Back to school is a critical time for most San Francisco businesses – and this year, the city of San Francisco is coming together in an unprecedented way to drive local business while supporting our public schools! edMatch, San Francisco's education non-profit, and San Francisco Schools have worked with Schoola to create the first-ever Shop for San Francisco Schools Event!

Businesses are encouraged to provide compelling prepaid “deals” available for purchase by school families and the broader community. Schools will get the word out to their communities driving additional business for merchants. The local community benefits from great values and raising funds for our schools!

To be apart of this exciting event contact: 
Shannon Thompson
Director of Strategic Partnerships
510.827.0123
shannon@schoola.com 

or visit schoola

If you think doing business in SF is challenging, and you are a SF Business Owner, then the SF Office of Small Business wants to hear from YOU!

The San Francisco Office of Economic & Workforce Development and Office of Economic Analysis are currently updating San Francisco's Economic Strategy. Key to informing the strategy is feedback from San Francisco business owners. The Office of Small Business has created the "Business Barriers" survey to gain feedback from a diverse range of San Francisco businesses. The Business Barriers Survey takes 5-10 minutes to complete. The opinions and experiences of San Francisco business owners are incredibly important to informing how the City can support local businesses.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey at: www.oewd.org/survey

Excelsior business owners, the SF MTA is accepting applications for free, bike corral parking in front of businesses until July 15th

On-street bicycle parking corrals are bicycle racks placed in the parking lane on the roadway where demand for bike parking is higher than can be accommodated on the sidewalk. Approximately 8-12 bikes can be parked in one car space, making bike corrals a comparatively efficient use of roadway space. Installation of racks in the parking lane, however, removes these areas from reach by street sweeping vehicles, requiring that the area between the racks and twenty feet to either side be swept by hand. City crews are not able to sweep by hand, thus corrals are only installed by the SFMTA in locations where someone agrees to keep the area clean and free of debris (employee – owner – manager or resident of agency – building – business – organization or merchant – neighborhood group).

Download the application if you'd like to apply for free installation of a bike corral in front of your business.

Through a time intensive, individual process, the Excelsior Action Group nonprofit organization has surveyed 251 businesses on the Excelsior's commercial corridor and organized their basic information into an Excelsior business directory.

The Excelsior Directory lists all the public-serving businesses along Mission Street and also includes maps highlighting some features of our community. Feel free to download, print, and distribute this booklet among family and friends to help show the world why the Excelsior community is a great community! Also, keep an eye out for copies of the directory at local businesses around the Excelsior. 

We hope that the Excelsior Directory will make it easier for consumers to patronize and support the Excelsior Neighborhood, and find what they are looking for. We will give out copies of the directory to local businesses, residents, and visitors of the 10th Annual Excelsior Festival, in addition to other distribution channels. Contact us if you would like to come by and pick up a free, printed copy at our office, or click the image above to download the PDF version. 

Do you own a retail store that provides plastic checkout bags for your customers? Beginning October 1, 2012, a new law passed by the City and County of San Francisco will ban plastic checkout bags and add a charge on allowed checkout bags. 
 The new Checkout Bag Ordinance requires that: no store shall provide a plastic checkout bag to a customer. Stores that provide a customer with an allowed checkout bag must charge at least ten cents ($0.10) per bag. 

Allowed checkout bags are defined as certified compostable plastic, recyclable paper with 40% post-consumer recycled content, or reusable designed for at least 125 uses. Allowed checkout bags also have other requirements such as specific labeling that are defined in the Ordinance. Stores do not have to charge for certified compostable plastic bags until October, 2013 but once the fee is imposed, stores may keep the 10 cent charge to help offset the cost of the allowed bags. Customers participating in WIC or food stamp programs are exempt from all bag charges. 

To help your store comply with the checkout bag regulations, the SF Department of the Environment will host 5 free bag vendor fairs listed below. This is a great opportunity to meet bag suppliers and see examples of acceptable recyclable, compostable and reusable checkout bag options. Attendance to one of the fairs is highly recommended as city staff will be available to answer questions. The first 100 business owners/managers to sign in at each fair event will be eligible to receive 25 reusable high quality cloth bags (maximum per business) to give to their select customers, courtesy of the Department of the Environment.

Bag Fair Events for Stores:

June 19th (9:30am – 11:00am) Chinatown YMCA, 855 Sacramento Street
 June 26th (9:30am – 11:00am) Women’s Building, 3543 18th Street
July 10th (9:30am – 11:00am) Bayview Opera House, 4705 Third Street
July 17th (2:00pm – 3:30pm) Minnie @ Lovie Ward Recreation Center, 650 Capitol Ave
 July 24th (9:30am – 11:00am) Golden Gate Park @ County Fair Building, 1199 9th Ave

Please click on the links for the Checkout Bag Ordinance Factsheet and FAQ as well as signage for the checkout area of your shop. To find out more about the Checkout Bag Ordinance, and acceptable bags for distribution, please visit: www.SFEnvironment.org/checkout-bag-policy-faq or call (415) 355-3700.

As part of our efforts to promote local Excelsior business, the Excelsior Action Group is compiling an Excelsior Directory.  Basic listings are free and there are options to purchase additional ad space for your business or organization, but you need to sign up by May 11th, 2012. The Excelsior Directory will be distributed to the thousands of attendees of the Excelsior Festival as well as to local businesses and residents. Download the Directory Submission Form and submit it to EAG today to ensure that your business is accurately included. Also, contact us to request copies of the directory to be delivered to your business.