MEDIA ADVISORY

Small Business Advocacy Council Achieves Success in
Creating New Opportunities for Small Businesses and Jobs  

(Chicago, IL- August 12, 2011) Gov. Quinn signed House Bill 3186 into law. This bill sets a goal for all state agencies to award 10% of state contracts to small business and requires them to report annually on whether they have met those goals. This success was achieved through the efforts of the Small Business Advocacy Council, the 501c6 organization that drafted the bill, acquired sponsors and encouraged their growing membership to contact the governor’s office. HB 3186 will create substantial revenue for small business owners and as a result, jobs.

Small businesses totaled 1.1 million in the state in 2008. Of these, 255,769 were employers, and they accounted for 48.4% of private-sector jobs in the state. Small firms made up 98.3% of the state’s employers. This is not a sector to ignore.

“We should all take pride in knowing that at some point in the future, the family of a small business owner will go to dinner to celebrate receiving a contract from the state that they may not have otherwise received. Perhaps another family will be celebrating a new job created because of this legislation. Their lives will be better” states Elliott Richardson, president and founder of SBAC.

“We have a lot of people to thank for this success, including State Representative & Chairman of the House Small Business Committee La Shawn K. Ford for his tenacious support in our efforts,” adds Richardson.

About Small Business Council

The SBAC is a non-partisan small business advocacy not-for-profit organization that promotes the issues relevant to small business owners. Since its inception in 2010, the SBAC has grown substantially featuring over 300 local small businesses. For more information, call (847) 990-7909 or visit www.sbacil.org.