California Comeback: New Programs in State Budget to Help Berkeley Small Businesses

Transcript

everybody's time we are recording this presentation and it may be posted to our website for future use please remember to keep yourself muted and if you have any questions during today's presentation please feel free to put them in the chat box and mark will address them later on this hour so my name is beth rossner i'm the ceo of berkeley chamber and i want to thank you all for joining us today uh we're gonna just dive right in i'm gonna turn it over to our presenter today mark herbert from the small business majority he'll tell us a little bit about himself and his company and then we'll get into the presentation take it away mark there we go uh thank you beth appreciate it uh good afternoon everybody it's great to see you all and appreciate the opportunity to join you uh this afternoon let me go ahead and share my screen um so i'm uh my name's mark i am with an organization called small business majority uh we are a small business education and advocacy organization uh and really fundamentally we exist to help entrepreneurs take their next step on their entrepreneurial journey and really excited to be here today to chat a little bit about the california comeback plan there was a lot that has happened over these last over this last year in state government as it relates to policies uh so we'll try to condense as much as we can into this next hour we have a lot to cover uh you will get a copy of the slide deck because you will not have to memorize it there's a lot of information here as we uh scroll through this um we'll try to keep it relatively high level get into the weeds on some things feel free to throw your questions into the chat as we go uh we'll have plenty of time at the end to go over questions if i am not able to answer your question which is very possible and even likely with this group i will do my best to get an answer for you all and get back to you um but really excited to be here and appreciate the opportunity to chat a little bit about what was in uh what's really happened over this past year as it relates to policy just a little quick uh a little bit more information on small business majority of who we are so we are a national organization as i mentioned um and all of our work is really organized around sort of these two core fundamental beliefs so one is we believe that entrepreneurs and small business owners such as yourselves are essential building blocks to a healthy sustainable thriving local community and economy and entrepreneurs deserve the tools that they need to be successful so we do a lot of workshops like this on a whole host of different topics really wanting to make sure that entrepreneurs and small business owners have access to the latest information about how to make sure that you can continue to grow your business and the second core belief is we believe that there's this authentic voice of small business that exists in public policy it's just vastly underrepresented and we want to make sure that authentic voice is part of stakeholder conversations and state capitals and in dc um and making sure that that perspective is is part of the discussion we do this through polling so we don't want your polling of business owners to get a sense of what they actually think about policies things that matter and then we also are a platform for entrepreneurs who want to plug in and have their voices be part of policymakers conversations in dc so we have a great communications team we'll do advocacy training uh we'll do uh op-ed uh writing collaboration uh submitting testimony and that sort of thing so we really just want to make sure that entrepreneurs have the tools that they need and then also ensure that we're able to connect uh that voice that authentic voice to small business uh with stakeholders and decision makers so that the policies that actually move the needle for entrepreneurs um are actually a part of the conversation um so i already talked a little bit about this this is who we are about 85 000 businesses across the country um we're not a membership driven organization all of our resources are free um and as i mentioned and we've done a lot of workshops like this we've done a lot obviously on the federal relief programs like pvp and idol and those sorts of things we'll continue to make sure that we stay on top of that um but for the purposes of this presentation it's really about uh what we've seen in uh in the budget and in state uh government over this past year there's as i mentioned there's a lot um so we'll do a little bit about some of the state uh sort of relief tax credits uh sort of high level some of them are live right now some of them are coming um so things just to be aware of and if you have a cpa to make sure that you let them know these things are happening whether or not you may be eligible um it's something worth checking out talk a little bit of there's some pay leave activity there's a grant program for so if you've had any of your employees who've had to take paid leave for any real reason at all um over this past uh year there are there is a grant that's available for you as a business owner there are also some new access to capital opportunities through the california rebuilding fund and a couple other smaller programs that we'll cover and just to make sure that you have a sense of what's out there so um that's the big picture so to dive right in uh the big one that is still not available yet some of the details are still being ironed out but there was a main street tax credit that was passed um sb1447 by senator bradford the goal of this legislation was to ensure that if folks are able to hold on to their employees or able to hire during this challenging economic time that the business was able to enjoy some level of tax credit so the credits are applied to sales and and use tax liabilities um it's not yet available as i mentioned there's a link there definitely encourage you to check it out um the goal is the the purpose of the legislation was to ensure that if you're trying to keep your employees on and not um not getting rid of or if you're able to actually hire and expand your employee base um that the state wanted to step in and provide some sort of tax relief or tax subsidy uh for businesses uh that did that a couple other tax credits that are worth mentioning just to put on the table there's a brand new it's called a higher homeless tax credit up to ten thousand dollars per eligible worker um it's a sort of sliding scale uh and essentially you would you would if you hire someone who's in the last 180 days uh has been homeless uh you have to make sure that that they have that history of homelessness but the key thing is that there are non-profits who certify that yes this person is eligible for this tax credit and then you would use that you would use that when you file for um use that when you file your taxes um so there's additional information um i don't have the link here but i'll throw the link in the chat at the end about where you can go to learn more about that but it's worth checking out if you're looking higher or if you're engaged in this space or have hired in this space um it's to provide additional resources to businesses who've done that film tax credit it's a big one about 100 million it's mainly for like tvc's tv series independent films things like that there's more information there at the bottom if any of you are in the film industry uh it might be of interest um but it's ordinarily focused just because it is such a huge part of our industry at least here in california especially in southern california um another tax credit california competes tax credit it's primarily for businesses that are looking to upskill their workers um or train their workers and it subsidizes that training it is an application process so you actually have to apply so if you're thinking about upskilling workers or you know a business that's thinking about upskilling their workers it's actually not a bad credit to look into we have to uh file an application and then it gets reviewed and then that tax credit gets approved so it's not just like a tax credit that you get just when you when you file your taxes every year um the next round is going to be open uh in the beginning of 2022. um so if that's something of interest could you check it out again we're just sort of going through these but if any of these are like oh that could be interesting or i know something that that might relate to my business make sure you check with your cpa or if you are the cpa and you wear that hat um write it down you get a copy of this you can always um dig into it and look it up a little later one thing i did want to mention we're doing an interesting program with jewish vocational services jvs out of san francisco they're in the process of actually training a bunch of uh bookkeepers so folks who are hard to employ are coming out of the system um they're creating a bookkeeping training programs and what they're doing is actually connecting those newly trained cpas with small businesses that are looking for bookkeeping support and so it's a subsidized rate you don't pay full freight and then you have someone that will work with you it's all supervised by a certified cpa it's a really cool program have had a number of businesses that we've connected with who've used their services and found it really valuable to them and then obviously it's an interesting pilot for jvs as they continue to train and give people careers so it's just a cool um a cool collaboration if you're interested in learning more there we can definitely connect you there's a forum link at the bottom of the page but we can connect you uh with the folks who are running that program if there's interest in potentially hiring one of these bookkeepers uh for your business andy you came off to say do you want to ask a quick question uh yeah uh loney asked could the cctc be used for an artisan apprentice training program great question i think so um i think it can it's just a matter of uh whether or not uh i think i think you are eligible the question is whether or not when you apply you actually uh receive that uh that credit um well let's do this um at the end let me check into that and i'll se i'll send you more information it should be there on the web link right there but if not i can um i can follow up and we can find out uh if there are specific eligibility against that cool so that's sort of a quick snapshot of the tax credit issue changes opportunities sort of the big uh big ticket items um and again happy to answer any questions about those when we get near the end um so a couple real quick so uh additional programs a lot of this is around cash so access to capital grants and loans these are sort of the big new pieces of the puzzle for small businesses moving forward um here in 2020 22 we'll talk about there's a new pay leave grant that i mentioned california rebuilding fund is a really cool loan fund for small businesses specifically a couple then uh state grant programs i think we're all familiar with the federal programs of the paycheck protection program and the idle program and a number of other federal resources the state also has been stepping in and is stepping in to provide relief there was obviously the big california relief grant program of four billion dollars that rolled out that last round just closed i think it was last week but there are still relief programs moving forward and really what we're seeing in the market is a shift from needing that infusion of cash and grant capital to thinking about how do we do long-term recovery and what sort of larger loans and lending can be a secure to ensure that businesses have the cash and the runway to grow their way out of this pandemic so uh this summer newsom uh signed um this uh big package he's calling the california comeback lots of money in there lots of different provisions this is just a snapshot of some of this stuff um but it's a he was a huge investment across the board and a bunch of different industries in a bunch of different categories but we're just going to talk a little bit about some of the small business investments um a lot of this money also from this california comeback plan plan was part of the federal uh american rescue plan that was passed by congress so this is a little bit of state money a little bit of federal money um together to support small businesses i think many of you may be familiar with the golden state stimulus the second round right this is essentially like an eitc for um californians is kind of what it is it's a stimulus just like the or well just like the federal government gave a lot of folks a federal stimulus the state also did for much lower income folks um that was a part of the package there's also this paid family grant program we'll talk about in a second loan fund and then these two new programs the micro business uh relief grant program and the independent venues grant program uh which will be opening in the coming future but i don't believe are open yet our two new programs that will be coming out it's a little bit about the paid leave grant um i sort of mentioned it at the top but paid leave is something that if you have five or more employees all your employees are eligible to take it is a program that's run through the state um so you as the business owner are not paying their wages while they're gone it's actually funded through an insurance program through the state so if you have any employees they already are paying into a paid leave fund if you have five or more employees and then they can leave and then you would just have to keep that job open for them for when they return but this is a program where if your employee needs to take time off to care for a loved one or have a baby they can file an application through the state and they get about two-thirds to eighty ninety percent of their wages replaced by the state not by you as the small business owner um and and so it's a program that already exists if you have any employees it's already a line item that comes out of your sdi uh contribution so it's already a line item on uh on your um that you already pay or that they already pay to the state that you already take out of their paycheck so one of the things that's uh that's changed is that the requirement that smaller businesses allow employees to come back to their place of work and they hold that job open that shifted a little bit over this last year so if someone has five or more employees then they are required to hold that job open until that person comes back previously that was at 20 or more it's now dropped down to five or more um and then to make this easier for really small businesses uh part of what the governor passed in the package uh was a small grant uh two businesses um who had less than 10 employees and had one of their employees go out on paid leave and so if you've had an employee go out and paid leave and you have more than less than 10 employees you can actually apply to receive a 500 grant for each employee that utilize that paid family program and again right if you are their employer you're not paying for their paid family leave um you're just uh keeping their job and so this is a grant program um to make it easier for businesses to think about how do we make sure that we keep that job open in this small small grant program so you would apply um uh through uh i think it's the orange county hispanic chamber of commerce is managing that contract we're doing a bunch of workshops with them to get the word out um but if you're interested in more i'm happy to get you connected oh there it is right there californiapaidleavealliance.com you can check it out um but that's how you know where you're eligible you can check out the eligibility and whether or not that's something that you or maybe a business owner that you work with may be eligible to receive that so that's the the pay leave uh grant program that just went live um so the next thing i just want to mention is this really cool program called the california rebuilding fund obviously as we know accessing capital has been the a huge need for many small businesses since the pandemic has really drastically changed consumer behavior and the consumer dynamics in our communities and our neighborhoods and so one of the things that the state's put together is this fund um putting together a bunch of different money to make sure that um entrepreneurs are able to access more affordable capital as we all know uh the smaller dollar the capital the more difficult it is to secure that size it's easier to get a much larger loan if you're a larger business but really small businesses often have trouble accessing really small loans because it's expensive to make really small loans i mean so the state stepping in to make more small small loans accessible to entrepreneurs around the state uh affordable interest rate of four and a quarter uh maximum of 100k or less right because they're trying to target that smaller loan size market 60 month long term and the nice piece of it is it's interest only for the first 12 months to really focus on supporting entrepreneurs growing their way out of the current economic situation um and so the whole goal is to give as much runway as possible to entrepreneurs to use this it can be working capital it can be used for a number of different things here's a little bit about business eligibility it is geared towards smaller businesses um 50 or less employees um it's it's not for not for profits it's for businesses only um and there you see a couple other eligibility pieces i do want to mention there is a a p a provision that you have to demonstrate some sort of business decline so it has to be for businesses that have been impacted by covet um so it says 25 declining revenue since january 20th that's not i in some cases that's hard and fast i know that that i can be slightly adjusted i think depending on the lender um but it's for again for smaller businesses two and a half or less uh two and a half million or less in revenue um and and generally good um i know deliverances or bankruptcies uh in in the past and then a couple other things around right no repossessions liens unpaid child support um sort of legalese there and this is just what you would need to to bring if there's interest in accessing uh that loan um and and then in terms of who's eligible pretty much most businesses are eligible here a few businesses that aren't um right uh that businesses that are um you know uh gambling businesses right or um lobbying businesses things like that are not eligible but for the for the most part most businesses are eligible to apply for a california rebuilding fund loan and in order to do it the nice thing about it is that it's a centralized process so you go to one site you can actually go i know that's a long a long web link there if you actually just go to www.calonfund you can pull it up and it's a single portal access so you go to that portal you put it you answer 16 really basic questions about about your business and what it does is it then connects you with a local non-profit mission driven lender or what's called a community development financial institution so it'll connect you with a non-profit lender and the reason the nonprofit lenders are so important is because these are often loans that banks aren't able or don't want to make because they're on the smaller side and so it's usually left to the mission-driven non-profit lenders to make these types of loans and it'll connect you with connected to the the local lender cdfi and then you can work with them to finish that application and apply for capital um just a little bit about the the backdrop i think what's really interesting here is that it's a really unique public-private partnership between the state of california philanthropy and private industry that's creating a really innovative capital access model for entrepreneurs a couple different they mention mentioned a couple different facilities so like how they build each facility is a little different it doesn't matter for the business owner or the entrepreneur they can still go to the same portal enter the same information and then they can get connected with the lender but what's really exciting is that it has a lot of private money and it has a lot of philanthropic money and a lot of government money and the government money is to make sure that these loans remain affordable for instance the city of san francisco they as a city they put even more money into loans that are made in san francisco and so the san francisco products are actually zero percent loans instead of the four and a quarter loans and they're zero percent loans because the city decided that they wanted to invest uh in the fund and make it even more affordable for their local entrepreneurs and a couple of other counties around the state uh are thinking about it we're actually having a briefing for uh city and county officials i think in the next week or so on the fund we'll make sure that that you all get um get an invitation to that but it sort of walks into how cities can participate and how cities and regions can think about making sure capital is more available to small businesses in their community and then the goal is to get this loan fund um up to uh uh a quarter of a of a billion um or more in terms of uh loan size and making loans um and then if you don't qualify so if you go through the process you fill out those 16 questions and maybe you're not matched with a with the appropriate non-profit lender for a whole host of different reasons resources will then be available for you to follow up directly with free one-on-one support either through a small business development center a women's business center or other resources that may be available to you locally where you can chat one-on-one with a business advisor to think through you know why wasn't i eligible how could are there other options of capital for me um so we encourage you um if you if you or someone you know is applying and is not matched we encourage you to use that resource page to identify a local technical assistance provider that you can reach out to for free and have a one-on-one conversation about other potential forms of capital or maybe support for your business to continue to grow and navigate the current economic situation uh these as i mentioned before they are mission-driven non-profit lenders that are making these loans uh and so they uh um aren't in it for the money right they're in it for the mission of providing capital and resources to entrepreneurs all over the state these are the these are the the the nonprofits and they're called cdfis or community development financial institutions as you can see they're represented all over the state and then we also have a handful of statewide cdfis that are also part of it but you as the as the applicant when you go in and fill out the information you will then be matched by two however many cdfi's that you uh potentially could match with and then you would choose the cdfi that you want to work with sometimes you just match with one cdfi and then you could work with them to try to get a loan but this is uh the goal is to have cdfis that are all over the state that know their region and know the lenders in their community and the the borrowers in their community so that's california building fund um so the micro business uh coveted relief grant is also um something uh that is a new it's not yet live um but uh as many of us know there has been there have been um an explosion of new startup small businesses over this past year and we also know that really small businesses are often businesses who are creating most of the jobs and so it was part of the california comeback plan the goal was to create a grant program specifically for really tiny businesses so specifically for those micro businesses those businesses that are just getting off the ground that only have a couple employees um as a way to help them navigate um the uh the challenging landscape as i mentioned it's not yet open but if you sign up for a newsletter and it when it opens we'll be sending out information and resources about it as soon as we know more um as i mentioned there there's there are some criteria because it is for very small businesses right 50 grand in revenue or less um is one of the requirements um you know fewer than five ftes right because they want the really really small businesses um and then there are a couple other uh pieces of criteria there um and one of the other things is they're looking for businesses that maybe didn't get the state grant right um or haven't gotten other forms of relief and this is a way to try to grab and support those businesses that maybe otherwise weren't able to benefit from any of the federal estate relief and then the last one the last grant program again this is a new one just like the micro business grant fund which is independent venues grant program this also is not yet open yet and it should be coming uh we think and we hear probably in january but it's a grant um uh for venues and it's going to be awarded equal to or less of 250k or 20 of your gross revenue for 2019 um and a total of 150 million and the the key here it's not going to be first come first serve it's going to be based on priority factors those are still being developed in terms of which businesses and which types of businesses will be prioritized in the framework to apply but again as soon as we have more information and have a sense of how that grant is going to work but if you are a a venue i think they're still working on the criteria of exactly which businesses qualify as venue businesses um so still more uh to come there but it is a grant program that we should see coming uh in the coming months um encourage you to just be aware of that of that as well all right um should we to take a few questions about the let's just pull up the the chat box before we dive into um so i see uh here i'll just type in in the chat box so one of the questions um www yeah yeah the the um loan fund dot org so that's i just dropped in the chat that is the link to the california building fund feel free uh to check that out um let's see and what's up that was a question one more question from yvette how complex is the employee upscale grant application it can be pretty it could be pretty complex um there uh often uh businesses will hire a consultant to fill out the application for them and then if successful the consultant will be eligible to receive a portion of the proceeds so sometimes working with a consultant it'll be risk-free um all but i would say check out the website um sometimes depending on the type of business it can be straightforward uh depending on the business though it could be a more complex but i would recommend checking that out if you're interested in potentially talking to a consultant um let me know happy to get you connected with some of the folks that we know are at least a little bit more reputable in the space if there is interest to pursue it one more question from amanda what about the california dream fund it was 35 million for startup funds for entrepreneurs yeah thank you for for mentioning that that's still coming it is um similar to the micro business grant program in that it's targeted to a specific slice of businesses it is just for startups uh and we still are waiting for some of the additional criteria there um but it is an additional program that we will be following and making sure that we share information about as soon as it's available but it is one of those programs because we've seen so many business starts over this past year there's something that uh this state stepped in um to provide great question thank you amanda that's all the questions we have for right now so go ahead cool all right so uh talked a little bit about the um uh tax credits talked a little bit about the cash and the grants and the capital uh that's sort of part of this broader package um to then sort of transition into uh benefits for employees and what's out there so there's this really cool program that is continuing to expand here in california it's called cal savers it is a benefit it is a retirement a program specifically for employers that are not able to offer retirement programs at work and it is meant to be something that employers can use to ensure that their employees still have access to quality affordable retirement um and the reason that the the state's stepping in is because oftentimes for businesses it can be really tough it can be an it can be confusing um right you can be fiducially you can be legally liable if you as a business owner choose the wrong retirement plan for your employees their minimum participation requirements if you're trying to get a benefit plan or retirement plan for employees so cal savers gets rid of all those things um and the reason it's so important is because um there's a huge retirement gaps that already exist in the state and in the country and so by having a program that makes it as easy as possible for employers to provide retirement for their employees the goal is to drive up savings and increase savings for not just employees but also employers and as you can see the the the gap is between 6 and 14 trillion dollars between the retirement gap between what folks need um and what they're likely to be able to to provide and afford and as i mentioned right the three main reasons that we have found in talking to a number of business owners uh that business owners have trouble offering retirement isn't because business owners don't want to offer retirement to their employees it because it can cost a bunch of money and it's really complex or you can get sued if you choose the wrong one right um and one of the beauties of cal savers is it's auto enrollment so it's an opt out right so if you use this program your employees are automatically enrolled unless they want to opt out and then they would work directly with the uh with the program administrator to opt out so you as the employer don't actually have to deal with a lot of that back and forth it's based it's a line item on uh on the w-2 when you when you uh when you pay it when you pay the the paychecks it's a piece of their of their um of their payment that goes directly to the program it is employee only so no employer dollars go towards this so it's not an employer contribution and it's just an ira it's just a standard ira that goes to cal savers that all employees begin paying into unless an employee decides to opt out the you do have to have five or more employees um in order to be able to enroll in this program um uh and then when you do if you have five or more employees uh how it works is you go to calsavers and you just uh automatically enroll your folks and then how savers will notify your folks that they're being enrolled and if and asking them if they want to opt out and if they want to doubt cal savers will then and i'll let you know that so-and-so is opting out and they'll also let you know if they if any of the employees want to change their percentages or want to adjust what they're saving uh calsavers then communicates directly with the employer about that as well so the information education as well as the program management part is not on the ticket on the plate of the small business owner it's the third party administrator that handles that it's also for self-employed you can open your own um account um if you if you so choose and the really nice thing about calsavers especially for certain industries is that you can take it with you uh wherever you go so if you already have a cal savers account and you're working for one employer and they pay into cal savers then you as soon as you start with that new employer you'll just start that employee will start seeing part of his check deposited into his cal savers account then if they leave that employer go to a different employer and that other employer that different employer also does calsavers as soon as they start working more their money will go into their account so it's something that's a portable retirement account that will follow that employee wherever they go as long as that employer is paying into cal savers and has a cal savers account so it creates much less friction and the ability for employees to save more effectively during their career um there are some program features so basically it's a five percent contribution rate um it ticks up every year there's sort of a standard setting um as we mentioned employee can opt out anytime if they're not interested in continuing with the program um and the the really nice thing is there's a call center for employers so if you as an employer have enrolled your folks you're trying to figure out what to do next there's a call center that's available and they have really low response times at least last time we checked and have been able to work uh well with employers to help get them enrolled and um as well as making sure that any questions um that they have uh are answered right and then the the employees uh employers don't have to contribute as i mentioned it's employee only funded um and again it's about the program specifically working directly uh with the employee uh to define how much is how much is deposited and whether or not they want to opt out or not so employers you can register whenever you want there's no there's no limit to when you can get in larger employers though there are deadlines so uh as of last year employers with a hundred or more employees have to do one of two things they either have to let their employees enroll in cal savers or they have to go buy a retirement product on the market to provide retirement to their employees in the in june of this year just this summer the deadline was extended to uh employee employers with 50 or more employees so if you have 50 more employees either got to let your folks enroll in cal savers or need to provide retirement through uh through work and then the big date is next year on june 30th 2022 um businesses with five or more employees will be required to be a part of this to either allow their employees to enroll in calsavers or they can go purchase a retirement product on the open market if they um if they want to do that um so that's sort of the the timeline and then once it once it's implemented at five or more and that's uh that's the threshold if you're less than five you don't have to do anything if you don't want to um where to cover this right it's it's a it helps level the playing field as i mentioned we know a lot of employers who want off retirement just tough um and can be complex and and the fiduciary liability can be uh concerning um and so the goal of this program was try to take all those things on off of the uh off the plate of the small business and make sure that they're it's much easier for businesses to offer these uh these products um yeah so if you want to get involved um feel free uh to sign up check out our our resources um in terms of uh newsletters uh you know if you have if you're interested in getting engaged on any of these um in any of these policy conversations around these programs please let us know we're constantly having conversations in sacramento with policy makers about how to make sure that the um programs and policies that actually move the needle for entrepreneurs are part of the conversation um and so it's something that i would love to hear from you and if there's any interest in learning more about the upcoming programs that i mentioned uh please don't hesitate uh to reach out and let us know um and so with that um uh looks like we're running a little ahead schedule which is great which means we got more time for for questions yeah welcome any questions thoughts or comments or happy to dig deeper into any of these areas i know we sort of uh ran through a bunch of information so if there are any of these areas that you want to go back talk a little bit more in depth about happy to do that as well great here is some questions for you do you know of any similar programs with fewer than five employees yeah it's a great question um we were actually really disappointed when we were advocating for this legislation a few years ago um that they put the threshold in there um so if you have less than uh five employees uh you can um there are a couple ways you can still access it so your employees can go to calsavers and create their own accounts and if they do that then you as the employer can still do a direct deposit into their into their account um so you can still access it um uh but it it's it's it wouldn't be automatic enrollment right the the employer uh then you wouldn't be able to automatically enroll your employees and then the cal savers program would then work directly with your employees um your employees have to proactively get those sign up for their own accounts and then tell you as the employer hey i'd like you know a line item kicked into direct deposit like a split deposit into my account um every month this is how much i'd like you to put in there and then you can do that and then technically it's not yeah so so you can do it that way um it's not the best work around um but it is uh that is the challenge and the rationale there was uh they wanted it to be five or more because they thought if a business had less than five employees it'd be too hard for the business and so uh they didn't want to require that um businesses with five or less but what that did is it actually excluded them businesses with five or less from actually being able to participate so we're still working on it uh and if there are advocacy opportunities if you're interested in getting engaged there please let us know we'll put you on our list if you are self-employed is at five percent of net or gross so if you're self-employed um you can choose um so what you would do is you would go to cal savers and you would open an account um and then you would just make direct deposits in there or whenever and however you want and right and if you're self-employed you're not getting paid on a w-2 right you're earning money a whole bunch of different ways and so you could just pick a percentage or you could pick a flat amount that you want to be contributing to your retirement account but that would be up to you uh depending on how you want to manage your own retirement savings but it's free to go and open a cal savers account as a self-employed individual if you have a payroll company paychecks for example is there a seamless implementation yeah great question uh cal savers has been having many long conversations with adp and with paychecks a number of payroll companies to build better integration it's coming i think intuit uh was the first company to sort of come out with some sort of integration uh for um for cal savers but they're in conversations and in talks to do that um it is definitely the goal to make it as easy and seamless as possible um and uh payroll companies are slowly getting that point but the biggest thing i would recommend is just shoot a note to your um adp or paychecks representative and say hey are you guys plugged into calsavers yet and encourage them to do that because the sooner they get plugged in the easier it'll be for you is there any other recommendations for retirement plans for small businesses uh it will be required for us to offer one by june 2022 is that correct yeah great question um so yes i'm not a you know i'm not a retirement advisor so i'm i'm not qualified to tell you which plan to pick um but what will happen is there there is a deadline by uh by the summer to be next summer june in order uh to offer retirement to employees um and you can go if you want to go buy something or you want to set up an ira or you go to a local retirement broker and you want to purchase a plan that he may have those are all options that are available to you you don't have to do calsavers the the value with calsavers is that it is something that you don't have to pay for and it doesn't matter what and it's just a very simple standard straightforward plan and that the integration with their technology allows you just to communicate directly with them but if you want to use something else you may i will say they probably won't be doing much enforcement for the smaller businesses for probably a little while um right i can't promise that um but they're they have to my knowledge i don't even think they're enforcing it yet for the larger businesses as they're trying to make sure that everything's coming in um but uh you know so i encourage you to check it out encourage you to take a dry run and test run um with there i mean if you have five or more you could apply right now and get plugged in right now i do know at this moment the sooner you get in probably the better because they're offering white glove service right they have representatives in different regions that'll actually work with you they have that call center but my guess is that when the this next deadline hits and you have a lot of businesses trying to enroll all at the same time they'll be a lot busier so the sooner you enroll probably the better and it'll allow you to have probably a much better experience and more support from from their team so if you're interested or if that's something it looks like you're going to need to do i'd recommend going ahead and reaching out now and and seeing what you can do to enroll your employees awesome can you be a sole proprietor or do you need to be an llc um no you can be a sole proprietor it's really about um uh you know if you are um anyone that's receiving a w-2 paycheck um is going to be uh if the employer is um if the employer is enrolled in cal savers and has five or more employees and you receive a w-2 paycheck that employee with the w-2 paycheck will need to be enrolled in cal savers if you're a sole proprietor and you don't have employees you just go to cal savers and set up your own account um right and you can and then directly deposit any amount of money that you want into your retirement savings but this really just is about w-2 employees and them being automatically enrolled into the program how does this work for a self-employed person that's the owner only employee of an llc set up as an s corp and usually and utilizes a payroll company so uw so that would mean that you w2 yourself correct okay thumbs up uh yes so if you are w-2-ing yourself right that's fine um as then you because you have if you have less than five employees um you could still enroll yourself in cal savers but again you as the employee with your employee hat would have to set up create your own calsavers account and then you would direct the company through the payroll to put a line item into your calsavers account so you could still do that because because you have less than five employees you wouldn't just but you wouldn't be automatically enrolled will the program ever allow employers to match contributions as it's structured now uh no mainly that's due to erisa concerns um but um but that's not so that's not in the card at the moment so if you want to contribute to an employee's retirement um there are you can buy you know you can purchase 401k plans and other sorts of plans out there to be able to um to contribute so cal savers may not be the best fit right um if you want to be contributing to your employees retirement you might want to just go buy something off the shelf somewhere from a broker but if this is sort of this is so that everyone has access to something right and if you want to buy up great sort of like health care right even if you're not able to offer health insurance to your employees they can still go get coverage through covered california right to the individual marketplace and and that's that's sort of the goal here is let's make sure that everyone has access to something and then as an employer if you want to buy up you're always welcome to do that but let's make sure that that framework works for everybody if i have five or less employees do i have to offer a retirement plan by june 2022 no you no you do not for less than five employees you don't have to offer a retirement plan perfect that's all the questions we have in the chat box does anyone else have a few more questions any any questions about um any other aspects of the presentation any other um the grant programs well mark thank you so much you gave us a lot of fantastic info um oh let's see it looks like we have one more this isn't california specific but i'd love insights on ertc oh what's ert's could you define ertc for me hi or just erc some folks call it the employee retention tax credit um oh yes it's a mess trying to navigate it so yeah if you have any insights about where to get some um direct directly back you know and or just are you are you looking to file and apply for it or where where potentially yeah potentially um i would recommend have you connected with your local small business development center uh no not yet um i will so if you here i'm gonna throw in the chat uh just a second okay so if you go i just threw in the chat this is a website that we have so if you you can put in your zip code um on the map feature and up will pop local technical assistance providers that can give you free advice so i would recommend going there and just typing in your zip code and then looking at the map and finding the local ta provider so they're a bunch of different categories so i would just scan through and find a ta provider give them a call and all those folks listed there offer free to low-cost services and you can just give them a call and say hey i'm trying to figure out you know the the tax credit and wanting to know who do you have any free tax advice that i could talk to someone about this um and see if they can get you connected and what they do is they usually have a bunch of individual consultants that then they'll match you with to have a free one-on-one to talk a little bit about it if that doesn't work shoot me an email we'll make sure to get you routed to the right place and i see elizabeth you got your hand up hi there yeah i'm with the city of berkeley's office of economic development and i was so sure i was just curious uh hello i was just curious how you were however i don't know if i know small business majority does a great job of sending things out through newsletters but for the micro enterprise relief grant i feel like those very small businesses are often hard to find or reach like it might be a food truck business and i know i've had conversations with the berkeley chamber and our bay organization of blackboard businesses of some of the entrepreneurs that aren't registered with a business license like will there be a requirement for those that they are registered with the state of california have a state business license or a local business license or how are they finding them to even alert them that this is going to be an opportunity it's a great question um they're trying to figure that out right now if you have if you have any feedback or recommendations on how those regulations should be written um please feel free to shoot me a note um my colleague bianca bloomquist is our outreach manager for northern california and has a lot of local and regional relationships and also works closely with gobiz so it's it's go biz in the office of small business advocate that will be uh writing those uh writing those regulations um and so i would encourage you uh to well one will let you know once we know what those regulations are if their recommendations you know that the league of cities or csac is making or planning to make happy to make sure that we um we elevate those requests to make sure that the regulations are written away they actually get to the people that that need the most yeah i guess so one thing i'd suggest and it kind of has pros and cons depending on how you do it but is that businesses do have to be compliant with any like business license rules in their city because it's we're probably going to be doing a campaign to get businesses amnesties so for not having had a business license previously but it's good if we have a carrot like all these grants that have been available to businesses during the pandemic required them to have a business license and therefore come and get amnesty but get registered with the city so that in the future like when we did our own relief grants as a city and we pointed people toward things we only have the information from those that are registered as you know have a business license so we don't even have a way to let micro enterprises or minority owned businesses that were some of the most hard hit during this pandemic know that we could support them because they weren't on the books so yeah just to relay that i guess like making that a requirement is good or maybe there's something we can work together to think about how the amnesty program could be developed in multiple cities so that you get people signed up and give them money yeah i think that's a really um creative strategy and i think it could be really helpful i if i if i remember correctly i think that the counties are going to have first crack at being the um being the program managers for this so the county may be submitting the application to the state to administer this program in the county so um i think so why don't we follow up after this i'll make sure that i pull beyond getting the conversation and we can check and see where they are in writing the right the regs now the regs but it may not it may be worth also just picking the county and see if it's on their radar are they putting an application and if they are maybe they should as part of their application include this and that could be helpful for best practices that would be great i'm putting my email in the chat also beth knows how to find me but um and we're working closely with the chamber on the amnesty program that we'll try to be rolling out with our finance department in berkeley but you know still a lot of detail cbd but if there are conversations or things happening in alameda county or people we should talk to please let us know absolutely yeah we'll make sure to follow up with you and bianca and you guys you guys should definitely connect and check because i know she's been thinking through some of this great question thank you absolutely i'm looking at the comment lower the business license fees or home of application permit fees did connie want to say something about that i'm not sure follow are you suggesting that that's a relief strategy i'm sorry i think i missed um um as i was talking about this connie had posted the chat lower the business license fees yes liz that would be as a relief strategy i see that great well i think what you should submit i mean this is not for small business majority probably but for the state of berkeley uh if connie if you'd like to propose that i highly recommend emailing the chamber with your ideas and also emailing your city council members and if you don't know who those are just type in berkeley city council and you will see and you can email the mayor or you can figure out which council member represents your district and then i think policy ideas are always welcomed by council members and mark looks like one more question uh do you think the california relief grant will have any more rounds do you anticipate any more funding or is that done done never say never but um i think it's probably done uh you know i think as i sort of mentioned this the conversation and what we're hearing from a lot of businesses um that um shifting from the from the the cash conversation cash grant conversation the immediate relief conversation to what are the long like right how do i how do i grow myself out of this how do i build out of this how do i change my model to make sure i can i can survive and so i think we're going to see a lot more different types of lending products though i think we're going to see um really interesting things there we'll still have like the micro business program grant program as well as you know the the dream fund so there'll be some smaller very targeted i think grants but in terms of you know the the size and scope of a four billion dollar program i think this is probably the last round and it's really going to be about um how do you access um patient affordable lending capital debt capital moving forward great well mark thanks again uh we've really appreciated your expertise here today um just a reminder we will post this webinar to our website so if you all uh want to re-watch it later you can and we'll send out some links and contact info for mark and bianca should anyone have any follow-up questions and i just want to let everybody know a week from today the 14th at noon the chambers berkeley business boot camp is returning and our first presentation is how to raise funding from supportive values aligned investors so i think that'll complement this presentation very nicely so if you'd like to register for that a week from today at noon hop over to berkeleychamber.com and you can register so thanks again i wish you all a good day and week and we will see you next time thanks again mark thanks for having me have a good