Best startup and small business grants for women

• March 8, 2025

By Kim Mercado, NEXT

When you start a small business, there’s one thing you need more than anything else: money. However, getting money to fund a business has been challenging for women, particularly women of color.

While women continue to make strides in raising more venture capital, they still only garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the U.S.

To source money for their new businesses, women need to look at multiple funding avenues. As NEXT points out, one opportunity is small business grants for women, which can get overlooked by traditional loans and lines of credit.

What are business grants for women?

Business grants provide money to set up or grow your business, and you don’t have to pay it back. Free money — sounds good, right?

Grant opportunities are different from business loans because you don’t need to repay them — no lenders or dealing with payback schedules.

The downside is that it can be harder to qualify for a business grant than for a small business loan. You have to be prepared to put some work into the grant application.

However, if you’re a woman starting a new business, it can be much easier to qualify for dedicated grants for women.

Federal government grants for women

The federal government offers several grant programs for small business owners. Most of them are for all small business owners, not just for women, but they are still worth checking out.

Grants.gov

Grants.gov is a huge database of government grants spanning over 20 federal agencies. While it’s not exclusive to small businesses or women-owned businesses, you can search for federal grants that are suitable for your business using keywords and filters.

To apply for any grants, you need to have a Unique Entity Identity Identifier (UEI) — a unique 12-character business identification number (previously, you had to provide a DUNs number). You also need to register your business with the federal government and create an account at the Grants.gov site.

Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs

Typically, the Small Business Administration (SBA) does not provide grants for starting or expanding a business. However, they offer a few grants to businesses involved in medical or scientific research via the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs.

The Empower to Grow program

This is more of a training program than a straight grant award. However, this program is unique because it’s designed to help small business owners get on the fast track to lucrative government contracting opportunities. Even better: The federal government’s goal is to award at least 5% of all its contracting dollars to women-owned businesses annually.

State government and local grants

Small business grants can be tough to come by on a federal level. There are often more funding opportunities on a state or local government level—specifically designed for women entrepreneurs.

U.S. Economic Development Administration

Every state has economic development resources funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA). They often give grants out because they want to see local economies succeed. For example, the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) supports economic growth and innovation across the entire state.

Small business development centers

Small business development centers (SBDC) offer free business consulting, training and help in getting funding for your business. Sponsored by the SBA, these centers help entrepreneurs find assistance and counseling in their area.

Women’s Business Centers (WBC)

Run by the SBA, there are 168 women’s business centers nationally to help you learn how to manage your business and find more funds. Resources are often free or low-cost. Some WBCs lend money to women entrepreneurs, while others help owners find qualifying grants and loans.

Private business grants for women

These are business grants for women that private organizations and companies fund. Some of the best private grants for women starting a business are:

The Amber Grant for Women

Named in honor of Amber Wigdahl, who passed away at a young age before realizing her business dreams, the Amber Grant provides three amazing grants every month.

1. $10,000 grant to a woman entrepreneur. (Amber Grant)
2. $10,000 grant to businesses in the “idea” phase. (Startup Grant)
3. $10,000 grant to a set monthly business-specific category. (Business-Specific Grant)

Business categories for Business-Specific Grants

For the Business-Specific Grant, there are 12 business categories you could be eligible for. If your business falls under these specific business categories, you automatically become eligible (once per year). Each year, one of these 12 winning business categories is given an additional grant of $25,000.

All businesses selected for one of the three monthly $10,000 grants are automatically eligible for three year-end Amber Grants ($25,000).

Best of all, the application process is fairly simple—you only need to fill out one application to be considered for all of these different grants.

IFundWomen universal grant application database

IFundWomen is a funding platform for women entrepreneurs that provides access to capital via crowdfunding and business grants. They offer a variety of grants, including business partnerships and crowdfunded grants. You can check for active grants and eligibility requirements.

Their universal grant application database is unique and delivers grant opportunities directly to you. When you submit your application, you get added to their database. Then, when IFundWomen brokers a grant, they match the grant criteria to their database.

If you match the program criteria, they notify you and invite you to apply. No more spending time on your application to find out you didn’t read the fine print and are ineligible.

Tory Burch Foundation

American fashion label Tory Burch has a philanthropic arm called The Tory Burch Foundation that gives out grants to women entrepreneurs. There are two grant pathways: their fellowship program and a woman of color grant program.

• Fellowship program: Fellows participate in a year-long program complete with virtual education programming, options to attend in-person events and a trip to New York for a five-day workshop. Recipients also receive a $5,000 grant for business education.

The Tory Burch Foundation also partners with the Bank of America capital program to help provide more access to capital through affordable loans.

Cartier Women’s Initiative

The Cartier Women’s Initiative offers a women’s fellowship program with grants ranging from $100,000 or $30,000 to 30 regional laureates and finalists each year. It also provides executive coaching, peer-learning sessions, collective workshops, networking opportunities and other educational resources to help develop and support business needs.

Additionally, the Cartier Women’s Initiative awards several thematic grants:

• Science and technology pioneer award. The award amounts are the same as the regional awards—$100,000-$30,000.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion award. This award is not disclosed and is also open to men.

Women Founders Network (WFN)

The Women Founders Network (WFN) is a nonprofit organization that provides education on entrepreneurship and investing to women and girls. Their Fast Pitch competition offers mentoring, coaching and sponsorships as part of the overall program. Aside from the $55,000+ in cash grants available for distribution, there is a cash investment potential from investors who attend the event, so it pays to sharpen your pitch skills.

digitalundivided BREAKTHROUGH program

digitalundivided is a nonprofit focused on economic growth for Black and Latinx communities through women entrepreneurs. In partnering with JPMorgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways, they launched the BREAKTHROUGH program. Upon completing the program, each company accepted to the program will receive a $5,000 grant to invest in their business.

This program is regionally based, accepting cohorts in different cities. Check their website and social pages for information about what city they’re coming to next.

The BGV Pitch program

Got a business idea? Black Girl Ventures holds a hybrid pitch program where they coach entrepreneurs, host a pitch competition and connect founders to their network of professionals for additional support. They have several different pitch programs where applicants can win grants and stipends.

The Mama Ladder

The Mama Ladder’s High Five grant program has helped mom business owners grow since 2018. They’ve granted over $70,000 to women business owners and aim to give $1 million in grants by 2033.

EmpowerHer fund

This grant is for women-led organizations that benefit women and girls in New York City. Every quarter, they grant a business $1,000.

Microgrants for woman-owned businesses

Galaxy Grants

Hidden Star, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping minority and women entrepreneurs nationwide offers the Galaxy Grant. Entrants have the chance to win a grant of $2,450.

Kitty Fund Mompreneur business grant

Created in honor of Mother’s Day and Founder’s First CEO Kim Folsom’s mother, the Kitty Fund makes microinvestments in mothers running employer-based small businesses. Totaling $25,000, this program grants ‘mompreneurs’ in the form of $1,000 microgrants.

HerRise MicroGrants

HerRise microgrants are worth $1,000 each and are open to women of color entrepreneurs. Winners are selected monthly.

The Enthuse Foundation

The Enthuse Foundation provides a variety of financial awards to help entrepreneurs with crucial business needs. They offer 10 microgrants worth $2,500 each.

Giving Joy Grants

Giving Joy grants are one-time microgrants (up to $500) for entrepreneurs. Women 18 or older from any country in the world are eligible to apply.

Additional grants and resources

While these grants are not exclusive to women, they may be useful to small business owners.

The Halstead Grant

The Halstead Grant is only for those in the jewelry industry—both women and men.

Designed to help jewelry entrepreneurs kick-start their careers, the winner gets $7,500 in grant money plus $1,000 for Halstead jewelry supplies. It’s available for early-stage businesses that have been open for three to five years.

National Association for the Self-Employed Growth Grants

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) awards Growth Grants to members of their organization. It’s open to both women and men small business owners. Awardees will receive $4,000, which can be used for marketing, advertising, hiring employees, expanding facilities and other specific business needs.

FedEx Small Business Grant Contest

Global shipping company FedEx has a small business grant program. It awards ten U.S.-based businesses with grants of up to $50,000 and up to $4,000 in FedEx Office print and business services. One business receives the grand prize of $50,000, and several second prize recipients get $20,000 for a prize pool totaling over $300,000.

How can I get business grants for women?

You can take steps to boost your chances of success when you apply for business grants for women.

• Read the application requirements carefully. Make sure you choose a grant that really fits your business, so you don’t waste time applying for a grant you are unlikely to receive.
• Don’t skip any documents that the application asks you for, and don’t be late for the application deadline.
• Prepare a clear business plan. Describe what your business does and exactly how the grant will help. Be as detailed as you can.
• Bring in outside experts, like an accountant or a business advisor. It looks good to have an expert on your team.
• Check that your business has all the necessary licenses. Make sure you have valid business insurance. It shows that you are responsible and reliable.

This story was produced by NEXT and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

​ Orange County Register 

Jon Coupal: Robert Rivas slams the door on dissenters

• March 8, 2025

The attitude of Democrats in the Legislature seems to be that, if it’s bad news, we don’t want to hear it. And if it’s really bad news, we’ll try to suppress it.

What else can explain the effort to limit the participation of Republicans in the Legislative process who dare to ask such dangerous questions, such as “Where is all the taxpayer money going?”

Last Friday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas made several changes to the makeup of more than a dozen policy and budget committees. What was unusual about the move is that the Legislature had yet to hear a single bill in committee, a normal prerequisite before making wholesale changes to who serves on those committees.

Republican leadership rightfully characterized the Speaker’s power play as “retaliation” for being increasingly outspoken over Democrats’ far left policies and failure to account for billions of dollars in spending. Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Chico, wrote on X, “They don’t like us calling them out.”

In response to criticism over the controversial move, the best the Democrat majority could cough up was a typical mealy mouthed response from the Speaker’s spokesman to the Sacramento Bee: “The Speaker routinely addresses committee needs throughout the year, and his goal is always to ensure members are in optimal roles to collaborate effectively and deliver for Californians.”

Two of the targets of the “Rivas Rage,” were Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, removed from the Assembly Budget Committee, and Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Corona, thrown off the Assembly’s Elections Committee.

DeMaio founded Reform California, which seeks several changes in California law to make the state more responsive and accountable. He has allied with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association on several occasions, including helping with the signature gathering effort to qualify the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act. Although TPA qualified for the November election, it was stripped from the ballot by the California Supreme Court, leading the Wall Street Journal to publish an editorial headlined, “Democracy Dies in California.”

For Essayli, being thrown off a committee is not a new experience as his proclivity to ask tough questions in committee previously got him tossed from the Judiciary Committee.

It should be noted that none of the Republicans who were removed from committees or demoted engaged in any behavior designed to be disruptive of the legislative process. Democrats in Congress such as Al Green, D-Texas, should take note. (Green was just censured by the House of Representatives for repeatedly heckling President Donald Trump during his address to a joint session of Congress.)

The only “sin” of the Republicans who have been removed from their committees is that the party has stepped up its ability to communicate effectively, whether as individual members or as a caucus. Committee hearings that in earlier years were inaccessible to the public are now all broadcast and recorded thanks to Proposition 34 (2016). DeMaio in particular has been reported to have his YouTube postings of the committee hearings receive hundreds of thousands of views. Not only that, but Republican leaders are increasingly appearing on YouTube and podcasts.

While alternative media have become more important in exposing legislative malfeasance, there has also been increasing scrutiny of the majority party by mainstream media. Even the reliably progressive Sacramento Bee was highly critical of the Speaker’s move. In response to the non-response from Rivas’ spokesman, the Bee said, “That doesn’t say anything. It represents Rivas as one of those Sacramento politicians who skirts accountability by hiding behind obsequious handlers peddling smarmy non-statements. His actions are undemocratic and unacceptable.” Ouch.

The sad part of Rivas’ actions is that he is denying his own party the opportunity to hear and respond to different perspectives on how to solve California’s countless problems as well as the expertise held by several Republican members. Instead of engaging with Republicans, they slam the door, which reinforces California’s standing as a decidedly anti-democratic state.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register 

Larry Wilson: The AP Stylebook and a Gulf of America

• March 8, 2025

For an American print journalist, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of the Associated Press Stylebook.

Hold the phone. Is that instead Style Book? Just checking here … no. Got it right the first time. But it never hurts to look it up.

Because as someone who has both filed copy and edited copy that needs to adhere to AP style for over 40 years — my college paper uses it, too — I just hate to get it wrong. And I do mean wrong. If it’s not edited to the style used by this paper and hundreds of others around the country and the world before it hits print or the web, as far as I’m concerned, it’s wrong.

It may not be libelous,  or boring. But it’s incorrect. Cringeworthy.

A few larger papers have their own stylebooks. The style in the San Francisco Chronicle for the things in a pack of Marlboros used to be, enormously eccentrically, “cigaret.” It made no sense, since “ette,” from the French, is how we in English designate something made littler. Like a small cigar, for instance. But if I were an editor at the old Chron, I would have been religious about adhering to style.

It’s true that my own obsession with AP style borders on the fetishistic. But I am not alone. I ran across a wonderful point from the novelist Lorrie Moore the other day: “Writers have no real area of expertise. They are merely generalists with a highly inflamed sense of punctuation.”

See, the commas all in the right place, the proper use of the semicolon; these are not small things to me. They are like a carpenter’s tools for a writer. If they aren’t good tools and you don’t know how to use them, your table — or your story — is going to fall apart.

It’s not that the AP Stylebook is infallible. Far from it. It’s that it’s our bible, and if we don’t all follow its dictates, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. But you can lobby for changes. Argue for your cause with enough logic and eventually you will prevail. One day, decades ago, Charles Cherniss, a columnist I had grown up reading who when I became editor of the Pasadena Star-News I suddenly found myself his boss, came into my office.

“Lawrence,” he said — very formal — “let’s ditch percent and go with %.”  “No can do, Chuck,” I said. “I agree with the sentiment. Less is more, and whatnot. But AP style is AP style, and I ain’t gonna buck it.”

He would try, in his copy, and I would just have to change it back.

Finally, a couple of years ago, AP relented. % it is.

But especially in the pre-digital age, when the stylebook was print-only, revised every few years, and your cheap newspaper had to buy a bunch of new copies, it could take ages to make a change. Now, when they feel so inclined, the College of Cardinals of the Associated Press can issue their version of a papal bull after whatever mysterious machinations they must go through and post the new style online.

As you may have heard, the famously slow-to-change AP has not been willing to quickly undo a geographical name that has been in use for more than four centuries at the whim of one American president. The Gulf of Mexico is that body of water down below Louisiana. It is very true, if odd, that a president can wave his hand and by executive order rename an American property.

Thus, the current president renamed, no doubt temporarily, the tallest mountain in the United States from Denali, which is what the locals have called it since time immemorial, to McKinley, after a president who never saw the place. The AP said, sure — it’s within the United States, and the president can call it what he likes.

The Gulf of Mexico is not within the United States. The president cannot rename it. The rest of the world gets a say.  The AP, contrary to the letter-writers, is the least political organization ever. As it noted in its own bland story about the fracas: “The AP said last month that it would continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico while noting Trump’s decision to rename it as well. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP says it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.” And for this middle-of-the-road stance, the Associated Press finds itself banned from the White House and pool coverage of the presidency. This president is, as we Irish say, beyond the pale.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.

​ Orange County Register 

West Coast’s first water wheel is scooping up trash from Upper Newport Bay

• March 8, 2025

In just its first few weeks in operation, a low-tech water wheel has already scooped up enough trash and debris from the Upper Newport Bay to fill nine dumpsters — including a mattress and more than 50 spray paint cans.

The water wheel — the first of its kind on the West Coast — was officially unveiled on Friday, March 7, with a ribbon cutting and doting city and state officials. Modeled after a system in the Baltimore Harbor, the $5.5 million water wheel will keep refuse washing from inland sources out of the protected nature preserve, as well as the Newport Harbor and the ocean, and off beaches, officials said.

The wheel is strategically positioned in the San Diego Creek about 800 feet upstream from the Upper Newport Preserve. It is expected to capture 80% of the floating trash and debris from the San Diego Creek. Depending on rainfall, between 100 and 500 tons of trash reach the Upper Newport Bay via San Diego Creek annually.

“It’s incredibly gratifying,” said John Kappeler, the city’s senior engineer, who said the idea of the wheel was first presented to city staff in 2015. “The permitting, the regulatory agencies, approvals and engineering took a long time; everything just took a long time. To finally get to the finish line is beyond gratifying.”

The water wheel sits on a floating platform that rises and falls with the tide. Guide piles secure the platform to the creek bottom. The platform holds the large, 14-foot wheel that will spin using power from the river current or solar panels to scoop up debris and move a conveyor belt that carries it to an awaiting dumpster.

The wheel is currently powered by a generator, but in the next month, solar panels will be added along with a cover that will conceal the trash and debris it’s collecting. CR&R, the city’s trash hauler, donated the dumpsters to hold the trash and is also hauling it away for free, said Kappler.

Former Newport Beach Mayor Duffy Duffield spearheaded bringing the wheel to the bay, starting as a member of the city’s Water Quality and Tidelands Commission and later on the City Council and with the Harbor Foundation.

He was among many who attended the unveiling on Friday and celebrated that the wheel was up and running.

“Good things take so long to do,” he said.

While the recent rain storms demonstrated what the wheel could do, Duffield explained what got him going on the concept was all the trash that comes down the San Diego Creek during “dry water flow” events. As a surfer, he said, he saw the results in the ocean.

“All the cities north of us — six cities — bring their nuisance water to the San Diego Creek every day,” he said. “So, when you multiply that many people, that many storm drains you’re emptying into the creek, it’s the daily trash that’s really a nuisance. We are now able to trap 100% of that trash that goes every day, seven days a week.”

“It’s done, it’s cool, it’s gonna be there a lot of years, it’s gonna do a great job,” he said. “I’m thrilled it finally happened.”

He also noted that another type of trash interceptor is at work about half a mile away in the Santa Ana Delhi Channel, where the county put in a trash separator.

“They put it there about three years ago at a great cost and expense to the county,” he said. “So now the two polluting creeks, we’re now officially capturing 90% of the trash and vegetation that comes out of those two channels and that is a great accomplishment for our little city.”

Also there on Friday was former Newport Beach mayor and now state Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach.

“Today is a great day,” she said, adding she’s been part of the effort since serving on the council and as chair of the city’s Water Quality Committee.

“This trash wheel will greatly improve our regional efforts,” she said, “to prevent trash and debris from entering the ocean.”

​ Orange County Register 

Why worm castings may be the ideal insect control for your fruit trees

• March 8, 2025

I received the following email from Doug Brooks, who gardens in Claremont.

“For years, I have used some type of yearly insect control product to help protect my fruit trees. The last few years I have used the Bioadvanced Fruit, Citrus & Vegetable Insect Control product. I recently found out that California has now banned many of these products. What am I to use as a replacement? I’ve scoured the internet to no avail.”

I would recommend that you try worm castings, a euphemism for worm excrement, to prevent insect predations on your plants. There is a large body of evidence that, properly applied in dry or liquid form, worm castings deter not only insect pests but pathogenic fungi and nematodes as well. Note: Nematodes are thread-like microscopic organisms, some species of which create root galls that prevent water uptake and cause wilting of vegetable crops such as tomato, potato, cucumber, carrot, onion, and many others. There are also beneficial nematodes, however, that prey on soil-dwelling larvae of insect pests.

Worm castings owe their pest control capacity to chitinase, an enzyme that breaks down chitin, an integral constituent of insect exoskeletons, fungus cell walls, and nematode eggshells. Chitin is a fibrous material that is the second most abundant polymer — after cellulose — on earth. Like cellulose, it is not easily degraded and decomposes slowly.

As a worm digests its food, 48 different bacteria assist in the process and they remain in the excreted castings. Many of these bacteria produce chitinase that enters plants when castings are applied to the soil or sprayed in liquid form onto the plant itself. Although plants contain chitinase for defense against insect pests and pathogenic fungi — whose survival depends on the chitin in their exoskeletons or cell walls — the level of chitinase in plants is typically insufficient to fend off the pests that they attract. However, when chitinase-producing bacteria enter their systems, plants’ chitinase is supplemented and becomes more aggressive in fending off pest intruders.

One of the most popular biological pest control organisms is Bt, an abbreviation for a bacteria known as Bacillus thuringiensis, which is found in more than 130 pest control products. Bt, depending on the strain, may attack the larval stage of beetles, flies, butterflies and moths, or mosquitoes. Bt produces a toxin that enters the gut of larvae that consume it. The way the toxin gains entry is by activation of Bt’s chitinase which degrades the chitin lining a larva’s digestive tract. Bt must be applied no less than once a week to be effective, as it breaks down in sunlight. Timing is also important as application should come after eggs have hatched but before larvae are large enough to pupate. It is not a contact insecticide but should be sprayed on plant surfaces where larvae are active.

It appears that most, if not all, plants and animals contain chitinase, even if it’s in a dormant state. Our own chitinase seems to be activated when we inhale dust mites or mold spores, for example. There is even thought to be a connection between an asthma attack — which may be prompted by certain chitin-covered bacteria or viruses — and the activation of human chitinase.

Insects’ aversion to worm castings is demonstrated when they are spread over ant nests, causing the ants to remove themselves from the nests. If you have an issue with ants climbing up the trunks of your fruit trees, for example, you may want to spread worm castings under the trees to keep the ants away.

Fungi may also be abated with chitinase. In one study, chitinase extracted from a yam was sprayed on powdery mildew that had infected strawberry foliage and fruit. The mildew disappeared for two weeks, indicating that the chitinase concoction worked and that it biodegraded quickly, opening up the possibility of its use in place of synthetic fungicides.

It must be emphasized that the key to effectiveness with organic pesticides is repeat application. In the case of worm castings, if you choose to use a liquid product, spray it on the foliage twice a month during the growing season and once a month in winter. Interestingly, in perusing the labels of a number of liquid worm casting products, I did not see any indication that its benefits include insect pest or fungus disease deterrence. That appears to be a well-kept secret for now.

Gardeners and farmers have traditionally used worm castings for fertilization alone, although I would not be surprised if such fertilized plants are less likely to be infested by insect pests or infected with fungus diseases.  At Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, a 40-foot-long vermicomposting (vermi=worm) bin is utilized in providing mineral nutrition to more than 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables grown on site. The composting bin contains some 250,000 red wiggler worms that feast on the manure of the animals and poultry that live on the farm, and decompose plant detritus, coffee grounds, and table scraps as well. The compost is brewed into a tea for application to the plants. Worm castings build long-term soil fertility due to the immense variety of bacteria and fungi found in the castings. This biodiversity means that the many different minerals and nutrients plants require will be made available by the decomposing attributes of one variety of these microorganisms or another.

“The Biggest Little Farm,” a prize-winning film about Apricots Farms’ genesis and progress is widely available for online viewing. You can make arrangements to take a tour of the farm at apricotlanefarms.com.

Chitosan, derived from the chitin found in lobsters, crabs, and other marine crustaceans, also has a number of horticultural applications. It is used to prevent bacterial, fungal, and viral infections and to mitigate nematode infestation. It is also used as a carrier for slow-release fertilizers and as a soil conditioner. Finally, It has been found to alleviate drought stress and to promote growth. These beneficial effects result following seed or soil treatment with chitosan or by spraying chitosan on the plants themselves.

Does anyone have a vermicomposting tale to tell? If so, please send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com.  Your questions and comments, as well as gardening challenges and successes are always welcome.

California native of the week: Island morning glory (Calystegia macrostegia) is a fascinating, lush evergreen vine, growing up to 25 feet tall, but usually seen shorter than that where garden-worthy subspecies or varieties are concerned. Flowers are pale pink and reach two inches across. Rare for a native, its blooms are on display over a long period, from February until July. Some advise planting it next to a shrub since it tends to be leafless at its base and its tendrils will find their way through the shrub’s foliage, with its blooms poking through. However, you can plant it successfully in a container if you are content to see it spill out and trail down as opposed to climbing up vertically. It can grow in any soil and has been utilized for covering fences or blanketing the ground. It can handle full sun on the coast, but will need some sun protection inland. It grows rapidly and can adapt to any soil type. Give it an occasional good soak in hot weather and prune it back in the winter for best performance when spring arrives. Bees are attracted to its flowers. It’s also known as Anacapa Pink due to its Anacapa Island origin.

​ Orange County Register 

California’s Fast Food Council is an unnecessary burden

• March 8, 2025

A relatively new taxpayer-funded council aims to regulate various aspects of California’s fast food industry – but though it’s barely able to perform basic functions it’s already considering sticking it to small businesses.

In its first year, the Fast Food Council has struggled to hire staff, hold meetings or even decide how its meetings will be conducted, according to a recent report by Calmatters. But despite those shortcomings, it will soon debate imposing yet another minimum wage increase.

The minimum wage for these businesses has already more than doubled in just over a decade, resulting in higher prices, reduced hours and fewer jobs, especially for kids. Meanwhile, the cost of raw materials has skyrocketed.

In other words, this is a bad time for another minimum wage hike.

COMPOSITION

The council is tasked with making major decisions around labor for the better part of a massive industry.

It’s impossible for a panel of experts to have all of the necessary information to make such important decisions effectively, making this group, which is split between business leaders and union activists with a former legislative staffer as the tie breaker, grossly unqualified for the task at hand.

Business owners know the needs of their own businesses, while union activists are experts in their own experience as workers. Neither is qualified to make industry-wide decisions. This type of central planning is popular with progressives, who ignore the lessons learned in Marxist countries like the Soviet Union. In fact, the council’s makeup, a battle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, more closely resembles real-life The Communist Manifesto fan lit than it does a smart solution.

I doubt union activists have any interest in considering the concerns of the industry as a whole since this whole exercise is just a way to drive non-union labor from the market. But maybe these individuals will prove me wrong.

WHY

The council’s authority over the fast-food industry is not common. Supporters said it would “promote equity solutions and maximize benefits for underserved and marginalized communities,” which of course is not true when you consider the downsides of inflation, job loss and hour reduction.

Really this just makes the lives harder of both businesses and minimum wage workers as a whole – so I guess it’s equitable in that sense.

The law is so bad it had to be negotiated in secret and Gov. Gavin Newsom tried giving an exemption to his longtime friend and political donor. It was purportedly to stick it to big fast-food chains like McDonald’s, but the vast majority of fast-food restaurants are franchises, meaning they are small businesses.

At the time, then-Assemblyman Chris Holden, the Pasadena Democrat who authored the law argued it “ensures global fast-food corporations pay their fair share and take part in ensuring franchisees have the support they need to run safe, compliant restaurants.”

It’s ironic that Holden claims to have been concerned about the impact of regulatory compliance on small businesses since he supported so many of those regulations, including this one. And though making corporations “pay their fair share” is great placard bait, the franchisees are the ones bearing the brunt of these policies.

A year ago the minimum wage on these small businesses jumped $5 (to $20), following  incremental increases totaling $5 from 2017, with a more modest increase a few years earlier, more than doubling their minimum wage.

That sounds great to some people, but remember that restaurant owners operate on razor thin margins already and that’s a steep spike in labor costs. Adding another increase now, even if just $0.70 per hour, makes no sense, especially without giving time to adjust.

“It’s the fallacy of pennies,” Dr. Wayne Winegarden, an economist and my colleague at Pacific Research Institute, said, noting that this small increase will be on average a hit of around 14% to the store’s profit margin, which would force businesses to make decisions about raising prices and or cutting costs. “That seems material to me.”

INFLATION HURTS

As anyone who has gone to the grocery store recently is painfully aware, the cost of essentials like eggs, chicken, produce and basically everything else we eat has skyrocketed. Businesses have to absorb this or pass it on to the consumers. This leads to a mix of higher prices, cut hours for workers and job loss, all of which has already happened as a result of the prior increase.

According to a study by Beacon Economics, this has been particularly disastrous for workers, ages 16 to 19. Unemployment in this age group rose substantially, nearly nine percentage points, from Q1 of 2022 to Q1 of 2024. This was about 7.5 percentage points higher than the national trend. A similar, but smaller, trend was seen for the ages 20 to 24 cohort.

This is the point, though. Minimum wage laws actually force low-skilled, younger workers from the market in favor of higher-skilled union labor. That’s why unions pushed the law and gave themselves control of the council.

Meanwhile, younger, potential workers forgo the experience of these starter jobs and increases on future earnings that they won’t get as a result of entering the market later.

Most of all, these increases in the minimum wage have done little to raise standards of living. The numbers themselves are arbitrary. Why not a minimum wage of $50? Or $100? Considering the unintended consequences, it doesn’t really matter.

Instead, a better approach would be eliminating the Fast Food Council, pausing any minimum wage increase and making it easier for businesses to hire, promote and expand.

Matt Fleming is an opinion columnist for the Southern California News Group. You can find him on X, @FlemingWords

​ Orange County Register 

Corky: There oughta be a manual: The cool way to do the little, but important, things in surfing

• March 8, 2025

In the surfing world, as is pretty much with every other world, there are cool ways to do things and there are not-so-cool ways to do those same things.

Lame would be a fitting adjective for those not-so-cool ways. Today, I thought it would be fun, not to mention educational, to point out a few of those things that seem to stick out.

Strapping boards on the top of cars.  There is a right way and a wrong way.

The right way is to always have the bottom of the boards facing up.  Never have the deck facing up.  Two reasons for this.  The sun will melt the wax on the board’s deck, causing it to drip onto the car roof.  Lame.  The other is that the rocker in the boards will be aiming up, which catches the wind and the boards will want to pull up and off.

I am also a proponent of putting the fins forward.  This is a kind of safety measure in case the boards start to slide back, not being tied down tight enough.  The fins will catch and keep the boards from coming off.

There are some who like to put them the other way. Why? I have no idea.  This part is not a set rule, but the facing up is for sure a set don’t do.

Then there is just the act of carrying your board around.  Especially if you have clothes on – and this is one of those “cool” or “lame” deals.

The cool way is to have the deck facing out.  And some of this stuff goes back decades to when all boards had a healthy layer of wax on the decks. If the deck is facing in, toward your body, the wax rubs off on your clothes.  Moms hate this.  Getting wax out of cloth is almost impossible.

This is not such a big deal if you are just going in or out of the water and not wearing something that can get permeated with unwanted wax. But it just looks cooler with the deck out.

Then, speaking of wax, there is what you do with said wax after you have waxed up your board.  Many people are wearing surf gear that have wax pockets in them.  But, and this cracks me up, some don’t realize it.

One day, I was out surfing and there were a fair number of other people in the lineup.  My board was in need of a little wax and I realized I had forgotten to put some in the wax pocket in my surf trunks. So, I asked the pack of people in the lineup if anybody had some wax?  Nobody.

Then one guy looked at me and asked, in all earnest, “Where would we be carrying wax?”

I was kind of amused, as the dude was wearing a pair of surf trunks with a wax pocket right there on the side.

“Ah, maybe in your ‘WAX POCKET?’”  He looked at me quite sincerely and asked, “What wax pocket?”  I had to laugh.  “Dude, the one right there on the side of

your surf trunks.”

The guy looked down at his trunks and goes, “Ahhh, so THAT’S what that is for?  I knew it wasn’t for a cell phone.”  I could see other guys also looking down at their trunks with that “Oohhhhhhh, who knew?” kinda look on their faces.

Folks, that is why it’s called a wax pocket.  (I cannot make this stuff up.)

Getting a bit deeper into the wax thing.  Be very careful where you leave your wax in the event you don’t have a wax pocket or place to carry it with you. I had a family visit me one time that had a teenage boy surfer. One day he waxed up his board on one of the lounge chairs on my deck (that’s a don’t right there) and then he went surfing and left the bar of wax sitting on the cushion of the chair.

Naturally the sun melted the wax and ruined the cushion.  You cannot get melted wax out of those things.  This is totally lame with a capital LAME.

But the kid was not done with the carnage.  The next day, we drove in my car to a different spot.  The little menace waxed his board and then stuck his bar of wax on the top of my dashboard in the car.  Beyond LAME.  Thankfully, I saw him do it.  I asked him why he would do that right after he just ruined our deck cushions the day before and why didn’t he just put the wax in the wax pocket in his trunks?  He just looked confused and said, “I don’t know.”

I should write a manual for this kind of stuff.  But it would flop.  We all know the harsh reality, and I live by this myself: “Nobody reads the stinking manual.”

​ Orange County Register 

Office space reckoning: What’s next for empty buildings?

• March 8, 2025

A friend ran a small accounting firm in a mid-rise office building off the 405 freeway.

He had a corner suite with a view of the freeway, nothing glamorous, but it was solid. For years, he paid his rent on time, kept his staff of five happy and felt secure knowing his office space was a symbol of his firm’s steady success.

Then came the pandemic, and with it, the great work-from-home migration. By 2021, his lease was up, and he made a decision that landlords across Southern California now dread: He let the office go.

Fast forward to today, and that once-bustling office tower is struggling to fill vacancies. My accountant friend, like so many others, now operates remotely, with employees who have no desire to return to a traditional workspace. His old office? A ghost town — one of many scattered across the region.

Office space dilemma

Southern California’s office market is at an inflection point. Vacancy rates in key markets like downtown Los Angeles, Orange County and even the tech-heavy hubs of the Westside are at record highs.

According to industry reports, some buildings now hover around 30%-40% vacancy — numbers that would have been unthinkable before the pandemic.

Many landlords are feeling the squeeze. With high interest rates and declining property values, some are defaulting on loans or handing the keys back to lenders. Others are scrambling to repurpose their spaces, but office-to-residential conversions — while a hot topic — are easier said than done.

Office conversions

California has long been in an affordable housing crisis, and state leaders see underutilized office buildings as a potential solution.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and local municipalities have been pushing zoning changes and incentives to encourage office-to-housing conversions. On paper, it sounds like a perfect match: empty buildings meet an urgent housing need. In reality, it’s a far more complex equation.

Many office towers were never designed for residential use. Deep floor plates, a lack of windows and outdated infrastructure make conversions expensive, and in some cases, structurally impractical.

Developers also face regulatory hurdles, with zoning laws, permitting delays and financing challenges slowing progress.

While some successful conversions have taken place — such as the historic Tribune Tower in Oakland — most landlords are finding it more feasible to hold out for office tenants than take on the massive costs of redevelopment.

So what’s next?

The commercial real estate industry is at a crossroads, and the future of office space will depend on creative solutions.

Some landlords are embracing mixed-use redevelopment, incorporating residential, retail, and entertainment into former office hubs. Others are investing in high-end amenities to attract tenants back — think wellness centers, private clubs and hospitality-driven office experiences.

But the hard truth is that Southern California will have to adapt to a world where remote and hybrid work are permanent fixtures. That means some office properties will never return to their pre-pandemic heyday.

It also means that cities and developers will need to work together to make adaptive reuse more financially and logistically viable.

As for my accountant friend, he doesn’t miss his office much. His firm is thriving, his staff enjoys the flexibility, and he no longer has to sit in rush hour traffic on the 405.

For him, the office space reckoning isn’t a crisis — it’s a new reality. And for commercial real estate, it’s time to figure out what that reality looks like.

Allen C. Buchanan, SIOR, is a principal with Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services in Orange. He can be reached at abuchanan@lee-associates.com or 714.564.7104.

​ Orange County Register