Small Business

Lori L. Anding drew what she considers the short straw when she and Marlene Gomez were setting up their small business that uses independent linguists to provide translation services. When it came to dividing up responsibilities, Gomez got accounting and production. Anding ended up with sales -- an area she just doesn't like. "I find salespeople very annoying, so I have a huge problem if I am really trying to sell translations," says Anding, 44, co-owner of Axiom Translations in Torrance.

After nearly running out of money in its small-business loan funds last month, Valley Economic Development Center Inc. of Van Nuys says it is getting $16 million to enable it to continue to lend to Southern California firms caught in the stubborn credit crunch. Most of the money -- $15 million -- is coming from the city of Los Angeles. Last week, Merrill Lynch & Co. said it would supply the group with $1 million.

As they work to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, President Obama and his congressional allies have pledged to help small-business owners such as Rhonda Ealy and Kelli Glasser. Ealy, who owns a coffee roasting company in Bend, Ore., has put off buying new equipment so she can offer health benefits to her 13 full-time employees.

While politicians in Washington tinkered with the final compromise version of the $787-billion economic stimulus bill Thursday night, Alonso Arellano was working late in his office, putting the final touches on his own economic stimulus package. His bid to boost consumer spending was to launch the next day, when lunch customers at his La Adelita restaurant in Sun Valley could pay just $4.99 for a scaled-down serving of chili rellenos, chicken mole, chili verde, beef stew or other popular dishes.

Every year, Santa Ana strawberry farmer Mack Ramsay pores over health insurance plans for his 35 employees, checking out prices, coverage, deductibles and other fine print from giants like Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Aetna. For 21 years he has chosen instead a little-known, nonprofit healthcare cooperative based in Irvine that provides insurance to about 15,000 Californians and Arizonans mostly working in agriculture.

The Let's Be Frank food trailer parked most days outside the old Helms Bakery complex is no ordinary lunch wagon. The San Francisco company that operates the hot-dog vendor serves franks and sausages made from cows that ate only grass or pigs that were raised humanely. Customers also can choose turkey or soy dogs, all on buns from L.A. Breadworks. The small business was funded in part by venture capitalist Peter Rogers and his Dry Creek Ventures, which targets clean energy, water and food businesses.

Tony Freeman opened his State Farm insurance office at about the worst possible time. It was late 2002, just as the national company lost its appetite for much of the California home and auto insurance business. And the new agency owner had counted on that business to pay the bills and recoup his $50,000 start-up cost. "I wanted to quit so bad, so many times, in the early days. It was brutal," says Freeman, 43.

Jimmy Williams planted his first seeds when he was 4 years old. Fifty-three years later, he's still playing in the dirt. It might be difficult to find someone with a heritage more deeply connected to growing things than Williams. His stretches back to a great-grandmother who, as a slave about to be shipped to a new owner in South Carolina, decided that the one thing she couldn't do without was the handful of tomato seeds she hid in a skirt pocket.

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.

Five months after he opened PNK Pro Beauty Supplies in Glendale, owner Karhen Abramyan has put the shop up for sale. He's gotten a few lowball offers in the last few weeks, but no deal. "I have $60,000 in inventory here, I can't just sell it for $50,000," said Abramyan, who is asking $95,000. Blame the bad economy. Buyers and sellers of California businesses are hampered because the vast pools of money that once fueled sales have dried up.