Tuesday, March 30, 2010

House Passes Small Business Relief Bill

 

The House passed a Small Business Relief Bill today that could have an impact on your business if it is approved by the Senate. According to a summary of the bill written by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the bill contains a number of provisions that provide tax relief to small businesses, including:

· 100% exclusion of capital gains tax on small business stock acquired between March 15, 2010 and January 1, 2012
· providing tax write-offs for SBA-backed loans and government-backed loans that use real property as collateral
· increasing the amount a business can write-off for start-up expenditures
· decreasing reporting penalties from a flat fee to a proportion of income not reported

The bill will now go to the Senate. Do your senators know how the bill will impact your business?

More Capital in the Community - Call to Action!

Please join Women’s Initiative by contacting Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Dianne Feinstein to urge them to please sign on to the Menendez letter in support of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

CDFIs are important to the economic recovery in CA by financing businesses, families, and neighborhoods that are generally unable to access the capital they need from conventional lenders.

Please contact please contact Bridget (bridget_petruczok@boxer.senate.gov) in Senator Boxer's office and Ahmad (ahmad_thomas@feinstein.senate.gov) in Sentaor Feinstein's office to urge them to contact Jason Tuber (Jason_Tuber@menendez.senate.gov) in Menendez's office, by Thursday, April 1st.
Thank you for your support!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Women's Initiative graduate businesses featured in San Francisco magazine

Two Women's Initiative graduate businesses are featured in this month's San Francisco magazine article on the best sandwiches in the Bay Area. Not surprising to see Bakesale Betty's fried chicken sandwich on the list, and great to see the torta la tesorito from La Casita Chilanga featured as well. FriedChicken-1_full

Thursday, March 25, 2010

San Francisco Bay Area in “Double Trouble”

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Is Health Care Reform Good for Women Entrepreneurs?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Women’s Initiative for Self Employment supports SB 1084, California Economic Security Task Force

In partnership with Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Women’s Initiative for Self Employment supports SB 1084, California Economic Security Task Force, which would create a two-year, bipartisan Task Force that would be responsible for creating a unified plan for reducing poverty and increasing economic security among Californians. The Task Force would include members of the Legislature, Secretaries and Directors of state agencies, members of the public, and representatives of key stakeholder groups who must work together if we are to help Californians move toward economic security. Executive Directors in each region submitted letters of support on behalf of the organization.

Women’s Initiative Partners with UCSF to Research Microenterprise Development and Community Health

Can microenterprise development improve community health?


Microenterprise development is widely recognized as a poverty alleviation and economic development strategy for low-income, minority and immigrant communities but little is known about impact of microenterprise development on the health and well-being of these communities. Women’s Initiative believes that that the best way to reduce health risks associated with poverty is to reduce poverty, starting with wives and mothers.

A review of the relationship between family and health published by the Journal of Marriage and the Family showed that women’s employment and her family’s socioeconomic status have been found to be key factors for her family’s physical and psychological health. According to a policy brief on health disparities among women published by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in November 2009, low-income women in California are four times more likely than women who are not low-income to report poor health and 41 percent of low-income women in California are uninsured. The Population Reference Bureau reported that children who live in poverty run a higher risk for health problems, teen pregnancy, dropping out of school, substance abuse and behavioral problems. Children who grow up in impoverished neighborhoods are more likely to live in such areas as adults as well. An analysis done by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) on national US census data on poverty for 2008 showed that the number of women and children living in poverty and extreme poverty is growing while the number of women with health insurance is shrinking. For African-American women and Latinas, poverty rates are the highest while insurance rates are the lowest. The BBC reported that that despite medical advances, public health experts had found that the link between poverty and early death remains as strong as it was one century ago. Health disparities among low-income women, women-headed households and low-income communities are a serious public health problem in California.

Women’s Initiative is partnering with health policy research experts at the University of California, San Francisco to conduct a ground breaking pilot study on the relationship between microenterprise development and community health, especially that of mothers and their children. Together with the university partners, Women’s Initiative is seeking a small University Community Partnerships grant with the Tides Foundation and hopes to leverage funding for the pilot project for a more extensive research on the impact of microenterprise development on the health and well-being of low-income, minority and immigrant communities.

Monday, March 15, 2010

SBA Proposes Rule to Increase Federal Contracts to Women-Owned Businesses

While women-owned firms in this country employ 13.1 million people, just 2.7 percent of Federal Recovery Act contracts have been awarded to women-owned firms. And only 3.4 percent of all federal contracts are awarded to woman-owned companies, despite the federal government having a goal of awarding 5 percent of contracts to women-owned firms. .

Friday, March 12, 2010

Women's Initiative Supports Economic Security Task Force