Small Business

Bank of America Corp., under pressure to raise capital and cut risks, is severing lines of credit to some small-business owners who have used them to stay afloat. The Charlotte, N.C., bank is demanding that these customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments. If they can't pay in full, they are being offered new repayment plans for as long as five years, but with far higher interest rates than their original credit lines had. Business owners complain that BofA's credit squeeze is abrupt and could strain their small companies and even put them out of business.

LegalZoom.com Inc., an online provider of legal services for consumers and small businesses, has filed to raise as much as $120 million in an initial public offering. The Glendale company was founded in 1999 and offers self-help legal documents such as divorce and bankruptcy forms, real estate leases, prenuptial agreements and wills. The company has been credited with helping shake up the legal industry by making it simple for people to bypass lawyers. LegalZoom has served about 2 million customers during the last decade, it said in its filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

These days we all worship at the shrine of "small business." In the debate about President Clinton's budget, opponents argued that higher taxes on incomes of more than $180,000 would not just hit the affluent because "small businesses" pay taxes at personal income-tax rates. The Clintonites replied that the budget bill was filled with new goodies for small businesses. The question whether "small business" is deserving of all this solicitude did not arise.

President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign with public rallies in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday.With that launch came a re-tooled stump speech which both defended his record in office and laid out the contrast with Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The speeches in both cities were largely the same. Here's a full transcript of his remarks in Columbus, following the acknowledgement of local leaders. OBAMA: "I want to thank so many of our Neighborhood Team Leaders for being here today.  You guys will be the backbone of this campaign.  And I want the rest of you to join a team or become a leader yourself, because we are going to win this thing the old-fashioned way -- door by door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Rebuild L.A. plans to announce soon the creation of an independent $5-million loan fund to provide much-needed financing for small businesses in inner-city areas, RLA Co-Chairman Barry A. Sanders said Wednesday. The RLA Community Lending program, to be financed by a federal housing grant and private donations, will be announced around the April 29 anniversary of last year's riots.

Last-minute cuts in the California budget are threatening programs that have been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs beat back the recession's perils. Small Business Development Centers, which offer loans, counseling and other resources using a mixture of state, federal and corporate funding, have been busier than ever this year. But the state's budget squeeze brought a 32% reduction in the funding that community colleges can use to operate some of the 35 centers in California.

Step through the glass doors of Eso Won Bookstore, the landmark but struggling Leimert Park shop specializing in African American titles, and you'll see shelves stacked with civil rights classics by Martin Luther King Jr., poetry by Maya Angelou and important fiction including James Baldwin's "Another Country." Their ranks will be thinned substantially when co-owner James Fugate switches to more bargain-priced books when restocking his shelves next year in a bid to boost sales. Too much money is tied up in the slow-moving back-list tomes, which sell for $15 or more, he said.

Uncle Sam wants more of the nation's small-business exporters to step up their international sales as part of an ambitious goal to double U.S. exports to $3 trillion within five years. The National Export Initiative announced by President Obama as part of his State of the Union speech in January is meant to boost jobs and the economy. To succeed, the government will have to persuade more small businesses to tackle the complexities of international trade. And that won't be easy, experts said.

For all its touted political clout, small business appears to be no match against organized labor. For five years, labor unions have won their fight to block the top item on small business' agenda: clarifying state and federal independent contractor rules.

Silvia Spross took a baby step into small-business ownership when she opened a jewelry kiosk on Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. It took just $11,000 to set up Lapzos Beads, including $3,500 for the first month's rent. So far the Swiss immigrant has hit her goal to average at least $200 a day in sales of the necklaces, rings and bracelets she makes from rough-cut semiprecious stones, polished rocks and beads from around the world. "I would love to own a little store but figured this would be a great start, just to see if it works," said Spross, whose lease runs just through January.

CHANTILLY, Va. - Arguing that President Obama's policies have harmed small businesses and divided Americans, Mitt Romney pledged Wednesday that he would ease regulations, increase domestic energy production and reduce taxes to right the nation's economy. “Democrats say they like a strong economy. They just don't like business very much and you see the economy is made up of nothing but business and so we have to encourage entrepreneurs. I will make America a great place for entrepreneurs again, for small business, for women-owned business, for men-owned business,” Romney told supporters in a warehouse in the suburb of Washington, D.C. Romney made the remarks in front of a group of female small business owners in an overt appeal to female voters.

My wife and I arrived as legal immigrants from Canada four years ago at the age of 63 to be closer to our three children. Having lived in Canada most of our lives, we never contributed to Medicare. Right now I am self-employed and have a small-business health plan through Kaiser. The premiums have escalated from $450 per month to $1,228 per month, with a very high deductible. I am afraid we may have to return to Canada, where we enjoyed free health care. I am sure that many parents who join their children in the U.S. are in the same situation and would like to know what other options are available.

Our one shared national moment of fiscal soul-searching is behind us for another year — of course I refer to the filing of tax returns — but tax reform theater in Washington, like the melody in the old Irving Berlin song, lingers on. So while individual and business taxpayers watch to see whether any tax reform plan has any chance of passage, the Obama administration's "Buffett rule" proposal succumbed Monday to the threat of filibuster by...

The crowd stood at the corner of San Pedro and Boyd streets, a bustling shopping area near L.A.'s Skid Row, waiting for stragglers to arrive before descending on the store. But this mob wasn't an angry one. It had gathered on a recent Saturday afternoon to spend money at a small cafe and boutique. Dubbed a "cash mob," members of the group, many of them young professionals, had arranged the event through social media. Over the course of an hour, the shoppers plucked soy candles, pillows, purses and ornate jewelry from the shelves.

After six months of improving confidence, the mood of small businesses in America turned sour in March - with plans for job creation and expectations for sales growth, profits and business conditions all falling from the prior month. The new report Tuesday from the National Federation of Independent Business, a leading small-employer lobbying group, adds to the worries after the disappointing job growth in March, when the economy generated just 120,000 net new jobs.   Consistent with the national jobs reports, the federation's survey found that actual hiring over the last few months were the best since early last year.

SACRAMENTO — Aetna, the state's third-largest health insurance company, is raising rates for thousands of small-business customers to a level that state insurance regulators call "excessive. " California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday criticized Aetna Life Insurance Co. of Hartford, Conn., for raising health insurance group rates by an average of 8% a year for about 77,000 employees of small companies. The rate increases, which took effect April 1, were as high as 21% in some cases, Jones said.

Southern California, long the epicenter for customizing cars and motorcycles, is now also the go-to place for made-to-order food trucks. The food truck craze has revived one of the region's classic postwar businesses — catering trucks — breathing new life into the companies that sprang up decades ago to make the vehicles that frequent construction sites, factories and movie shoots. Hopeful gourmet truck entrepreneurs come from all over the country to get retired vehicles transformed into gleaming, rolling emporiums that dish out everything from comfort food to exotic fare.

Jesus Rodriguez knew he was going to come up short on his bills, so on a recent Friday afternoon he took his accustomed trip to a Baldwin Park strip mall. The produce-truck driver walked into a payday lending business nestled alongside a Chinese fast-food joint and a dental office. He wrote out a personal check for $300 and walked out with $255 cash. The 33-year-old Mexican immigrant basically gave away $45 to get the advance, but he said he didn't see a lot of other options.

HAVANA — Olga Lidia Garcia sat back and surveyed the length of her empire: a storefront with seven busy manicurists, scrubbing, clipping, buffing, gluing and polishing to the bounce of salsa. The shop, decked out in oversize Oriental fans and racks stocked with a Day-Glo rainbow of nail polishes, shares the street-level space with a tiny photo studio. Garcia, wearing a tumble of frizzy hair, electric-blue dress and dangling golden hoop earrings, is manicurist-in-chief. This is a good day. "Look at this," Garcia said, a note of wonder in her voice.

A bipartisan bill to make it easier for small businesses to raise investment cash by easing federal regulations cleared the Senate, despite warnings from opponents that it could open the door to a new era of fraud. Senators voted 73 to 26 to approve the legislation, after adding a provision that would bolster investor protections on the emerging practice of "crowd funding" - soliciting pools of investors online and through social media. The measure now returns to the House, which is expected next week to pass the bill and send it to President Obama, who supports the legislation.