AB 32 is an emerging hot topic among small businesses these days. It is the official policy of the state of California that we will reduce our emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG—mainly carbon dioxide and methane) to 1990 levels by the year 2020—and then by 2050 we will cut our GHG emissions by a full 80%. The bill requires that we do this without reducing the growth of our economy.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has the primary responsibility for developing the plans and regulations by which we will achieve these monumental goals. It is in the process of finalizing its “Scoping Plan,” which will contain the main strategies California will use to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change. The Plan, when it is completed, will have a range of GHG reduction actions which can include direct regulations, alternative compliance mechanisms, monetary and non-monetary incentives, voluntary actions, and market-based mechanisms such as a cap-and-trade system.

There will be several months of public discussion before the Board votes on the Plan in November.

Once the Board adopts the Scoping Plan, it will begin consideration of GHG reduction regulations. The law requires that all regulatory actions be completed by 2011, and that enforcement of the final regulations begin the next year.

As you can imagine, an effort of this magnitude involves many, many people and organizations. While CARB is the lead government agency for implementing the policy, other groups are also playing key roles, such as the California Energy Commission, the state’s Resources Agency, and the California Public Utilities Commission. The Governor has also assembled a Climate Action Team, comprising a myriad of state executive departments, to co-ordinate the state’s efforts to reduce its own GHG emissions as well as to implement AB 32.

All of this is probably incredibly bewildering to the state’s 3.5 million small businesses. “What’s this mean to me?” and “how much is it going to cost me?” are among the questions they are most likely to want answered. Many will also want to know “how can I participate in the process so that my business isn’t unduly impacted by new regulations?” Still others will want to know, “what new business opportunities will AB 32 make possible?”.

To that end we have established a new AB 32 Task Force, designed as a dialogue for any and all small businesses that want to keep abreast of developments in the implementation of the law. I am inviting you to join and learn for yourself what AB 32 might mean for your business, and what exciting possibilities for new business ventures might become available. Simply contact Michael Gonzalez and he will add you to our information distribution list. You will receive the invitation to join the next AB 32 Task Force conference call, along with other information that we think you might find useful.

In the near future we plan to create an AB 32 section to this web site, to help you and all your small business and DVBE colleagues monitor developments and discover how your voice can be added to the dialogue and impact the outcomes.

I want to congratulate Betty Jo Toccoli and the folks at the Small Business Education Foundation for the launch of their Web 2.0 project, www.techforsmallbusiness.org. This site will offer businesses greater connectivity with resources and opportunities. The project was developed from a grant made to the Foundation by the AT&T Foundation. The announcement came at a press conference last week attended by Business, Transportation and Housing Agency Secretary Dale Bonner, CPUC Member Rachelle Chong, state Chief Information Officer Terri Takai, and Assemblywoman Mary Salas. Feel free to check it out now.

In our ongoing quest to help the state government stay current with emerging trends, I discovered the website of TED. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Its marvelous web site, www.ted.com, is a repository of talks and other information from the area’s leading thinkers and leaders. I highly recommend it to leaders in the small business world.

By the way, speaking of the future, everyone should take 8 minutes to watch the provocative and exciting video called “Did You Know 2.0.” In that very brief span of time, the producers give us an excellent sense of the magnitude of the accelerating changes our world is going through right now. All of our conversations here at the Office of Small Business Advocate fit into this context; otherwise we are just spinning our wheels.

Last week we had the opportunity to spend some time in Los Angeles, home to hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Timed to coincide with the Greater Los Angeles Vendor Fair, we convened the bimonthly session of the Small Business Advocate’s advisory council at the Metropolitan Water District’s beautiful headquarters building, thanks to the generosity of its staff and particularly of John Arena, MWD’s indefatigable Business Outreach Manager.

This was our first opportunity to convene the group in southern California, and I am grateful that over forty small business leaders and supporters participated. Special thanks are due to

• Lorenzo Flores, Deputy District Director for the Los Angeles District of the Small Business Administration, who gave the group an overview of his office’s services and achievements;

• Bill Buratto of the Ventura County Economic Development Association, who has been our inspiration and colleague in developing the OSBA’s disaster preparedness mission;

• Patricia de Cos of the California Research Bureau, who gave an overview of the very important research project about career technical education that she is spearheading;

• Wally Aguilar of the Employment Training Panel, who spoke about the ETP’s small business programs;

• Constance Anderson, Patricia Ramos, and Alex Vaughn, who shared information about their respective Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs). Ms. Anderson runs the Pacific Coast Regional SBDC, Ms. Ramos the Santa Monica College SBDC, and Ms. Vaughn the South Bay SBDC at El Camino College.

Among the organizations represented at the meeting were the California Small Business Association, the National Federation of Independent Business; the California Chamber of Commerce, Small Business California, the California Independent Oil Marketers Association, the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the LA Regional Hispanic Chamber, the Asian Business Association and the Asian Business Association of Orange County, the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, and the Entrepreneurs Organization.

Representing governmental and other service providers were the Los Angeles Minority Business Enterprise Center, the California Department of General Services, the Supplier Diversity Program of the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles County Office of Small Business, and the City of Long Beach.

As we did at our last meeting in Sacramento, the group discussed the issues that they want this office to tackle. And much like their counterparts in the north, these leaders expressed their concerns about access to capital, AB 32 and the rising cost of energy, regulatory reform, access to information about government actions, an adequately trained workforce, and economic growth.

We had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a number of those in attendance over the course of the next several days to dig deeper into their concerns and ideas for improvement.

After spending the next morning at the Vendor Fair I went that afternoon to the campus of the University of Southern California and its Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, where I had the opportunity to meet with its delightful and mulit-talented Marketing and Business Development Manager, Natalie Gossett. She has been working on forecasting future workforce needs in this fast-growing arena, and has valuable insights into the role California can be playing to support and nurture this important sector of our economy.

An appropriate follow-up to this meeting was the following day’s brown bag lunch with Generation X & Y entrepreneurs at the Governor’s office in downtown Los Angeles. This is a follow-up to the meeting we held here in Sacramento with young businessmen and –women the month before.

About twenty young entrepreneurs from a wide variety of businesses shared their insights about what their businesses need to grow and what they expect from their state government to support that growth. We’ll be reporting in greater detail on these meetings in a future blog.

As always, I am heartened by the enthusiasm and creativity of our state’s business people. California continues to be the place where the world’s future is invented and tested.

I had to opportunity to participate in two significant seminars the week of February 18th on the topic of business preparation for emergencies and disasters.

The first was hosted by the Economic Vitality Corporation of San Luis Obispo under the able leadership of its President and CEO Mike Manchak. Mike assembled a terrific team of speakers led by the local American Red Cross leader Grace McIntosh who provided precise and detailed information to the 200 business folks assembled about how to prepare, thoughtfully and straightforwardly, for unexpected and potentially long-term disruptions in business. San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce President Ruben Barrales punctuated the event with his keynote address that told of the devastating impact that last fall’s firestorms had on his family and colleagues.

The next day a similar event was hosted in Santa Barbara by the Goleta Valley Chamber of Commerce and its very capable President and CEO Kristen Amyx. Kristen also recruited a dynamic team of panelists who presented excellent information to the 75 business people in attendance. Napa Valley Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Board Vice Chair Kate King capped the event with her keynote speech reviewing how her members deal with the regular and often devastating floods in the Napa region.

Both event organizers compiled notebooks for the participants containing not only the panelists’ presentations but solid information to assist the businesses attending—and any other interested parties—to do their disaster preparedness planning. Most of these materials are available now on the two organizations’ web sites.

Here are some key websites—and this is by no means an exhaustive list—that also provide excellent disaster preparation information:

• Ready America: This website sponsored by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security is a treasure trove of valuable information. It offers a series of useful check lists that walk both businesses and families through the steps that lead to a robust plan.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency also has valuable check lists and kits for business preparedness.

• Similarly, the Small Business Administration offers a number of practical tools to assist businesses in this area.

• In California, the Office of Emergency Services(OES) and the California Volunteers agency provide planning tools for individuals, families, and businesses. In addition, OES offers professional courses in disaster preparedness and recovery.

We at the Office of Small Business Advocate urge every business to develop and implement its own disaster preparedness plan NOW. Your own ability to thrive and the state’s economic vitality depend on each business getting back on its feet as soon after a disaster as possible.

One sobering statistic, presented by Mr. Kirk Coviello of Digital West Networks at the SLO event, should highlight the urgency of getting our act together: 50% of businesses that loose access to their business data for two weeks or more go out of business immediately, and 93% within a year.

Don’t let that happen to you.

One of the goals of this office is to list on our web site as much pertinent information for small businesses as we can gather.

The Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration produces a wealth of statistical information that can benefit small business owners and other entrepreneurs. They also keep an eagle eye on the question of regulatory fairness not only at the federal level, but they report regularly on the status of regulator fairness reform in the various states as well. We cannot recommend regular visits to their also useful web site enough. You can also subscribe to their various regular publications, including their monthly newsletter, sent out in PDF format, by going here and clicking on the communications you would like to receive.

Michael Gonzalez, our intrepid deputy, also just came across a very useful web site maintained by the California Tax Service Center. A consortium of the Board of Equalization, the Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department, and the Internal Revenue Service, the CTSC endeavors to provide small businesses with comprehensive information about business taxes.

The state’s Department of General Services has published a list of its small business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) outreach events for 2008. These are opportunities for state agencies and potential vendors to make contact and share information about procurement prospects. If you or your members want to do more business with the state, these events could really help.

The federal Department of Homeland Security offers small businesses a very useful and important resource for preparing for disasters. Check out their Ready America website; it offers comprehensive information on how you can make sure that your business is prepared to weather and recover from disasters, either natural or man-made.

Our office is co-sponsoring small business disaster preparedness seminars in the central coast region this month. Folks in the San Luis Obispo area are invited to the event (scroll down) on February 20th, and in the Santa Barbara region the event will be held the next day on February 21st. Follow the links for registration information.

Another useful organization to keep an eye on is the Economic and Workforce Development program of the California Community Colleges. They sponsor or co-sponsor a number of useful activities, such as the Small Business Development Centers and the Centers for International Trade Development, that serve small businesses, along with a number of industry-specific initiatives. Check them out.

Yesterday, January 29th, we held the first meeting of 2008 of the Small Business Advocate’s Advisory Group, an informal gathering of small business owners, trade association representatives, and government officials. The group meets every other month to help keep its consensus small business agenda on track and to share information about the work of the Office of Small Business Advocate.

Attending were representatives of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the California Small Business Association, Small Business California, the California Automotive Business Coalition, the California Independent Oil Marketers Association, the state Chamber of Commerce, the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Sacramento Asian-Pacific Chamber of Commerce, the Napa Valley Chamber of Commerce, the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED), along with a number of small business owners.

Several important items were on the agenda. First, in our continuing campaign to share information with small businesses about the myriad of programs and services in the public and non-profit sectors available to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs, we heard presentations from several important organizations.

Barbara Halsey, executive director of the California Workforce Investment Board (WIB), told us of the mission and programs managed by the 49 local WIBs, and how small businesses can plug into them. Their focus is talent development, helping businesses forecast their employment and skills needs, and helping workers qualify through training and other preparatory programs.

Kim Smith, Assistant Director of the state’s Employment Training Panel (ETP), followed with an overview of the mission and programs of her organization. The ETP uses employment taxes to design and manage programs to help train and retrain employees of existing firms to meet new challenges. Her staff is eager to help small businesses take advantage of their services, and urged anyone with training needs to contact them at his or her earliest convenience.

Brooks Ohlsen leads the Sacramento Center for International Trade Development (CITD). He spoke of his organization’s mission to assist small business to establish and manage trade with other countries. Even as the state’s economy grows and diversifies, many small businesses remain unaware of the international potential of their market. The CITDs will help you explore and tap into those opportunities.

(The Governor and President Bush are meeting even as I type this to emphasize the importance of international trade to both California and the country as a whole. The Governor’s commitment to a robust trade policy remains steadfast and strong.)

Eric Mandell, Small Business/DVBE Advocate for the Department of General Services (DGS), outlined DGS’ ongoing program to promote small business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise doing business with the various departments of the state government. Since DGS made certification as a small business possible over the internet just twelve months ago, the number of certified small businesses has risen from around 10,000 to over 15,000.

Finally we heard from Kay Reynolds, co-designer of the amazing new web instrument called Tools for Business Success. This web document creates a portal for local entities to assist the small businesses in their jurisdiction to find a wide range of resources available to them in that area. These local entities subscribe to the service, which permits them to access the information through their own web page, adding on any other information they want to make available to their stakeholders. It’s an amazing tool, and we hope every local government and economic development corporation will subscribe to get this information out far and wide!

After the lunch break we entered into a very robust conversation about the direction that those in attendance would like this office to take this year. The major elements of our mission remain economic growth, entrepreneurial encouragement, regulatory flexibility and reform, and small business procurement support. Other matters were raised regarding the conflict between AB 32 compliance (dealing with greenhouse gas reductions) and the costs to small businesses, particularly in the diesel retrofit requirements.

We will continue to collaborate and widen our circle of the conversation. Our next meeting will be in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Greater Los Angeles Vendor Fair co-hosted by DGS, the Metropolitan Water District, the LA Unified School District, the City of Los Angeles, and the County of Los Angeles. The date for the advisory group meeting is Monday, March 24th; the vendor fair will be the next day at the LA Convention Center from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. Details of both events will available soon.

We want to end by noting the fine article by the Los Angeles Times’ small business writer Cyndia Zwahlen about the office of Small Business Advocate. We hope it reaches a lot of our customers in the greater LA area.

I was interviewed by Los Angeles Times business page writer Cyndia Zwahlen this week. She pointed out that I hadn’t blogged on these pages since October, and—by golly!—she’s right.

2008 promises to be a very busy year. As the economy goes through its turmoil and the state copes with the downturn in revenues, the role of small businesses as generators of wealth and innovation becomes more important than ever.

The Office of Small Business Advocate will do its part to help small businesses engage your state government. We will continue to assist state agencies to meet the Governor’s 25% small business participation in state purchasing. Although the numbers for the last fiscal year (July 2007—June 2007) haven’t been released officially yet, it looks like the state did a good job in responding to the Governor’s challenge. On the other hand, we are already half-way through the current fiscal year, so last year’s achievements are already ancient history.

On the regulatory flexibility front, we have been surveying state agencies to determine just how they meet their requirements to analyze the potential impact on businesses that any proposed regulation might have. What we have discovered so far is that there doesn’t seem to be a uniform methodology that everyone applies to their analyses. This means that small businesses cannot always rely on the information that the agencies present. We will be working with a number of officials to streamline and codify the analytical processes and tools to increase the dependability of these regulatory analyses in the coming months.

As of this writing, we are still awaiting final approval from the legal office of the Department of General Services for our contract with Varshney & Associates of Folsom to conduct our study of the cost to small businesses of complying with state regulations. We expect this any day now, and Dean Sanjay Varshney and Professor Dennis Tootelian can’t wait to get cracking on this landmark project.

Economic development is a third area of OSBA involvement. Last year the Governor signed AB 1721 (Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy) designating the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency (BTH) as the lead agency in economic development activities. The Governor recently appointed Brian McGowan to be the deputy secretary for economic development and commerce at BTH, which also hosts the state Small Business Board. Brian is leaving a very successful tenure as San Bernardino County’s Economic Development Administrator. I look forward to working with all these officials on economic growth policies that can benefit small business success.

Finally, we also welcome the appointment of another Brian—Brian McMahon as Executive Director of the Employment Training Panel. Prior to his appointment, this Brian served as Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of Regional Innovation and Transformation for the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration in Washington D.C. At one time in his distinguished career he also ran the state’s Workforce Investment Board, now led by the very capable and innovative Barbara Halsey.

We are committed, as always, to working with our bosses—the 3.6 million small businesses across this great state of California—to create a strong and productive relationship between government and those who actually create the jobs and wealth that make our high standard of living possible. Please let us know how we can be serving you better.

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