​WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The first “State of Diverse Small Businesses in California” report details the statewide impact of minority-owned small business, noting that, annually, they contribute $192.8 billion in economic output – more than the annual GDP of 18 US States, generate $28.7 million in tax revenue, and support 2.56 million jobs.

SACRAMENTO, CA (October 10, 2023) – The California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) recently released a research report, led by the state’s leading minority chambers and produced by Beacon Economics, that was California’s first on the economic, fiscal, and social impact of diverse firms across the state.

Samuel Maury-Holmes, Practice Lead at Beacon Economics, is presenting the findings this week to the “Investing in Small Businesses Owned by People of Color” working session at the 2023 California Economic Summit hosted by CA FWD in Indian Wells.

Part of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), CalOSBA commissioned this report as part of their efforts to continue embedding equity analysis and considerations in their mission, policies, and practices.

“The Governor’s Office has long acknowledged that diverse small businesses power California’s economy, generating billions in economic activity and significant tax revenues for California. But we couldn’t sufficiently quantify their activities, performance, or impact,” said CalOSBA Director Tara Lynn Gray. “This report speaks to that need and signifies the Governor’s commitment to a more inclusive understanding of our economy and the findings will help our office and our partners to better support the Governor’s vision of a California for All. This data will also help local small business communities better advocate for their needs.”

The report studied businesses from four racial/ethnic groups: Asians, Hispanics, Black/African-Americans, and Native Americans. Key findings from the report, which reference Census data sources from 2019 (the most recent data year for which all individual data points used in this report were available as of publication), include:

• Minority small businesses contribute nearly $193 billion in economic output per year, which is greater than the annual GDP of 18 U.S. states.
• Minority small businesses in California generate $28.7 billion in tax revenue each year.
• Minority small businesses support 2.56 million jobs annually across California.
• The business sector with the highest concentration of small minority firms (defined as employing 20 employees or less) is the Trade, Transport and Utilities sector with over 300,000 minority firms (wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, utilities).

Last fall, CalOSBA called upon the state’s largest minority chambers — the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce worked as project lead along with the California African-American Chamber of Commerce and the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce- — to lead the project including selecting a research lead and a roster of community-based partners to collect data from California’s diverse business communities. This new analysis will help both CalOSBA and private organizations better target supportive government policies and investments for minority firms and entrepreneurs, as well as raise the visibility of their contributions towards job creation, tax revenues, and healthy communities to policymakers in the public and private sectors.

“This level of detailed data is critical to our effort to effectively promote economic development policy that serves the needs of these businesses on the statewide and local levels. Stakeholders around the state can now plainly see the priority of serving these small business-owners,” said Pat Fong Kushida, President and CEO of the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce.

“The lack of data has put minority and underserved businesses at a consistent disadvantage. This detailed snapshot of California’s diverse small businesses is intended to change this,” said Ahmad Holmes, Chief Operating Officer for the California African American Chamber of Commerce.

“The pervasive lack of economic performance data further isolates minority-owned employers from the types of high-impact support and financial assistance they need to fully recover from the pandemic or weather the next disaster,” said Julian Canete, President and CEO of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.

In addition to the quantitative analysis provided by Beacon, advocacy group Small Business Majority supported the qualitative data collection process through collaboration with some 38 community organizations.

“Small Business Majority was proud to partner with CalOSBA, leading state chambers of commerce, and diverse small business organizations across California to field and share data essential to making sure the voices of BIPOC entrepreneurs are heard,” said Josaline Cuesta, California Program Director for Small Business Majority.

Months of extensive data gathering and analysis this past winter and spring by Beacon Economics and its research partners resulted in a detailed, 112-page economic report on the make-up and contributions of diverse small firms in California.

To access the Executive Summary and full report, please visit https://calosba.ca.gov/about/publications/

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development(GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

About CalOSBA
The Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) helps support economic growth and innovation by working to ensure that California’s small businesses and entrepreneurs have the information, tools and resources they need to plan, launch, manage and grow their businesses successfully and be resilient. The CalOSBA serves to elevate their voices in state government and to advocate on their behalf to help ensure all aspiring and current small business owners and entrepreneurs are provided with the opportunity to access capital, access markets, and connect to the networks and resources they need to succeed. For more information visit the website.

About Beacon Economics
Beacon Economics, LLC is an independent research and consulting firm dedicated to delivering accurate, insightful, and objectively based economic analysis that enables its clients to make informed decisions about investment, growth, revenue, and policy. The company is certified as a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) with the state of California.

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Sara Curtis
Chief of Staff
Email Sara, HERE

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Sacramento, CA – The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) distributed the state’s first-ever Local Immigrant Integration and Inclusion Grant (LIIIG) allocations, with over $6 million to twelve local governments across California (see table below for details). This program provides funding for local governments to bolster efforts focused on helping immigrant families thrive and contribute – increasing community trust and enhancing the ability of local governments to serve their immigrant communities successfully.​

Awarded activities for LIIIG funding include:

1. Economic Development: Supporting immigrant entrepreneurs with creating and scaling businesses through various initiatives.
2. Social Services Navigation: Helping eligible immigrants access essential public programs.
3. Intergovernmental Technical Assistance: Developing and implementing culturally appropriate policies and best practices to serve the immigrant population.

“GO-Biz is proud to award local governments the first-ever state funding that focuses on local government immigrant integration efforts,” said Emily Desai, GO-Biz Deputy Director of International Affairs and Trade. “In California, we embrace the diversity and contributions supported by immigrant communities, recognizing them as critical to the collective success of our state and nation. California has relied on immigration to stay globally competitive, and these grants will further support our local governments in their efforts to create economic mobility and enable social inclusion for California’s immigrant populations.”

About 27% of Californians are immigrants, and half of California’s kids have at least one immigrant parent. Governor Newsom has signed legislation providing increased access to health care, education, and other critical initiatives that help immigrant families be safe, thrive, and grow the economy with their talent and contributions.

The LIIIG is a one-year grant with a performance period from October 1, 2023, through September 31, 2024. GO-Biz is expected to release a limited second round of funding to support further the equitable distribution of funds in rural regions and for underserved immigrant populations.

Additional details about the award recipients and future announcements for additional funding will be available on the LIIIG website. For questions, send emails to immigrantintegration.initiatives@gobiz.ca.gov.

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

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Sacramento, CA – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that a grant totaling $700,000 has been awarded to the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) as part of the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP). STEP is a federally funded grant program that aims to increase export activities among small businesses. The program has helped thousands of small businesses across California sell their products and services overseas by covering various costs associated with entering and expanding into international markets.

Since the inception of the program in 2011, the State of California has received approximately $9 million in STEP funding to support small businesses with exporting activities. These activities can include participating in foreign trade missions and international trade shows, globalizing websites and engaging in ecommerce, designing international marketing campaigns, and other important means of engagement.

Emily Desai, Deputy Director of International Affairs and Trade at GO-Biz said, “Since 95% of the world’s consumers and two-thirds of all purchasing power are located outside the United States, this grant program plays a critical role in providing access to capital, access to markets, and access to buyers. Helping our small businesses in accessing the benefits of exporting, and the economic resiliency it can support, is one of our team’s primary goals. This new round of STEP funding will help ensure those benefits are made available to even more California small businesses, particularly those that have historically lacked access to economic opportunity.”

Visit GO-Biz’s California STEP website for more information about how California small businesses can participate in our STEP events and qualify for up to $10,000 in reimbursement funding for export promotion activities.

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

About California STEP
The California State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) provides funding and assistance to California small businesses that aim to initiate or expand their export activities. For more information, visit the California STEP website.

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State funding supports small agricultural business impacted by severe drought and flood conditions

Sacramento, CA (August 31, 2023) – The first round of applications for the California Small Agricultural Business Drought and Flood Relief Grant Program opens today, and will ultimately award up to $95 million in drought and flood relief grants to eligible small agricultural businesses to cover part of costs incurred from California’s extreme drought from 2019 to 2022 and 2023 storm flooding conditions.

“This single program represents the climate whiplash – from extreme drought to extreme flooding – that California has experienced over the past two years. The Newsom administration is investing not only in water resiliency and infrastructure improvements but in protecting the small businesses that power our agricultural supply chain,” said Tara Lynn Gray, Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

Designed for small agriculture businesses most impacted by the recent drought and flood conditions, the program will provide the opportunity for direct grants of $20,000 – $100,000.

Round 1 for drought relief is open to two eligible groups that have been affected by severe drought according to the United States Department of Agriculture drought monitor: small agricultural businesses and small, socially disadvantaged farmers. Round 1 for flood relief is open to any small agricultural business within or serving a county that has a state or federal disaster declaration for flooding.

Any subsequent rounds will all be for qualified, small agricultural businesses.

The program is administered by the California Office of Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), an arm of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), through its intermediary, Lendistry, and a network of outreach partners who have all been meeting regularly since late July. Lendistry and key partner organizations will be available to provide program-related technical assistance to small agriculture businesses throughout the application period.

For more information on the application dates, grant requirements, eligibility, FAQs, and technical assistance, visit cadroughtfloodrelief.com.

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

Sara Curtis
Chief of Staff
Email Sara, HERE

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The United States Department of Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative Program will  expand technical assistance to California’s underserved entrepreneurs and small business owners.

SACRAMENTO, CA – Last week, the California Office of Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA), an arm of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), was awarded the State Small Business Credit Initiative Technical Assistance (SSBCI TA) Program by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The SSBCI TA Program award approved CalOSBA for up to $25.3 million for a period of five years, the largest investment to any one state by the Department. For the full U.S. Department of Treasury press release, click here.

With these new funds, CalOSBA will partner with the statewide network of small business technical assistance centers that represent geographic and service diversity, including services in over thirty different languages, to further reach and support small business and entrepreneurs navigate the funding landscape and successfully access capital they need to start and/or grow their business in California. CalOSBA is committed to reducing barriers to resources and information and will prioritize outreach and engagement with socially and economically disadvantaged individually (SEDI) owned businesses and very small businesses (VSB). The technical assistance services will include tailored free one-on-one counseling and no- to low-cost training.

“This is an important milestone for technical assistance to California’s 4.2 million small businesses. California is already home to the largest and most robust small business support network in the country. My office is excited to expand our partnerships with these providers to make sure that small business-owners in underserved communities get the support they need to become loan-ready and take advantage of the $1.1 billion SSBCI capital infusion,” said CalOSBA Director Tara Lynn Gray.

For more on Governor Newsom’s September 2022 announcement of the U.S. Treasury approval of $1.1 billion in SSBCI funding, click here.

The Biden-Harris Administration also recently announced the recommended awardees for the Minority Business Development Agency’s (MDBA) Capital Readiness Program, including awardees in California. The Capital Readiness Program represents the Commerce Department’s largest investment in support of underserved entrepreneurs. Awardees will launch and operate business incubators or accelerators designed to prepare underserved entrepreneurs to secure capital from the historic $10 billion SSBCI and other capital sources. For the full MBDA press release, click here.

“Access to capital for a small business starts with capital readiness. At the Small Business Development Centers in California, we assist thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners to understand business financials, types of capital and lending, and put together complete loan packages. Post COVID-19, the capital markets and economy have made capital access even more complicated. The SSBCI Technical Assistance funding will allow the SBDCs to work more with small businesses to help navigate the changing lending landscape,” said Daniel Fitzgerald, Regional Director, San Diego & Imperial Valley Regional SBDC Network.

“The recent investment in SSBCI for CA Technical assistance centers is excellent and we are eager to train and advise businesses how to navigate and access the money they need to start and grow. We are thrilled to be working with CDFI’s, banks, credit unions, non-profit lenders to advise them on what underserved businesses need from them to ensure they can apply and get approved for capital,” said Kristin Johnson, Executive Director, Northern California Regional SBDC Network.

“Capital is one of the most critical components to assisting small businesses with starting and growing.  The California SBDC’s are excited for the role the SSBCI program can play in assisting those small businesses that need it the most but struggle with accessing the capital they need through traditional channels.  The California SBDC’s in partnership with CalOSBA will be able to provide financial education, loan packaging and lender matchmaking to small businesses throughout the state with an emphasis on supporting minorities, women and the most underserved businesses throughout the state of California to make sure that everyone has access to affordable capital,” said Mike Daniel, Regional Director, Orange County Inland Empire Regional SBDC Network.

Sara Curtis
Chief of Staff
Email Sara, HERE

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

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The California Regional Initiative for Social Enterprises (CA RISE) program will build capacity and provide capital to businesses that hire, train, and support California workers facing barriers to employment.

SACRAMENTO, CA (July 17, 2023) —CalOSBA has selected its partners to build a first-of-its-kind program designed to accelerate economic inclusion by investing in the power of employment social enterprises (ESEs). CA RISE (California Regional Initiative for Social Enterprise) will help ESEs statewide improve their business stability and advance the economic mobility of their employees by pairing technical assistance and advisory support with grant funding for participating businesses.

CalOSBA has selected non-profit REDF to serve as program lead responsible for technical assistance and counseling to California’s ESEs or businesses that want to become an ESE. CalOSBA has also selected financing minority-led small business lender Lendistry to serve as the fiscal agent for administration of grants to eligible ESEs that complete REDF’s counseling program. Governor Gavin Newsom approved $25,000,000funding for CA RISE as part of the 2022-2023 state budget.

ESE businesses employ, train, and support talented Californians overcoming barriers to employment, including people often overlooked by employers because of their experiences of homelessness, incarceration, or mental health and substance use challenges; refugees; survivors of domestic violence and trafficking; and youth who have been in foster care.

ESEs participating in CA RISE will receive customized, in-depth technical assistance to ensure the sustainability and success of their businesses and become eligible to apply for grant funding through the program. REDF will also work with ESEs to connect them with local public partners, training providers, and private sector employers. Eligible businesses include non-profits and for-profits that are organized as social purpose or benefits corporations and with a demonstrated track record of achieving specific outcomes related to economic inclusion, stability, and mobility.

“CalOSBA’s mission is to increase economic mobility through entrepreneurship. Employment social enterprises have a proven track record of achieving that objective through employment and on-the-job training. We are confident that REDF’s deep expertise will support the work of each CA RISE participant and further the Governor’s vision of a California For All,” said CalOSBA Director Tara Lynn Gray. “We are excited to launch this first-in-the-nation effort in partnership with REDF and Lendistry.”

California’s 200 ESEs employ roughly 10,000 people each year—and this number is growing. REDF’s research verifies that ESEs deliver better job retention and more total income for their employees than other companies.

REDF is nationally recognized for building the  Los Angeles Regional Initiative for Social Enterprise (LA:RISE), a pioneering partnership between the City and County of Los Angeles workforce agencies that has invested in ESEs to provide transitional employment to more than 7,000 Angelenos.

About CalOSBA
The Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) helps support economic growth and innovation by working to ensure that California’s small businesses and entrepreneurs have the information, tools, and resources they need to plan, launch, manage and grow their businesses successfully and be resilient. The CalOSBA serves to elevate their voices in state government and to advocate on their behalf to help ensure all aspiring and current small business owners and entrepreneurs are provided with the opportunity to access capital, access markets, and connect to the networks and resources they need to succeed. For more information, visit the website.

Sara Curtis
Chief of Staff
Email Sara, HERE

About REDF
REDF invests in employment social enterprises (ESEs) — businesses that provide jobs, training, and support to people breaking through barriers to employment. REDF partners with these businesses and the entrepreneurs who lead them — providing capital, capacity, and community — to amplify their transformative impact. Since 1997, REDF has invested in more than 280 ESEs in 38 states and DC. Collectively these partnerships have helped 100,000 people enter the workforce and generate more than $2 billion in revenue that is reinvested in employee success—creating a ripple effect that strengthens families and communities and helps build an economy that works for everyone. For more information, visit www.redf.org

About Lendistry
B.S.D. Capital, Inc. dba Lendistry (lendistry.com) is a minority-led fintech that provides innovative lending products and access to grant programs for small businesses nationwide. Headquartered in a Los Angeles Opportunity Zone, Lendistry uses technology and community partnerships to overcome systemic gaps that inhibit access to capital, and to empower its customers with responsible financing options. Based on its reputation for deploying funds efficiently and equitably, Lendistry’s leadership is often called upon to share their expertise with both government and private organizations. Lendistry has both Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certifications and is a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. Lendistry SBLC, LLC is the nation’s only African American-led SBA designated Small Business Lending Company. In collaboration with The Center by Lendistry, a nonprofit business education organization, Lendistry dedicates itself to providing economic opportunities and progressive growth for underserved urban and rural small business borrowers and their communities.

About GO-Biz
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) serves as the State of California’s leader for job growth and economic development efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more. For more information visit the GO-Biz website.

Heather Purcell
Deputy Director of Communications
Email Heather, HERE

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