Main Street Launch Summer Newsletter

In this newsletter:

Letter from Our CEO
Credit Tip
Advising Corner: Deciding to Borrow Money
Celebrating Small Business Weeks 2017
Meet Our Clients: Millennium Family Entertainment Center
Get To Know Our Staff: Adrian Gomez Zavala
Alameda County SBDC: Award Winners
Main Street Launches Mobile Office
Opportunity for your Business: ICIC
Upcoming Events for Your Small Business
Get Connected to Resources
Welcome Our Newest Clients
Welcome Our Newest Team Members

Friends,

Main Street Launch is proud to work with innovative small business owners who are creating jobs for themselves and others, investing in our communities, and providing essential goods and services to our neighborhoods. This month, as we close our fiscal year, we’re reflecting on the courage and the drive that small business owners exhibit in starting a business. In this newsletter we share:

Some tips to help improve your credit score,

An advising column about deciding to borrow money for your small business,

A celebration of the recent Small Business Weeks,

Events and resources to support your small business development, and

Stories about our clients and staff.

We wish you an enjoyable summer and look forward to continuing to serve our communities together.

Jacob Singer, President & CEO

Main Street Launch

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Advising Corner: Deciding to Borrow Money

Paula Groves is Main Street Launch’s Senior Vice President – Business Consulting. She offers this tip to help your business development.

To borrow or not to borrow, that is the question.

Deciding to borrow money is certainly a technical decision. We worry about things like:

1. My credit score has gone down recently.

2. I don’t have any collateral.

3. I doubt I will qualify.

Borrowing money is also an emotional decision. Our stomach turns over at thoughts like:

1. Why haven’t I been able to figure this out yet?

2. I already borrowed money, why do I still need more?

3. Everyone told me not to try running my own business.

These types of anxieties make many of the online options that show up in your inbox very tempting. They often allow you to borrow money without telling anyone.

But these solutions come at a high price and have hidden costs you might not be aware of.

Click here to read the full post.

Celebrating Small Business Week 2017

Main Street Launch was proud to participate in a variety of Small Business Week events in Oakland, Sacramento, and San Francisco this year.

Five of our clients were honored at Small Business Week events:

The City of Oakland honored two of our clients as Legacy Businesses: Gill’s Electric Company and Everett and Jones Barbeque.

The Small Business Administration honored Tanya Holland and Brown Sugar Kitchen as Emerging Business of the Year for the San Francisco District.

The Small Business Administration honored Chef Mike Donoho and The Waffle Experience as the Veteran Business Owner of the Year for Northern California.

Congratulations to all for the recognition of your many accomplishments!

Tanik Joshipura, our incredible intern, also attended many Small Business Week events. Click here to read his tips and takeaways for small business owners.

Small Business Week is a great opportunity to learn about resources for your business, reflect on your opportunities for growth, and meet other entrepreneurs in your community working to achieve their goals. We hope to see you at events next year!

Meet Our Clients: Millennium Family Entertainment Center

When sisters Sara Core and Amy Wilder first started telling people about their dream to create a place for families to come and have fun together, they weren’t taken seriously. “It made us work harder,” remembers Sara. “We were working part-time and mostly stay-at-home moms, but we knew that you don’t have to be a millionaire to start a million dollar business.”

Sara and Amy used their loan from Veteran Launch to complete construction on the inside buildout of their space that features party rooms, a cafe, and more. “We wouldn’t have been able to open without the money from Veteran Launch,” says Sara. “We had all the equipment just sitting there because we didn’t have enough money to finish construction. The local banks didn’t understand the type of business we were trying to start, so they turned us down. I was surprised how easy it was working with Mike [McGrane, Regional Lending Director of Veteran Launch]. He came to our Grand Opening and continues to support us.”

Click here to read Millennium Family Entertainment Center’s full profile.

Get to Know Adrian Gomez Zavala

Adrian Gomez Zavala worked as a banker and licensed financial specialist at a community business bank before coming to Main Street Launch. He brings a deep knowledge of business and the resources available to support Bay Area entrepreneurs. Click here to read more about Adrian.

“I think most importantly I want business owners to know that when you’re my client, I’m on your team and I’m here to be your advocate. I’ll do whatever I can to help you get ready. If Main Street Launch’s services aren’t what you need or aren’t the best fit, I have relationships and Main Street Launch has relationships that can help connect you to the right resource for your business. These are all resources at no cost, so call us and let us see how we can help you.”

Click here to read Adrian’s full interview.

Alameda County SBDC: Award Winners

The Alameda County Community Development Agency and the Alameda County SBDC were presented with the Award of Excellence (Grand Prize) in the Economic Development Partnerships category for our Food Entrepreneur Training Series! This highly competitive award is given by the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) – think of this as the Academy Award for economic development activities!

Congratulate the Alameda County SBDC on Facebook!

Main Street Launches Mobile Office

As part of Oakland Small Business Week, Main Street Launch was proud to participate in various events, including the neighborhood-focused workshops and resource fairs. We debuted our mobile office, a retrofitted bus, that enables us to bring services and technology to our clients’ doors when they’re not able to make it to our offices.

Opportunity for your Business: ICIC

Main Street Launch is proud to partner with other organizations to help foster an ecosystem of easy-to-access support services for entrepreneurs. Inner City Capital Connections program is offering Main Street Launch clients an opportunity to apply for their program that is designed to help small businesses in economically-distressed areas build capacity for sustainable growth in revenue, profitability, and employment.

Their 40-hour curriculum combines targeted executive education sessions, including best practices in strategy, sales, marketing, talent management, and small business finance, with local coaches and mentors and access to potential capital sources and broad professional network connections. It is the only program that educates inner city small businesses about the forms of capital and matches them with appropriate capital providers.

For more information about applying to their Oakland program, please click here to schedule an intake call.

You can learn more about this program’s impacts by reading the 2016 Inner City Capital Connections Impact Report (click here).

Click here for the Oakland program fact sheet.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Click here to view more upcoming events to support your business this spring.

We welcome our partners and community to share upcoming events.
We post them on social media and on our website.
Send any upcoming events to katie@mainstreetlaunch.org.

No cost legal clinics
by Legal Services for Entrepreneurs

Date: Thu., June 8, 2017

Time:2-5pm in SF; 5-7pm in Oakland

More info:tiny.cc/LCCRJune2017

Quickbooks Bootcamp

by Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center

Date: Fri., June 9, 2017

Time: 9:30am-4:30pm

More info: tiny.cc/quickbooksRenCenter

VBOC and DGS Small Business Summit

by Region IX Veterans Business Outreach Center

Date: Wed., June 14, 2017

Time: 10am-4:30pm

More info: tiny.cc/VBOCJune2017

Getting Certified: Doing Business with the Government

by Alameda County SBDC

Date: Wed., June 28, 2017

Time: 6:30-8:30pm

More info: tiny.cc/ACSBDCcertification

Get Connected to Resources for your Business

The Alameda County SBDC provides free, one-on-one consulting and trainings to more than 2,000 small businesses in the county each year. Areas covered include raising loan and investment capital, marketing, social media, technology, operations, accounting and industries such as food, restaurant and retail. Click here to sign up at no cost to you.

BusinessAdvising.org connects free expert advisors and mentors to entrepreneurs for tailored, hands-on assistance to grow businesses and create new quality jobs in their communities. Click here to sign up at no cost to you.

Townsqd is a social network that connects neighborhood small businesses to each other. This platform fosters collaboration among businesses and offers a place to share resources and information. Click here to join at no cost to you.

Localwise connects local people to jobs at local businesses. As small businesses are ready to make their first hire or grow their team, Localwise offers a local job community focused on building talent in small businesses. Click here to post a job.

Welcome to our Newest Clients

For more information about shopping with our clients, please check out our map.

Malaya Acupuncture and Wellness Center

Congratulations to our
repeat borrowers:

Rhythm Bikes

The Octopus Literary Salon

Lena’s Soul Food Cafe

Black Jet Baking Company

Glena’s

LiveFit Gym – Arguello

Degrees Plato

NSA Wireless

Robbins Laundromats

Skimmer Solutions

Congratulations to our repeat borrowers:

Spice Monkey

Tertulia Coffee

Welcome Our Newest Team Members

We’re pleased to welcome Suzanne Schafer to our team, as the new Administrative Assistant for the Alameda County SBDC. Working part-time for ACSBDC, she spends most of her day responding to inquiries from small business owners, managing the organization’s social media, planning events, and on-site support for seminars and events. Click here to learn more about Suzanne.