Main Street Launch Summer Newsletter

In this newsletter:

Letter From Our CEO
Credit Tip
Resource For Your Business: CalSavers
Thank You To Our Funders
Resource For Your Business: Gusto
Advising Corner: Your Business’ Online Presence Matters
Meet Our Clients: Threadz Culture + Fashion
Resource For Your Business: Venturize
Get To Know Andrea Ramirez
Opportunity For Your Business: Lime Bike
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.

Our partnerships continue to be an increasingly important part of how we support the small business community in Oakland and San Francisco and military family-owned businesses across California. These partner organizations are doing incredible work to help level the playing field for small businesses. In this newsletter we share:

Some tips to help you improve your credit score,
Information about CalSavers, a program to help small business owners and their employees save for retirement,
Information about Gusto, a payroll system that offers HR, compliance, and benefits administration to support small businesses,
An advising column from Katie Taylor about the importance of your business’ online presence,
Information about Lime Bike, a company that can help you offer perks to your employees, customers, and more,
Events and resources to support your small business development, and
Stories about our clients and staff.

Thank you for your support of our clients and our work. We look forward to continuing to partner together to serve entrepreneurs.

Jacob Singer

President & CEO

Resource For Your Business: CalSavers

There are many low-cost or free resources available for you as an entrepreneur and for your small business. We know many of our clients want to grow their business to be able to offer retirement benefits to their employees (and themselves), but the cost and administration of those programs can seem overwhelming. Our partners at Small Business Majority are helping to connect resources to California’s entrepreneurs.

CalSavers offers a portable retirement savings plan for employees who do not have retirement benefits through their employer. This program is run by the State of California, offering minimal cost and risk to employers. 80% of people employed by small businesses do not have access to retirement savings plans, and this program helps close that gap.

CalSavers is a voluntary program, so you can make it available to employees without obligation. Click here to download the CalSavers one pager for more information.

Thank You To Our Funders

Main Street Launch is grateful to our funders for their continued support of our work. Most recently, we are thrilled to have been selected by Citi Foundation as a recipient of their Community Progress Makers Fund. Through this grant, Main Street Launch will address the racial wealth gap by accelerating African American wealth creation through business ownership. The funding will allow us to expand our Entrepreneur in Residence Program, support the small business ecosystem, and launch an African American Entrepreneurship Institute. Click here to learn more.

In addition, Bank of America announced that Main Street Launch will receive $2.2 million as a part of their new program supporting veteran entrepreneurs across the U.S. The funding will allow us to continue to expand Veteran Launch throughout California, to provide $2 million in lending, and to support our program operations over two years. Click here to learn more.

Resource For Your Business: Gusto

Main Street Launch partners with different service providers to help connect our clients with resources to help your small business start and grow. We have partnered with Gusto, a payroll, benefits, and HR company, and we want to share more about their services with you.

Gusto has relatively low fees for various small business solutions, including payroll processing, employee benefits options, workers’ comp, and more. Click here to see their tiered service plans. Click here for a deeper explanation of their various services.

If you’re interested in trying Gusto, the first month is free (giving you a chance to test it out and then make a decision). If you allow Main Street Launch to enroll your company, there are some cost-saving options for our clients. Click here to see a demo of Gusto’s platform.

Advising Corner: Your Business’ Online Presence Matters

Katie Taylor is Main Street Launch’s Vice President – Marketing & Executive Projects and offers this tip to help your small business.

Even for local, neighborhood businesses, an online presence is critical for new customers to find you. More than 97% of customers use the internet to find local businesses. This number has been growing steadily since smartphones have become more available and mainstream. Positive reviews make 73% of customers trust a local business more than no reviews. Yelp also reports that every one star increase in your business’ Yelp rating means 5-9% increase in revenue. If your business is not online you’re missing potential revenues that can help your business thrive.

Click here to read the full post.

Meet Our Clients: Threadz Culture + Fashion

Before they started their business, Christopher McMichael and Maurion Gaines came together over their shared passion for music. In 2012 when Chris was working security and kept hitting a ceiling as he tried to advance in his career, he decided to pursue his clothing line full time. “My clothing line had already had some success. I knew that for it to grow to the next level, I needed to open a store to better serve the business,” remembers Chris. Together they launched Threadz Culture + Fashion, a retail store featuring the best streetwear and urban clothing styles in Oakland. They offer custom, limited run pieces, enabling their customers to build a look that is truly unique.

Click here to read Threadz’ full profile.

Resource For Your Business: Venturize

Venturize, powered by Small Business Majority, gives business owners the unbiased information you need to learn about small business lending, become loan-ready, and prepare to successfully complete the borrowing process.

Their site offers education about the loan process, information about different kinds of loans, and connections to local organizations that can help get your business funded. Their blog also features small business news, profiles of entrepreneurs, and more resources to get you loan-ready.

Click here to search for the local resources that can help your business start and grow.

Get To Know Andrea Ramirez

Andrea Ramirez is Main Street Launch’s Business Outreach Manager. Andrea comes to Main Street with a diverse background including affordable housing and tenants rights and GIS mapping. Click here to read Andrea’s bio.

“I am inspired daily by entrepreneurs who tell me their stories about following their dreams of being a business owner. There are so many challenges that entrepreneurs face, and it’s amazing to hear the innovative ways businesses overcome these challenges. I feel so emotionally invested in the people that are willing to share their struggles and successes with me. I love that I get to share their story with others through Shop Oakland Now.”

Click here to read Andrea’s full interview.

Opportunity For Your Business: Lime Bike

Small business owners have many resources available to provide perks to their employees at a low-cost and attract new customers. Lime Bike, a bike and scooter-share company, may be a partner for your business. Located in both Northern and Southern California, Lime Bike engages small business owners in various ways, including as a partner to change their equipment overnight, as a partner to be the pick-up spot for equipment in the mornings, and for perks for employees. Click here to download their flyer, and contact them for more information about small business collaborations.

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

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

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.

Basic Bookkeeping I: Small Business Bookkeeping

by San Francisco SBDC

Date: July 10

Time: 1-3pm

More info: tiny.cc/JulyBookkeeping

Women Mean Business Networking Series

by Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center

Date: July 11

Time: 6-8pm

More info: tiny.cc/womenbiz18

Basic Entrepreneurship Program

by Centro Community Partners

Date: 9 weeks starting September 19

Time: 5:30-8:30pm

More info: tiny.cc/CentroFall18

Creating a Business Roadmap

by Uptima Business Bootcamp

Date: September 22-December 15

Applications due: September 7

More info: tiny.cc/bizroad18

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.

Townsquared 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 Our Newest Clients

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

OakLaunch(1).png

Juice Joint

Illumino Lashes

Lungomare

Congratulations to our
repeat borrowers:

College Nannies & Tutors

Parker Company

Congratulations to our
repeat borrowers:

Mister Jiu’s

Triptych Strength

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BruCo

Freedom Fire Suppression

Jackson Legacy Transport

Congratulations to our
repeat borrowers:

MCMLXII Blackbird Transport

Water Saver Solutions

Welcome Our Newest Team Members

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Main Street Launch is thrilled to welcome Hang Nguyen to our team and to congratulate Brooke Solomon on her recent promtion. Hang joins our team as our Business Outreach Intern, supporting our work with Shop Oakland Now, with a focus on outreach to the Vietnamese-speaking small business community. Brooke Solomon has transitioned to her new role as Loan Closing Manager, supporting our lending team to get our clients funded. Congratulations, Brooke, and welcome to our team, Hang!

In this newsletter:

Resource For Your Business: CalSavers

Thank You To Our Funders

Resource For Your Business: Gusto

Advising Corner: Your Business’ Online Presence Matters

Meet Our Clients: Threadz Culture + Fashion

Resource For Your Business: Venturize

Get To Know Andrea Ramirez

Opportunity For Your Business: Lime Bike

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Get Connected to Resources for your Business

Welcome Our Newest Clients

Welcome Our Newest Team Members

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