the issues confronting small business owners. tax care, health care, hiring were the sources of two dpee baits between the two parties. the national federal of independent businesses' optimism was down 5.6 points to 87.5 points in november, the lowest since 2010. so what are small business owners concerned about for the coming year? three familiar faces to "your business" join us now. william. christy is the president and ceo of the national association of self-enemployed and with us is jo john. great to see you. we convinced john to come to new york this time. okay, john. i'm going to start with you since you made the trip to new york. we saw small business optimism index from nfib, bill's group has dropped what have you seen? >> we're seeing somewhat different. we did a poll. we did it with christy's organization. we now see unemployment at the lowest level it's been in four years and we're in no means out of the woods but there is glimmers of hope that seven of ten of the small businesses that we polled and this is a scientific

business questions. mike and colleen are with us once again. the first one is an e-mail from robin who writes, i have a unique business idea that i would like to collaborate with existing businesses who may be interested in becoming a supplier or wholesaler. how would you go about choosing the vendors to participate? i guess one of the things that she has to do is to get people interested in whatever her idea is. >> yes, she mentions unique business idea and i wonder if she has tested it out? any business owner or potential business owner, i recommend before you spend a lot of time, energy and money jumping into this, test out this unique business idea. it may not be something that fli flies. you might think it is great, but have a focus group and see if it is going to work before you invest a lot in this. >> and when she goes to try to find these partners, how does she find them? >> well, you have to start small. if you try to go for the big venner dos and saven vendors and say i want to collaborate with you, they will say, who are you? but go wit

businesses. again, i want to thank the mayor. i want to thank all of my small businesses who have weathered the years here. * and of course to all of our departments who have been absolutely phenomenal with this effort. thank you. (applause) >> all right. thank you, supervisor. and we also know that it's so important to make sure that we get the workout on the streets and we have to -- the right kind of nonprofit partners who help us achieve the goals of a program like this one is so important to our small businesses. so i'd like to invite up to speak frank baumgartner from small business economic developer to help get the word out with supervisor chu. so, frank? >> thanks, everybody, for being here. i'm with asian neighborhood design, project coordinator over there and we're a nonprofit architecture firm that's been around 40 years, specializing in improvements for small businesses and affordable housing. and we're really excited to be teamed up with osb and oewd on this venture to bring education about the importance of disabled

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

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

they found that 80% of the business came in the last quarter of the year. more retail businesses, about half of the business comes during the last quarter of the year. so they just have a disproportionate share of that coming during that time. so what they have to do is find ways. maybe offer more incentives to buy the products early in the year. i would do that. give me half price off if i buy in july. christmas in july. >> i have to disagree with that. i would not do christmas in july. they say love your family and then they say a man cave shot? that doesn't seem like family. i'm not going to go with my guy friends down to my man cave. but if love your family is the strategy, they should focus on what family activities you do together. photography is the biggest one. photographers, that's where you get the picture altogether and you can do it and that can be year-round. >> and that's your idea of packaging. >> i want to go back to what you said about being a manufacturer and a retailer. do you suggest they manufacture elsewhere? >> totally. the cost of man

business. so, now we're at the point * [speaker not understood] not only do we have the business, and they want to dig a huge hole in the middle of columbus avenue and union. now, i ask the last meeting, i asked the last meeting, why section 1 have to be done after 2, 3 and 4, can't pick any of those? they said, well, that's what you need. you need a station in north beach so more people coming in. when the station going to be done? it's not even on the books. it's not even -- money, nothing. 10 years from now, 15 years from now? this is 1989 to 2012 to be starting. when the station north beach going to be? there's no money, there's no plans, there's nothing. i'm going to be retired. i'm not even going to make it work. my business is going to go down. they're not going to listen. i asked mr. funge to talk russian. he told me that's what we need. he stationed north beach. what is the plans? where is the money? there is not a plan that can be done. it can be the business, it can be the machine underground. pagoda [speaker not understood], fine. but number one, we all vote last meeting, it was no,

almost all the federal money available small businesses is in the form of loans. after this storm and in this economy, small business owners are resistant to taking on more debt. most of the money lost by small businesses can never be recovered. a homeowner might be eligible for a grant, but if you are a business owner, you're only federal auction is the loan. this has to change because those do not get back in the business fast by themselves unable to ever open again. small businesses often live week to week and have your reserves and are more dependent on daily cash flow. and i urge you to enhance the programs that would include grants to small businesses as well. there are other items. the senator recently proposed new legislation that would aid small businesses in the aftermath of hurricane sandy, and it would provide maximum credits and deductions. an additional federal efforts will also include recognizing that businesses may not have suffered physical damage, but extraordinary losses of revenue due to the power failures in the ability for customers to patron

>>>> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondenent rebecca cooper. >> thanknks fojoining us fofor a ok at business and finance in e washington region where every tip of the klop carries us that much closer to the new year and attention over the major impact automatic spending cuts and tax rates expiring bought on our area's economy. we have been talking about the dreaded cliff -- we have d decided to wait it out. we did -- instead of guessing we willll focus on a group of businessss leaders recognize for making things happen. maybe congress will be as inspired as we are. for our final show of 202012 wee are joining the organization junior achievement of the greater washington area to recognize the newest inductees into the washington busine hall of fame. first, a ceo who gets awards across the country for building bethesda-based eaglebank as one of the fastest i in the nationon. the ceo ron paul was named community banker of the year this year by american banker ma

so form is -- the applications are available. if a business residents between noriega, irving street and terrville, et cetera, so asian neighborhood design is managing the program. and doing the inspections and helping with the outreach to the businesses. we did have a press conference with the mayor to announce this and it was very nice. supervisor carmen chu after the press conference went and walked along the corridor to start to inform the businesses. are there any questions about that? >> how was the merchants in that area reacting to that? were they receptive? >> yes. we have one business who has filed an application. but others, the asian neighborhood design did an assessment right there on-site. so some of them it was just a few things, like clearing off the counter, that you have your ada counter built and just clearing it off. or removing the garbage can, or changing the table. so they were able do some on-site assessments that were very simple and really readily achievable things that a business can do. so that was very well receive

almost all the federal money available small businesses is in the form of loans. after this storm and in this economy, small business owners are resistant to taking on more debt. most of the money lost by small businesses can never be recovered. a homeowner might be eligible for a grant, but if you are a business owner, you're only federal auction is the loan. this has to change because those do not get back in the business fast by themselves unable to ever open again. small businesses often live week to week and have your reserves and are more dependent on daily cash flow. and i urge you to enhance the programs that would include grants to small businesses as well. there are other items. the senator recently proposed new legislation that would aid small businesses in the aftermath of hurricane sandy, and it would provide maximum credits and deductions. an additional federal efforts will also include recognizing that businesses may not have suffered physical damage, but extraordinary losses of revenue due to the power failures in the ability for customers to patron

are supporting us because they're concerned about the effects on their businesses should option 1, the base plan to take the equipment out of the center of columbus occur. i would like to endorse what mr. reiskin, the director of the mta suggested was the possibility at the beginning of today's meeting. that is that you accept the return here if option 4 and option 3 are not possible, that they would ask the mta to come back here to the board with or without public comment but certainly just to listen for all of us in public to know why option 4 and option 3 are not possible. and i commend mr. reiskin and director [speaker not understood] for listening for the first time to the community. i think they've done an excellent job in trying to find out what it is that the businesses are so concerned about. i think that i can say if we can't go to the pagoda palace or choose option 3 instead, we would certainly withdraw this lawsuit. i've met privately with the mayor about that and we confirmed that in writing to him and to christine [speaker not understood], that we are

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

quote helping bring more business leaders into the policymaking process but do we really need more business leaders in the policymaking process to discuss this i'm joined now by rachel kurz yes she is a producer here at r.t. nice to theory time to so tell us more about what this is business forward sure so luckily enough business forwards pretty president c.e.o. named jim doyle actually went on c.-span washington journal this morning to explain a little bit more about how business ford works and i was hoping we could take a look at his explanation of what we do is we bring business leaders from around the country to brief the president is that konami teams on everything from health care reform to immigration reform fiscal the fiscal cliff into. intellectual property protection and the business leaders are speaking for themselves generally speaking business leaders are centrists they're data driven the results oriented and they are looking for compromise in washington. so liz as you can see essential business forward is trying to do is make sure that members of business especially large busi

business. so, now we're at the point * [speaker not understood] not only do we have the business, and they want to dig a huge hole in the middle of columbus avenue and union. now, i ask the last meeting, i asked the last meeting, why section 1 have to be done after 2, 3 and 4, can't pican

business. so, now we're at the point * [speaker not understood] not only do we have the business, and they want to dig a huge hole in the middle of columbus avenue and union. now, i ask the last meeting, i asked the last meeting, why section 1 have to be done after 2, 3 and 4, can't pick any of those? they said, well, that's what you need. you need a station in north beach so more people coming in. when the station going to be done? it's not even on the books. it's not even -- money, nothing. 10 years from now, 15 years from now? this is 1989 to 2012 to be starting. when the station north beach going to be? there's no money, there's no plans, there's in

those are the previous business owner. these are mine. >> so it looks leak you followed their system. they headed back upstairs were dawn got erica started on a quick books account. go ahead and finish. now we've created the bank account. >> be brutally honest with me. erica's taking care of upstairs. what's your first impression? >> hot mess. first interpretation of what i've seen here. again, not abnormal but frightening? can as by operate like this? >> well, it can, but not for very long. they won't be in business for very long. >> you feel confident it can be fixed? >> it can always be fixed. >> while dawn and erica finished up with quickbooks and andrew was busy on the shay toe we asked her son to to take pictures. >> he's a photographer for bed & breakfast and inns in the nation. he's donate his time to help us out here. tell us what you've about got going on. >> i'm setting up the lights in here just, you know, interior photography, a lot it it has to do with creating your own light. >> erica was so eager she asked h

the business network members sort of -- even if in a quiet way. so the black market in illegal trade, smuggling, basically created the sources that said networks -- [inaudible]. after that period the rule of law was applied a little bit more broadly. not necessarily for any other reason, other than making sure that they would be no new entrants to this kind of special club. >> in the western press during this crisis or uprising in syria, it was always described as the commercial center of the country. tell us about that activity. >> for several hundred years, if not more, it was basically sort of the meeting point between europe and asia. and has always developed, was developed as a center of trade and commerce. that continued, of course throughout the centuries into the 20th century, and made it what it is in terms of its trade, in terms of its trade potential. now, it's also larger than the capital, damascus, not by much but it's a very large city. it's not just the second city. so has been a place where many traders and manufacturers as well pre