Florida Hispanic Business Blog

The Florida Chamber of Commerce is committed to securing Florida’s future by improving the business climate through regulatory reform and streamlining economic development.  For several years, Florida Chamber members have stressed that burdensome government regulations are the number one obstacle to job creation, economic development and a predictable business environment.

Florida’s small businesses are essential to the recovery of the state’s economy. Small businesses now account for three-quarters of all new jobs in this country, and these business owners embody the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and individual initiative. According to the latest Florida Chamber Small Business Index Survey results, government regulations, health care, taxes and access to capital are the top issues concerning Florida's small businesses. But there may be a bright spot on the horizon - a new Rueters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index reported the highest level of borrowing by U.S. small businesses in three years, which they believe is an indicator that economic growth is just around the corner.

Not a member of the Florida Chamber Small Business Council?  Click here to get in the game!

This report is to keep you abreast of the important role small businesses and entrepreneurs have in securing Florida’s future- and what you can do about it!

 
By Luana Goncalves-----------Florida Power & Light Company created a new incentive, with the Public Service Commission approval, to have discount rate options for small businesses to start, expand, or relocate in Florida.

By Luana Goncalves---U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that 225,000 employers, large and small businesses, use E-Verify, with 1,000 new businesses signing up every week. Created by the federal government, this employment verification system is not enforced but is a voluntary option for employers. Some states have passed a law to enforce it. Florida’s legislature decided not to pass a law enforcing businesses to use E-Verify yet.

By Luana Goncalves
Via internet, crowd funding is a resource for businesses to pitch their creative idea (projects that could be products, art, film, album, etc) request how much they need to get started. Many websites dedicated to crowd funding create a place on the web for people who network and pool their money together to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.

This is not about exempting any company from taxes they owe - as hotels collect and remit the tax on the room rate they market through online travel companies - this is about preventing an additional tax being added to the service fee portion of your bill when you choose to book a room through a third-party online travel company. Florida does not currently apply ANY taxes to service fees, and we must tell Tallahassee that NOW is not the time to start!

BY:  LAZ MUR, FSHCC, CHAIRMAN

Florida has long been an important consumer market and a gateway for trade between the United States and Latin America and Caribbean nations. There are abundant resources in Florida to help you explore the profit potential behind foreign trade opportunities.   Over the next decade, several trends will position Florida for a larger, more commanding role as a foreign trade hub:

1. Florida is located in the fastest growing U.S. business and consumer market, the area of southern states from Texas to Virginia;

2. Florida is located at the crossroads of growing north-south and east-west trade lanes, with access to more than 1.1 billion consumers in the Western Hemisphere by 2035; and

3. The widening of the Panama Canal, together with the growth in Latin America and Caribbean Markets, will realign global trade lanes and increase flows through this region in the coming decades. 

April is Financial Literacy Month, CFO Atwater Encourages Floridians to Start Saving

~61 percent of Floridians don’t have a "rainy day" fund~

The office of the CFO urges Florida Hispanics, Florida Hispanic business owners as well as all Floridians, to observe Financial Literacy Month, by making a commitment to save for a Rainy Day...

TALLAHASSEE - A recent study released by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation   revealed that of the 500 Floridians surveyed 61 percent lacked a "rainy day" fund to cover expenses for three months in case of emergencies such as sickness, job loss or an economic downturn.  The study also determined that 23 percent of Florida households were not making ends meet and spent more than their income over the past year, further emphasizing the need for Floridians to start saving now for a rainy day.

By, Mike Vogel

Florida’s small-business owners are making like Scarlett O’Hara. When it comes to preparing for 2014 — when the bulk of the new healthcare law kicks in — they’ll think about it tomorrow.

The year 2014 is when the individual mandate and its penalties take hold along with insurance exchanges. For now, owners and managers are focusing on staying in business. Lacking the HR staff and time of larger companies, they feel they have enough to do absorbing this year’s health insurance rate increases. The sentiment is “we’ll worry about 2014 when it gets here,” says employee benefits adviser Steve Farmer, a senior vice president with Wallace Welch & Willingham in St. Petersburg. It’s not sloth; owners want to see what the courts and a Republican House and more balanced Senate do — and who is president in 2013.

Nonetheless, some provisions take effect this year: