Attend the New York State MWBE Forum on Thursday and Friday, October 13 and 14, 2011 in Albany, New York at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center and The Egg.

The New York State MWBE Forum is the largest statewide business opportunities event for MWBEs. The program attracts over 1000 MWBE firms drawn from construction, architecture and engineering, financial and professional services and commodity suppliers from across New York State. Over 20 other State and City public agencies and authorities also participate and share information about their programs and new business opportunities.

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new mandate to increase MWBE participation in New York State from 10% to 20% provides new opportunities for MWBES.

For more information please visit www.dasnymwbeforum.org

[Courtesy of SmallBizTrends.com http://tinyurl.com/623ca33 ]

The San Antonio financial planning survey was conducted in partnership with the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and was sponsored by South Texas’ Sapient Financial Group, a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). The study’s findings are a guidepost to MassMutual’s Fiscal Fitness Initiative created to arm Latinos with the information and tools they need to improve their fiscal health.

“The survey findings indicate that there are differences between knowledge of, interest in, and use of financial services. Only 46 percent of Hispanic business owners use financial services. However, the data show that one factor that may be related to the use of these services is revenue. The results revealed that the greater the revenue the more likely the business owner is to use financial services,” said Dianna Stone, professor of management at UTSA.

Hispanic businesses’ contribution to the local economy is significant. Almost 40 percent of San Antonio’s businesses are Hispanic-owned, according to a 2007 U.S. Census Bureau study, making it second in the nation among cities with more than 500,000 people. Bexar County came in at 37.3 percent, putting it in the top five among counties with populations of more than 500,000 people. There are 37,000 Hispanic-owned businesses in San Antonio, according to the Texas Governor’s Office.

These business owners are confident in their knowledge of financial strategies when compared to their national counterparts(1), according to the UTSA study. However, a sizable number are not using financial services for themselves, their businesses, or their employees.

Ironically, survey respondents recognize the significance of their inaction — they worry they will not be able to meet long-term financial goals, and wish they knew more about the subject. They recognize the importance of financial strategies, and understand that implementation of such a strategy will increase their success.

Of the 171 Hispanic business owners who responded to the poll, which was conducted in July and August 2010, most were male (54 percent), averaged 43.5 years old, married, and were well educated (62 percent with undergraduate or graduate degrees). Respondents were fairly evenly split in terms of business revenues, with 51 percent reporting less than $100,000 in revenue and 48.9 percent reporting revenues of $100,000 or more. The types of businesses represented covered a variety of industries, though larger companies were more likely to be finance or retail/wholesale businesses.

Key findings of the survey reveal that local Hispanic business owners:

• Recognize that financial planning is one of their top priorities but many still need to take action. Almost 85 percent said they understood that a financial plan will increase their success but only 38 percent have a documented financial strategy in place for their business.
• Are concerned about their long-term financial future, despite being knowledgeable about financial services. Although some 65 percent of respondents indicated that they were somewhat to extremely knowledgeable about financial planning for themselves and their families, almost 47 percent agree that “they worry about being able to meet long term financial goals.”
• Lack time and confidence in their ability to make good financial decisions. Almost 57 percent of respondents said they “wish they were in more control of their finances” and approximately 46 percent of respondents feel that they do not have time to manage all of their investments.
• Are unprepared to transition their businesses to family members. Over half of respondents (56 percent) plan to pass their business onto a family member but only 18 percent have a succession plan in place.

“After giving their blood, sweat and tears to establish their businesses, Latinos deserve to be rewarded with the confidence and tools that will help them lay the foundation for a more secure future for their businesses and their families,” said Frank Woodruff, CEO of Sapient Financial Group.  ”The lack of succession planning is particularly disturbing. Too often we’ve seen successful business shutter once the business owner dies or becomes ill.”

MassMutual’s Fiscal Fitness Initiative includes partnerships with local organizations to host workshops and an integrated communication campaign that provides financial information and coaching to San Antonio Latinos.  In San Antonio, Sapient Financial Group is developing educational tools and planning to conduct speaking engagements to enlist the leaders from all sectors of the San Antonio community to help Latinos bridge the gap in fiscal fitness.

As the leading regional advocate for the Hispanic business community, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is an ideal partner to work with Sapient Financial Group and MassMutual to help Hispanic business owners and professionals improve their financial health.

“Hispanic entrepreneurs are busy people, and as they focus on their businesses, they need help creating a structured financial strategy.  We know that all business owners need a succession plan,” said San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Ramiro Cavazos. “We all have a responsibility to take control of our fiscal fitness.  We know that when Hispanic business owners plan correctly for the future, they become successful in carrying on their legacy through their designated loved ones.”

For more survey results and background information, please visit http://www.sapientfinancialgroup.com/hispanicbizsurvey

(1) Harris Interactive, 2010

About Sapient Financial Group

Sapient Financial Group is a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual), and has been headquartered in San Antonio, TX since 1952. With more than 50 financial professionals and specialists, the company offers access to a full range of retirement, investment and risk management services to individuals and small businesses, servicing over $885 million in total insurance, investments and retirement assets as of December 31, 2009. In 2009, Sapient Financial Group was recognized for its exemplification of ethical behavior in the San Antonio Ethics in Business Awards and was ranked 7th  in the 2010 San Antonio Business Journal’s list of Largest San Antonio Financial Planning & Advisory Firms.

Securities, investment advisory and financial planning services offered through qualified registered representatives of MML Investors Services, Inc., member SIPC (www.SIPC.org), One Union Square, Suite 300, 10101 Reunion Place, San Antonio, TX 78216. 210.342.4141.

About MassMutual

Founded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyholders. The company has a long history of financial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyholders every year since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company’s strong and growing network of financial professionals helps clients make good financial decisions for the long-term.

MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliated companies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and its major affiliates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Investors Services, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC; OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.

About the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Founded in 1929, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is America’s first and one of the largest Hispanic Chambers in the United States. The SAHCC is the principle resource and advocate for Hispanic businesses and Hispanics in business. The SAHCC’s objective is to inspire and foster Hispanic leadership and entrepreneurship in the San Antonio community. The SAHCC is the first Chamber in San Antonio to be accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is the only Hispanic Chamber of Commerce accredited in the United States. For more information, visit www.sahcc.org.

About the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business

Nationally ranked and recognized, the UTSA College of Business is accredited by AACSB International, The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.  It is one of the 40 largest business schools in the nation with 5,600 enrolled students and 37 different graduate and undergraduate business programs.  The college is dedicated to raising its academic profile to become one of the best business schools recognized for developing “Knowledge for a New World.”  For more information, visit http://business.utsa.edu.

Tommie Jones was the master of ceremonies at the event which opened with a comedy routine from comedian David Freeman, an AABBA member.
The African American/Black Business Association (AABBA) is a self-help group of Black business owners and entrepreneurs who believe in the value of sharing information and resources, helping one another prosper, the positive energy that comes from networking together and sustaining entrepreneurship to create a basis of wealth in our community.

Zach Brandon, the assistant secretary of commerce for the State of Wisconsin who recently announced his candidacy for Dane County Executive, was a surprise guest at the event and got up to the podium to say a few words.

“Building equity in the community and beginning to have ownership in the community is the only way that you’re going to be able to have prosperity and wealth,” Brandon told the crowd. “And that’s something where I can help you as Dane County Executive. We can really get out there and talk about ways to start minority businesses. The fact of the matter is that access to capital is the number-one barrier for any business, but it’s even harder in the minority community.”

Brandon went on to say that the County is not focused on economic development right now at all. “We need to start talking about putting pools of money together – this is about priorities…. There is money available,” Brandon said. “We have a $500 million budget and they say that we don’t have any money available for economic development. But right now, we should all be focused on jobs – creating jobs and starting businesses.”

Various AABBA members spoke about AABBA’s partnerships with community organizations. Toni Kirkendoll, AABBA vice president, said that she recently sat down with Urban League of Greater Madison’s President Kaleem Caire to talk about collaborative efforts in fund-raising and grant-writing. “By linking us with a strong organization like the Urban League it put us in a situation where we could be more successful,” Kirkendoll said. “We’re extremely excited about this partnership as well as supporting the new Madison Prep [Charter School] that will be starting in 2012.”

Keetra Burnette, president of the Madison Network of Black Professionals, talked about her collaborative effort with AABBA to bring Michael Roberts, chairman and CEO of The Roberts Company to Madison to speak. Aggo Akyea, bureau director for the Minority Business Chambers of Commerce and Associations in Wisconsin, also briefly addressed the  crowd.

Three AABBA members spoke about their businesses including Theresa Holmes of TH Project Consulting, Ursula Norwood of Papa Bear’s Barbeque, and Milele Chikasa Anana of Umoja Magazine.

The AABBA Holiday Reception closed with the AABBA song, led by Richard Scott and Rhonda Johnson, delicious food from Melly Mel’s Catering, and socializing and networking.

But in “12 Diversity Practices of High-Performing Organizations,” Downey and her colleagues at the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) found that some organizations such as Pelco, ING, Deloitte and Amway are finding a correlation between robust diversity practices and financial success.

White men held more than 61 percent of senior pay level positions in fiscal 2009, far more than their representation in the total workforce, according to the latest Annual Report on the Federal Work Force by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Women hold just 29 percent of senior positions. African Americans are a paltry 7 percent, and Latinos are almost invisible at 3.6 percent.

“It’s a very, very serious problem that you have for minorities and women,” said Jorge E. Ponce, co-chairman of the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives.

It’s a problem that has not escaped the Obama administration’s notice. The White House is preparing a presidential directive, in the form of an executive order or presidential memorandum, on increasing federal workplace diversity.

Presidential orders and memoranda sound impressive, but they are only as good as the effort to make them work. Previous attempts to increase workplace diversity have withered from inattention.

The directive would follow along the lines of the Executive Order on the Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government that President Obama issued in November 2009, an effort widely praised by veterans’ organizations.

That order created an interagency Council on Veterans Employment and directed agencies to develop specific operational plans to boost hiring. Obama also told the agencies to “establish a Veterans Employment Program Office, or designate an agency officer or employee with full time responsibility for its Veterans Employment Program, to be responsible for enchancing employment opportunities for veterans within the agency.”

A similar diversity directive would put teeth in a government personnel agenda item that has had more bark than bite. Six weeks after Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry took office last year, he listed increasing workplace diversity as one of his three long-term goals, along with controlling federal employee health-care costs while maintaining benefits, and reforming the federal pay system.

He labeled them “often intractable issues” and said reaching those goals would not be easy.

Diversity would be the first of Berry’s three long-term goals to get the kind of attention a presidential directive would bring. The three short-term goals he announced at the time – reforming recruiting and hiring practices, improving work life and workplace conditions and veterans employment – all have received White House attention.

The government’s senior-level diversity figures are so bad, said Christine Griffin, OPM’s deputy director, “because historically we just haven’t done a good job of making sure we provide everyone with career development training.”

Career development to create a broader range of candidates for the Senior Executive Service may also be part of Obama’s directive.

Griffin would not say anything about Obama’s plans, but she did say OPM is “working on ways to establish a government-wide program to focus on diversity.”

When Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) was chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees federal employee issues, he made diversity a priority, holding one hearing on it after another. Along with Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), Davis introduced an SES diversity bill in 2009. But he no longer runs that subcommittee, and his legislation has gone nowhere.

“There is no great movement right now to do anything” legislatively on diversity, said Bill Brown, president of the African American Federal Executive Association.

The lack of movement also seems to apply, with a few exceptions, to organizations that represent employees of color. Perhaps they’re active behind the scenes, and that certainly can be an effective strategy, but they don’t apply much public pressure. An exception is when Congress holds hearings on workplace diversity, which isn’t often.

“Then everybody gets all ginned up,” Brown said.

One thing that could use ginning up is the “special emphasis programs” that were created decades ago to help agencies meet their equal employment opportunity goals. Special emphasis programs were established for women, Hispanics and other minorities, people with disabilities and veterans.

Federally Employed Women, perhaps the most active federal workers’ organization devoted to diversity, complains that the special emphasis effort for women has “gradually eroded to the point of almost nonexistence.”

The problem is compounded, according to FEW, because the OPM regulations outlining how the Federal Women’s Program should be implemented can’t be found. “While our understanding is that these instructions included requiring each agency to develop a Plan of Action, to designate an FWP Coordinator, and to submit a periodic progress report to OPM, our efforts to obtain the actual implementation language or these plans have been futile,” says an FEW report.

If that language is missing, it shows just how little importance government officials over the years have given the issue of diversity. Griffin said the Obama administration is planning to develop guidance to agencies on the special emphasis program.

That can’t come a decade too soon.

Researchers in Canada asked 11,000 managers, professionals and executives about their work experiences and companies’ diversity practices.

Participants who gave positive remarks for diversity training scored 7 to 14 percent higher in career satisfaction and job commitment than respondents who said cultural-awareness programs at work were unproductive or non-existent.

“For companies to get the most ‘bang for their buck’ in offering diversity training, it’s important that employees understand that the training is intended to help facilitate and enhance collaborative behaviors among today’s diverse workforce,” said study author Margaret Yap, director Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute in Management and Technology, which released the findings.

“These collaborative behaviors will improve an organization’s abilities to solve problems and increase productivity, innovation, creativity and morale,” Yap added in a statement.

The Journal of European Industrial Training published the study – “The Relationship Between Diversity Training, Organizational Commitment and Career Satisfaction” – in its sixth issue earlier this year.