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Given the new economic realities and state budgetary cuts, child care providers need support now more than ever.  Explore with veteran providers and industry experts, including nationally renowned tax and family child care expert Tom Copeland, the tools you need to create and sustain success in your business. 

The Expo is a powerful business tool for both new and existing entrepreneurs—a critical “go to” event where you can explore the important questions being posed to you as a business owner.

2010 Expo highlights will include:

• In-depth panel discussions, presented in Spanish and English, featuring business experts, veteran providers and information on getting started given today’s economic realities, supplementing your wages, marketing in a time of recession, keeping records, asking the right questions before you start, accessing financing, balancing business and self and more! 
• Speed Business Coaching sessions where attendees will have a chance to ask business and industry experts direct questions in a small group format.
• Exhibition Hall of more than 50 booths featuring insurance vendors, bankers, child care associations, state agencies which regulate the industry and toy and curriculum vendors.
• Annual Child Care Applause Awards Breakfast, honoring outstanding child care providers and activists in the child care community.
• Southwest Airlines tickets raffle, where all attendees have the opportunity to win 2 round-trip tickets from Southwest Airlines, sponsor of the Child Care Applause Awards Breakfast.

Recent health care reform has many small business owners wondering what the implications will be for their businesses.  Health care reform legislation establishes a small business health care tax credit to help small businesses afford the cost of covering their workers.  The new tax credit takes effect immediately to help cover premiums small businesses pay, and both taxable and tax-exempt firms qualify.

• Cover at least 50% of the cost of health care coverage for some of its workers based on the single rate,
• Employ less than the equivalent of 25 full-time workers, and
• Pay average annual wages below $50,000.

Click here to determine if your business qualifies.

The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit can cover up to 35% of the premiums a small business pays to cover its workers.  In 2014, the rate will increase to 50% (35% for tax-exempt employers).  For more information on this new tax credit please click here.

Additional reform included in this legislation which affects small businesses are:

• Creates Health Insurance Exchanges to Increase Bargaining Power and Reduce Administrative Costs.  Health insurance exchanges will provide more choice, lower prices and greater bargaining power for companies with up to 100 employees.  Starting in 2014, firms with 100 or fewer workers will be able to pool their buying power and reduce administrative costs by purchasing insurance through an exchange.
• Ends Price Discrimination Against Small Businesses with Sick Workers.  Starting in 2014, “community rating” rules will prohibit insurers from charging more to cover small businesses with sick workers or raising rates when someone gets sick.
• Increases Health Care Security to Unlock and Empower Entrepreneurship.  By providing health care security for every American and eliminating exclusions for pre-existing conditions and price discrimination against those who are sick, health care reform will make it easier for small businesses to attract the best workers and easier for entrepreneurs to strike out on their own.
• Reduces the Hidden Tax on Small Business Employees with Health Insurance.  Currently, the cost of treating the uninsured adds a “hidden tax” of over $1,000 to every health care premium.  Health care reform will significantly reduce this tax by covering an additional 32 million additional Americans by 2019.
• Reduces Premiums in the Small Group Market.  In a recent national survey, nearly three-quarters of small businesses that did not offer benefits cited high premiums as the reason.  Health Care Reform Will Lower Costs, Making Coverage More Affordable. Taken together, the measures described above will significantly reduce premiums for small businesses.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, health care reform will reduce the cost of a given plan in the small group market by 1-4 percent by 2016.

For complete information on how health care reform will affect your small business click here.

Almost as soon as she opened her doors, Deborah set to work filing for her Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certifications.  Deborah acknowledges that these certifications have helped West Fuels get their foot in the door on many contracting opportunities.  As a result, West Fuels now boasts an impressive customer list of government contracts, including Metra, West Fuels’ first contract, and Chicago Transit Authority, where West Fuels has delivered 100% of their bus fuel for the past four years.

West Fuels continually stresses the importance of customer service, and being a small business allows them to tailor their services to meet each customer’s need.  Whether they’re filling the Taste of Chicago generators within a small window of time or quickly responding to an emergency need at O’Hare Airport, West Fuels has built a reputation of competent and highly responsive service with both government and corporate clients.

Deborah has also received support from the WBDC along the way.  When she initially saw the opportunity for a woman-owned fuel distributor in the Chicago area, Deborah came to the WBDC for business training and assistance assessing the opportunity.  In the years that followed, Deborah attended several workshops and began regularly attending the annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference held each year in September.  Deborah says, “The annual conference is a great resource for networking and keeping in touch with current customers.  I always leave each year with a briefcase full of new leads as well.”

Donna Westerman is Global Director of Supplier Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility at Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and the newest member of the WBDC Board of Directors.  Donna brings with her a wealth of experience working in the supplier diversity field.

As Global Director of Supplier Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility, Donna is able to do what she does best—promote supplier diversity on a national basis, specifically creating and implementing cutting-edge programs to develop a “best in class” inclusion procurement process.  In addition, Donna oversees the Global Corporate Social Responsibility Program, a key strategy element for Wrigley and their commitment to pursue mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers who deliver high-quality and value in the goods and services they provide, while maintaining within their own operations a strong ethical code that aligns with Wrigley’s core values.

Donna has also previously held positions in supplier diversity at Avon Products, Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Company.
 
Known in the industry for her commitment to supplier diversity and social responsibility, Donna has served on the Board of Directors of the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the Women's President’s Educational Organization (WPEO), and the Advisory Board for the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) in Philadelphia.  Donna was the Co-founder and Co-Chair of the Supplier Diversity Pharmaceutical Forum (Division of the Institute of Supply Chain Management), the first advocacy group in the US focused on diverse inclusion and procurement issues related to the pharmaceutical industry. 

Donna holds a MBA degree in Industrial Relations and a BS in Marketing and Business Administration, both from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and in 2006 received her certification from the Harvard Business School in Corporate Social Responsibility.

The WBDC thanks Donna for her tireless efforts and support on behalf of minority and women-owned businesses.

New SBA Proposed Rule for Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program

Our Voices in Washington

An important rule to assist women-owned businesses to participate in federal contracting opportunities was recently published and is awaiting comment and recommendations from the women’s business community.

The WBDC and Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), along with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and the Federation of Women Contractors are all reviewing the new rules and submitting comments and recommendations.

A women’s procurement program was established by legislation in 2000 to assist the federal government in meeting its contracting goal of 5% with women-owned companies.  That goal has never been reached nor were rules established to help contracting officers meet that goal.  Now proposed rules have been published for our response.

The WBDC is asking you, the women business owners who are affected by this proposed rule, to support the program but comment on issues that could adversely affect your ability to participate.

For a copy of the full proposed rule, click here.  To view the summary on the women’s procurement program by WIPP, click here.

Comments can be submitted through May 3, 2010 at regulations.gov.  The proposed program is referenced by Document ID# SBA-2010-0001-0001.  Click here for the WBDC's suggested template for comments.