MWBE changes to the city of Houston

24 May

Recently announced by the city of Houston:

Mayor Parker, Houston City Council Increase Minority/Women-Owned/Small Business Participation in City Construction Contracts Citywide Goal Increases to 34%

Houston City Council today approved Mayor Annise Parker’s recommended enhancements to the city’s 30-year-old goal-oriented Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) contracting program. Due to council’s action, women-owned businesses will be reinstated to the program, the citywide participation goal in construction will increase from 22 percent to 34 percent and the Persons with Disabilities Business Enterprise program will be expanded to adopt the federal government’s definition of disability to be more inclusive of disabled veterans. The changes are the end result of a recent disparity study, conducted by a nationally-recognized firm, comparing the number of MWBE firms utilized on city contracts to the number of such companies available in the greater Houston area.

[snip]

– Posted by Sandra Fernandez.

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Photos from Houston Hackathon 2013 #hackhou (UPDATED)

22 May

Last weekend was the Houston Hackathon (A.K.A. the City of Houston Open Innovation Hackathon), the City of Houston’s first Hackathon event and an unofficial kick-off to this fall’s TechStreet Houston conference. It was a great event. (No, I wasn’t on any of the teams myself.)

You can check out the information on the teams, projects and participants at the Hacker League site. I think that the Citywide Fee Schedule project won the event. (If I’m wrong, someone please correct me.)

Below are some photos from the event day (originally shared via Instagram). See what you missed?

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NOTES:

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Best Latina Mommy bloggers

17 May

Congratulations to blogger Ruby Wright for being chosen for Latina’s list of “The 10 Best Latina Mommy Bloggers.” I met Ruby at last year’s LATISM conference, but I was already familiar with her blog and her writing.

Ruby Wright is the founder of Growing up Blackxican, which chronicles Wright’s motherhood adventures. Wright focuses on raising her children as bicultural, bilingual and being proud of both of their heritages: Black and Mexican.

Others in the list include: Mama Contemporanea, Ana Flores and Roxana Sot.

To become better-acquainted with Ruby, visit Growing Up Blackxican and her Babble articles.

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Latina Magazine’s “Influential Latinos” list

16 May

Latina Magazine has compiled a list of “25 Influential Latinos You’ve Probably Never Heard Of,” spotlighting some great people. The list includes Maricel Presilla, a James Beard Award-winning chef, Ana Roca Castro, the founder and chair of LATISM, Ana Flores, founder of Latina Bloggers Connect and Spanglish Baby, Marisol Valles Garcia, who is in exile from Mexico for her protection after stepping up to become the police chief of her town, and Ana Maria Chavez, CEO of the Girl Scouts of America. And that’s just the start.

Recommended Reading:

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Houston’s Historic Preservation Fair

10 May

CitizensNet.JPGSaturday, May 18, 2013
8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Houston Permitting Center
1002 Washington Avenue
Houston 77002
Registration deadline: Wednesday, May 15, 2013

From the city of Houston:

The City of Houston Planning and Development Department (P&D) is sponsoring a Historic Preservation Fair. This free, half day event is designed to bring historic neighborhoods together to allow residents and professionals the opportunity to interact and discuss challenges related to caring for older homes. The fair will include workshops, educational tools and resources for the care and restoration of your historic property.

If you own or renovate historic houses, you won’t want to miss this event. Workshops are free and open to the public. Topics to be covered include:

  • Alterations and additions to historic properties
  • Historic district and landmark designation process and introduce various resources available to assist owners in the stewardship of historic properties
  • Repairing historic windows

Deadline to register is noon, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Register online at http://www.tfaforms.com/278440.

For more information about the event, visit http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/HistoricPres/hist_pres.html or call 713.837.7963. To learn about P&D, visit http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/.

This information was received via CitizensNet.

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Business Workshops in Spanish

9 May

The University of Houston Small Business Development Center offers workshops and seminars for small business owners in English and Spanish. They’re very affordable and taught by subject matter experts.

Here are a few Spanish topics you might find interesting:

Business Plan Basics

El Plan de Negocios
5/15/2013, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: UH SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77002

BUSINESS PLAN BASICS / EL PLAN DE NEGOCIOS – CONCEPTOS BASICOS

Por qué es importante escribir un plan de negocios? Es importante porque exige al empresario adoptar un “pensamiento estratégico” cuando planea el futuro de su negocio. La planificación constituye el mapa para el éxito en el mundo de los negocios. Usted necesita elaborar por escrito un plan para su negocio, si Usted está:

Iniciando o comprando un negocio;
Financiando o refinanciando su negocio;
Consiguiendo capital mediante un préstamo o por aporte de inverionistas.

Durante este curso, Usted aprenderá los conceptos básicos que componen un plan de negocio, entre otros:

Análisis de las condiciones de la industria, el mercado y de sus competidores;
Estrategia de mercadeo;
Documentos financieros requeridos para solicitar un préstamo;

El negocio que falla en planificar, planifica para fallar.

Presentador: José Matias Rios, Business Valuator & Business Plan Expert, RK Biz Valuators

Pay online: $25, at the door: $45.
Register:  http://www.sbdc.uh.edu/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=2047

Social Media Marketing

Como Utilizar las Redes Sociales en su Negocio (Social Media Marketing)
6/13/2013, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: UH SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77002

Aprenda a utilizar los sitios sociales tales como Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, y Pinterest para promocionar su negocio y atraer más clientes. Tendrá la oportunidad de aprender como desarrollar diferentes estrategias y utilizar estos medios sociales en beneficio de su negocio.

En este taller aprenderá:

  • ¿Qué es “social media marketing” y porque se necesita?
  • Como evaluar cuál es la mejor alternativa para su negocio
  • Como otras pequeñas empresas están utilizando estas herramientas efectivamente
  • Como crear buen contenido para sus campañas y manejar su tiempo
  • Como integrar los medios sociales con sus campanas de mercadeo tradicional
  • Como mejorar su visibilidad, desarrollar mejores relaciones comerciales, y atraer más ventas y respuestas positivas por parte de sus clientes

Presentadora: Celina Enamorado, ACK Supplies LLC

Pay online: $39, at the door: $59.
Register: http://www.sbdc.uh.edu/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=2073

Your Wage and Labor Law Guide

Comprendiendo las Leyes Laborales y Sueldos (Your Wage and Labor Law Guide)
6/19/2013, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Location: UH SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77002

Demandas por errores en sueldos son unos de los principales riesgos legales que la mayoría de dueños de negocios enfrentan. ¿Cree que no tiene nada de qué preocuparse? Para saber con certeza, asista a esta sesión informativa dirigida a todas las empresas, grandes y pequeñas. Usted se irá con confianza en su habilidad de comprender y aplicar las leyes federales de horas y sueldos y las leyes laborales del Estado de Texas.

Descubra:

  • Cómo cumplir con las leyes federales de horas y sueldos
  • Importantes leyes laborales del Estado de Texas
  • Cómo mantener registros y datos correctamente
  • Cómo calcular las horas extras
  • Cómo responder si su empresa es investigada
  • Introducción a la Ley de Normas Justas de Trabajo (FLSA, siglas en ingles) y cómo esta afecta a su negocio
  • Problemas típicos con el FLSA y soluciones a estos problemas
  • Sitios web útiles y otros recursos

Presentadora: Ana Arredondo, Encargada de Difusión, Departamento de Trabajo de EEUU- Sección de Horas y Sueldos

Pay online: $29, at the door: $49.
Register:  http://www.sbdc.uh.edu/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=2080

Although the site states that you can just walk in, I recommend you pre-register. Sometimes the classes get too full. 

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Liftoff Houston! Business Plan Competition

8 May

2013.05 liftoffhouston

The Houston Public Library, the Office of Business Opportunity, and Capital One Bank have partnered to offer the City of Houston’s first business plan competition: Liftoff Houston! Registration is going on now and will continue through the end of May 2013.

The competition will take place in two rounds – an application round and presentation round, over a 6-8 month period. Applicants will participate in workshops ranging from business plan basics to presenting capital requests to financial institutions, as well as information sessions on essential City of Houston business resources available through HPL and OBO. The goal is to enable individuals to successfully research and develop their business plan. Applicants will also receive additional support from professional business coaches/mentors and personal financial advisors to further refine the business plan for submission and presentation. A mandatory orientation will be offered at select libraries across Houston to provide interested individuals with detailed information about the competition and the process to participate.

This entrepreneurial initiative aims to encourage Houston residents to achieve their goals of business ownership while contributing to the local growth and sustainability of the Houston economy. The path to launching a business starts with Liftoff Houston!

Orientation is mandatory, and there are only five orientation sessions being held this month. Check it out!

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Dreamhost promo: web hosting for one year, only $20

7 May

I’ve been using Dreamhost as my web host for myself for more than a decade. I recommend it to friends, and occasionally to clients. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them and their services.

Today I saw that Lifehacker arranged a great deal with them: just $20 for a full year of web hosting.

The deal is good until May 17, 2013.  To claim the deal, visit Dreamhost using this link.

Disclaimers and clarifications: I am not earning any money from recommending Dreamhost or sharing this deal. This is just me being nice.

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Houston blogger Juan Alanis to speak at Social Media Breakfast — Friday, May 10 #smbhou

6 May

Juan Alanis, know to most of us as JuanofWords, will be one of three speakers at this month’s Social Media Breakfast. This Houston event will be this Friday, May 10, 2013 at 8:30 AM. The other speakers are Fred Goodall and John Pacini. This month’s topic is “Bloggers and Brands: Finding the Perfect Pairing.” From the Facebook invite:

It seems sometimes that brands and bloggers have a challenging relationship. On one hand, brands want bloggers to talk about their products and services in a positive light, and bloggers want to represent brands that they really love and can feel good about promoting. On the other hand, bloggers can also pose a threat to brands when they don’t agree with the way a company is doing business or how they are marketing to customers.

We have invited a panel of bloggers (in this case Dads) to discuss what bloggers can really offer to a company or brand and how they wish brands would approach them. We will also talk about what brands should look for in a blogger and what will really move the needle when working with influential bloggers. In this fast-paced session we will discuss:

1. How to find influencial bloggers who can really represent your brand or company
2. What bloggers expect from companies who reach out to them
3. What the triggers are that can set off a blogger backlash
4. What is the best way for a blogger to approach a brand
5. Should bloggers be compensated, what about sponsored posts?
6. The problem with giveaways on a blog

And much more…

About Juan Alanis:

Juan Alanis
Juan blogs at Juan of Words, where he writes about culture, family, entertainment and language – what he calls the Hispanic lifestyle. Juan also works as a bilingual communications professional with experience in public relations, media management, journalism, written communications, multimedia development, web content management and publishing, corporate communications, and Spanish language translation.

Blog: http://www.juanofwords.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanofwords
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juanofwords

Juan is also blogging for HispanicHouston.com (a project in which I am collaborating as well).

Webinar on the FTC’s blogger rules on May 14, 2013

3 May

From HispanicPRblog:

As part of a new ongoing series of social media and marketing webinars created by the annual Hispanicize event, the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA), the Latina Mom Bloggers network and Blogalicious are teaming up for a free national webinar May 14 titled “The Brands and Bloggers Guide to the New FTC Disclosure Rules”.

For more information, and to register, visit “Free Webinar: The Brands and Bloggers Guide to the New FTC Disclosure Rules set for May 14.”

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