Small Businesses

It started with an injured rescue dog, $125 in cash and an old silk screen machine. Inspired by the dog, David, Donny and Darren Hendrickson used the money and the machine to launch an online skateboard and apparel company that donates a chunk of its profit to animal causes. To raise awareness for their endeavor, the 25-year-old brothers - they're triplets - turned to Facebook. Hendrick Boards managed within a year to accrue more than 28,000 "likes" on the social media website and has expanded to dozens of designs on T-shirts, skateboards and accessories.

Small businesses in the Western region that includes California took out more U.S.-backed loans than ever during the government's last fiscal year, but they didn't spend much of it in a way that generated new jobs, analysts said. The Small Business Administration said companies in the region, which also covers Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, borrowed $6.7 billion in loans guaranteed by the agency. Firms in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties took out loans totaling $1.5 billion, which the SBA called a "robust" amount.

Re "Obama is still seen as the leader," News Analysis, Oct. 6 Your headline was missing one thing: a question mark. Any president who spends too much time campaigning and not enough in the Oval Office dealing with the looming "fiscal cliff," unemployment, the attacks on our embassies in the Middle East, high gasoline prices, the war in Afghanistan, the slaughter of innocents in Syria, Iran's pursuit of a nuclear bomb, China's manipulation of...

Don't look to small businesses for a vote of confidence in the economy. Pessimistic owners are scaling back hiring plans, rethinking expansion and fretting over weak sales as they wait for stability. An optimism index from the National Federation of Independent Business slipped slightly to 92.8 in September from an August reading of 92.9. Hiring plans plunged as fewer owners hired and more slashed head counts. Job creation in September lagged the previous two months. Capital outlays over the last six months slipped, with fewer owners reporting spending on new equipment, vehicles and property.

WASHINGTON -- The American economy just can't seem to catch a break. Now that the housing market is reviving and consumer optimism is edging higher, business investments and confidence among America's leading corporate bosses appear to be waning. In its third-quarter survey released Wednesday, the Business Roundtable said chief executives of its member companies are decidedly more pessimistic about near-term sales, capital spending and hiring than they were three months earlier.

Dear Liz: I have read tons of books on finance and debt repayment, but I'm having trouble deciding what to do next. My husband and I are 52. He receives a monthly disability income, and I work two days a week. We still have about $105,000 left before our mortgage is paid off. We also owe about $7,000 in credit card debt and $5,500 in overdraft charges. Should I concentrate solely on paying off debt, including the mortgage? Should we modestly renovate our 20-year-old home because after six kids, it is in need of a little TLC?

It's the most ambitious construction project in South Los Angeles in decades: The University of Southern California plans to replace its ancient University Village shopping center on the edge of campus with a $900-million, multistory complex of stores, office buildings and dormitories. USC officials call the project an "economic engine" that will generate thousands of jobs, make the area around campus more attractive and provide enough student dormitory space to free up housing for neighborhood families.

Surfing Facebook for hours on end isn't just for personal pleasure anymore. About 90% of small businesses are dedicating time to networking online, according to a new survey. Manta, an online forum dedicated to small businesses, surveyed 600 small-business owners nationwide and found that 78% say that using social-networking platforms is just as important as networking in person -- if not more so. “Small businesses understand they need to go where their audience is,” Manta Chief Executive Pamela Springer said Wednesday.

Efforts to more closely regulate a controversial form of healthcare self-insurance being sold to small employers ran into business opposition in the final weeks of the Legislature's session and got shelved for now. But California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and other backers of the crackdown on company self-insurance vow to bring back the legislation, possibly during a special session on healthcare expected in December. "We think with a little more time we will be able to educate lawmakers about the threat posed by this loophole" in the federal Affordable Care Act, Jones said.

The gig : As the director of the Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program in Los Angeles, Ron Fong oversees a coalition of nonprofits that offers free business counseling and services, mainly to low-income immigrants. Founded in 1999, the organization has counseled 3,625 clients and assisted in the growth of 400 new businesses, such as Vietnamese comfort-food restaurant Good Girl Dinette in Highland Park. Since Fong took the helm two years ago, the coalition has helped open and grow businesses such as Angela Preschool & Kindergarten in the San Gabriel Valley and the Filipino barbecue hangout the Park's Finest in Echo Park.