WASHINGTON - Focus group sessions held in three major U.S. cities resulted in recommendations to the U.S. Small Business Administration on how to improve its award-winning SBA.Gov website and maximize social media tools and tutorials for the 800,000 individuals who visit the site each month.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Small Business Administration is inviting states and U.S. territories to apply for $30 million in grants that can be used in a variety of ways to help increase exporting by small businesses. SBA began accepting applications on March 27.

The new Brownfields Road Map publication and companion website provide a general outline of how to assess and clean up a brownfields site and introduce stakeholders to a range of technology options and available resources. General concepts and basic considerations that affect the cleanup of Brownfields sites are described with a new "Back to Basics" approach that covers setting reuse goals and planning, understanding regulations and liability concerns, engaging the community and identifying funding.

Please join CALED members, economic development stakeholders, and legislative partners for an exciting lunch update on current legislation impacting economic development. With the dissolution of redevelopment a top priority for many communities, we also want to make sure we are talking about current tools available for economic development as well as opportunities created by this change. 

This document sketches the ecosystem or life-cycle of small business financing. The FAQ format allows users to browse through topics and learn about specific issues. The financial needs of small businesses, which include start-ups, in sectors such as information technology, service, retail, and manufacturing differ. The answers provided represent averages or totals that can be used as figures and trends for differing types of firms.

Over the past two years, BNSF Railway Co.'s economic development team worked with shippers to locate hundreds of new facilities or prompt plant expansions across the Class I's network, generating $1.7 billion in new investments and 4,400 new jobs, BNSF officials said in a prepared statement.

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.

CRA has scheduled one-day Successor Agency Training workshops in various locations throughout California in March.  The workshops will address technical issues associated with dissolution and successor agencies.  Attendees will also have the opportunity discuss issues facing their successor agencies with fellow colleagues.  The workshops are being held on the following dates at the specified locations:

March 7 at Ontario Doubletree Hotel;
March 8 at Pasadena Convention Center;

The death of California's redevelopment agencies makes enterprise zones more necessary than ever to keep and create jobs, say some business and city officials. But ominous language about reform in Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget has them worried.