Department of Labor Encourages Local Workforce Investment in Entrepreneurs

By: Elizabeth de Renzy, Researcher and Data Analyst

Who are microentrepreneurs? Are they in Bangladesh? Are they very small business owners? Are they startups? Are they employers or are they workers?

All of the above! Microentrepreneurs in the US are self-employed workers who have started a business with less than $35K in startup capital and fewer than 5 employees. Many of the businesses in your neighborhood are most likely microenterprises!

Starting a microenterprise has traditionally been a strategy for disadvantaged entrepreneurs to achieve economic self-sufficiency and build assets through business ownership despite the lack of business capital. Microentrepreneurs contribute significantly to the unique character of neighborhoods as well as the local economy because they create more local jobs and spend more locally than national chains.

As part of an ambitious campaign to educate all of our public policy makers about the important role that microentrepreneurship plays in our current economic recovery, we have focused our research and public policy efforts on Job Creation Through Microenterprise Development. Women’s initiative has presented our findings report to public policy makers from here in the Bay Area to Sacramento and Washington DC.

In November the Department of Labor released a ground breaking statement that encourages workforce investment in entrepreneurship training because small businesses:

· Represent 99.7% of employers

· Employ over half of workers

· Have generated 64% of new jobs

· Are essential for economic recovery

Getting this statement of support from the Department of Labor is a great start to making 2011 the year of Job Creation Through Microenterprise Development but training, funding and business support services are still only available to a fraction of microentrepreneurs, very small business owners, startups, small employers, and self-employed workers in the US. Please see the Women’s Initiative website to learn how you can get involved in Job Creation Through Microenterprise Development.

 

Technorati Tags: Department of Labor, economic recovery, employer, jobs, microenterprise, microentrepreneur, small business, startup, training, worker, workforce

How Women's Initiative is a Key Player in the Fight against the Widening Income Disparity Gap in America

By: Blue Mudbhary

NPR reported last week about the growing income gap in America : “While almost everyone in America thinks of themselves as middle class, income disparities are wide and getting wider. While wages stagnated for almost everybody in the middle or even went down, the rich got richer these past 30 years. Venezuela and Nicaragua now have more equitable pay than the United States. Over time, the effect of these disparities and the narrowing of the social ladder can corrode faith that life is fair and that the rules make sense.” (You can listen to the full story here.)

Women’s Initiative is working to pull up low-income earners through our unique microenterprise training program, where our graduates learn to start and maintain their own businesses. This not only results in employment for them, but contributes to the building of an important personal asset – the business itself.

Business equity ranks second to homeownership as a share of overall household wealth in this country – so building the asset of their business is an important step toward vaulting past this gap. And business ownership is an asset which can be a bridge to home ownership.

Women’s Initiative focuses exclusively on training for low income women. For these women, particularly those with barriers to traditional wage employment, home ownership is often an unattainable dream. Yet through our program, where over 70% of our training graduates have been in business for over 5 years, building business equity – as a primary asset which can be leveraged to purchase a home – will help us in closing the wealth gap once and for all.

Technorati Tags: asset building, income disparity, wealth gap, women

Women’s Initiative Offers to Help Los Angeles Spend Stimulus Funds

 

Dear Los Angeles Public Works and Transportation Departments,

I was sorry to read in David Zahniser’s article in the Los Angeles Times (09/17/2010) that you have been struggling to spend the $111 million in stimulus funds you have been awarded and that you have so far only managed to create 55 jobs.

It must be very slow indeed to secure government approval of contracts. I understand that you plan to eventually create or retain 264 jobs when you get around to spending the funds.

I am very impressed to hear that you have decided to begin looking for ways to streamline the contracting process and that you hope to start seeing changes in six months.

Women’s Initiative for Self Employment has been struggling too. We have waiting lists of low-income women, most without employment, wanting to take our business plan training course so they can create jobs for themselves and others by starting a business, but we just don’t have enough funding to add more courses this year.

So, like your agency, we have just had to do the best we could. We don’t have nearly the budget that you do but we have managed to provide business training to more women than ever in this past year. In 2009, 1,195 women graduated from our business plan training course. Our data to date indicates that these women will likely create and retain 1,123 jobs for themselves and others by the end of this year at an average cost of just over $4K per job.

I know this is nothing compared to the really expensive jobs that you are beginning to figure out how to create, but it’s a start.

If you find that you don’t really have the time – or if it’s just too much of a struggle – to begin looking for ways to spend the federal stimulus funding you have been awarded to create jobs, just let us know. We would be more than happy to help.

The low-income women who are waiting to get into our courses and these women’s families would really appreciate it as well.

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth de Renzy

Women’s Initiative Bringing Job Creation to the Table at the Fourth Annual San Francisco Women’s Policy Summit

On Wednesday, September 15, 2010 Women’s Initiative has been invited to participate in the Fourth Annual SF Women’s Policy Summit: “Empowerment and Access”.

For the past three years, the SF Women's Policy Summit has convened an exciting group of leaders to build networks, outline policy issues, and encourage elected officials and candidates for office to support the future of women and families in San Francisco. This year, Women’s Initiative has been asked to participate on two expert panels on job creation and small business.

Brandi Chalker, Women’s Initiative graduate and Owner of Urban Bazaar, will be joined by Nicole Levine, Executive Director of the North Bay, in a break out session to explore the reality of being a woman business owner in San Francisco and identify policy priorities for business success that leads to job creation and economic development.

Elizabeth de Renzy, Researcher and Data Analyst, will join policy experts, Tom Radulovich (Livable City, BART), Fei Tsen (SPUR, Greenbelt Alliance, Chinatown Community Development Corporation), Peter Albert (SFMTA), and Christina Olague (Planning Commission) on a panel to discuss how the development of women owned businesses can enable San Francisco to continue to grow while creating local jobs and strong neighborhoods in which women and families can thrive.

For more information about the summit see the website of the SF Department on the Status of Women.

Women's Initiative featured on Inc.com

 

One of our Women’s Initiative Woman Entrepreneur of the Year winners is also a blogger for Inc.com. Check out Janine Popick’s, of VerticalResponse, blog today on winning the award and the importance of recognizing women in business.

If you’d like to do your part in recognizing the contributions of women business owners, be sure to attend one of our Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award ceremonies in October. More info and purchase tickets here!

Call for policies that create jobs through microenterprise development for Latinas

By: Elizabeth de Renzy, Researcher & Data Analyst

Together with leaders from other civil rights, labor, and student organizations, NCLR is leading One Nation Working Together, a national campaign to call for policies to create jobs and invest in a strong economic future. A major feature of the campaign is an historic rally scheduled to take place in Washington, DC on October 2, 2010. Click here to learn more about One Nation Working Together.

Business ownership has historically been one of the most effective ways for low-skilled Hispanic entrepreneurs to increase income and build assets in the US. The self-employment rate of Latinas is rapidly growing, especially in the states along the US-Mexico border. Nevertheless, disparities in business ownership still exist. Latina entrepreneurs face challenges both in starting and growing their businesses. Training, networking, and mentoring opportunities are often limited and there is unequal access to capital resulting from discriminatory treatment in both the public and private sectors.

An investment in microenterprise development targeting the low-income Latinas would create jobs, build assets, and reduce poverty among Hispanic families.

At the height of the recession, nine in ten un- and underemployed women who received microenterprise training through Women’s Initiative entered employment or self-employment within the first year after training. More than one in ten provided jobs for others within the first year.

Small businesses are the foundation of American neighborhoods and small towns. They provide jobs and increase the purchasing power that will stimulate the local economy. Business ownership has played an important role in the upward economic mobility of immigrants. Self-employment rates for Latinas, especially immigrants, are growing at a rapid pace but disparities still exist. Microenterprise development services are an import part of the solution to escalating poverty and unemployment rates among Latinos.

Join Women's Initiative by calling for policies that create jobs through microenterprise development for women, especially Latinas and immigrants.

Are Recovery Act Tax Credits for Businesses Working?

Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office is looking for feedback from local business owners who have taken advantage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) for businesses.

The WOTC offers tax savings to businesses that hire workers belonging to any of 12 targeted groups, including unemployed veterans and disconnected youth. The other 10 include people ages 18 to 39 living in designated communities in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Hurricane Katrina employees, recipients of various types of public assistance, and certain veterans, summer youth workers and ex-felons.

The Speaker’s staff have asked Women’s Initiative for our help finding business owners who were able to take advantage of the tax credit.

If you have taken advantage the WOTC, please contact Elizabeth de Renzy at (510) 287-3117 or ederenzy@womensinitiative.org. And please forward this message to your network!

Don’t miss this opportunity ensure that your voice is heard by our decision makers in DC!

The Big Business of Government Spending

By: Jordan Ferchill, Women's Initiative

The question of whether or not to cut government spending to reign in the federal budget deficit is the political battle raging in Washington these days. Some say that we have to decrease the deficit to get the economy back on track, while others argue that we need to spend our way out of the current recession. In recent testimony given to the congressional commission on fiscal responsibility and reform, WIPP national partner, Tara Olson, explained that 83% of women business owners favor decreasing the deficit. Meanwhile, a June 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 60% of Americans are in favor of increasing government spending to stimulate the economy. What accounts for this radical difference in the opinion of women entrepreneurs and the public at large? Does increased government spending eliminate the competitive edge that many women-owned small businesses have by unfairly subsidizing their competitors?

Government spending in and of itself does not necessarily put small, women-owned businesses at a disadvantage. However, the results of a recent study by Tischler & Associates indicate that many chain stores are tacitly and massively subsidized in this country through tax dollars. The study showed that fast food restaurants incurred a tax deficit of $5,168 per 1,000 square feet, with big box retail developments trailing close behind at a loss of $468 per 1,000 square feet, and shopping centers at a loss of $314 per 1,000 square feet. On the other hand, the study showed that in general local businesses create net gains for tax payers. These findings suggest that given the current allocation of tax dollars, increased government spending would in all likelihood benefit big business and make competition more difficult for small businesses like those that are cultivated by Women’s Initiative.

Training for What?

By: Elizabeth de Renzy, Researcher & Data Analyst

A New York Times article on Monday – After Training, Still Scrambling for Employment – confirmed what we at Women's Initiative for Self Employment have long suspected: job training is only useful if there are jobs to be had. On the other hand, microenterprise training is a proven method of job creation. Our white paper – Job Creation through Microenterprise Development – shows that the women who go through the small business training program offered by Women's Initiative not only produce jobs for themselves, but for others as well. In fact, in 2009 alone, Women's Initiative clients created more than 2,200 jobs.

It’s time for the government to realize that no amount of job training is going to help people find employment when there are no jobs to be had. With the number of unemployed workers still outnumbering job openings five to one, it is more important than ever that federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act should focus on job creation as well as job training.

Current job training programs appear to be operating under outdated assumptions about the economy. “A lot of the training programs that we have in this country were designed for a kind of quick turnaround economy, as opposed to the entrenched structural challenges of today,” the New York Times quoted Rutgers University labor economist, Carl E. Van Horn saying.

A study conducted by the Department of Labor showed that, even before the recession, job training programs resulted in little or no increase in earnings for participants. In contrast, women who participate in microenterprise training programs are seeing significant increases in earnings. Women’s Initiative graduates typically increase their income an average of 75% within the first 12 months after training.

In a Huffington Post op-ed Julian L. Alssid, Executive Director of Workforce Strategy Center in New York City, agreed that skills training alone isn't enough without job creating strategies.

Consider these three reasons to include job creation through microenterprise training in our workforce investment strategy:

· 18% of all US employment is in the microenterprise sector.

· Microenterprise training enables unemployed workers to create jobs for themselves and others in their community.

· Microenterprise training results in an increase in income and assets, thus stimulating the economy.

Job Creation Through Microenterprise

Women's Initiative has released a new research paper on “Job Creation through Microenterprise Development.”

The research shows that our training support program is a proven method of job creation. In 2009, when major corporations were downsizing and announcing layoffs, Women’s Initiative graduates created 2,244 jobs. Other highlights of the research include:

·Nine in ten clients are employed or self-employed twelve months after training.

·More than six in ten are self-employed twelve months after training.

·One year after training more than one in ten clients provided part-time, full-time, temporary and contract jobs for others.

·Five years after training, more than one in five provided jobs for others, with an average of nearly two jobs provided for others per client.

·For every 100 women who receive training, an average of 245 local jobs are created and retained five years after graduation.

·With an average cost of $1,525 per woman served, a $1 million investment in Women’s Initiative’s programs would result in 132 new jobs being created within 12 months and a total of 480 new jobs in five years.

Congratulations to the strong clients of Women's Initiative who are having a significant impact on the Bay Area economy!