Blog February 2013

On Friday, January 4, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed Executive Directive No. 27 establishing the Office of Contractor Relations for the City of Los Angeles.

The office, part of the Mayor’s Economic and Business Policy Office, is designed to enact and oversee programs, policies, and procedures to ensure that all businesses, including small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses, have an equal opportunity to participate in city contracts.  It will be tasked with the responsibility to establish and achieve contracting goals as well as strengthen the city’s outreach to minority, veteran, and women-owned firms.

Export-Import Bank: Your Global Finance Partner

As U.S. businesses seek to expand their global footprint in emerging markets, the demand for a dependable global financial partner is imperative.  The Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank of the United States is the official credit agency of the United States and offers solutions to U.S. companies to assist with demystifying international financing options.  Its mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets. 

“So let us honor those who came before by striving toward their example, and let us follow in their footsteps toward the better future that is ours to claim.”

 President Barack Obama, 2013 National African American History Month Proclamation

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice.  His hopes to raise awareness of African American's contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925.  The event was first celebrated during a week in February 1926 that encompassed the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation's bicentennial.  By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story.

Enable Small Businesses to Bid on Larger Contracts and Grow

A major revision in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Surety Bond Guarantee (SBG) Program more than triples the eligible contract amount, from $2 million to $6.5 million, the Agency will guarantee on surety bonds for both public and private contracts.

What does this mean for small businesses trying to grow?

A Los Angeles subcontractor for example, was looking to take on bigger jobs and grow its business, but needed a much larger bond to bid on and get a contract that was larger than past work it had performed.

As a direct result of higher SBA guaranteed bond limits, companies like that California contractor can now experience continued growth in bonding capacity, employ more employees and improve revenue streams. And with that kind of growth and resulting experience on bigger jobs, such companies can bid on more federal construction contracts, build an even stronger management team, and set strategic plans for bigger contracts and expansion into larger markets.