Small Business Videos

Cloud Technologies for Business Continuity

The Benefits of Crowdfunding

Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Working with the U.S Department of Homeland Security

Federal Reserve Community Engagement

Access to Capital

The Importance of Cybersecurity

Small Business Credit Survey

Small Business – Big Opportunity | Tempe, Arizona

(SPEECH)
[MUSIC PLAYING]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Small Business - Big Opportunity (service mark) Symposium, Tempe, Arizona. Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

A small hill rock formation in a pond in front of the Tempe Center for the Arts. A freestanding sign in front reads Gallery Open, Free Admission.

The logo and letters on the building: TCA, Tempe Center for the Arts.

A poster inside: Small Business, Big Opportunity.(service mark). Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers. Three photos on the poster. The one in the center has an Open sign. The other two have flowers. Text: Welcome. Thursday, February 11, 2016. 11:30 a.m., Registration & Networking. 12:00 p.m., Luncheon & Program. Join the Conversation on Twitter, Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

A woman at a lobby table hands another her nametag.

Three men chat.

A woman talks to a man.

The panelists' table with microphones and name tents. The tent in the foreground is for Nancy Sanders.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD:

(DESCRIPTION)
Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
I'm president of the Travelers Institute. And the Travelers Institute is the public policy informational, educational arm of the very large Travelers Insurance company.

MICHAEL ECHOLS:

(DESCRIPTION)
Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
Cybersecurity is a part of our way of life. It has to be integrated into your business, just like any other business function.

JOHN ESPOSITO:

(DESCRIPTION)
John Esposito, President, Brown & Brown Insurance of Arizona.

(SPEECH)
What is a business continuity plan? It's your plan that you come up with your team to figure out how you're going to respond to different levels of disasters.

ANDREA DROZDOWICZ: Every

(DESCRIPTION)
Andrea Drozdowicz, Vice President, Principal Relationship Manager, Wells Fargo Tempe Business Banking.

(SPEECH)
time you write a check, you're giving that person access to everything they need to get into your account.

NANCY SANDERS:

(DESCRIPTION)
Nancy Sanders, President, Phoenix Chapter, National Association of Women Business Owners.

(SPEECH)
We just, as business owners, haven't thought through, what does that look like if we went downstairs in our home office, or we walked into our building on Central Avenue, and there was nothing there, or the power didn't come on.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PRESENTER:

(DESCRIPTION)
Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Text: TravelersInstitute dot org. Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

(SPEECH)
Learn more at travelersinstitute.org.

Small Business – Big Opportunity | Nashville, Tennessee

(SPEECH)
[MUSIC PLAYING]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Small Business - Big Opportunity (service mark) Symposium, Nashville, Tennessee. Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

A poster in a lobby: Small Business, Big Opportunity. (service mark). Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers. Three photos on the poster. The one in the center has an Open sign. The other two have flowers. Text: Welcome. Thursday, March 31, 2016. 11:30 a.m., Registration & Networking. 12:00 p.m., Luncheon & Program. Join the Conversation on Twitter: Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

Staff prepare a registration table in a hallway as others mingle nearby.

A woman hands another her nametag.

A woman walks by attendees.

A staff member hands someone a nametag at the table. People gather in the ballroom.

People at a banquet table.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD:

(DESCRIPTION)
Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
The Travelers Institute is the public policy educational arm of the very large Travelers Insurance Company. We saw a lot of small business owners struggling, and we felt in our shoes that it was really important for us to get out in the country and share our expertise, whether it's business continuity planning, whether it's access to capital, whether it's cybersecurity.

JULIE MCPEAK:

(DESCRIPTION)
Julie McPeak, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance.

(SPEECH)
We have a special cybersecurity task force working on a Consumer Bill of Rights. So in our perspective, it's not a question of if something will happen with your information, but a question of when. And when that does, what is the appropriate response by regulators, and what you can expect in terms of the general public.

BOB JACKSON:

(DESCRIPTION)
Bob Jackson, Co-Chair, The Crichton Group.

(SPEECH)
Once you identify the risk, you've got to look at the probability and what the severity could be? Then you need to conduct a business impact analysis of if this happened, then what would the impact be?

MICHAEL ECHOLS: If

(DESCRIPTION)
Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
you have not actively approached your team, your organization, your staff, your entity about cybersecurity, you've already got a problem.

LEE JONES:

(DESCRIPTION)
Lee Jones, Vice President and Regional Executive, Nashville Branch, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

(SPEECH)
A large concern. What's been on the uptrend? No surprise, I think, to anyone in this room is government regulation, and requirements, and compliance. It's not just small business that says that. A lot of business people say that.

ELLIE TERRY:

(DESCRIPTION)
Ellie Terry, Economic Policy Analysis Specialist, Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

(SPEECH)
We've seen employment levels grow at firms that are larger than 20 employees, whereas firms that have fewer than 20 employees are still working to regain the employment that they had prior to before the recession.

LISA DENSON:

(DESCRIPTION)
Lisa Denson, Lender Relations Specialist, U.S. Small Business Administration, Tennessee District Office.

(SPEECH)
Last fiscal year, over the course of the last 12 months, we lent, I think, about $357 million. And every business that obtained an SBA loan probably would not have gotten a loan otherwise.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

PRESENTER:

(DESCRIPTION)
Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Text: TravelersInstitute dot org. Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

(SPEECH)
Learn more at travelersinstitute.org.

Riverside, CA – 3 ideas for cybersecurity

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Text under the Travelers umbrella logo reads: 3 Ideas for Cybersecurity. A stone building stretches into the sky. Text: Boston, MA. Joan Woodward stands at a podium, wearing pearl earrings and a floral scarf. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy Travelers.

(SPEECH)
[AUDIO LOGO]

JOAN WOODWARD: My name is Joan Woodward, and I'm the president of the Travelers Institute. We were set up basically to be an educational, informational think tank, if you will, within the Travelers Insurance Company. We try to bring information and education to the business community.

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(DESCRIPTION)
Audience members sit at round tables. Text: Small Business, Big Opportunity. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Number 1: Collaborate and learn from others. A man in a dark suit and blue tie stands at the podium. Text: Donald Anderson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

(SPEECH)
DONALD ANDERSON: The biggest part of my job, though, in terms of protecting the Fed is the electronic part of it. So like Joan touched on, we do trillions of transactions a day. And what that accounts to is about 4 and 1/2 trillion dollars done electronically. And as you know as more things move to the internet, as more businesses are moving away from paper, that puts an even larger responsibility on us to make sure that we protect those transactions.

Here at the Boston Fed, we believe that this is not a battle that we can win alone. So many times, banks and people in industry don't want to get together and talk because they feel as though they're going to lose a competitive advantage. When it comes to cybersecurity and protection, we're all in this together.

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(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 2: Hire the right professionals. A man in a dark suit and red tie sits at the end of a five-person panel table that includes Joan, in front of a Travelers Institute backdrop. Text: Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: An IT person is not a cybersecurity person. When there is a incident with your system, your critical system for your business, The IT guy will show up, he will change something out, because he's focused on availability. You want him to get it up and working. A guy will come and look at the logs to understand why that event happened.

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(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 3: Understand your risks and utilize your independent insurance agent. A man in a dark suit and peach tie sits on the panel table between Joan and Michael. Text: Robert F. Rivers, Vice Chairman, Eastern Bank Corporation, President and Chief Operating Officer, Eastern Bank.

(SPEECH)
ROBERT RIVERS: Unlike consumers that have much more protection as a small business, the Uniform Commercial Code expects you to have certain elements of defenses. As small business people, they expect a certain degree of sophistication in these matters, even if you're at the smallest businesses.

HOPE ALDRICH: What we encourage our clients to do is to use some of the resources that Mike is talking about. But also your insurance companies and brokers do have many ideas on this subject.

(DESCRIPTION)
A woman in a blue blazer sits on the other side of Joan. Text: Hope Aldrich, President and Chief Executive Officer, Eastern Insurance.

(SPEECH)
Actually, when something like this happens, you put things into place, perhaps, as a small business. But to do it ahead of time is a thing to do. My messaging to you is to have a good company and a good broker who can help you wade through this.

[AUDIO LOGO]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. TravelersInstitute dot-org. Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity.

Philadelphia – 4 ideas for managing risk

(DESCRIPTION)
Text under the Travelers umbrella logo reads: 4 Ideas for Managing Small Business Risk. A cylindrical brick building reaches into the sky. Text: Philadelphia, PA. Joan Woodward wears pearls and a white blazer, standing at a podium with a monitor. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: What we try to do at the Institute is educate and inform. We have been all about trying to help business owners, consumers, large and small business owners, not only survive, but to thrive.

[BRIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Small Business, Big Opportunity (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Number 1: Small businesses operate in a complex world. A man wears a dark suit and orange tie in front of a panel table with a presentation screen behind. Text: Roch Parayre, Fellow, Wharton Executive Education, The Wharton School.

(SPEECH)
ROCH PARAYRE: We live in a VUCA world. VUCA, who knows the acronym? VUCA-- volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous. V-U-C-A.

(DESCRIPTION)
Audience members sit at round tables. No hands raise.

(SPEECH)
And the VUCAness of our world is here to stay. It's not going away anytime soon.

If the world is VUCA, which it is, maybe we need to do a better job at paying due homage to the external environment first and where it might go, and only after we've paid due homage to the external environment, then and only then should we decide, what should our strategy be?

In a today world, you can't manage inside out. You've got to manage from the outside in.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 2: Build a business continuity plan. Joan sits at a four-person panel table. The obscured screen behind them displays a bar graph with three bars.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: The 75% of the audience say they don't have a business continuity plan. 18% said they do. A few saying they're not sure.

So, Matt, why is it important?

MATTHEW GARDNER:

(DESCRIPTION)
A man to the right of Joan wears a dark gray suit. Text: Matthew Gardner, Regional President, AssuredPartners Inc.

(SPEECH)
It's a company's attempt to pool all the components of the business together to analyze the risks that they face and then to sort of quantify to the extent that they can what the impacts of those risks would be. Some of them may be incredibly impactful, "bet the farm" type of risks. And other ones are ones that would be nice to be able to mitigate or eliminate, but it's not a "bet the farm" kind of scenario.

And then drafting procedures and tools within the organization to either mitigate those risks that present in the company or to respond to hazards once they've already happened or to eliminate the risk from your day-to-day operation. And then lastly, and importantly, this iterative process of testing the plan and revising the plan as your business changes and grows.

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Text: Number 3: Plan carefully for business interruptions from natural disasters. A man in a dark suit sits on the other side of Matthew. Text: Benjamin Collier, Research Fellow, Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

(SPEECH)
BENJAMIN COLLIER: I think one of the things that our research has helped us recognize about disasters is that they affect so many different aspects of a business at once that they require very careful planning. So disasters destroy the assets, the property, the other forms of assets that a firm has. They also require customers to evacuate in many cases, or customers may change their needs.

Employees may not be able to make it to work. Supply chains may shut down, too. And there is a bit of research on learning from near misses and whether people actually take those events and say, OK, this could really happen to me. Just because the last one didn't get us, that's a different question than asking, am I at risk for the next one?

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 4: Make cybersecurity a normal function of doing business. A man in a black suit sits to the other side of Joan, at the left end of the panel table. There screen behind reads, in part, Thriving After Cyber Threats, Natural Disasters, and More. May 20, 2015 / Philadelphia Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity. SBDC Pennsylvania. Text: Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: I'm a small business, and I have limited funds. I have the opportunity to spend money on this thing called cybersecurity, which I do not see as a business line the same way that I see accounting or insurance. We think, oh, I gotta get some insurance, or I have to get accounting. Right?

We don't say, oh, I have to get cybersecurity. It has to become a normal function of doing business. And in order for us to get there, there has to be more awareness.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. TravelersInstitute dot-org. Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity.

Colorado springs–4 ideas for small business cybersecurity

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Text under the Travelers umbrella logo reads: 4 Ideas for Small Business Cybersecurity. A mountain vista sits behind a tall building. Text: Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 12, 2015. Joan Woodward wears pearls and a pink cardigan behind a podium. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: The Travelers Institute is part of the large insurance company, the Travelers. And what we are is the educational and informational arm of the company. We talk about issues that affect the small business community, and that's why you're here today.

[BRIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Audience members sit at round tables. Text: Small Business, Big Opportunity (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Number 1: Small business are facing increasing cybersecurity challenges. A man in a gray suit and name tag stands behind the podium. Text: Myles Gibbons, President, Select Accounts, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
MYLES GIBBONS: 1 in 3 cyber breaches occurs with employers with less than 100 employees. More often than not, smaller companies do not have the IT resources dedicated to cybersecurity, making them very easy prey for criminals. The good news is, is that there are ways to protect your business.

(DESCRIPTION)
A five-person panel table includes Joan. A repeated Travelers Institute backdrop hangs behind the table. A man to the right of Joan wears a dark suit and blue tie. Text: Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, National Protection and Program Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: When we think of cyberattacks, historically, we think of nation states attacking us or some brilliant rogue hackers out there trying to do things to our big businesses and take down our critical infrastructure. But the reality is that small business is the threat vector now. You're going through a small

business, like a law firm, accounting firms, you can get all the data that you would get if you went directly to the critical infrastructure.

The critical infrastructure owners and operators, as I said, have put mitigations in place. And sure, they still get breached, too. But those small businesses that support them have all the schematics, diagrams, information about acquisitions, personnel records, you name it. Why is it important to Homeland Security? Because small businesses run this country.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 2: Train employees about cybersecurity. A man on the other side of Joan wears a gray suit and pink tie. Text: Jeff Van Gulick, Practice Leader, Commercial Lines and Executive Liability Practices, HUB International of Colorado.

(SPEECH)
JEFF VAN GULICK: One of the first things we talk about is just training your employees what to look for. What are the first keys that you're on an unsafe website? The simple, secure one is the HTTP, if it ends in an S, it's secure. If it doesn't, it's not. So just employee awareness is a good one.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: https. Number 3: Carefully consider locations for data storage. A man sits at the other side of Michael at the far right end of the table, wearing a dark striped suit. Text: Edward Cadena, Colorado District Director, U.S. Small Business Administration.

(SPEECH)
EDWARD CADENA: Part of cyber and data security is something as simple as what I heard in Manitou Springs, is don't put your servers in the basement.

[LAUGHTER]

It's something real simple, and I know Michael will probably talk about that. But that is very, very evident. Do not do that.

We talked to a couple of businesses. Yes, they had everything locked up. They had their backup, one in the attic and one in the basement. But when the building goes down, it doesn't matter where you're at.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 4: Take advantage of free government resources. Text: Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, National Protection and Program Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: One of our sites, and it's really widely used, it's the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies. On that site, and it's at niccs.us-cert.gov, there are thousands of resources. There are resources about education. There are resources about items and people that are available in your local community.

You can go in and put your ZIP code in and find out more about what's going on locally and things that you can access. And this is all free.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies N I C C S dot us hyphen cert dot gov. Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. TravelersInstitute dot-org. Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity.

Irvine: 3 ideas for small business

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: 3 Ideas for Small Business.

Irvine, California, March 20, 2015. Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy. Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: The Travelers companies is one of the largest insurers, property and casualty insurance companies, of small businesses around the country. And what we try to do in these symposiums is to provide information and educational materials for small- and medium-sized business owners to try to help them with tools to have your business thrive.

[BRIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Small Business Big Opportunity. Travelers Institute (Registered Trademark), Travelers.

3 Ideas for Small Business. #1, Contracting opportunities help enable small business success.

Hector V. Barreto, Chairman, The Latino Coalition, Former Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration.

(SPEECH)
HECTOR V. BARRETO: Small business needs the same thing that big business needs. They need more business. Contracts is very important. Now, when I was at SBA, I used to deal with government procurement. And if you didn't know this, the federal government today buys over $100 billion worth of goods and services.

And if it's legal and moral, the government probably buys it. But if you haven't looked into that, please visit SBA. They have great programs. They have programs for emerging markets, minority businesses, women, veterans, et cetera.

(DESCRIPTION)
#2, Small businesses increasingly facing cybersecurity risks.

Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, National Protection and Program Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: In the last two or three years, most of the attacks now are on small businesses, and that's for several reasons. One is that you are the easy target. Over the last few years, big businesses have convinced their boards to expend the funds necessary to hire the proper people to buy cyber insurance to do the things they need to do.

The difference is when they take your data, most small businesses can't recover. There's an opportunity for reputational loss. That's not something that you're going to find on any analysis or sheet anywhere if you're not focused on understanding what your risk profile is.

MATT PETTERUTO:

(DESCRIPTION)
Matt Petteruto, Vice President of Economic Development, Orange County Business Council.

(SPEECH)
Cybersecurity is our number one initiative this year. There are two types of businesses in the United States. Those that have been hacked. Those that don't know they've been hacked.

So it's a major issue for our employers. We're going to be partnering with Microsoft this year on a series of webinars on cybersecurity. You can go to our website, ocbc.org. It's a little bit easier than the other ones.

And you can find information there on how to sign up. Those are open to the public as well. So big issue for our companies.

(DESCRIPTION)
#3, Business continuity planning can be a competitive advantage.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Does your company have a business continuity plan? 78% of the audience doesn't have one or don't know if they have one. So, Jim, is this surprising, first? Is it troubling?

JIM WATERHOUSE:

(DESCRIPTION)
Jim Waterhouse, President, Spectrum Risk Management & Insurance.

(SPEECH)
As a small business owner, everybody thinks I'm going to work on my continuity plan or my disaster plan. Whatever sort of planning you do, it seems to be set aside because you're busy running your business, right? But I have to really encourage you to take the time to do some business continuity planning. As we see, most businesses don't.

It gives you a real competitive advantage.

JOAN WOODWARD: What should be in my business continuity plan?

JIM WATERHOUSE: Talk to your insurance professional because most businesses that fail don't have business interruption insurance or business income coverage. So, you want to make sure you have that. You also want to have a written plan.

Most businesses don't have a written plan. They'll have a vague idea. Or the business leader will have some ideas on what they want to do, but they don't have it written down. Develop some alternative suppliers.

Talk to maybe a friendly competitor if they can help you out in a time of need. Develop some alliances like that that could be really helpful when you need them.

(DESCRIPTION)
TravelersInstitute.org.

#SmallBizOpportunity.

Columbus – 3 ideas to help small businesses

(DESCRIPTION)
Text under the Travelers umbrella logo reads: 3 Ideas for Small Business. Cars pass outside a brick building. Text: Columbus, Ohio, March 13, 2015. Joan Woodward stands at a podium, wearing pearls and a black blazer. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: My name is Joan Woodward, and I'm the President of the Travelers Institute. We are the educational, informational arm, and we travel the country doing events like this.

[BRIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Small Business, Big Opportunity (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. 3 Ideas for Small Business. Number 1: Ask state and local government about regulatory reform initiatives. Audience members dine at small round tables. A woman sits at the end of a panel table, in front of a repeating Travelers Institute backdrop. She wears a dark plum-colored blazer. Text: Mary Taylor, Lieutenant Governor, State of Ohio.

(SPEECH)
MARY TAYLOR: Our Common Sense Initiative reviewed about 5,500 rules. Over half of them have been changed, amended, modified, or pulled back. The mayor of the city of Solon, which is in northeast Ohio, he contacted me because-- this was his letter. It was simple.

I have a business located in my city that wants to stay in Ohio, but there are liquor laws that are preventing them from competing with competitors. They make a marsala sauce. They were opening individual bottles of wine, and then they were pouring them into these thousand-pound VATs of sauce, one bottle at a time. So, you can imagine, extra people, extra man hours, extra costs.

They couldn't compete in Ohio. So, we worked with the legislature. Within four months, we got a bill passed. The governor signed the bill. The company, obviously, was pleased.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 2: Create a culture of cybersecurity. A man sits second from the left on the panel, wearing a dark suit and maroon tie. Text: Michael Echols, Director, Joint Program Management Office, National Protection and Program Directorate U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(SPEECH)
MICHAEL ECHOLS: In the last two years, the main entity that is attacked is small business, small- and medium-sized businesses. When you're starting a business, you're building that business. You're looking for every opportunity you can get.

The internet comes along. They're free tools. They're free resources. And you think you're really doing something because you're not spending the money that other businesses are spending. Your bottom line looks great.

You may be setting yourself up for failure. So at the point in which you can afford to step out of that startup mode and move into a true business risk management mode, you really should. Spend the money to get the cyber insurance. Spend the money to train your employees so that they don't bring your business down, to create that cyber culture.

GREG OVERMYER:

(DESCRIPTION)
A man sits second from the right on the panel, wearing a dark suit and dark tie. Text: Greg Overmyer, Chief Executive Officer, Overmyer Hall Associates.

(SPEECH
Well, just regarding cyber liability, we will quote that on every single one of our clients. We want them to at least experience it. My impression of it right now is 10, 15 years ago, nobody carried employment practices liability. That's coverage for wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination. Nobody carried that.

Today, at least 80% of our clients carry it, and I think cyber's going down the exact same path.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 3: Research government loan guaranty opportunities. A man in a dark suit and dark blue tie sits next to Joan on the panel. Text: Martin Golden, District Director, Columbus District Office, U.S. Small Business Administration.

(SPEECH)
MARTIN GOLDEN: We have three programs at the SBA primarily. Our seven-day lending program is the general lending program where we provide guarantees to banks.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: 7a Lending Program.

(SPEECH)
We will guarantee from 75% to 85% of that amount.

Most of our lending within the SBA by far is seven-day lending. You can use those for general working capital purposes. And when you read about SBA lending, that's almost invariably what you're going to be reading about.

We have another loan program called the 504 loan program. That is a much, much smaller program through CDCs.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: 504 Loan Program.

(SPEECH)
And that is primarily used for fixed assets, primarily real estate.

So, for instance, if you're a manufacturer and you decide you want to buy the building that you're in, you'll often go and look for 504 financing. And that is usually on terms that are much better than you can get from a bank all by yourself. Because, among other things, we require only usually 10% equity on that, and that's much lower than a bank would normally charge.

Our third loan program is micro lending program, and that is done through community development organizations. Usually, the loans are much smaller. $7,500, $10,000 is the average loan size there.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Microlending Program. Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. TravelersInstitute dot-org. Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity.

Cincinnati – 4 ideas to help small businesses

(DESCRIPTION)
Text under the Travelers umbrella logo reads: 4 Ideas for Small Business. Traffic passes outside a gray building. Text: Cincinnati, Ohio, December 2, 2014. Joan Woodward stands at a podium, wearing pearls and a plum-colored blazer. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute, Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: One of the things we have seen at the Travelers has been struggling small businesses to thrive in the country. And we see them surviving. We want them to thrive. And part of our job, we believe, as an engaged corporate citizen is to help small businesses thrive.

[BRIGHT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
ext: Small Business, Big Opportunity (service mark). Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. Number 1: American productivity is increasing. A man in a dark suit and blue bowtie stands on stage. Text: LaVaughn Henry, Vice President and Senior Regional Officer, Cincinnati Branch, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

(SPEECH)
LAVAUGHN HENRY: If you look at national figures of productivity right now and compare it cumulatively to 2000, first quarter of 2000, cumulative productivity in the United States is up about 36%. What that fundamentally means is what it took five Americans to build in 2000 can now be done with less than four. As we have become more productive, which is a good thing, because it builds our wealth in this society, it has also been one of the causes of slow growth in employment throughout the recovery and the expansion.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 2: Have a backup plan to retain customers. A man wears a dark suit and blue tie, sitting on a panel. Text: Paul Young, Vice President, Commercial Insurance, C A I Insurance Agency.

(SPEECH)
PAUL YOUNG: Part of the continuity plan, disaster recovery plan, you'll hear that reference sometimes, is if you can't get that product to your customers in a manufacturing world, do you have a partnership with another manufacturer who might be your competition today, but he might be your best friend if you have a disaster? So if that customer needs to buy it from me, I can go to my partner and I have a contract in place, my competition, and fulfill those needs.

Because once you lose customers, it's very hard to get them back.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 3: Secure a line of credit before the need arises. A man in a dark suit and dark red tie sits at the left end of the panel table. Text: Donald Stock, Executive Vice President, Business Banking Marker Manager, PNC Bank.

(SPEECH)
DONALD STOCK: Businesses, especially, I'd say, in our region, have done a really nice job of making sure that they're sound. A lot of companies are sitting on a lot of cash right now, and they're using that cash to be able to fund the business going forward. And I think that's a great thing.

If you don't have to borrow, don't. My one caution to that is don't deplete all your cash. Make sure that you do save a certain percentage of that aside, just in case the emergencies, because you never know what those emergencies are going to look like. And then it's the cliché, but it's true, get the line of credit when you don't need it. That's when banks are more apt to give it to you.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Number 4: Cyber Security: monitor your web presence. A man on the panel wears a black suit and striped blue and white tie. Text: Dave Hatter, Solutions Architect, Partner, Definity Partners.

(SPEECH)
DAVE HATTER: I would strongly suggest you do that on a regular basis to see what's out there about you or what might appear to be about you. If there's someone named Dave Hatter that happens to get his 25th DUI and you google Dave Hatter and don't realize that that's not me, that's obviously going to create a relatively negative impression about me in your mind. So, yeah, you should do that.

In fact, my real quick advice would be use Google Alerts. If you're not familiar with Google Alerts, it's a free service Google provides. You can essentially set up a search that they will just execute over and over. And any time words or phrases you're interested in show up in their database, it will email that information to you so you don't have to keep going to look. It's a little more proactive and very handy.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute (registered trademark). Travelers. TravelersInstitute dot-org. Hashtag SmallBizOpportunity.

Small Business – Big Opportunity: Reston, VA

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[AUDIO LOGO]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Five ideas for small business. Reston, Virginia. November 24, 2014.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: My name is Joan Woodward, and I'm the president of something called the Travelers Institute. And the Travelers Institute is the public policy arm of the Travelers Insurance Company. And what we do is educational informational forums around the country.

The Travelers Insurance Company is one of the largest insurers of small businesses in our country. And since 2008/2009, we really saw that small businesses were struggling and failing. And we took this project, Small Business-Big Opportunity, across the country. And this is our 14th symposium.

(DESCRIPTION)
Small Business, Big Opportunity. Travelers Institute, registered. Travelers. 5 ideas for small business. Number 1, cyber risk, not just a big business problem.

(SPEECH)
TIM FRANCIS: Small business, I think, for a while has been under the impression that cyber, data breach in particular, is not a small business problem. It's a problem on big business. And that really isn't the case. Just last year, more than half of data breaches occur in companies of 250 employees or less.

It is also, particularly in small business, always a phenomenon of organized Eastern Europeans hacking into your computer networks to steal information. But the proverbial lost laptop or a mobile phones now that do everything in are connected with everything, those have personally identifiable information of your customers, your clients. The reality is even in a small breach, the expenses can be enormous.

(DESCRIPTION)
Number 2, Continuity planning: critical to disaster recovery.

(SPEECH)
KATE ARMFIELD: One in four businesses that are shut down due to some kind of a disaster don't actually ever start up again. It's just that first step of having a plan. And it's not nearly as complicated as people think.

So from a business continuity standpoint, some of your coverage may come through your business interruption coverage from your insurance company. But the other piece is do they have a plan, and do they know how they're going to execute the plan? And those are the ones who really are able to survive and then again thrive after an event.

(DESCRIPTION)
Number 3, access to capital. Avoid going too deep, too fast.

(SPEECH)
JEFF DICK: And we've seen a lot of the owners taking just a little bit too much money out of the company. As we start to recover, you've gone lean. A lot of small business owners have reached into their own pockets. And then you start to have a really good year and you're just trying to dip in and maybe a little bit too deep, too fast. And so I would just advise everybody to be patient, recognizing it takes a little bit of time to recover from what we've just been through.

(DESCRIPTION)
Number 4, Regulatory front: bipartisan action could spur growth.

(SPEECH)
KAREN KERRIGAN: So I'm very hopeful in the next Congress. There will be consensus between Republicans and the White House to do some type of extension of the expiring tax provisions. On the regulatory front, I do think there's hope for regulatory reform initiatives. There are a lot of those bills where there's big bipartisan support on the regulatory side, question is whether the president will sign them, and I think he will sign some of those.

(DESCRIPTION)
Number five, energy: low costs a continued boon for small business.

(SPEECH)
RAY KEATING: And now we're the number one natural gas producer. We're the number one producer of natural gas and oil. And depending on who you look at, we may be number one in oil now or we will be very soon. So that's a dramatic transformation, and that's been a boon for the economy.

So it's been a good news story for small businesses. Obviously, it's been good news for consumers. You see a dramatic decrease in the price of natural gas and for businesses that use natural gas. So that's been the good news story in an otherwise tough economy, absolutely.

[AUDIO LOGO]

(DESCRIPTION)
Travelers institute dot org. Hashtag Small Biz Opportunity.

Seattle – 3 ideas for small business

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[AUDIO LOGO]

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The Travelers umbrella logo. Text: 3. Ideas for Small Business.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD:

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Steps outside a building with a wall with the text: Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. Home of Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Opera at Seattle Center. Text: Seattle, Washington, April 10, 2014. Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute; Executive Vice President, Public Policy, Travelers.

(SPEECH)
One of the big projects that the Travelers Institute undertook about three years ago is a small business. And we call our series across the country Small Business-Big Opportunity. We think there's a lot of opportunities for small businesses to thrive. Unfortunately, many of them are struggling to survive.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Small Business, Big Opportunity (service mark). Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers.

Text: #1. Small business owners have a voice in developing the workforce of tomorrow.

(SPEECH)
RAHIM RAJAN:

(DESCRIPTION)
Rahim S. Rajan, Senior Program Officer, Postsecondary Success, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

(SPEECH)
The way in which people are learning today is significantly different. People are learning in new ways. They're learning across geography. They're learning with new technologies, and they're learning at their own pace. These are dramatically different forms of education than many of us experienced.

And what that means is that you all, as hirers and employers, have to recognize that eventually what's going to matter and what's beginning to matter the most is not where you went to school, it's not even what degree you have, but it's what you know. You all represent a significant community of influence and a significant actor in the system.

We think of policymakers. We think of faculty. We think of higher education institutions. We think of students. And you know who's missing from that? It's you all. That's who's missing. It's the workforce. It's the employers. It's the Fortune 2000. It's small businesses of America.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: #2. Ask state and local government about regulatory reform initiatives.

(SPEECH)
BRIAN BONLENDER:

(DESCRIPTION)
Brian Bonlender -- Director, Washington State Department of Commerce.

(SPEECH)
The governor is creating this Results Washington in which he's very metrics-driven. And so he wanted metrics on how government was performing. And so I wanted to use that opportunity to try to figure out if we can find a metric for our regulatory burden. There are three reasons I like it.

One is it's a systemic approach. As I mentioned, it's not just one item at a time. Two, it looks at the cost and the time associated with these permits from the business perspective, and not from the agency perspective. And oftentimes that's a mistake when people go about trying to figure out how to deal with regulatory reform. And third, it's a measurement. It gives us a number to shoot at.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: #3. Secure information coming in and out of your business.

(SPEECH)
KIM KROGH:

(DESCRIPTION)
Kim Krogh, Account Executive, Hub International Northwest.

(SPEECH)
If you're collecting any type of data on a piece of paper, whether it be about your personnel, a consumer, or any type of business organization that you're involved with, and it's released, you are susceptible to rules and regulations in regards to that data.

So it is something as great as your data, your computers, the viruses that can compromise that, and it can be something as little as paper. So you need to be aware of all the information going in and out, and how you secure it.

[AUDIO LOGO]

(DESCRIPTION)
Logos: Travelers Institute (registered trademark), Travelers. Text: TravelersInstitute.org. Hashtag, Small Biz Opportunity.

Small Business - Big Opportunity: Boston, MA

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[UPBEAT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Boston, Massachusetts. July 16, 2013.

A woman stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: The Small Business, Big Opportunity symposium series that we started about two years ago was really in the recognition of us being one of the largest insurers of small businesses in the country. And we found that they are struggling, they are struggling to get access to capital, they are struggling with regulatory burdens.

They're struggling with business continuity planning and risk management techniques to run their businesses. And we were very concerned about this and we see it every day. So we decided to do a symposium series to collect best practices across the country.

(DESCRIPTION)
People sit on a panel and speak to the audience. Text: April Anderson Lamoureux, President, Anderson Strategic Advisors, LLC. Former Secretary for Economic Development, State of Massachusetts.

(SPEECH)
APRIL ANDERSON LAMOUREUX: What we know in Massachusetts is that 85% of our total businesses are small businesses and they employ nearly half of our total workforce. So the state's economic agenda is very, very aware of the impact of small businesses here. On regulatory reform, this was started in 2010. It was an initiative that I headed up for Governor Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Murray, and we started a top down review of every state regulation in Massachusetts.

There's roughly over 500,000 regulations that have been reviewed to date. But of those, 276 were reformed, 74 regulations were repealed outright, and another 202 have been streamlined. And it started when the SBA came out with its study about the cost impact of federal regulation on business. And what the SBA said is that it costs a little bit over $8,000 on average for businesses to comply with federal regulation.

Then it said if you have 20 or fewer employees, it's another almost 3,000. So we're looking at over $10,000 for small businesses to comply with federal regulation only. Then you think about state regulation in Massachusetts, the abundance of local regulation and that number has probably tripled.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Lynn Bromley, Regional Advocate, Region 1. U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy.

(SPEECH)
LYNN BROMLEY: The layers of regulation are a particular issue in New England. The amount of regulation at the federal level isn't really increasing all that much, at least in the United States and New England, it's actually decreasing. But on the local level, it's not. It isn't just, who do I call, it's who's regulating me?

Is it the feds? Is it the state? Is it my municipality or is it my professional association who wants to make sure I have a license to do what I do?

(DESCRIPTION)
April Anderson Lamoureux.

(SPEECH)
APRIL ANDERSON LAMOUREUX: I just started this small business of my own and now I can appreciate the death by 1,000 cuts mantra. I never heard from a small business saying, I don't want to do what you're asking me to. More often what I've heard is what do you want me to do. Just be more clear and stop changing the rules.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Joseph Bator, Senior Vice President and Director of Business Banking, Eastern Bank.

(SPEECH)
JOSEPH BATOR: It's easier today probably to get a loan than it was pre-recession. The difference is small businesses are much more reluctant to take them. They're really reluctant to hire the next person because they just aren't confident that it's going to continue to be good.

They're not confident that the health care isn't going to put an extra burden on them. It's going to make it harder. The sequestration was something they weren't confident about. The higher taxes, it's constantly changing and that's creating concern for small businesses.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Mike Chapman, Chief Sales Officer, HUB International.

(SPEECH)
MIKE CHAPMAN: The challenge we have now dealing with any of our customers is to help them transfer and manage risk. We've tried to boil it down in three real simple areas. Where does risk hit you as an employer and for your employees, where does it hit your product, and where does it hit your customers? There's pure business continuity.

What happens if you do get hit by one of those risks and then the business continuity related to the ownership and perpetuation of your business? If we asked everybody in this room and polled every small business owner, do you have a good business perpetuation plan in terms of what's going to happen to you or what happens if you're not there? We get about a 30% to 40% reaction in general.

It used to be define risk as the four walls and the vehicles over the road and the people needing worker's compensation. And now we're talking about the risks of privacy and the risk of cyber liability and what you have to do from a compliance standpoint to keep your doors open. So, a lot more of our time now is really spent on identifying those risks and trying to help you comfortably transfer that exposure.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Boston, Massachusetts. July 16, 2013.

Small Business - Big Opportunity: New York, NY

(SPEECH)
[MUSIC PLAYING]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. NYSE Euronext (service mark). "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Finding Solutions to Small Business Challenges. New York, New York. Tuesday, July 17, 2012.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Hi. I'm Joan Woodward, president of the Travelers Institute. The Travelers Institute was proud to partner with the New York Stock Exchange in July 2012 to host another in our series of Small Business, Big Opportunity, a series dedicated to exploring and helping small business owners grow their business, create jobs, get access to capital, and reduce regulatory burdens on their business so they can foster and bring about more economic growth in society.

The New York Stock Exchange event was one in a long series that we've been doing around the country, and it's one of the largest insurers of small business in the country. We really do feel a responsibility and excited about helping small business owners thrive.

(DESCRIPTION)
A man stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. Text: Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NYSE Euronext. A video of Duncan handing a plaque to a man, while people applaud.

(SPEECH)
DUNCAN NIEDERAUER: How do we understand and appreciate more than we do that small businesses are the backbone of the country, and yet Main Street businesses across the country are really struggling? They're starved for capital in many cases, they're starved for opportunities to grow.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Jay Fishman, Chairman and CEO of Travelers.

(SPEECH)
JAY FISHMAN: So my father comes out of the service in 1945. And there are now four generations of fishermen's living in one two bedroom apartment in the Bronx and my father decides to start up a tiny, small printing business. I'm the beneficiary of the success that came from that business. It was enough, as I'm fun to quote, to pay the rent and to educate his kids.

We're the first generation in my family to go to college, and it was really all from the efforts of that tiny business.

(DESCRIPTION)
Jay speaks to people on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A group stands on the balcony of the exchange and applauds.

(SPEECH)
I feel a personal interest in being engaged, of speaking up for the opportunity that exists, the opportunity for the less educated, the opportunity for the hard working and committed but not silver spoon group. We think that there is a responsibility that comes with success to be engaged in the public debate, to offer ideas and thoughts, to be forthcoming.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Karen speaks to a man on the floor of the stock exchange.

(SPEECH)
KAREN MILLS: Two out of every three net new jobs are created by small business. So when we talk about these job creation engines, this is really at the core of the economy. For the moment, banks are primarily the funders of small businesses, and in 2008, at the end, they weren't lending.

(DESCRIPTION)
People sit on a panel and speak to each other and the audience. Text: Tokumbo Shobowale, Chief Business Operations Officer, City of New York.

(SPEECH)
TOKUMBO SHOBOWALE: It's very hard people have a great idea, but it's hard to get out of the gate. And often if you trip coming out of the gate, it's hard to ever recover. And so getting that initial start is very, very important. And so the mayor recognized this as well and recently formed something called the New Business Acceleration Team, or NBAT, and their job is to really help on businesses get open.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Joan Woodward, President, The Travelers Institute.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: You've been hugely successful. So how do you think about access to capital for small businesses?

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Deirdre Quinn, Co-Founder and President, Layfayette 1 48 New York.

(SPEECH)
DEIDRE QUINN: I think it started out exactly as a lot of people where you spend everything you're not supposed to, your 401(k), you don't draw a salary. You get it to where it starts to make money and you learn it's really hard to make and it's really easy to spend. And so I'm not a big believer in over borrowing.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Kate Mitchell, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Scale Venture Partners.

(SPEECH)
KATE MITCHELL: Most important, who is your customer? That's a really important thing to define and think about. Think about why you as an individual, why your team, what experience, why here, and why now. So before you even get to putting a financial plan on paper, thinking through and articulating those things because that's the articulation of your vision, then you put together a really detailed financial roadmap for yourself.

What are the costs? What are my milestones for success? Ultimately, what's the cash flow? That's the mother's milk you need to get there, and what's your future profitability? And then break that down so that you're taking some measured milestones and risks.

(DESCRIPTION)
Joan Woodward.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: So in that vein, I just had I guess one piece of advice is and everyone has in this room optimism and really a can do attitude that you can build this company, you're going to get the customers and they'll stay with you and the banks are going to trust you and just having that attitude of can do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. NYSE Euronext (service mark). "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Finding Solutions to Small Business Challenges. New York, New York. Tuesday, July 17, 2012.

Small Business - Big Opportunity: Kansas City, MO

(SPEECH)
[UPBEAT MUSIC]

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. Small Business - Big Opportunity. Finding Solutions to Small Business Challenges. Kansas City, Missouri. April 25, 2012.

A woman stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. Text: Joan Woodward, President, Travelers Institute.

(SPEECH)
JOAN WOODWARD: Travelers Institute has taken on a large project, a nationwide project. We are the largest insurer of small businesses in this country. And when I say small businesses, according to the SBA, as our panelists will talk about today, that basically means 500 employees or less. We insure the smaller of the small businesses and therefore, we have seen across the country numerous cases since the recession hit, since the great financial meltdown of small businesses really, really struggling to survive.

BOB LITAN:

(DESCRIPTION)
People sit on a panel and speak to the audience. Text: Bob Litan, Vice President, Research and Policy, The Kauffman Foundation.

(SPEECH)
We've been doing research over the last number of years, even predating the recession, but intensifying since, trying to figure out what is the source of job creation in the economy, who are creating jobs? And between 1980 and 2007, the answer that we found and also our research grantees discovered this is that all net new jobs in the economy were created by firms less than five years old.

It's a remarkable finding. So it's not just small business, it's new business that drives the economy. We're going to really have to boost new firm formation and success rates. And that led us to supporting something called the Startup Act last summer, which has now gotten legs because it's the only thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on. They love entrepreneurs, both of them.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Pat Brown-Dixon, Administrator, Region 7, U.S. Small Business Administration.

(SPEECH)
PAT BROWN-DIXON: We also are trying to make all of the resources that are available through the federal government easier to get to, instead of having to go to each one of the federal agencies to find out what we do. The president is trying to put together one federal resource called biz.gov.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Danny O'Neill, President & Owner, Roasterie.

(SPEECH)
DANNY O'NEILL: In the last week we formed three new companies. And I was just thinking about Bob's words, we'll prop those companies that we formed. Two of them at least will probably add a lot more jobs in the next five years than our existing company that's 19 years old now. So that's very exciting.

I have a great story because I have a lot of folks helping us. But it's hard and the phone calls you have to do to get this done and get this person moved and get something off somebody's desk. And if we have a big one like, for example, you have a big plan, you make one change. They have two to four weeks to respond to that change. And you can just imagine all the things lined up behind that when you're doing permits and such.

But the whole notion though, if I did encapsulate it would be an attitude of service, they're there for us. And I don't think any of us, all the entrepreneurs I run around with, no one's saying get rid of this or make the environmental regulations more lax or make buildings safety more lax. And no one's asking for that is really just more transparency, black and white, common sense, and have that feeling that the folks they are behind us and not against us.

(DESCRIPTION)
Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers.