and as the daughter of two small business owners, i know how important walkable, or small businesses are to to a community in general and neighborhoods. and also i know how hard it is to operate a small business, and the challenges and that is where i get my work from. and you know, we, as walk sf, we see this new partnership as a opportunity to move forward and address some of these challenges and figure out some solutions. and again, you know, we know that walkable business areas are the most thriving business areas and so we want for them. without a doubt, many bicycles will grow and continue to grow as long as the city continues to make bicycling a friendly and welcoming place. and we have our headquarters in our store in south park and soma as well as a store in the mission and no doubt, the biggest obstacle for our ability to grow our business is the lack of infrastructure to make bicycling and walking friendly. particularly in the soma area where we are headquarters and there is no greater impediment to our growth than when there is traffic congestion caused by cars. people wi

of this small business commission, it actually started with a small business advisory commission in 1986. then, the board of supervisors in 1999, dropped the advisory from the commission name and created the office of small business affairs, in 2003, the voters passed proposition d in november of 2003, adding to the city's charter a small business commission, and i think to our knowledge, this small business commission is the only chartered commission in the united states. proposition i, passed in november of 2007 amending the administrative code to define the duties, which created, and the functions of the office of small business, and mandating that the office of small business under the guidance of the small business commission, establish a business assistance center and that is what we have today. so, to give you a bit of an overview of the structure of the office, there is the small business commission, and under that, i report to the small business commission. then we have in our staff, starting from the left, a policy commission secretary policy analyst, a supervisor to the a

office of small business. and working with sf travel and working on things like small business saturday and helping advertisements for those, and i think that there is a lot of things that we are doing outside of the big projects every day to try to facilitate and encourage commerce, particularly small business commerce in the city. so, in terms of the projects, the capitol projects, which i think have been probably the main source of concern, this flowchart is meant to show kind of an over all, over all process. and one of the things that i have spoken to a number of you about, is our opportunity to do the public engagement and out reach, better, including engaging people sooner in the process, and as i have also shared, we are developing a new approach to that. and which we should very soon have a draft of and be happy to work with the office of small business and the office of economic workforce development, and the small business network and any other stake holder who is interested in reviewing it and givi

women small business. show she appreciates this area and it makes tourist want to come to san francisco. we need to keep this in san francisco. she understands our businesses we work toirlsly for hours and we love our community but we love san francisco. we've cello this path and she understandss that. kathleen duly also represents sorry i lost my place. kathleen dowelly represent the small businesses in every possible way please reappoint her. thank you. any oth any oth any oth any other public comment. can we forward this >> i guess we have someone who is passionate and loves small businesses integrations. >> item 5 is to consider two members to the balance both area. i believe we were informed that one member is unable to you be here today to speak on here on behalf of we have supervisor avalos joining us today. supervisor >> thank you, colleagues. i came to the podium i wasn't quite dressed but i want to thank you for considering the appointment of gwen shows been a long-term friend and advocate for th

the next wave expected to hit small business workers. 40 million work for companies with small group insurance plans that may be affected by obamacare, the same way the individual policies were. one blue cross, blue shield company warning that 99.5% of their small group plans will be affected. so should you be worried? hi, everybody. i'm david asman. welcome to "forbes on fox." go in focus with mr. steve forbes, rich karlgaard, elizabeth macdonald, john tamby, rich. here we go but in spades. >> 2014 will be a train wreck. you have a 40 million americans who work for companies with 100 employees or fewer. aetna ceo says the premium for the workers will go up 20 to 50% in the course of 2014. even the government's own health and human resources says that up to 80% of those workers could lose their coverage. >> yeah, that was actually based on an i.r.s. report. they were using information from h.h.s. rick, ironically, a lot of the letters that are going to go out to the small plans are going to happen in october. just before the election. that is dangerous for the democrats. >> it's actu

>> scott howge,, i just want to bring up the small business community, the small business commission, has supported the task force recommendations that came out regarding the plakards that is a good example that we can work together and show some opportunities for collaboration. >> any other members of the public that would like to make a comment on something that is not on today's agenda. >> i don't see anything, mr. president. >> it looks to me like it is time to adjourn. >> i would like to thank both of the staffs and i would like to thank christian murdock and director dick-endrizzi and for your guidance on this and director reiskin. >> and do we have a motion to adjourn? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, great. >> i'm your host of "culturewire," and today, here at electric works in san francisco. nice to see you today. thanks for inviting us in and showing us your amazing facility today. >> my pleasure. >> how long has electric works been around? >> electric works has been in san francisco since the beginning of 2007. we moved here from brisbane from our old innovation. we do pri

i have a huge problem with this for small business owners because small business owners invest their own capital, and nobody is guaranteeing their wages. and we know small business owners sometimes take one, two, three or even longer in terms of years to even turn a profit. so now you're telling me as a small business owner that i all of a sudden owe you a certain amount of money and i've risked my own capital and i might not even be getting that. i don't think that that's fair and i think that this is going to hurt not only the jobs but entrepreneurship because the bar becomes higher. there is no exemption whatsoever. if you're a stay at home mom and you want to hire the mom down the street to help you start something up, there is no exemption for that. there is no saying that you know we're going to come up with this agreement, and decide amongst ourselves, between two parties, negotiate between two parties what makes sense for us to get this off the grid. so i am not advocating for any particular wage. i'm just saying leave it up to the parties at hand. >> got it. okay. and so the

are there any particular objections that have been expressed from small businesses. >> we had a small business r0u7bd table a number of months ago and the concerns are larger on the large employer side rather than the small business side because the small business owners are not engaging in background checks. the complaints are issues after private right of action and feeling uncomfortable with the liability and as an enforcing agency for the hiring decision of an employer which is why it's not the case. the employer questionnaire it seems cumbersome why they specific the problems early on. most of the concerns we've largely and the through the process. i know have presented it to the executive director of the association and the vast majority who do background checks have complied with a process similar to this. i think that larger companies are taking the guidance seriously >> thank you. any other commissioner comments. okay open this up for public comment is there anybody from the any public comment? >> i have one speaker card from the do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the w

on small business companies in 2006. i think appropriately scaling federal registration of m&a brokers is a good thing and something i would not only support but encourage my colleagues to support as well. h.r. 2274 would amend the exchange act by adding a new subsection, section 15, which would govern broker-dealer registration. the amendment would cut regulatory costs incurred by sellers and buyers of small and mid-sized privately held companies in privately negotiated transactions. federal law would continue to provide important investor protections through the s.e.c. registration and s.e.c. regulation of capital custody -- capital, custody, record keeping applicable to m&a brokers and state security laws will continue to apply. i think this is a sensible legislation that should be supported by both sides of the aisle. i am indeed honored to stand with my colleagues in support of h.r. 2274, and i yield back -- actually, i reserve the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time is reserved. the

>> scott howge,, i just want to bring up the small business community, the small business commission, has supported the task force recommendations that came out regarding the plakards that is a good example that we can work together and show some opportunities for collaboration. >> any other members of the public that would like to make a comment on something that is not on today's agenda. >> i don't see anything, mr. president. >> it looks to me like it is time to adjourn. >> i would like to thank both of the staffs and i would like to thank christian murdock and director dick-endrizzi and for your guidance on this and director reiskin. >> and do we have a motion to adjourn? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, grea >> when there's good children's theatre it's good thoert and if it's good to her you will like it ever it's for children that's what i think. it's both a story for kids and a older people it's about loving a toy or friend and it's will what it means to get old. >> in 1986 my son was two and i decided i would like to make a developing rabbit i had never read it i heard it as

>> scott howge,, i just want to bring up the small business community, the small business commission, has supported the task force recommendations that came out regarding the plakards that is a good example that we can work together and show some opportunities for collaboration. >> any other members of the public that would like to make a comment on something that is not on today's agenda. >> i don't see anything, mr. president. >> it looks to me like it is time to adjourn. >> i would like to thank both of the staffs and i would like to thank christian murdock and director dick-endrizzi and for your guidance on this and director reiskin. >> and do we have a motion to adjourn? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, grea >> (clapping) all right. thank you erica and thank for the great work. leader pelosi and mayor ed lee thank you for your attention. welcome to yelp. i'm excited to have you here at our new headquarters. as you know yelp has lived within the same radius. we've moved a short distance away and to keep our headquarters in san francisco was a conscious one. san francisco was a ke

>> scott howge,, i just want to bring up the small business community, the small business commission, has supported the task force recommendations that came out regarding the plakards that is a good example that we can work together and show some opportunities for collaboration. >> any other members of the public that would like to make a comment on something that is not on today's agenda. >> i don't see anything, mr. president. >> it looks to me like it is time to adjourn. >> i would like to thank both of the staffs and i would like to thank christian murdock and director dick-endrizzi and for your guidance on this and director reiskin. >> and do we have a motion to adjourn? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, great. okay good after everyone. thank you very much for coming happy new year i'm ed reiskin i'm the director of transportation and happy to kickoff the new year. san francisco has been a dynamic city during the break i was reading the history of muni how things have changed and required the city to view. we're in a lot of change including in our transportation system a lot of c

large and small. we've met with them once in december and we'll be he meeting with them in february. here we're asking advise and federal bureau e feedback for the fields that are professionals in. kathleen duly is one of the members. we're looking for feedback and people to enable us to get the information outlining anti. how, you help. we ask you shire those through your e-mails and merchant associations and social networks and then notify your guests at the library. before i get to the questions part i really want to acknowledge a few people. i first want to acknowledge regunmen for whom so much of this project has been driven she's made herself and staff and all resources available and asking us how they can do better. i want to thank the director of the economic workforce demonstrate todd he asks how to remind san francisco businesses how they can be open. greg has completely turned his personal life up and down who goes to all the meetings. last week, we started at a bar at the 8:30 in the morni

we also hit the ground running after the term sheet was endorsed we have a project team that's small but growing. and as this project matures there will be ongoing stunt. we've exceeded the goals for local hire and as indicated there will be more and more opportunity we're in the predevelopment stage and there are month universities in this phase. we've also paired large firms with small businesses to diverse and gain different experience as we're making decides. so for example, burdening son will they're a large firm and karen and kathie you may know they joined that firm and have done great work but we've skimmed to pair with other. we've skmd psyched them to partner. the cob let's firm harry was the council to us when we developed the park but we've asked harry to take some the work we've hired millie and marshall who used to be the personnel on other teams. we'll have fran did dig a little bit deeper into the information >> thanks jackie think phil and jack have given you a broad oversight and i want to give you some specific example we've been working on with the port over the l

i have one small question ms. hay word.n table two with the material we've received there's a category called cfo shops can you define that like a restaurant maybe the pinecrest is downtown. i would sort of characterize it a as a small business and mel's driven in is that a cfo shot shop >> they were analyzing the planning code defendant in relations the planning code has a restaurant and we were analyzing the industry of the code in the brad street data. we went through each sub category and tried to break down those into further categories that appear to be of interest related to formula retail. so while cfo shops fall under limited recuperate cfo shops tend to be a hot bottom issue we have the local chains and we have large chains so we tried based on the codes based on the brad street data for the interests. >> seems like reaching 50 percent is a little bit high to me >> that's stripping data. >> you're looking for feedback open the 4 topics. those are fine with me. i didn't acquit understand in red our term which says

and 18 percent, had or were small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, and small businesses were less likely to rely on the city option than on other methods of compliance. and this is the comparison. and so the contributions are it is same and both by the employer and meant to show the key differences between the two and so the contributions are the same and the employer contributes on behave of the employee and it meets and it has met in the past, the employer's healthcare security ordinance requirement. it rolls over and requires that the funds be made available to the employee for 24 sxhos after 24 months, the funding reverts back to the employer. and the average expenditure rate for the hras is about 25 percent and so what this means is particularly for small business and why small businesses may be disproportionately impacted, the small businesss that rely on and so budgeting for the expenditure and it may be costly for a small business in particular. >> the city mra,plan. and they take it back from the account, and the funds are technically available to the individuals. an

the small businesses that are making them, and the small businesses they're serving. coming up next on "your business." >>> small businesses are revitalizing the economy and american express open is here to help. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. >>> hi there, everyone, i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business." when you hear the word drone you likely automatically think of the military. which makes a lot of sense, as most of the drone industry is dominated by large-scale military contractors. but that is rapidly changing. thanks to the internet, and low-cost electronic components, almost anybody who sets their mind to it can build and fly state-of-the-art drones by themselves. some entrepreneurs estimate that once the faa sets up rules for civilian use, the commercial unmanned aircraft industry will reach more than $13 billion, and create more than 70,000 jobs within the next three years. we thought you should know what's going on and how small business owners are getting in at the ground floor. >> many people do think of drones as remot

tax credits for certain small employers that purchase, coverage through the coverage california, small business plan, are dependant on the plan and a number of factors including a number of ftes that the business have and the amounts that the employer contributes to the health insurance premiums and these tax credits are available for the two years that the employers want to claim them and they become and, they are available in 2013 and become more generous in 2014. and so for relatively low wage, very small, and for profit businesses those that have an average salary of 25,000 a year or less, and have fewer than ten ftes, the tax credit in 2013, is 35 percent of the employer's experience and in 2014, is 50 percent of the employer's expense. for the small businesses with the slightly higher wages less than 50,000 and slightly larger sizes, less than 25 ftes, the credits are on the sliding scale, and the maximum is the same as the flat rate for the smaller businesses in the first line. they cover the employers to make the healthcare expenditures on behalf of the covered employees and on

>> scott howge,, i just want to bring up the small business community, the small business commission, has supported the task force recommendations that came out regarding the plakards that is a good example that we can work together and show some opportunities for collaboration. >> any other members of the public that would like to make a comment on something that is not on today's agenda. >> i don't see anything, mr. president. >> it looks to me like it is time to adjourn. >> i would like to thank both of the staffs and i would like to thank christian murdock and director dick-endrizzi and for your guidance on this and director reiskin. >> and do we have a motion to adjourn? >> all in favor? >> aye. >> okay, great. >> roll call. commission members please respond when he call your name. commissioner ellington? >> present. >> commissioner [speaker not understood]? absent. commissioner sen? >> here. >> vice-chair rowal he is? >> present. >> madam chair johnson? >> here. >> commissioner mondahah is absent and all other commissioner are present. two announcements, a, please be advised a m

so yelp reviews are extremely influential for small businesses. i painstakingly worked with the washington state department of revenue what a one star looks like, matched up series of restaurants with their sales on quarter by quarter basis. one star equalses 5% of increase in sales for independent restaurants. since that study come out it is become increasingly clear this is important source of reputation for small business owners. unfortunately one of the big challenges facing the review industry is how to know whether reviews are credible? recent study, the one i coauthored what we had done look through the yelp reviews to get deeper and try to understand what's real, what's not and what is yelp doing about it. what yelp has in place and what is picked up in the reviews not currently recommended, is that, they have an algorithm behind the scenes where statistically say, well, this review doesn't seem like it is authentic. we were pretty shocked by the initial results when we looked at this. when we pulled reviews labeled as fillerred or not rec

however, maybe, all small businesses don't have that. so, can you tell me a little bit about what the out reach has been in the small business comment. in information in regards to this new. >> yeah, i can speak briefly to that. and we do have, the office of labor standards has an hot line and an e-mail address and i have been answering the questions about these issues on throughout the fall and into this year. and we also have a e-mail list of 5,000 e-mails, people who are interested in the healthcare ordinance and we did send out an e-mail notifying the people to check the website on guidance to these issues >> thank you. >> we may have to think. >> there has been no out reach to the community groups on this. >> especially the merchant groups in the city. >> not to get through our office. >> okay. >> commissioner o'brien? >> yeah, ways just wondering. if we wanted the experts here could tell me, if we were to close out the healthcare ordinance, would that leave a gaping hole of people not covered? >> i think that it came in and i think

these very extended small cap names are going to succumb. here's a comparative chart since the march '09 low of small cap versus the s&p. i'm going to toggle back and forth and then let's mark up the charts. there's the same time frame but in this instance small cap, s&p and then all emerging markets. there's just small cap and s&p. you have this spread which is just as wide as at any other time. basically this is starting to break. here we go. take a look at the comparative. this is emerging markets. small cap and u.s. equities don't have anything to do with emerging markets. they're going to influence these small cap names. here is the iwm itself. what you'll see is the orderly nature of these pullbacks. this is 12%. the next one a little shallower, down six. down six, down only five, down only five, then four, then four. and today if you add in today we are on this line. already down five or six. this is where the break finally occurs. a major trend and in principle a major break in trend. long-term chart is also very instructive. you can

number 2 many businesses will continue to have a small business exemption for the small receipts tax. a number of businesses that that this commission oversees and is responsible for will continue to have their exemption for the payroll expense tax and i and third our office will be providing forms and instructions throughout this year to help businesses plan for the change for businesses in san francisco. so how do we get here? i were all very well involved in the process in 2012 and i'm sure the processes the decade before that the board and mayor have been grandpa living with this. the mayor and the board working with the business community came up with a business tax change that was in place before the voters in november 2012 that passed with 70 percent vote for the change. the final step is for the office of the tax collector to implement what the voters 0 approved. and it's important we only implement with the voters approve there might not be gaps in the law or a fair reading of the law has multiple interpretations we can use our regulatory authority & but if there's something