OneCalifornia Foundation has partnered with the City of Oakland to launch of a set of exciting new resources for Oakland businesses. The new Business Assistance Center (BAC) location and website offer a place where businesses can go to find information they need to start, sustain, or grow in Oakland. The Oakland BAC website is a project of OneCalifornia Foundation, and is provided to the city as an in-kind donation to help small businesses. The site includes information on finding locations, taking classes, finding financing, getting consultants, taking advantage of tax breaks, and much more. The website also allows businesses to make a request for assistance from BAC staff.

The BAC physical location is next to City Hall at 270 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and is open from 8:30 am to 5 pm weekdays. The center offers helpful staff members that will answer questions and make referrals on all business-related topics to both internal City government departments and to outside agencies. The new center staff members track each request and follows up on these referrals to ensure that questions are getting answered and problems are being resolved.

OneCalifornia Foundation is proud to help offer these exciting new resources to build Oakland’s businesses!

“Please feel free to jump on the Fatboy,” says Marie Deleris, owner of Entrez! Open House, a gifts, housewares and furniture boutique in uptown Oakland. I try to suppress my revulsion at the thought of crushing an overweight toddler, but my face betrays me. She notices and quickly adds, “it’s a beanbag chair!” Relieved, I go inside under the pretense of perusing the store’s offerings with every intention of double-checking the oven behind the front counter to make sure Hansel isn’t peeking out at me. Now, fully pacified, I am able to relax and take in my surroundings. Upon taking my first glance around Entrez!, I was afraid I had just been poked in the eyes with a kaleidoscope—in a good way. The store erupts with color and wild designs, shelves are stocked with neat gadgets, and there is a kitchen in the showroom, the island of which serves as the checkout counter.

You’re probably thinking, “Man, that store sounds nuttier than squirrel poop.”

Maybe you’re right, but the pervading thing on my mind while there was, “This place is so cool! Why don’t I have more colorful stuff decorating my place! Why haven’t I been shopping here!?” It sounds like my sentiment is in line with Marie’s customers’, from whom she hears at least once a day that her store is a “getaway” or a “sanctuary”. Entrez! has become the place for many toiling in downtown Oakland to escape from the workplace and let off some steam. This is a result of many things, all of which add up to one very cool, very unorthodox, design store.

Marie Deleris came to America from Paris six years ago to improve her English, and she never went back. While looking for opportunities that would allow her to extend her visa, Marie’s friends would keep commenting on her knack for design. She took their compliments to heart and ran with them, the result being Entrez! Open House. Marie comes from a family that was always interested in interiors, and she says it’s very important to have a good home, a relaxing place to return to at the end of the day. Her store is a microcosm of the environment Marie envisions for her customers. At Entrez! you are allowed to pick up and touch everything, and sit on the furniture. Besides being important to test drive a chair before you buy, this really makes the store much more homey and friendly, a stark contrast to other design galleries where the pieces are reserved strictly for visual enjoyment.

Marie wants her customers to feel at home in Entrez!, the kitchen on the showroom floor helps, and her trust in her customers has been rewarded—in three years only one piece has been broken. This is a testament to the durability of the products that Entrez! carries. Marie likes the idea of things that will last forever, as the most sustainable products are the ones that never need be replaced. One of the most popular lines at the store is Elbow Grease Designs, currently a selection of bags made from recycled convention banners and other recycled materials, made by Oakland’s own Jenny Hurth.

Along with the home and the environment, community is also important. When Entrez! first opened, Marie would see the same people walking past her doors every day on their way from their lattes to work and back. Three years later, the neighborhood is a host to joggers and families pushing strollers on the weekends, and there are new faces coming through to check out all of the cool new stores that have opened on the block. And now those people who trudged past Entrez! every morning are the regulars who stop by to relax and have a coffee or eat their lunch on the tables out in front. This trend in revitalization has not gone unnoticed, as Entrez! was named the Neighborhood Dynamo Oakland Indie Award winner for the Uptown district in 2007.

To help lure people downtown, and probably more just for fun, Tammy at Entrez! hosts Neighbor Knit Meetings twice a month, and Marie holds a French conversation night monthly; every October Entrez! invites people to its pumpkin carving extravaganza, with the one rule that pumpkins must be cleaned out on the sidewalk and the innards disposed of before moving the pumpkins inside to carve.

This summer, Entrez! is also holding a summer design series so that anyone interested can learn more about design and design companies. The first of three lectures, given by a representative from Alessi, has already past, but you can still make it out for the last two: Entrez! will be hosting Kartell on August 13^th, and Iittala on September 4^th. Click here for more information on the summer design series.

With so much going on at Entrez! Open House you should definitely stop by and check it out for yourself. Marie and her staff are a lot of fun to hang out with, so drop by and share your lunch hour with them, and please, feel free to jump on the Fatboy.

To learn more about Entrez! Open House, visit their website. And to see more independent Oakland businesses online, check out the Oakland Unwrapped website.

Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign made many promises about change. Now, he is attempting to deliver on some of these campaign promises by proposing legislation that will create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). In early July, Obama introduced legislation to create the CFPA in the hopes of regulating the financial services industry to protect consumers from predatory and sneaky practices. The CFPA would be in charge of “writing and enforcing consumer protection rules, continuously monitoring the market for risks to consumers and publishing significant findings at least once a year, and streamlining regulatory requirements and making sure financial product disclosures are understandable and helpful.” This organization is being created not only to increase consumer protection in the financial industry, but also to centralize the responsibility in the wake of many regulatory lapses. Obama hopes that the CFPA “will have the power to set standards so that companies compete by offering innovative products that consumers actually want — and actually understand. Those ridiculous contracts with pages of fine print that no one can figure out — those things will be a thing of the past. And enforcement will be the rule, not the exception.” To read more about Obama’s CFPA proposal, click here.

Despite the good intentions of Obama’s CFPA, many claim that it would only make the regulatory process more difficult and thus hurt consumers in the long run. The CFPA could end up harming consumers by suppressing innovation, increasing operating costs, and damaging the integrity of various institutions. In order to ease the concerns of critics, House Financial Services Representative Barney Frank has delayed action on the agency until September to give consumer advocates and the financial industry more time to offer input and respond. To read more about opposition to the CFPA, click here.

On June 10, 2009, Opportunity Fund and Kiva joined forces to bring online micro-lending to the Bay Area. Kiva, founded in 2005, is a person to person micro-lending website through which individuals with PayPal accounts can make small dollar loans to poor entrepreneurs. When Kiva began, the lending was restricted to individuals in developing countries. Opportunity Fund, California’s largest non-profit microlender, has become a local field partner of Kiva and thus can expand its current micro-lending functions to even more individuals. Opportunity Fund is a Bay Area based microfinance company that offers “financial education, microfinance loans, matched savings accounts, and affordable housing financing.” Now, through its partnership with Opportunity Fund, they have begun lending to Bay Area entrepreneurs through Bay Area residents. Through Kiva, individuals can go online and make loans to Bay Area entrepreneurs. Individuals can lend as little as $25 or as much as $1,000 to fellow Bay Area residents and while there is no financial return (other than the principal lent out); the social return can be enormous.

For example, Carl, who lives in the Bay Area, has washed windows for over 20 years to supplement his primary income and make ends meet. During this time, he often had to wake up at 3:00AM in order to work the jobs that allowed him to support his family. His wife has also served as his bookkeeper since day one, so his is a family run business. About five years ago, he decided to go into window washing full time and in June he needed to hire an additional employee and do some advertising. With his $5,000 loan from Opportunity Fund and Kiva, Carl was able to expand and promote his business. Carl’s loan was fully funded on July 17, 2009 and he has already paid 6% of it back. All those who participated in lending to Carl have helped him to support his family and pursue his dream of working for himself.

Kiva has a low 1.65% default rate and is attempting to alleviate poverty through small business funding. Opportunity Fund’s businesses have a high survival rate of 85%. This means that the majority of loans made on Kiva are paid back and the majority of Opportunity Fund’s clients are successful small businesses. Kiva interest rates are reasonable, but higher than those offered with traditional loans because of the high transaction costs involved in this type of lending. Kiva’s field partners, such as Opportunity Fund, take the time to get to know the small businesses that are put on the website to be eligible for loans. Because of this, the recipients of the loan are more apt to pay the funds back because they have cultivated a relationship with Opportunity Fund (or another non-profit micro-lender). To learn more about the relationship between Kiva and Opportunity Fund, click here.

Many businesses claim to be green or market their products as environmentally friendly, but how does the consumer know if they are actually supporting a company that is truly eco-friendly?

How do companies that have a double or triple bottom line differentiate themselves from those who see social and environmental issues as a marketing strategy?

How can these businesses network and learn more about running a socially and/or environmentally responsible company?

The San Francisco Bay Area has developed several organizations that certify businesses as green and socially responsible or furnish networking for businesses that are making honest and serious attempts to be as green or socially responsible as possible. Many cities and states have their own green business programs, and Oakland is the home of the Bay Area Green Business Program (BAGBP). The BAGBP verifies that businesses meet certain standards of environmental performance by conducting in depth reviews of business operations. So far, over 1,600 Bay Area businesses have been certified green since 1997 in the nine Bay Area counties. The San Francisco Bay Area is also home to the Green Chamber of Commerce, a center that fosters “the success of businesses committed to environmental and social responsibility.” The Sustainable Business Alliance also has over 250 participating Bay Area businesses. The Sustainable Business Alliance facilitates networking, education, technical services, and partnership opportunities for sustainable Bay Area businesses. San Francisco Green Drinks also makes possible the networking and socializing of area green business professionals. Once a month, environmental professionals get together at 111 Minna to socialize and discuss issues related to the environment. Another sustainable business networking group is EcoTuesday, which is held across the nation and locally in San Francisco on the fourth Tuesday of every month. EcoTuesday gives sustainable business leaders a chance to network and discuss current issues both in person and online.

There are also ways to know that the business you are supporting is socially responsible—look for the B-Corporation certification and you know that the company you are purchasing from has a triple bottom line. In order to be a certified B-Corporation, businesses must go through a series of tests and meet various standards, which are vigorously enforced. A growing number of companies are realizing that social and environmental responsibility is more than just a marketing scheme, it is important for the future that we develop sustainable business practices for the long run.

Buy local campaigns have long intended to support local, small, and independently owned businesses. These campaigns are aimed at marketing to the consumer to promote the local economy. Although these campaigns are present all around the nation and even internationally, they are locally based and help independent businesses. However, large chains and corporations are beginning to take notice of the marketing advantage that local businesses have, and are themselves attempting to appear local. In the latest marketing craze, “local washing” is occurring in almost every sector of the market—from produce to coffee and all the way to banking. Hellman’s Mayonnaise is testing this philosophy in Canada because the ingredients for its product come from North America. HSBC is portraying itself as “the world’s local bank” with its over 500 locations. Even Starbucks is cashing in on this philosophy by operating stores under different names that make them appear more “local.” Stacy Mitchell, author of Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses, addresses the situation and its implications here. While this new approach lets “Buy Local” advocates and small businesses know that what they are doing is having such an impact that global corporations are taking notice, it also confuses consumers and takes advantage of those who do not understand what makes something local or why local products should be purchased. Of course, large corporations can support local suppliers and carry local products, but the true advantage of the economic multiplier effect for the local economy occurs when a product is purchased from an independent business that is truly locally based and performs the majority of business operations locally.

The Financial Planning Association of the East Bay (FPA East Bay) is offering a free financial planning clinic in recognition of financial planning week. The clinic will be held at the Elihu Harris State Building in Oakland on October 3, 2009 from 10:00AM until 4:00PM. California State Controller John Chiang will be the keynote speaker. Other speakers include State Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Mayor Ron Dellums, and even our very own OneCalifornia Bank President and CEO Jeffrey Cheung! If you are interested in attending this event and taking control of your financial future, pre-register by emailing clinicregistration@yahoo.com. For more information on FPA East Bay and its events, click here.

The Just, Alternative, Sustainable Economy Festival will be held from 10:00AM until 4:00PM on September 26 in Humanist Hall in Oakland on 27th Street. This festival will feature a broad array of nonprofits, cooperatives, collectives, volunteers, community-based financial institutions, and more that will be getting together to discuss the new economy. “We are living in scary times. The dominant economy has never served our interests, but now it literally threatens our lives. The creativity that exists within our communities to meet our real, daily needs in very practical ways must be stepped-up. The times call for solidarity, for innovation and for expansion of all our efforts to build a better way of organizing our lives. We must do this ourselves. And with the JASeconomy Festival we believe we can demonstrate what’s possible by showing what has already been accomplished.” Admission is free, so come out and participate in groundbreaking discussions about the new economy! For more informaiton, click here.

This year’s Art & Soul Oakland Festival will be moving from Labor Day weekend to mid August. For $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and kids age 13-17 and 12 and under free you can come and see Shawn Colvin, BoDeans, Bobby Caldwell, or Frankie Lee–among a plethora of other talent that will be performing. Not only will there be amazing live entertainment, there will also be art shows, dancing, food, local artisans and vendors, and more. This year, all food vendors will be using compostable plates, cups, and utensils too because the festival is going green! There will be recycling and compost stations throughout the event area. The festival will be in downtown Oakland and has multiple entrances. For more information about this year’s extravaganza, click here.

Oakland Unwrapped!, OneCalifornia Foundation, and many of Oakland’s small businesses and artists will be celebrating another year of success at the Best of the East Bay Party on Friday August 7th! This celebration at the Oakland Museum of California will have live music, food, drinks, sports demonstrations, dancing, comedians, drag shows, a kids’ zone, and more! Admission is free and all ages are welcome to join the party from 5:00pm until midnight. OneCalifornia Foundation will be running the bar and various local restaurants will be food vendors at the event. For more information, visit www.EastBayExpress.wordpress.com.