Doug Urbick's Comments

Five and a half years ago I founded Small Business California. My goal was to give small businesses a voice in Sacramento. A couple of weeks ago we presented our sales tax bill SB 1373 to the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Testifying for our bill was Doug Ubrick from Hazard Construction. Chairman Wolk asked if this issue had ever come up before the legislature. Here is Doug’s answer

Question from Chairwoman Wolk:

A) Has there been prior legislation proposed on this and if not, why not?

To the best of our knowledge, there has not. The truth is that paving contractors are a fairly disjointed and unsophisticated group. The trade associations like the AGC (Associated General Contractors) tend to be lead by the larger more sophisticated contractors, included many of those who are vertically integrated. Trying to ‘change laws’ is just something that seems way beyond the grasp of the normal paving contractor. Small Business California has brought the ‘know-how’ to this group to finally address this inequity.

While these are paving contractors we have done the same thing in one way or the other for all of small businesses around the state. If you are not a member please consider joining.

You can do so by going to www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org

I am frequently asked if small businesses are using social marketing. Quite frankly in my business I have not done so.

Are you? Do you use Facebook, You Tube, Twitter or Yelp to market your business? Does it help you? If you use any of these what advice would you give to other businesses in how to effectively use these social marketing vehicles?


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188