women series. it's not like the umbrella organization that has been around since 1985. some of our recent successful speaker workshops include the fashion designer tory burch and at last we're we had a roundtable with the district supervisor malia cohen. renaissance loves success stories. many of you may know gail [inaudible] and her truck is parked outside of city hall on fridays. she is one of the success stories. i attached three stories to the packet so you can read about them later but gail came to renaissance and wanted to start

a food business. didn't have enough money to start a brick and mortar location and she was there and open the truck when it was opportune to do so and she started a second food truck and is employing at least five individuals. another great success is black jet bakery. i know if you have been there but they came to us. she was originally selling her goods to coffee shops and other commercial retailers throughout the city, and had enough interest in her business. she's been covered on the opera blog and got great reviews and pop tarts and they're delicious and got a loan through one of our resource partners working solutions to open a brick and

mortar business so we're excited. we hope it works out for her. she hasn't found a location yet but she is still looking. so the top reasons that women come to renaissance and want to be business owners is -- i think generally 10% of the population is entrepreneurial so women are naturally that way. women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men for the last 20 years and tend to have home businesses and small businesses. it's estimate that women will create over half of the small businesses by -- between now and 2018 and that is according to the sba. we deliver high touch services and women can come in the smart phase and vet their idea. they can think about feasibility and scaling. they can grow

sustainability and write a business plan and come back as a financial resource center and aid and get access to capital. also women the flexibility of self employment. it allows them to make their own schedules. it allows them to achieve work-life balance that includes their family and puts them in charge of their economic livelihood. women are able to become self sufficient through self employment when they would otherwise have barriers to keep them from doing so. the top sector that are you clients represent are certainly foods to echo what nicole was saying. food and fashion. many women and people in general are starting service base businesses. a lot of the people come to the center are starting businesses with low capital

barriers to entry and a catering service versus a restaurant, a food truck versus a restaurant. growing and sustainability. we used to work with ex-offenders with a partnership with good will. we are partnering with the fee keys charter schools and offer a program currently in the men's jails of san francisco. we were doing the program in the womens' jail but the five keys recommended that we switch to the men's jails because the population is so much larger -- it's about 100 times larger and also we found that incarcerated women the biggest focus was on the families and

the program is really going well in the men's jail. there are additional resources that women can utilize. nicole mentioned the san francisco economic development alliance. renaissance is a partner so if you really plug into the services in the city and continuum gets larger. we partner with la cocina. we partner with working solutions to get access to capital. we became a trustee for the new keepa zip program so they are having a local program interest free loans that are crowd sourced. people can go on the website and donate $25 and once you have the full amount can you get the interest free loan and doesn't reflect on your considered which is good and a bad thing. >> >> so things that the city can do to improve the environment

for women business owners i would say recognize it's job creation. i don't think people think enough of it like that and unemployment is really high on the national agenda and on the city's agenda and thinking of self employment as a remedy to unemployment i think is a really positive step. small businesses also need incentives. nicole mentioned the grant programs for opening brick and mortars. that was a great program. many women got to start their businesses through these grant programs. another idea would be to increase city purchasing from small businesses and women owned businesses. i know there are some competitive contracts that are offered to small businesses but a lot of our clients are too small to compete for the contracts so finding a way to make the contracts smaller would really increase our client's

ability to access them and that's i think that's all the slides i have. something additional there could be transgender individuals which are being left out of this conversation about under served communities. transgender people face economic disadvantages and doubled unemployment rate and we serve a couple of clients and it really makes a difference to have access to this type of training. >> great thank you. do we have any commissioner questions? >> i have a question on the city contracting aspect, and i know it's very difficult for a lot of small businesses to compete with the large businesses. have we advocated to have the formula where we see 1 dollar invested into creating a small business and having $30 generated back

locally? it seems to make sense if we're looking at city contracting we should look at that overall part as the formula because if we were contracting with some bigger chain where the -- the city -- we're not keeping that income within local jurisdiction. >> certainly. another component of that is the contractor is actually too big so it's too big to scale to compete for them so let's say there is a million dollars catering contract for a city agency because they use catering and our client vs to grow to support that or they're out of business and that is the risk competing for the large business. if it was a $10,000 contract they maybe could fill it and grow the business but competing on the large scale it's really risky for them. >> is there a way we could group some of the small caters

together? >> sure. i think so. >> commissioner rodriquez. >> my question is just how do individuals really find out about your services? and this really goes for all of the different organizations, but -- >> our best advertising is word of mouth. we have been around for 28 years. word of mouth recommendation goes a lot father than any billboard you would see. we're very grass roots in our outreach efforts. we stay in touch of all of the partners and if our services can't meet their needs but another can we work with the office of small business and they refer people to us and we do outreaching, tabling, community events, that kind of thing. >> thank you. >> i think that one of the

other great things about renaissance like she said is almost 30 years old. correct? >>i was doing the math the other day. >> right. hi a -- i had a terrific experience working on the board and moving people from welfare to work and that had implications on the federal level and the local level and making sure that we had the right partners on the table and clearly one of the central partners at the table. can you speak very briefly to the role of renaissance in moving folks from -- because my understanding is renaissance as the other programs do deal with women in low income situations but you're also dealing with folks as i

still understand it that are some type of public assistance, and moving them from public assistance to a chance at greater self sufficiency through self employment. is -- can you comment on that in any regard? is that a focus of renaissance? >> it is a focus of renaissance and it's why we have so many types of services because people come to us at different phases. when we do work in eeft palo alto or bay view we change our approach. we have different types of training. work with people one-on-one. our east palo alto location has spanish classes. our bay view location works with people on starting on the 3rd street corridor and we help people have access to voice mail and technology and those types of things, so we try to get people access to whatever

they need along the way whether it's technology -- straight up access to a computer, a voice mail, an address to make it seem professional to get started. in terms of public assistance -- again self employment is not recognized as employment so folks are on unemployment benefits when theyk could be accessing different funding. >> i want to just -- i'm a big fan of renaissance center. i mean your building and south of market on fifth and the incubator process is amazing and you get office space and you have that umbrella protection before you're thrown out of the nest to fly and i think that is amazing thing that small business owners -- i mean just benefit tremendously and also your program to help in the jails of san francisco, up in san bruno county and empower them to start businesses. obviously they're incarcerated

because they were at a disadvantage to begin with and myself being formerly incarcerated it's impossible to get a job and your director and grass roots and out in the bay and out in the mission. you guys are doing an awesome job and coming from that appreciates us. >> and i included another success story and she is growing. thank you everyone. it was really nice to be here. >>i just wanted to say i'm a huge fan of renaissance. i want to reiterate what commissioner oritz-caragena said. sharon miller is probably one of the best executive directors out there of any organization out there and i really encourage

you if you get a chance to take a tour of their facility on fifth and folsom. it's really amazing, and the work that they do, and the partnerships with working solutions, with sba. i 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