NEWS
Please share with us News and contact information about Latina companies in your community that are doing well and can serve as success models. Send to: laponte@latinamarketplace.com
SBA's Resource Portal for Women Business Owners
... includes online guides, tools, and training that walk you through the steps of starting growing, and financing your business. (Link to SBA's Resource Portal)
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eWomenNetwork Foundation accepting nominations for International Femtor Awards
Source: eWomenNetwork.com
More info: femtorawards.org
The International Femtor Awards are one of North America's most prestigious award honors. Each year nominated leaders are selected to be recognized for their outstanding achievements and the role they play in elevating the stature and well-being of women. This year's awards ceremony, August 9, 2013 in Dallas, Texas promises to be the most exciting event ever!
Some of our past winners include: Debbie Meyer, inventor of Debbie Meyer GREEN BAGS and HSN TV Star; Sheila Johnson, Co-Founder of BET, owner of Salamander Hospitality, movie producer and impassioned philanthropist; and Marilyn Tam, former CEO of Aveda, former President of Reebok Retail and Best Selling Author.
The term Femtor means "a wise and trusted woman providing knowledge, inspiration and practical information to other women." Femtor acknowledges the mentoring work done from a female experience and knowledge base. These experienced women seek out ways to teach, share their wisdom and help other women find their wings.
The eWomenNetwork Foundation is currently accepting nominations in each of the following categories.
The International Femtor Award categories are:
· Business Matchmaker of the Year: The award recognizes a unique woman who has consistently gone out of her way to help others succeed. She is the consummate connector, who unselfishly looks out for the business needs of others.
· Made it to a Million Award: Current research shows that only 2% of women owned businesses generate revenues of $1 million annually. This award recognizes an outstanding woman who has demonstrated exemplary leadership and business skills in the course of starting and growing her company. She must be the owner/CEO of a 51% woman-owned business that has a minimum of 4 full time employees with annual company revenue of at least $1 million for the preceding fiscal year.
· Emerging Leader of the Year: This award recognizes our leaders of tomorrow and the promise of a vibrant and heart-centered future. Applicants in this category are the best and the brightest in the 22-29 age group. Emerging Leaders must have demonstrated extraordinary and significant accomplishments in the areas of education, business and service to their communities.
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Mar 8, 2013, 7:03am
Wells Fargo Commits to Lending $55 Billion to Women-Owned Businesses by the Year 2020
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), America’s No. 1 small business lender1 and a leading lender to women- and diverse-owned businesses, today announced a commitment to lend a cumulative total of $55 billion to women-owned businesses in the U.S. by the year 2020, updating its lending commitment first established in 1995. The announcement will be made by Lisa Stevens, Wells Fargo lead executive for Small Business and West Coast Regional Banking president, at the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) 22nd Annual Latina History Day conference in Los Angeles.
March is National Women’s History Month, and Wells Fargo has a rich history of working with women business owners and providing them access to capital and financial services. Since introducing the women’s lending commitment 18 years ago, Wells Fargo has provided more than $38 billion in capital to women business owners, a group that grew in size by more than 20 percent from 2002 to 2007, according to the latest Census data. Today, approximately 30 percent of businesses in the U.S. are owned by women, according to the National Women’s Business Council.
“Women-owned businesses are among America’s fastest growing segments, and we are honored to support their role in shaping the future of small business,” said Stevens. “As a leader in lending to women, Wells Fargo is dedicated to helping women succeed financially — in business and personally.”
Wells Fargo’s first lending commitment in 1995 established a goal to lend $1 billion to women business owners over three years. Fueled by the continued growth of women business owners, the goal was increased, most recently in 2003.
In addition to the cumulative lending goal, Wells Fargo supports numerous outreach efforts to build relationships with women business owners and help them to succeed financially. Wells Fargo is a proud supporter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and the Women Presidents’ Organization, as well as several other organizations focused on the education, growth and advancement of women business owners. Wells Fargo provides the full array of financial products and services to satisfy all of the financial needs of women-owned businesses, such as banking, business loans and lines of credit, credit cards, payroll, merchant services, insurance, retirement planning, and online resources.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.
About Wells Fargo Small Business
Wells Fargo has loaned more money to small businesses in the United States than any other bank for 10 years running (based on 2002-2011 Community Reinvestment Act government data) and is a leading lender to women- and diverse-owned businesses. Wells Fargo provides a wide range of financial solutions to meet the needs of business owners nationwide. Through the Wells Fargo Business Insight Resource Center, business owners can access an informative selection of videos and articles featuring expert advice and best practices. For more information visit wellsfargo.com/biz or call the National Business Banking Center at 1-800-CALL-WELLS.
1 Based on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) government data (2002-2011).
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White House Elevates a Commissioner to Chairwoman of the F.T.C.
By: Edward Wyatt
Published: February 28, 2013
WASHINGTON — Edith Ramirez, a former appellate and antitrust lawyer who served on the staff of the Harvard Law Review with Barack Obama and later coordinated his campaign’s outreach to Latino voters in California, will be appointed by the president to be chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, the agency said on Thursday. She begins work on Monday.
Federal Trade Commission
The choice of Edith Ramirez has been widely praised by consumer groups.
Ms. Ramirez, who is Latina, would be the first member of an ethnic minority to be appointed to oversee the nearly 100-year-old commission. The F.T.C. is the nation’s primary consumer protection agency and shares responsibility for enforcement of antitrust laws with the Justice Department.
A Southern California native and a daughter of Mexican immigrants, Ms. Ramirez has served since April 2010 on the commission, where she voiced strong support for industry self-regulation and for preserving competition.
By elevating a current commissioner to the top role, the White House avoids having to wait for the Senate to confirm the nomination. Until a nominee for Ms. Ramirez’s former seat is approved, however, the commission will have a 2-2 split between Republican and Democratic members.
“I am deeply honored at the opportunity to lead the Federal Trade Commission,” Ms. Ramirez, a Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday. “I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners and the able F.T.C. staff to continue the agency’s proud history of promoting vigorous competition and protecting consumers.”
The choice of Ms. Ramirez has been widely praised by consumer groups, Democratic members of Congress and former colleagues. But it is also significant because it addresses concerns about a lack of diversity among Mr. Obama’s senior advisers and appointees.
Roughly 43 percent of Mr. Obama’s appointments have been women, according to an analysis by The New York Times, about the same as during the Clinton administration and up from about one-third under George W. Bush. Mr. Obama’s male appointees outnumbered females in 11 of 15 cabinet agencies. At four agencies, male appointees outnumbered female appointees by a two-to-one ratio.
People who know Ms. Ramirez say she will offer a different national perspective from the previous chairman, Jon Leibowitz, who announced his resignation in January and who has spent nearly all his career in Washington.
“Coming from the West Coast, with a background in representing individuals and municipal utilities as well as businesses, gives her a balanced vantage point from beyond the Beltway that will serve her well,” said Allan Van Fleet, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery who frequently encountered Ms. Ramirez when he was chairman of the American Bar Association’s antitrust section.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is chairwoman of the antitrust subcommittee, called Ms. Ramirez “a highly respected F.T.C. commissioner who will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to her new position.”
Before joining the commission, Ms. Ramirez was a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in Los Angeles, where she represented clients on matters of antitrust, intellectual property and unfair competition. She also served as vice president on the board of commissioners of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility.
She graduated from Harvard in 1989 and from Harvard Law School in 1992. There, she was an editor of the law review when Mr. Obama was its president.
Ms. Ramirez also has been a director of Volunteers of America. While at the F.T.C., she has talked about the direct relationship between preserving competition in the marketplace and the reduction of poverty, particularly in the health care industry.
“Greater competition leads to lower prices overall, higher output, better quality, and more innovation,” Ms. Ramirez said last year in a speech, delivered in Spanish, at a competition forum in the Dominican Republic.
“The poor, like everyone else, benefit from these outcomes,” she said. “Indeed, the underprivileged may benefit even more because they spend a greater proportion of their income on basic goods and services, and, as a result, price increases affect them more than others.”
Ms. Ramirez has spoken strongly in favor of self-regulation and voluntary codes of conduct among companies involved in international trade.
At an F.T.C. workshop on cross-border consumer protection in November, she said that self-regulation was “an important tool for consumer protection that potentially can respond more quickly and efficiently than government regulation.”
To be effective, however, self-regulatory bodies must “impose meaningful standards subject to strict enforcement,” she said. “Our support for self-regulation is not at any price.”
Ms. Ramirez thanked Mr. Leibowitz for his leadership, but she did not always agree with him. In the F.T.C.’s recent case involving whether Google’s search practices were unfair, she objected to the commission’s decision to let Google promise to change its behavior without signing a legal commitment to do so.
The decision not to charge Google with violations of anti-competition or antitrust laws was unanimous by the five-member commission. But a footnote to the F.T.C.’s statement added: “While Commissioner Ramirez is pleased that Google has decided to change certain of its practices, she objects to the form of the commitments made by Google.”
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Women in Technology: Geek is the New Chic
By Alicia Abella
Recently, I attended an '80s party and was reminded of the music and the fashion of that time.
It made me think of the brightly colored leg warmers I wore in those days - and still have in my closet - just in case they come back into fashion. I was also reminded of the revolution that was occurring in garages and universities across the country back then. The Internet was being born, right along with many of the technologies that we take for granted today.
And the creators were geeks - hobbyists, computer enthusiasts and visionaries. I joined them, realizing that they were creating a wave that I would be riding for a very long time. But no one could ever have imagined the ranks that geeks would reach. Once shunned for their eccentricity, their technology acumen suddenly propelled them into stardom, wealth and renown. How did this happen? It's simple, really. The geeks had - and still have - the ability to create innovations that can revolutionize the world.
This was part of a broader message that I delivered to a group of women at Columbia University's Women in Business Conference in New York City Feb. 1. Attendees were mostly women in the MBA program or those transitioning into business from other professions there to discover how they could capitalize on the tech revolution.
This newfound interest in tech careers can be attributed to the proliferation of technology in our daily lives. One thing that has changed from the '80s is the ubiquitous nature of technology. It's no longer just for hobbyists and it doesn't just reside in the bowels of laboratory buildings. It's everywhere around us and is being used by 7-year-olds and 77-year-olds, by men and women alike. I recently gave a smartphone to my mother and she loves it. She now sends me texts, reads the newspaper and snaps photos on a whim - she's 75.
This proliferation and experience with the technology opens the door for women to participate in the innovation process in ways they may not have considered in the past. Whether a hacker or a fashionista, women can offer insights into how the technology can be designed, priced, marketed and sold, especially when you consider that 50 percent of the population using it are women. I told these women that it's not too late to go into tech or too late to learn how to code. I reminded them that in a world run by computers and networks, the person who exhibits proficiency in such systems wields a significant amount of influence.
I often speak to young women and encourage them to study math and science. I give them examples of how important geeks are to us and how brave they are. Geeks - both women and men - are rebels with a cause. It's an admirable feat to go against social norms and establishments to stand up for your passion and values, and that's exactly what tech geeks do. We've all reaped the benefits of their hard work. I'm happy to see that geeks are coming out of the shadows and are recognized for being the people behind the innovations that we can't live without. And I hope that this newfound admiration for geeks will encourage more men and women to join the ranks of geekhood.
Regardless of how mainstream and popular technology has become, we need to continue to support the “classic geek” who continues to push boundaries behind the scenes. They're the ones laying the technological foundation for tomorrow in garages, universities and research institutions across the country. We need them to continue to think differently and invent the future so that society can continue to benefit from their creative spirit.
One day, just maybe, calling someone a geek will be the utmost compliment you can pay them. I, for one, already wear the geek label with pride. And I'm honored to work for a diverse technology leader like AT&T, where my “geekiness” is celebrated and appreciated.
Alicia Abella, Executive Director of the Innovative Services Research Department, is based in Florham Park, NJ.
More info: www.witi.com
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2012 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories
Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories supply data on small businesses in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The publication also provides national-level data and limited data on the U.S. territories.
What do the profiles say about small business health? Despite continuing challenges, the profiles show that the U.S. economy was relatively strong in 2011. At the national level, the unemployment rate was down 0.7 percent between 2010 and 2011, and 48 states reported a decrease as well. Of these states, 10 had rates equal to the national level.
The usefulness of the profiles is the great detail it provides about small businesses at the state level. Small business borrowing activity, as well as self-employment by various demographics, are presented. Also covered are the number of firms, small business income, banking, business turnover, industry composition, and employment gains and losses by size of business.
Each profile is available in Adobe PDF format, and an Excel spreadsheet containing all of the profile data is also available. For further information contact Victoria Williams, Economist, at (202) 205-6533 or advocacy@sba.gov.
To see profiles by state see http://www.sba.gov/advocacy/848/468011
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Kauffman Study Identifies
Keys to Success for High-Growth Women Entrepreneurs
Are successful, high-growth women entrepreneurs different from successful men entrepreneurs? Yes and no, according to a new Kauffman Foundation study that finds women are under-represented among business founders, particularly in high-tech and other high-growth fields. The researchers say understanding gender similarities and differences among successful entrepreneurs can aid efforts to encourage female entrepreneurs and foster high-growth business creation and economic growth.
Go here to read the study's insights into the differences and similarities between the backgrounds, education, and motivations of men and women high-growth entrepreneurs, and their beliefs about key success factors.
Contact:
Kelly Rohrs, 212-819-4852, Kelly.Rohrs@edelman.com
Barbara Pruitt, 816-932-1288, bpruitt@kauffman.org, Kauffman Foundation
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NEW SUPPLIER REGISTRATION APPLICATION for the United States Postal Service (USPS)
The United States Postal Service is pleased to announce the launch of a new Supplier Registration application. At the USPS, we highly value our relationship with Latino businesses and in keeping with our commitment to provide access to business opportunities. Prospective minority businesses can find the information they need to do business with us at www.usps.com/suppliers/welcome.htm where they can learn more about ‘What We Buy & Who Buys What’.
All suppliers interested in doing business with the Postal Service must register their company in the Supplier Registration System. To learn more about Supplier Registration, visit the web page http://www.usps.com/suppliers/howto/registration.htm. The USPS Supplier Registration page has important steps that must be followed before a company can register.
The USPS publicizes business opportunities in various media, including but not limited to, local and national newspapers, trade journals, and the government-wide point-of-entry accessible at http://www.fedbizopps.gov
. Suppliers should search FedBizOpps to learn about the Postal Service and Federal Government solicitations and awards, as well as, Notices of Intent to post solicitations in our eSourcing system.
More info: www.ushccbids.com
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