get the feet, instead of going to government itself, -- the businesses get the fee. es would be able to harvest, to reap that the -- fee. we are not looking to generate profits from any angle of this legislation, but it is to disincentive buys the reliance on the plastic bag and, of course, on the paper bag. even though a lot of our people is -- our paper is post recyclable, there is still a reliance on paper, and we want people to reuse their bags, so both from international as well as i think from domestic examples, once we are out of the start at this, now other cities have really exhibited how well it works. red and blue cities or states are the ones showing this, so it goes without politics but more to the bottom-line of try to save the taxpayers' money, trying to spare the city i think the added challenge of walking the talk when it comes to their green pretensions, wanting to green their cities, doing something larger than what we would like to see done but frustrated because it is not happening on a state or federal level. we have some exemptions that are part

the u.s. small business administration. the small business administration covers not only san francisco proper but the bay area. the severed his third district is responsible for a business loan portfolio of 12,000 loans worth $4.2 billion. in 2009, the sba approved $500 million in lending. next, we have the executive director of the san francisco small business office. she was in san francisco in 1986 to open the buffalo exchange limited store, and in the 13 years she worked for buffalo exchange, tennis district manager, she held her open the company from four to 11 stores. in 2009, the mayor appointed her as executive director to the office of small businesses. next, we have the ceo of opportunity funds. he has combined his background as a community organizer with an education from stanford to develop an innovative, not-for- profit financial incision that uses market principles to affect systemic change. it operates one of the nation's largest individual development, programs, a leading provider of micro loans in californi

i'm from the office of small business. my comments today are going to be around discussions, and formal recommendations the commission has had in its committee meetings. to be clear, the commission has not had a formal hearing a around this particular issue, so to provide any definitive direction or recommendations from the office or commission, that's not what my comments are about, but to provide you with information about the discussions we have had as we move forward -- we will be using these as guidelines for us. in 2009 and 2010, the small business commission did make to formal recommendations to the planning commission not to approve a pet store formula retail. the commission did make these recommendations because the businesses came to the commission and so the commission responded to their request. in general, the commission does not take positions on a formula retail as a matter of course. in both instances, the small business commission's fault the guidelines in the planning code to make their recommendation and

and from the small business commission. gislation is crime prevention and public safety oriented. it is named to reducing the repeat offender rate which is in the range of 65%-70% for more than a decade. consistent studies have shown that recidivism rates for x offenders who have paid employment in the first six months of their release, half of those did not find employment. we're expecting to receive six of and 50 additional tax offenders into the probation program and the jails this year 2011-2012. the recidivism rate for this group is nearly at 78%. ever since copays $47,500 a year for prisoner and county jails. this legislation will give a $10,000 tax break per offender based on a formula to the city's payroll tax which is equivalent of 1.5%. the city collects $390 million in payroll taxes every year. cities like philadelphia have had some success in the past year with the $10,000 tax credit already. there are not many businesses that are clamoring to take advantage of this because the city of philadelphia has seen that

to support the business. also, they relied on home equity lines of credit, which in many cases do not exist anymore, also as a source for financing their business. as far as doing public contracting, one thing about public contract in that you can count on is the city of san francisco will stay in business and pay its debt, just later than you would like it to be. when you're doing public contract thing, if you will, cash cycle -- when you do the work and when you get paid is something you have to factor into your understanding of capital needs. so you have to figure that into the process. usually, that is figured into the pricing. but it is also the case that would you also probably need is a line of credit. depending on whether you feel your credit situation is where you want to go to a bank like wells fargo or another regulated bank, and line of credit, or work for a working- capital type of loan, which is something you look to do, the opportunity fund. you probably want to try both avenues. as far as your

the lower income business people, the lower income businesses. that being said, i will support this. and the support to the work of supervisor cohen and president chiu. president o'brien: do you know what the legislation has, i am trying to remember, which would not be the first time. did we have anything to monitor the impact? i seem to recall there was something to do reporting to see how this affects things. >> correct. i brushed over what was new but in terms of the amendments, supervisor david chiu did have in his legislation for businesses to report on their expenditures. so, so that is still there. businesses will still be required in the amount of what they are making. the defined the details of what they will need to report on is still yet to, but the idea is to stay with your hra account, what are reimbursable expenses under your plan so that we can monitor and track that. we want to reiterate to the fact that the employee notification, the time of the employment and on a regular basis as also codified in the legislation. i want to thank

vo: get the card built for business spending. ll 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. >>> earlier we introduced you to evelyn anderson and jerry, the owners of a custom playground company who needed our help. when we visited we saw easy fixes to spruce up their business. you'll see the outpouring of support from the entrepreneurial community to give them a boost. >> yesterday was sorting out what's going on here. there's a lot going on. today, where the rubber hits the road, we are doing heavy lifting to get things cleaned up. >> first step, to see if they did their homework. >> good to see you. what about the top ten clients. did we figure them out? >> we got 15. >> any common trend that you identified? >> yes. i think they are all creative interesting products we have done. >> that is a seed for finding other clients just like that. perfect. tell me about the mentor. how did that go? >> i'm inclined to like to meet every two weeks. >> now, the big reveal. what is the new name of the current busin

at times, the same small businesses outbid the prime that mentored them. we've had a number of examples of those. it's a very robust program that we have with the association of general contractors. we've signed an agreement with them and we do have the numbers there. eight construction companies and mentors that are participating in that program. it's a very good program and i'm thankful to a.g.c. for working with us and participating in that aspect of our work. >> as i mentioned, and as was mentioned earlier, we cover not just the san francisco county, but the entire nine counties of bay area, and we cover a lot of projects in our region. 155 contracts,. but any contracting that we do, this chart shows the type of work that we do to make sure that we're providing access to those contracts. we have a number of partners. a lot of money comes from the feds to us that supports our entire capital program. and we make sure that we do training. we make sure that we do outreach. we make sure that we are monitoring our contracts and we are gathering information a

the good news, though, for businesses like you are describing, internet business, is that the capital requirements for that type of business is generally small. you are able to get yourself further along and share in revenues with a smaller amount of credit need. that is where we see a lot of businesses and personal service or internet business get started, and generate revenues and be able to show growth without needing any capital, like a brick and mortar business might. >> my name is terry said. i have a retail business in san francisco for 22 years. i have a 5 04 -- 504 loan. it took me three years to get. we need more capital. i tried to get a line of credit from wells capital. i was decline. where does someone like myself go? i have a loan, i need additional funding. >> did you try through the sba? >> i already have an sba loan. i went to wells fargo for a line of credit and they would not give me one. >> i can speak to you about it. when we look at funds that are needed, the biggest thing we look at our cash flow. i can address that with you. unless there is an issue, at that p

trying to move that back in the community to a local level so that our local businesses are disaster responders that can help them in the recovery process is very essential. thank you very much for your time. [applause] >> thank you. that's great. it brought back a lot of memories. our next speaker is mayor bates. first elected mayor bringing a lifetime of service including four years as alameda county supervisor and two decades a california legislator representing berkeley. he worked to build berkeley into an international powerhouse and because of these efforts berkeley has been named the third most sustainable city in the united states in the peer review study by a major environmental organization. i would be remiss that i wouldn't mention that mayor bates was part of loma prieta. he and his wife worked hard to make the city of berkeley a national center of disaster resilience. mayor bates will discuss the importance of citizen awareness as loma prieta engaged with the city to address emergency preparedness headon. let's welcome mayor bates to the podium. [applause] >> thank you, p

the red, yellow, green business which got to eventually. but what was the right thing to do? at the moment the right thing to do is what police and fire did which was to get everybody out of there and do search and rescue and so that worked really well because they had actually rehearsed that in august and that's what fire and police did and that's what emergency response was. nobody really knew that much about recovery or thought about it. but the first thing that happened is everybody leaves after 24 hours. they're fine with that. then after 48 hours people kind of dust themselves off and get up and say, you know, i got some medicine in my apartment unit downtown or i'm a business and i've got all my records that i need to get. or what am i going to do? all of a sudden at one time multiple needs emerge, and these come into conflict with the fundamental value of keeping everybody safe. so the earthquake was on tuesday, and it wasn't until friday that the world figured out that loma prieta was not next to san francisco and oakland, that it was down near santa cruz and watsonv

vo: get the card built for business spending. serve your business. >>> we hear it time and time again, entrepreneurs starting business borne out of necessity. let's meet a man who came up with the idea of making a better drumstick with no intentions of starting a company. 45 years later vick firth is on a roll. vic firth has never had to drum up business. his customers have always come to him. >> you know, it's just very, very comfortable, they are very consistent. >> vic firth is a great company. >> considered the gucci of the louis vuitton of drumsticks. >> i tried the rest these are the best. ♪ >> when people think drumsticks, they think vic firth. the man behind the name says his company's reputation is not just luck. his customers love his product because he won't stand for anything less than 100%. >> it grew based on the fact that i demanded absolutely top quality of everything. >> firth's obsession with making the perfect drumstick didn't come out of a desire to start a company. just a need to create a better product for hi

your celebrating 75 years in the same neighborhood, the same family running the business. and you don't see that anymore. it is very unique. i think you have become an institution, not only in our neighborhood, but in the city. janet and i each have our own little stories, i had this 1951 the oyster blunder. it was my grandmother's. you guys had the little piece that goes and then that twirls it around. i got this three years ago. i don't think you ever claim the basement out. >> i would really like to thank you. you have been on the short list of being honored by this commission for quite some time. on behalf of all the families, i raised my child in san francisco, and i think we hear a lot about how san francisco isn't family friendly. i challenge them to go to cliffs. we regularly shop there for birthdays, parties, leading gifts, housewares. you have everything and it is really a true neighborhood serving hardware store that is also such a great community resources. on behalf of my family and all the families, thank you for your work. >> i have to take my glasses off for

keep them together the core business tend to beat up on the little fledgling, start-up business so you separate them. i get that. i think that makes sense. but raising prices dramatically in the process, not explaining why he was doing what he was doing, and then having to reverse course so quickly makes it sound like, you know, someone wasn't really thinking through all of this very well. >> tom: can he recover? can netflix recover from these mistakes? >> they're actually in a position where they don't have a particularly strong competitive advantage, and that's a formula that generally doesn't end up too well. >> tom: research in motion also one you identified as a series of bad mistakes this year. sinking market share, it's playbook tablet computer was a failure and of course the service outages. and, boy, this stock has really come down to multi-year lows. what's ahead for research in motion? >> they're hamstrung by a couple of really important things. number one, these two guys, lazaridis, and balsillie, both smart but co-c.e.o.s hardly ever works. it's hard to lead a company when

vo: get the card built for business spending. -now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. >>> 'tis the season for many small businesses to capitalize on the holiday spending frenzy. it's a particularly busy time for those entrepreneurs whose businesses are seasonal. that's certainly the case for one ohio-based entrepreneur we met last year. whose passion for the holiday film classic "a christmas story" attracts fans of the movie from far and wide. 'tis the month before christmas, and all through the house, the tourists are flocking, to see "a christmas story" house. the leg lamp was placed by the window with care, not one person left without a knickknack to share. >> we sell t-shirts, sweat shirts, bunny suits, leg lamps, leg lamp night lights, leg lamp ornaments, leg lamp cookie cutters. we sell lifebuoy soap, of course, fudge, actual oh, fudge. >> brian jones is a lifelong fan of the 1983 holiday classic "a christmas story." >> my husband is very "christmas story" obsessed. >> his favorite scene features the

>> about the future of aol, it's going to be a difficult transition, it's a huge shift for the businessbut tim armstrong just gave in his meeting the other day, laying out how they are doing that and the pieces to make that happen and he's confident it could happen. i think it's going to continue to be a difficult transition. i think we still have rough times ahead of us. i think they are putting the right people in the right places to make it happen and i think it will happen and they'll be successful in the long run. >> what's it been like at end gadget in terms of your success? have you noticed traffic go up or down? >> traffic's been up, just had one of our strongest months ever and we'll have our biggest presence of ces this year with live interviews and that sort of thing. so yeah, traffic has been up. >> ces is like a war, right? >> like a boot camp. each year gets bigger and harder, working 18, 19, 20-plus hours a day for greater than a week. everybody is fighting to get the exclusives, the news, get it online and cover it better than everybody else. we're ready, we're looking f

what struck me is the cost to businesses of electric rates. what will they jump when san francisco is all thely enrolled in -- automatically enrolled in the green energy program and that's, you know, the gist of it is everyone in san francisco will be enrolled in this program at once. and yes, it is the right thing to do for the environment, to use as much renewable energy as we can, but i think when we look forward, we should have a presentation on what impact this will have to our business community. and analysis to have rates for pg & e. these ongoing to costs and their increases are extremely significant to our small business community. thanks. >> was that community choicing a -- choice aggregation? >> yes. community choice aggregation. >> it was not at lafco. it was -- i'll go back. but the presentation that i audited was on community choice aggregation that everyone, all the residents will be enrolled in it and it will increase the average residential cost from $7 to $14 and up. depending on the size of your house. now, this asks, you kno

these are from feedback, including from the small business commission. these amendments include changing the requirement that dog walkers wear their licenses around their neck to a requirement they carry them on their person. i have changed the implementation date to january 1, 2013. i wanted to give plenty of time for animal care to do this. in addition, the director of animal care and control will have the discretion to extend the implementation date for up to six months if she determines that extra time is required. the amendments will require that in order to conduct an apprenticeship, in other words to teach another dog walker, the dog walker muffed at least three years of experience as a walker. you can't have a brant new dog walker train a new one. it lowers the threshold for dog walkers into the regulated cat combore from walking four or more dogs to two or more dogs. i got feedback that it would be unfair to distinguish dog walkers and require only those walking four or more at a time to get a permanent, so it has been lowered to two. in terms of

it is an estimate and i put the business as same thing. that is our current assessment. 75% or so far proved of all the applications filed. the rest either withdrawn or disapproved or still pending hearing at the planning commission. so there are some issues that have been coming up and that's why we had a hearing this summer at the planning commission. there are some hot topics around the formula retail issues. in particular, there have been requests that the law should be amended so banks would be included in the definition of formal retail. this has been a request by certain members of the planning commission as well as members of the board of supervisors. as regina explained, both members of the planning commission and small-business commission have been studying this issue and will be collaborating on it in the future. on the topic of why banks are or are not included in for retail, i can go into that in more detail. i would suggest this is something ripe for revisiting this is there is a much discontent with the way it is being implem

number one, a person already in business. the second person should be someone who can give you business or has done business with you. the third business should be a mentor, someone unofficially mentoring you. make it official. add them to your board of advisers. the fourth and fifth person should be a lawyer, a cpa or accounta accountant. you need someone you can bounce questions off so you can get advice without necessarily getting a big. >> someone told me good advice when you put together a board of directors, think of a business party. you want people who think it's a good idea to be around the other people there so they are getting something out of it as well. >> great point. >> this is an e-mail from bob. i provide locations, prices and availability for advertising. oftentimes they get my proposal with a price for services and go straight to the vendor for reduced costs. i am left out of the sale. how do i solve this issue? >> i think there are a couple things. how much information is he putting in the proposal? how much d

we did not think that this would put at risk any of the local businesses. because the previous store that was there sold about 16 feet of hard alcohol, we drastically scale that down. we look at stuff that would not be a threat to our local businesses. thank you. any further questions? supervisor avalos: thank you very much. it was one of the conditions of approval, the 4 foot by 6 ft. space for sales. ok. thank you very much. if there are no other members of the public? >> good morning, supervisors. carl kramer, the san francisco living wage coalition. speaking to the issue, wholefoods might be in store, but it is on the low end of wages and benefits. it is the wal-mart standard of wages for workers. we have an example here of an owner of a neighborhood store who is coming in, asking for saving those stores that are paying families supporting wages. our owner is obviously supporting his family. the big difference, and i met with the ceo, he was a firm believer in unions and of paying a living wage at cal foods. the ceo of whole foods has written a book agai

business owners. there's positive news for the new year. business optimism rose 1.8 points, the highest level since february. it showed an increase in small business owner who is expect sales to increase and those expecting to hire. it was a political football in 2011 with president obama pushing his small business jobs plan and supporting small business saturday. his political opponents raised issues affecting small business owners in debates running up to primary season. what will 2012 bring for our entrepreneurial community. brian hamilton, the co-founder of a company that has software for small businesses, brian hecht and phil town. great to see all of you. >> thank you. >> bill, you have been here every year, i think, doing this with us at the end of the year. i want to start with you, also because we cited your survey. optimism up three years in a row. do you expect this to continue next year? >> i think it will continue as we look at the basics in the economy. either we are getting used to bad news and we are going ignore it and move

vo: get the card built for business spending. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. >>> >> as the mother of three kids i know all too well how tiring it can be to pick up after them. fortunately, today's elevator pitcher has come to the rescue to help beleaguered parents everywhere from tripping over toys. >> hi, we're adam and amy fazackerley the creators of lay-n-go. we have three great kids who love lego but we needed a better cleanup and storage solution than what we could find on the market. >> all right, boys, it's time to clean up. >> lay-n-go is washable, and it allows kids to play for hours but clean up in seconds. mom simply tightens up the cord lock and safely stows the cord in the front pocket. we also put a seat belt strap on the back so that you could hang it up or you could put it on your shoulder for hands-free carrying. the best part about lay-n-go is that it passes the shake test. turn it over, you don't lose a piece. we're currently selling lay-n-go at lay-n-go.com, at online