The Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980 requires the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to host an annual forum that focuses on the capital formation concerns of small business.  Called the “SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation,” this gathering has assembled every year since 1982.  The purpose of the forum is to [...]

Michael Shuman, author of Small-Mart Revolution, makes the following proposals in a recent article in Community Development Investment Review, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: One easy reform would be for the SEC to exempt from its usual expensive disclosure requirements any low-risk public ownership of locally owned microbusinesses. By low-risk, [...]

For A Green America‘s web site contains the complete text of proposed legislation that would allow the raising of “funds from the general public for a local investment pool (hereinafter “Community Fund”) . . . to invest in, and support local green businesses . . . through an unrestricted local public offering, without having to [...]

Awaken Café, the much-loved downtown Oakland coffee shop, sold Café Creator cards.  Oakland residents, excited to support the opening of a socially responsible, locally owned café in their community, purchased cards that entitled them to products from the café valued at more than the purchase price of the card.  For example, a $1,000 card would [...]

On October 29, the House passed H.R. 3854 which would specifically allow cooperatives to receive Small Business Administration loans raise caps on SBA loans create the Small Business Early Stage Investment (SBESI) program, which would provide matching grant funding for venture capital investments in early-stage small businesses in targeted industries including agricultural technology, energy technology, [...]

In a recent article on CNNMoney.com called “Love a Local Business?  Buy A Share,” there were some wonderful stories about small businesses that offered shares to their local communities to raise capital.  For example, according to the article, “In January 2009, Vox Pop, a popular bookstore and coffee shop in Brooklyn . . . offered [...]

California state law (and the law of most other states) authorizes the establishment of a “Business Improvement District” (BID).  A BID is a district whose boundaries are selected by its organizers that is established by a majority vote of the property owners within the district.  Once a BID is established in conformance with the procedures [...]