WAMU 88.5 : News

Filed Under:

Virginia Explores Ways To Promote Small Business Growth

By: Anne Marie Morgan, Virginia Public Radio // November 26, 2012
Play associated audio
comments

A legislative panel of the Small Business Commission in Virginia is looking into what policies it can recommend to help small businesses to get them to expand and hire more employees. The focus is on helping small companies and may need some fine-tuning.

Nearly 21,000 small businesses, women-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses are now state-certified. Department of Minority Business Enterprise Director Ida McPherson told the Commission that the number of companies owned by women and minorities that conduct business with the state has significantly increased.

Companies defined as small businesses with up to 250 employees still win many contracts, but McPherson says firms with 16 or fewer employees create more jobs:

"So when you're trying to create new jobs, you've got to get the money where those businesses are because if they take on a new project of a $100,000, they immediately go out and hire someone," says McPherson. "If you take a firm that is at 250 employees and they're making $50 billion, if they bid on something — a $250,000 project — they don't need to hire anybody else. They just squeeze it within what they currently have."

McPherson said one option may be to target more contracts toward the subset of companies with fewer employees.

Arts & Culture

NPR

'Lunch Lady' Author Helps Students Draw Their Own Heroes

Can you imagine your own superhero? That's the question author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka posed to kids on a recent afternoon at a school in Washington, D.C. Krosoczka also described how he overcame a difficult childhood to become the author of the beloved Lunch Lady series.

Food

NPR

Oprah Winfrey's Latest Venture Is Farming In Hawaii

After Oprah Winfrey's friend and health adviser learned that 90 percent of the food on Maui is flown or shipped in from outside, he convinced her to turn a portion of her estate on the island into a farm. Winfrey is giving away the food she's now growing on 16 acres of land, but it may soon be for sale.

Politics

NPR

Health Officials Decry Texas' Snubbing Of Medicaid Billions

The state is turning down an estimated $100 billion of federal funds that would have paid for health care coverage for more than a million poor Texans. For Gov. Rick Perry and the state's Republican-dominated Legislature, the potential appearance of supporting "Obamacare" was too much.

Technology

NPR

3-D Printer Makes Life-Saving Splint For Baby Boy's Airway

A 3-D printer is being credited with helping to save an Ohio baby's life, after doctors "printed" a tube to support a weak airway that caused him to stop breathing. The innovative procedure has allowed Kaiba Gionfriddo, of Youngstown, Ohio, to stay off a ventilator for more than a year.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.