Ed. Note: As part of the Startup America: Reducing Barriers Roundtable series, National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling and U.S. Small Business Administrator Karen Mills will take your questions and suggestions about what processes and regulations we need to adjust to foster a more nurturing environment for entrepreneurship and innovation. Watch and participate today at 12:00pm EDT on whitehouse.gov/live.
I had the pleasure yesterday of sitting down with nearly 100 leading entrepreneurs, investors, underwriters, academics, and fund managers—including Chuck Newhall, the legendary co-Founder of one of the Nation’s most prestigious venture capital firms, New Enterprise Associates—at the Treasury Department’s Access to Capital Conference. The event was one of a number of creative forums the Administration has held to generate new, actionable ideas to ensure that small businesses have the resources to achieve high growth.
The event built on President Obama’s January launch of Startup America, an initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth American entrepreneurship that includes a number of commitments to expand access to capital for entrepreneurs. Capital, invested by the private sector, is what helps entrepreneurs realize their dreams and turn ideas into startups, and it’s what turns small businesses into fast-growing companies that create jobs and fuel sustainable economic growth.
At yesterday’s conference, we took an important step forward in that mission with an open and honest dialogue about how best to cultivate investment and growth. And we made real progress.
President Obama recently joined with our partners in the G-20 to launch the G20 SME Finance Challenge to uncover the most promising and scalable means of financing small businesses. Last week, Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs Lael Brainard explained the critical role of small businesses as engines of job creation and called on the private sector to identify new finance models to help them grow. Private financial institutions, private investors and companies, socially responsible investors, foundations, and civil society organizations can submit solutions through August 25th. Up to 15 winners will be invited to the November 2010 G-20 Summit in Korea to be recognized for their innovative ideas. In addition, the G-20 has committed to mobilizing funding to scale them up.
To learn more, check out The SME Finance Challenge: Supporting Small Businesses as Big Engines of Growth over on the White House blog.
"Nice to meet you. What do you do?"
For many, this is one of the first conversations we have when meeting someone new. But our jobs are more than simply a topic of conversation — they are an important part of our lives. They can be an extension of us and a matter of pride. What we “do” is part of who we are.
So now that we’ve met, I’d like to hear more about your job.
Here’s your chance to tell me, and the world, about your work through the Department of Labor’s Career Video Challenge.
We are asking America to create short videos highlighting 15 in-demand occupations including nursing, medical lab technicians, weatherization, carpentry, steamfitting and more.
Our Employment and Training Administration staff will narrow it down to the top three videos in each field — but the final choice is up to you. Your votes will determine the $1,000 cash prize winner in each field.
Through June 18, you can submit your entries on the Department of Labor website.
Some of these occupations have been around for ages and others are just emerging. The one thing they all have in common - the potential for growth.
In today’s competitive environment, America’s job seekers face tough choices. For those that are thinking about their first job or those that are changing directions mid-career, it’s important to find a job that’s a good fit. These videos will help provide a firsthand look into all the opportunities available.
So tell your story. Be creative. What’s the best part of your day? How did you get into your career and what keeps you coming back? What skills and experience do you need to succeed?
I can’t wait to see what you come up with. June 18 is right around the corner, so check out the site, review the occupations, read the rules for the contest, and get filming!
Hilda Solis is the Secretary of Labor.
HBEA – Hot Potato – Delivered to the Hilo Bay Executives Association on Wednesday, May 20th 2009
For many, individual tips to help you with your business are helpful. But how many of you sit around researching business tips regularly? I bet many more of you tend to go with what you know and what has worked in the past. I’m not saying tips aren’t helpful. In fact, my hot potato today is partially about multiplying the effect.
For example, delivering business tips to 50 of us at a time. Would that be better than 35? Or what if we could reach a hundred? Gee, what if we could get our hot potatoes out to entire groups of businesses?
Although we’re a powerful group, reaching our largest trade associations or entire workforces around the island could surely create more change than our small group.
Of course we know this to be quite easy. Many of us are already doing this with our own marketing messages. You just need their email addresses, right? The primary vehicle for reaching large audiences from email blasts and websites have become commonplace. Yes email, the killer app of the nineties is still the killer app for most.
But my business tip for today isn’t about using email. Those days are quickly waning. What I’m talking about is an understanding in the broadest terms of the impact the Internet has had on your business. Consider the role the Internet has played in your business and quality of life.
Now think for a moment where your business would be without the Internet? Without email, without PDFs, without online shopping, without online resumes, forms, banking or websites. Remember the thrill of sending a business proposal using an envelop and a stamp? Remember waiting 2 weeks for a reply. If it was positive and they wanted to learn more you could call them and follow up with a form to fill out and return with their partner or customer information? Does anyone even remember how long these conversations used to take? Does anyone remember when it was most efficient to just fly to meet the person and sign the contract. Of course we do. But the successes of the Internet are closely woven into the fabric of our existence. Do you remember you pants have pockets?
As our own Jeff Gray kindly points out, The Internet now carries more than traffic on your website. The Internet carries your data and your voice communications. Not just time saving but life saving information, every second somewhere. So when Jeff asks folks to join in the Hawaii Island Broadband Revolution, a lot is at stake.
Think of the impact Internet speeds could have on telecommuting from the island. Imagine working anywhere from anywhere. Imagine the impact on families.
Imagine stay at home Moms or Dads working from home instead of paying $300 a month for gas. Imagine these same parents taking care of their keiki and their kupuna instead of hiring professionals to care for their families at $300-$600 per month. Imagine these same parents saving another hundred dollars a month at the grocery just by growing some of their own food. One of my favorites is to think of a 3 day work week. Okay, you get the idea.
Now then, a couple statements to help you glean a tip or two in your business.
Statement #1 – Many consider the Internet to be in it’s infancy but growing quickly. It took television 12 years to get 50 million users. It took Facebook 2 years. The Internet is accelerating. It’s gaining momentum and users every day. It’s still sorting out job descriptions like webmaster, search engine marketer and web designer. It’s still reinventing the way we communicate across cultures across generations and around the world and it’s just a baby. It could even be considered a driving force behind the feelings of millions that we’re heading towards a global consciousness.
After listening to Sir Tim Berners-Lee make his second request in twenty years (his first request was that we all start linking documents on the web), my first bold statement is this.
Of 100% potential, the Internet has only reached 5%. Meaning, I believe the Internet will become at least 90% more effective at solving our world’s problems within twenty years.
Statement #2 – To create a global model for sustainability most experts currently believe our key indicators include food, water, shelter, healthcare and energy availability.
While these may be the current measurements of sustainability, food, water, shelter, heathcare and energy availability will all quickly become mere indications of our ability to effectively harness the Internet.
At Green Collar Technologies we’ve started to help create a global model for sustainability which not only takes into consideration our offline sustainability practices but also our online sustainability. We’re engaging all generations but focusing on the youth to insure this happens at all levels well ahead of the Hawaii 2050 plan.
In these two statements I hope you’ll find a gem of insight you can use in your business. Remember what has worked best for you over the last ten years. Real-time conversations with your customers are happening everywhere from anywhere at once, right now. Carefully consider getting into that conversation and learning how this will impact your business and your community in the next ten years.
I’ll leave you with 2 bold statements from Sir Charles Darwin.
You may have heard this one,
“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. ”
And you’ve probably heard this one,
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. “
