Press Room February 2012

Board of Directors Retreat
San Juan, Puerto Rico
As Delivered

I’d like to thank Francis Onwualu, Art Queen, and the board of directors of the National Association of Minority Contractors for inviting me to be with you. It’s always great to see old friends and I hope I’ll have an opportunity to meet those of you I don’t know. Before I get started, I would like to recognize a key member our team – Otis Turner – from our San Francisco office. Otis, please stand.  Otis is outstanding and has helped many of our clients build their businesses.  Before you leave, you need to make sure you meet him and get his business card.  He is a key contact for your company!

I am delighted to be here on behalf of President Obama and Secretary of Commerce John Bryson. Last month, in his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke about laying the foundation for an Economy Built to Last.  An economy based on fairness, where everyone has a fair chance, does their fair share and plays by the same rules. This is the type of America that I believe all of us want; the type of America that so many of our grandparents and great-grandparents worked for…and in some instances, died for.

Initiative Aims to Foster National Teaming Arrangements with Alaskan Native Corporations

David A. Hinson, National Director of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce joined Mayor Dan Sullivan at a press conference and ribbon cutting ceremony to open a new satellite center on Tuesday, February 21, 2012. The new satellite center is designed to help minority-owned firms both in Alaska and throughout the country create and retain jobs, increase size, scale and capacity, and build globally competitive firms.

Over the past three years, business owners and entrepreneurs have told us that they don’t have the time or resources to navigate the maze of government agencies and need a one stop shop where they could go for all the assistance they need at every stage of their development.  As President Obama said in his State of the Union address last month, we need to give U.S. businesses every opportunity and tool to succeed and not a maze to navigate.  And as Secretary Bryson has said multiple times while traveling to manufacturers in Columbus, Norfolk, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis, we need to support American businesses so they can build their products here in America and sell them everywhere around the world.

This is why the Obama Administration is launching a new online platform, BusinessUSA, to help small businesses and exporters of all sizes find information about available federal programs without having to waste time and resources navigating the federal bureaucracy. BusinessUSA combines information and services from 10 different government agencies through one consolidated website and coordinate telephone support through a single 1-800 number. The BusinessUSA website went live today with hundreds of business resources consolidated in one place including Commerce’s International Trade Agency, Census Bureau, Patent and Trademark Office, several other Commerce bureaus, as well as, multiple other government agencies.

The economic condition of small businesses in the United States is captured in the latest edition of the  Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories.

This annual publication from the Office of Advocacy provides information on the demographics of business ownership, employment, industry composition, and small business income, for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The publication provides available limited data on the U.S. territories.

The value of this publication is the detail it provides about small businesses at the state level.  An Excel spreadsheet containing all of the data in the profiles is also available. The state and territory profiles are in Adobe PDF format.

Research
2010 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories
2009 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories

The Budget provides $29 million for the MBDA, through their network of Minority Business Enterprise Centers, to support the ability of minority businesses to grow and participate in the global economy.  MBDA's FY 2013 Budget in Brief

• The President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2013
   
• Commerce Fiscal Year 2013 Budget