Archive for the 'Finance' Category
November 5th, 2009, 12:00 pm by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
More local businesses are getting federally guaranteed loans in the new fiscal year that started Oct. 1 after two years of  declining loan numbers, reports the Santa Ana District office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
For the two weeks ended Oct. 14, 32 businesses got 7(a) loan (the largest SBA-guaranteed program) approvals for $14.3 million. That a 60% jump in the number of loans and more than double the dollar amount for the same period a year earlier.
The Santa Ana District encompasses Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Here are the loan numbers from past years:
 Source: SBA To boost the lending program more, President Obama recently called on Congress to increase the maximum amounts for SBA loans:
- SBA 7(a) (the largest program) loan limit $5 million, up from $2 million
- SBA 504 (for real estate and capital spending) loan limit $5 million, up from $2 million
- SBA Microloan limit $50,000, up from $35,000
The rationale for the increase, the SBA says, is that the percentage of SBA 7(a) and 504 loans exceeding $1.5 million has grown significantly since 2005: 7(a) loans larger than that amount to 21%, compared with 13% in 2005; and 504 loans, 28% vs. 15%. The latter is especially true in Orange County, where real estate prices are higher than the national average.
Click here for more details.
Other business stories..
Posted in: Economy • Finance • Meltdown • Reports • Top posts • SBA loans | 4 Comments »
November 5th, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Buena Park consultant Mike Beard has tried unsuccessfully since July to get one of those deferred payment, interest-free federal loans promoted as a lifeline for struggling businesses.
The U.S. Small Business Administration announced with much fanfare in May the so-called ARC loans (short for American Recovery Capital) of up to $35,000 specifically for previously profitable small businesses that are struggling financially because of the recession. Click here to read a previous story.
The program is one of the few targeting small businesses in the federal economic stimulus efforts. Small businesses account for more than half the nation’s jobs and more than half the gross domestic product.
Beard, who has owned Value Based Project Management LLC since 2003 and self-employed since 2009, says his business certainly qualifies, but has been told the “initial response” (after 4 months) “would not be favorable” based on his personal credit history.
“If my company is negatively impacted by the negative economy for the past two years, caused by the greed of financial companies and banks, and I run a small consulting business then it stands to reason that the downturn is going to hurt my personal credit,” Beard wrote in a Nov. 2 letter to President Obama, the SBA, JP Morgan Chase Bank, 60 Minutes, Business Week magazine and the Orange County Register. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Banks • Economy • Finance • Local companies • Meltdown • Top posts • ARC loans • JP Morgan Chase • Value Based Project Management LLC | 8 Comments »
November 4th, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
More than 6 out of 10 small-business owners say they are likely to have to use their personal assets to help their companies  survive until the economy recovers, according to the Discover Small Business Watch monthly survey.
That one statistic alone goes a long way to explain owners’ lukewarm attitude about spending for advertising and growth and unwillingness to hire more workers.
Are they reflecting economic reality or creating it? Small businesses account for most of the jobs and gross domestic product.
Most — 69% — have been hurt by the recession. Here’s what they say about their business’ ability to rebound in the coming months (click on the image for a larger view):
 Source: Discover Small Business Watch Their expectations for the economy as a whole is even lower:
 Source: Discover Small Business Watch “Small-business owners aren’t showing any new optimism in the economy,” said Ryan Scully, director of Discover’s business credit card. “Half of them think it will take more than 12 months before most people feel the economy has stabilized, and two our of three are expecting to dig into their own pockets to stay afloat.”
Other findings: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Economy • Finance • Meltdown • Top posts • Discover Business Card • economic outlook | 5 Comments »
November 2nd, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Less than half the number of small- to mid-sized businesses sold in Orange County during October compared to a year earlier, according to BizBen, a California businesses-for-sale web site.
Here are BizBen’s data for Orange and surrounding counties and for all of California (click on image for larger view):
 Source: BizBen This is the 14th straight month of year-over-year sales declines in Orange County.
Orange County’s October sales were also fewer than in September, an indication that the business market is still in a slump. Would-be buyers are still having difficulty getting bank loans for the purchase price. Fewer are able to tap home equity, another common source of capital to buy a business prior to the housing slump.
Southern California sales are down more than the state as a whole, especially Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties which were hardest hit by the housing and mortgage declines.
A recent survey indicated that 65% of business owners fear their businesses might fail by 2011, hardly a ringing endorsement for potential buyers. Also, Orange County taxable sales declined in the third quarter, sign that retail businesses are dicey purchases even if they are profitable.
Peter Siegel of BizBen has said not to expect a recovery in the market until next year.
Other economy stories…
Posted in: Economy • Finance • Meltdown • Top posts • BizBen • businesses for sale | 10 Comments »
November 1st, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Bemus Landscape Inc. based in San Clemente has been honored twice recently for its landscaping work on two separate projects in Orange County.
Talega, a 4,000 home community in San Clemente, has received a national merit award from the 40th Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Program, sponsored by the Professional Landcare Network. The award was presented Friday, Oct. 30, in Kentucky.
And the company’s landscape management of One Ford Road, a gated planned community in Newport Coast, has been awarded the Judges Beautification Award from the O.C. chapter of California Landscape Contractors Association. The award goes to the contractor that exhibits the single finest example of Landscape management in Orange County.
Check out these photos from Bemus of its One Ford Road project (Click on images for larger view):
           
PLANET represents 3,200 companies and suppliers in green-industry services nationwide. One of the biggest challenges facing landscape management companies is to beautify properties while conserving water and saving clients’ money by using drought-tolerant plants and water-conserving irrigation systems.
Bemus clients, include property managers, developers, general contractors, cities, homeowners and landscape architects.
The company has been family owned since it started in 1973.
Other local business stories…
Posted in: Awards • Finance • Local companies • Reports • Top posts • Bemus Landscape Inc. • Newport Beach • One Ford Road • San Clemente • Talega | 1 Comment »
October 28th, 2009, 11:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Wells Fargo has opened a regional commercial banking office in Anaheim to serve the north Orange County industrial  corridor including Anaheim, Brea and Fullerton.
It is Wells Fargo’s first addition of a commercial banking office in Orange County in 36 years. It’s only other office is in Irvine.
The commercial bank serves companies, such as manufacturers, distributors and
 MaryLou Barreiro professional services, with annual revenues of $10 million-plus. The new office at 1101 E. Orangewood Ave. is headed by MaryLou Barreiro, a resident of Laguna Niguel who recently led the bank’s expansion in New York-New Jersey.
“At a time when there’s so much about banks cutting back on business credit, Wells Fargo is making a sizable investment in Orange County with this new office,” said spokeswoman Julie Green Rommel.
Other business stories….
Posted in: Banks • Local companies • Top posts • Wells Fargo | 2 Comments »
October 27th, 2009, 12:00 pm by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Angel investors have significantly cut back their investments in ventures in their seed or start-up stage, reports the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire.
Angels are professional investors who traditionally have put their personal money in firms not yet big enough or mature enough for venture capitalists.
Here’s the breakdown:
 Source: UNH Center for Venture Research Overall, they invest in more high-growth, job creating firms than venture capitalists do. Click here for the latest VC numbers. But many angels have seen their personal investments in everything from stocks to real estate slammed by the recession and apparently decreased their appetite for the youngest, most risky companies, according to the analysis of angel investments in the first six months of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Angel investing • Reports • Top posts • University of New Hampshire Center for Venture Research | Post a Comment »
October 27th, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Venture capitalists invested much less in Orange County companies in the third quarter, compared to a year ago, according to two industry reports.
From July 1 through Sept. 30, nine O.C. companied raked in $65.83 million from venture capital funds, compared to nine companies receiving $168.9 million a year earlier, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
Southern California received 9% of the $5.1 billion invested nationwide, VentureSource says. The Bay Area, as usual, pulled in the lion’s share (click on image for a larger view):
 Source: Dow Jones VentureSource A separate report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters, found Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Local companies • Reports • Top posts • Venture capital • DowJones VentureSource • National Venture Capital Association • PricewaterhouseCoopers | Post a Comment »
October 26th, 2009, 12:40 pm by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Orange County taxable sales dropped 4.3% to $13.6 billion in the third quarter of 2008 from the same period of 2007, data just released by the State Board of Equalization.
The numbers show that the souring economy was impacting local sales even before the recession was official.
Here are O.C. 3rd quarter data since 2001 (click on image for larger view):
 Source: Board of Equalization California taxable sales were $136 billion in Q3 2008, down 2.7% from Q3 2007, according to Michelle Steel, member of the Board of Equalization from this area. Riverside and San Barnardino counties were even harder hit than Orange County, she says, off 7.9% and 8.4% respectively.
Taxable sales are measured by transactions subject to sales and use taxes. The board reports them on a quarterly basis. They provide an indication of economic activity, although it takes the state so long to collect the information that in a period of steep decline it seems like ancient history.
Here’s the Board of Equalization’s data on each Orange County city Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Economy • Meltdown • Reports • Taxes • Top posts • Board of Equalization • taxable sales | 10 Comments »
October 25th, 2009, 6:00 am by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Lenders made 1,065 loans for just under $407 million to local small businesses in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, according to the Santa Ana District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The data are for federally guaranteed SBA loans in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and reflect the impact of the recession and the credit freeze last fall. Here are comparisons with previous years (click on image for a larger view):
 Source: SBA Not only were fewer and smaller loans made, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Economy • Finance • Meltdown • Reports • Top posts • SBA loans • small business loans • Wells Fargo | 12 Comments »
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