Main Street News: Organizational Report, Credit Tips, Client Stories, and more!

• Letter from Our CEO
• Main Street Launch’s 2016-17 Organizational Report
• Credit Tip
• Main Street Launch Funding Announcements
• Advising Corner: Make 2018 Less Stressful
• Meet Our Clients: Black Bark BBQ
• Small Business Owners: Make Your Voices Heard!
• Get To Know Our Staff: Jen Leybovich
• Free Business Advising for Eligible Small Businesses
• Upcoming Events for Your Small Business
• Get Connected to Resources
• Welcome Our Newest Clients
• Welcome Our Newest Team Members

Main Street Launch’s 2016-17 organizational report is now available. You can read and download by clicking here, and you can request your own copy by mail by emailingupdates@mainstreetlaunch.org. Thank you for your on-going support that helps make our work possible.

• $686,500 is designated for our 3.5% fixed interest rate, flexible loan product in Oakland and San Francisco neighborhood business districts.
• $230,405 is designated for loans to veteran-owned businesses in California’s three Peristent Poverty Counties: Imperial, Fresno, and Tulare.

Karla De Leon is Main Street Launch’s Assistant Vice President – Business & Economic Development. She offers this tip to help your business development.

Main Street Launch is partnering with the Federal Reserve on a Small Business Credit Survey for both pre-startup and existing businesses, and we’d like you to participate. Your answers will help business service providers and lenders understand real-time business conditions. This short survey takes less than 9 minutes to complete. Individual responses are confidential and summary results will be shared with you.

Take the survey today!

Questions? ContactSmallBusinessResearch@atl.frb.org.

If you have problems with the link above, copy and paste the following URL into a new browser window:

https://frbatlanta.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0pQZOEEPPnpFNlj?orgid=444545&parentid=OFN&reserve_bank=National

Prior to joining Main Street Launch, Jen completed her M.B.A. at Yale School of Management, where she focused on economic development & social enterprise and was a fellow at Nonprofit Finance Fund in the Lending Division. Click here to learn more about Jen’s background.

“I love that we get to work with talented, driven, community-oriented entrepreneurs, and that their success also fuels the economic development of our communities. It’s inspiring to see how small businesses create a sense of community by bringing people together and contributing to the character and creativity of neighborhoods through their products and services.”

Many women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color say that they lack available mentors. Yet, mentoring can make a big difference. That’s why we’re excited to pass along a new opportunity for Santa Clara-based small businesses. Opportunity Fund has partnered with Pacific Community Ventures and Google to offer small businesses free access to BusinessAdvising.org. It’s a nonprofit small business accelerator, based here in the Bay Area, that empowers small business owners by matching you with pro bono expert advisors to help solve your challenges and seize new opportunities.

You can sign up for BusinessAdvising.org for free. Learn more and sign up athttps://businessadvising.org/opportunity-fund/.

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

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.

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.

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

We’re thrilled to welcome two of our summer interns to our full time staff team. Andrea Ramirez joins our team as our Business Outreach Manager, working to connect with Oakland small business owners for our upcoming business directory, among other projects. Brooke Solomon joins our team as our Data and Online Content Manager, supporting various data functions across the organization. We’ve also been fortunate to have Linda Ho as our Marketing & Impact Evaluation intern, working on various marketing projects including social media strategy, content creation, and data management projects. Click here to learn more about our team.