The 2006 Annual Report of the National Women’s Business Council, which details the Council’s activities and policy recommendations from the previous fiscal year, is now available on the NWBC web site.

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Furthering its mission of promoting issues of importance to women business owners and connecting the women’s business community with policymakers, NWBC will host a Town Hall Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri to help the Council gather information on the priorities, challenges and concerns of women entrepreneurs.

At this event, taking place at the Eric P. Newman Education Center on March 13, the Council hopes to promote dialogue where it can hear first hand from women business owners about issues important to them, helping the Council formulate future policy recommendations. Topics to be discussed include access to affordable health care, access to capital, procurement, taxes, and training and technical assistance, among others.

The Council encourages participation at this event from women business owners and entrepreneurs from all industries, ethnicities, and experience and revenue levels. The event, which will be the first of two in 2007, is free, but space is limited, so advance registration is required. To register, visit www.nwbc.gov or contact Allison Gilmore at 202-205-6827 or allison.gilmore@sba.gov for further information.

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NWBC welcomes Emily Reynolds as Deputy Director of Communications & Outreach this month. Emily joins the Council staff from the Center for Women’s Business Research, where she served as business development associate for over two years. Her experience also includes positions with American Institutes for Research and The White House Office of Global Communications. Emily will be responsible for increasing the Council’s outreach within the women’s business community and with policymakers.

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The National Women’s Business Council is helping sponsor a multi-year national research study to accelerate the growth of businesses owned by women of color. The study, conducted by the Center for Women’s Business Research and Babson College, will begin with a day-long, participative research forum in Philadelphia on February 21.

The study aims to uncover the barriers and challenges that women of color face in the pursuit of business growth. Ideally the responses will help lead to action plans for overcoming those barriers on the individual, community and national levels, as well as help formulate public- and private-sector policy recommendations.

Women-of-color entrepreneurs who wish to grow their businesses to the next level and contribute to setting local and national agendas that support the success of businesses owned by women of color are encouraged to apply to participate. Selection criteria include owning a business that is at least 50% women-owned with annual revenues between $250,000 and $5 million. All types of industries are welcome. To participate, contact the Center for Women’s Business Research at www.womensbusinessresearch.org/womenofcolor or at 202.638.3060 ext. 710.

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Council staff members have been reaching out to national and international small business communities in recent months. NWBC Executive Director Margaret Barton met with the new Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Industry of Sweden Maud Olofsson this month. The meeting provided an opportunity for Barton and other representatives of the women’s business community to share insights into how to develop national programs to support women entrepreneurs. Only in office for 100 days, Olofsson has embarked on a women’s entrepreneurship initiative and is looking to American organizations for ideas. The NWBC was also contacted by a representative for Stanford University’s nascent Women’s Entrepreneurship Center for ideas and input.

In addition, NWBC Director of Communications & Research Analysis Allison Gilmore attended the annual conferences of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship and the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship earlier this month in Orlando, Florida. At these events, she networked with directors of entrepreneurship programs at community colleges and universities around the country to promote program specifically targeting the needs of female students of entrepreneurship. The events also offered opportunities for the Council to monitor current entrepreneurship research being done in the academic community.

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With the start of the 110th Congress earlier this month, the new chairs of the House and Senate Small Business Committees have moved swiftly to address several issues important to small businesses. John Kerry (D-MA), the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, introduced tax credit legislation aimed at helping small businesses lower their health care costs and encouraging more small firms to offer health coverage. The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit Act of 2007, which would provide small firms with less than 50 employees a refundable tax credit to help with the cost of health insurance for employees earning $5,000 -- $50,000 a year.

Senator Kerry also introduced legislation to help increase loan, contracting and entrepreneurial development opportunities for current and potential minority business owners. The Minority Entrepreneurship Development Act will encourage more development of entrepreneurship in minority communities, in part, by establishing an Office of Minority Small Business Development at the Small Business Administration to give minority entrepreneurs an advocate in the agency. The legislation also creates the Minority Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Program to foster a passion for entrepreneurship in high-achieving young people at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic Serving Institutions and Tribal Colleges.

In addition, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who is ranking member of the committee, introduced legislation aimed at ensuring that government agencies produce adequate and useful compliance assistance materials to help small businesses meet the obligations imposed by regulations affecting such small businesses. The Small Business Compliance Assistance Enhancement Act of 2007 would require all federal agencies to publish compliance guides for small businesses explaining the actions a small business must take to comply with a rule or regulation.

On the House side, Representative Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), chair of the House Committee on Small Business, introduced H.R. 46, The Small Business Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2007. The legislation encompasses a number of areas including: helping home-based businesses reduce paperwork, ensuring that the tax code accurately reflects the modern operations of a business, and encouraging investment in small businesses. It will also provide greater flexibility for small business owners in filing their taxes, and stop the implementation of a rule that would place an unfair burden on small firms who perform government contracts.

Chairwoman Velázquez also introduced legislation to remove a barrier that has prevented small firms from earning interest or dividends on their business checking accounts. H.R. 41, The Business Checking Fairness Act of 2007, would grant entrepreneurs greater freedom over their finances. This legislation would ultimately provide much-needed relief to small businesses at a time when they are being hit with rising healthcare, energy and capital costs, while also enabling entrepreneurs to earn additional funds to grow their ventures.

The House of Representatives also adopted a new rules package, which provides small businesses increased input into the legislative actions that affect them, by extending the reach of the House Small Business Committee to review and act on those measures that impact small firms. In its first 100 hours, the House also passed legislation that would increase the minimum-wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 over 26 months.

NWBC staff will continue to monitor legislative initiatives that affect women-owned and small businesses and will report on developments in future issues of Engage!.

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