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Greetings!
We hope you had a great weekend. Here is
your
weekly Small Business Advocacy Council update.
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Sidney Mathias Joins Candidate Forum This Saturday
Our Republican candidate forum is set
for this
Saturday. The forum will be held at our Northfield office
and will begin at 12:15pm.
Sidney Mathias  | Lauren Torelli, candidate for State
Representative for the 58th District, has a scheduling
conflict which will prevent her from taking part in the forum.
However, we are excited to welcome State
Representative Sidney Mathias to our
forum. Representative Mathias is presently the State
Representative for the 53rd District, which includes all or parts of
Buffalo
Grove, Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Prospect Heights and Mount
Prospect.
He is running for re-election this November. Here is this Saturday's lineup:
Robert Dold  | Robert Dold, the 10th District
Candidate for Congress, will be addressing the group for 30 minutes. Afterwords, we will be holding a panel discussion with the following Republican legislators and candidates:
- Suzy Schmidt(Candidate for State Senate of 31st District)
- Sidney Mathias(State Representative of 53rd District)
- Dan Surgrue(Candidate for State Representative of 59th District)
We would like to remind you that our
Democratic
candidate for Congress, Dan Seals, will be joining us on June 26th for a Democratic candidate forum. We will also be holding a forum discussion
with several democratic candidates for State Representatives that
day. Finally, several elected
officials and
candidates have asked to address the SBAC. If there are any particular candidate you would like to hear from, please let us know.
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Fantastic Networking Opportunities At Sullivan's Happy Hour
 We have already received an overwhelming response
for our May 27th Happy Hour. Please join us and
enjoy appetizers, drinks and great conversation at this classy, Chicago
steakhouse.
Sullivan's, an SBAC member, is also offering a dinner
special
to our guests after the event. The specifics of the dinner special
can
be viewed here.
In the event you would like to stay for dinner, please contact Sullivan's directly
at (312) 527-3510.
 We had about 80 small business owners
and other professionals gather at the Lincolnshire Gourmet for our initial
Happy Hour in
April. We expect many more for this event.
For pictures of that
Happy Hour, please click here. Along with many of our members, we have
already received RSVP's from almost thirty prospective members interested in learning more about the SBAC.
We would also like to thank our sponsors for
this
Happy Hour. These folks understand the important role small business
plays in our economy and are committed to providing the resources
necessary
to give us a voice.
Happy Hour Sponsors
Fact Finders Group, Inc., is a sponsor
of our
Happy Hour. Fact Finders Group, Inc. is a highly effective research and
investigative organization committed to satisfying their client's needs
in a
professional and timely manner. With over 50 years of police and
investigative experience and access to the finest tools available, they
are
your professional solution.
DeMarco Sciaccotta, LLP, is a sponsor of our
Happy Hour. This boutique practice specializes in the accounting
and tax needs of small to mid-size businesses and their respective
owners. The
firm provides maximum value to each client by offering flexible billing
rates,
superior customer service and many years of trusted experience. Joe
DeMarco is a SBAC board member and supports the mission of the
organization in
assisting small business. Please feel free to contact Joe at
jd@dscpagroup.comfor a free consultation.
Carter Korey, of Korey Law, LLC, is a sponsor of this Happy Hour. Mr.
Korey
specializes in providing small businesses with high-quality legal
representation. Mr. Korey practices in state and federal court, can handle complex legal
matters and takes his role as a counselor incredibly serious.
Rhonda Jensen, of Jensen Reporting, is also a
sponsor of our Happy Hour. The Court reporters at Jensen Reporting
are the cream of the crop when it comes to court reporting services. Jensen understands the challenges facing small business owners and the
need
to provide quality and affordable services for law firms and their
clients.
To
RSVP for the May 27th Happy Hour, contact Blanca Campos at Blanca@smallbusinessadvocacycouncil.org. We look forward to seeing you there.
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SBAC Blog
President Obama (CBS)  | Last weeks SBAC Blog focused on
President Obama's proposal to create a $30 billion program to loosen credit for small
business
owners. According to the articles featured on our blog, this $30
billion
proposal which was sent to Congress, would provide support to small and
medium-sized banks to encourage them to increase lending to small
businesses. The articles from the Associated Press and AOL Small Business
can be accessed here.
We also posted an article from the Wall Street Journal highlighting the fact small business hiring continues to show
little sign of recovery. Certainly, we want to retain our employees
and provide new jobs. However, that will only be possible once
financing is available again and our existing credit lines are
no longer in jeopardy.
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SBAC Website By The Numbers
The SBAC has racked up some amazing statistics over the pas several weeks. Between April 28th and May 13th: The SBAC website was visited on 444 occasions The website was visited by 273 different folks There were 2,389 pageviews Average time spent per visits was over five minutes An astonishing 51.12% of these visits were by browsers making their first visits to our website
Business owners and consumers are connecting
through our website. If you are not an SBAC member and join now,
we can have your company, a description of the services you provide
and a link to your website up within days. |
Membership
Michael Cavanaugh, co-chair of our membership
committee, E-mailed SBAC members a form requesting the
names and numbers of prospects for the council. We would like to thank those of
you that completed and returned those forms. As a direct result of your
efforts, we have several new members. A special thanks to Joe DeMarco,
Rhonda Jensen, Marie Platowski-Beals, of Business Network Center and Geoffrey Kasselman, of Op2mize, LLC, for the extraordinary number of referrals you have sent the
SBAC. It is our mission to do all in our
power to help our members prosper. Indeed, the stronger each member of
the SBAC becomes, the more we can do to help each other and push forward
the
agenda of small business owners, their employees and our friends. |
Advocacy
At our recent policy meeting, the SBAC
members in
attendance (over 25) supported drafting a petition which:
- Stress that the lending crises has caused extreme hardship for small businesses and this must be urgently addressed.
- Demand that urgent action is
taken by Congress and financial institutions to address this
crises;
- Aggressively move the
government to make returned TARP money available to small business
owners and
demand that financial institutions that receive these funds make
reasonable
loans to small business.
We are presently looking at the
proposal President
Obama sent to Congress on this issue and will modify our petition
accordingly. The language for this SBAC petition will be presented
after
our May 22nd candidate forum. We will begin circulating the petition
on-line and by visiting small businesses shortly thereafter. |
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Take care,
Elliot Richardson
Small Business Advocacy Council |
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