The Oakland Merchants’ Leadership Forum is committed to being the forum for merchants, business owners and concerned residents to identify small business concerns and build solutions together. Our homepage honors your insights brought from being in the commercial corridors day in and day out. OMLF thanks you for doing business in Oakland; shopping in Oakland; and for your commitment to celebrate, strengthen and preserve the neighborhood commercial corridors of Oakland.

Oakland Merchants Leadership Forum would like to thank all the participants and thanks to a generous donation from Fenton’s Ice Creamery, all participants will receive a free scoop card.
Tina Schmitz - Grand Prize Winner “Passport Getaway in Oakland” - $2,500.00 value

Susan Welch - First Prize Winner, “Shop Oakland Shopping Spree” - $1,000.00 value

Yael Falicov - Second Prize Winner, “A Night on the Town” - $750.00 value

Comments made by some of the participants:

“What a great experience!”

“It was fun! Thanks.”

“Thanks! This was a fun adventure!”

” I did the whole thing. Loved the idea. Loved meeting independent businesses in Oakland. I really appreciate that you guys did this.”

“A big THANK YOU for opening my eyes to the other wonderful neighborhoods in my city of Oakland.  Without your “Passport” I never would have experienced these great areas and I have lived here 6 years so far now. You have opened up my world.” Lisa Klein

Bella Ceramica

Center for Holistic Health

Chabot Space and Science Center

Del Angel Gifts

Entrez! Open House

Farmer Joes Grocery

Fentons Creamery

Joanna Janeth Clothing

Karen’s Flowers

Oakland Zoo

Prime Spot Bar & Grill

Shuz of Rockridge

Silver Lining Jewelry

Simply Gorgeous Day Spa

The Berma Clinic

Thelma Harris Art Gallery

Cesar Restaurant

Doyle Chiropractic

Children’s Fairland

Audio Video Consultants

California Canoe & Kayak

City Share Car

Dunsmuir House

Gente Bella Salon Spa

Gondola Servizio

El Haurache Azteca Restaruant

It’s a Grind Coffee House

La Taza Café

Rockridge Market Hall

Marriott Hotels & Resorts

Oakland Ice Center

Pacific Coast Brewing

Renaissance Rialto Inc. (Grandlake Theatre)

Robert Townsend Chiropractic

The Taoist Center

Oakland Community Acupuncture

City of Oakland

Dear Oakland Business Owner,

The Oakland Merchant Leadership Forum and the City of Oakland would like to offer you the opportunity to participate in our first annual Shop Oakland Passport Marketing Campaign as a Prize Donor.

Using the theme of “Shop the World at Home in Oakland” we encouraged consumers to shop Oakland by giving them a free passport-style booklet featuring maps of all the shopping districts in Oakland and coupon ads from businesses in each district. As an incentive to visit each participating district, consumers were able to enter into a prize drawing by having merchants in the respective district stamp their passport entry form. The campaign was a success! We have received completed passports and the winning passport entries will be drawn on April 23 and presented to the winners at an event on May 2nd. Continue Reading »

Click here to see OMLF’s updated accomplishments

If you are fed up with crime and are interested on how the
different agencies in the County work to help combat Crime in
Oakland…..Then YOU need to be at this meeting.

Click here for flier

The Public Protection Committee, Chaired by Nate Miley, is
hosting a special public meeting to hear and answer questions
and concerns regarding the role each Agency (DA’s Office,
Sheriffs Dept., Probation, Parole, Judicial and others) plays in
dealing with crime and the different steps that follow once OPD
does their job.

April 7, 2008
10:30 AM
1221 Oak Street, 5th Floor
Board Chambers

We have been asking the WHY’s…..Now we can get answers as well
as let the County Agencies know (by being there in sheer
numbers) that they need to play a bigger role in helping to
reduce the crime in our City!

Oakland PIC is a non-profit organization that can assist merchants with their staffing/hiring needs for no fee. We can screen candidates, post jobs, do job referrals, provide facilities for recruitment/interviewing, host job fairs and all these services for businesses are provided at no fee. We can also provide information
on tax credits and we do have funds for customized training for existing employees and On-The-Job training funds for new employees hired through our career centers. We can be a valuable resource to businesses at no cost.

Our website is http://www.oaklandpic.org and if you then click on
Business Services we list services that can be provided for the Oakland merchants.

Bob LoBue
Oakland Private Industry Council
Project Director, SSA Career Center
2000 San Pablo Ave, Oakland
blobue@oaklandpic.org
510-208-0912

Scott Hauge, President of Small Business California sent the following announcement:

One of the members of Small Business California told me how important the economic stimulus package was to his business. I asked him why only 12% of small businesses in a recent survey said it was not important. His comment to me was that small businesses didn’t know about it. He suggested I send out on my email tree information about it and that all of you that have email trees send it out to their list. Mark Herbert in Speaker Pelosi’s office said the Speaker is very interested in making sure small businesses were aware of the stimulus package and has put together the information below.
Small Business California is putting together its legislative agenda. We will be sponsoring or cosponsoring three bills this year and taking positions on 15 to 20 bills. You can see the bills we are following by going to our website at www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org
Are there any bills that you are aware of that are important to you? I know many of you have indicated Ma’s sick leave bill is a real problem and while we have not taken a position at this point I would expect we will oppose and testify against it.
Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188

Dear Friends:

As you know Congress, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, passed an economic stimulus package earlier this year that will inject billions of dollars back into our faltering economy. Below is some information that I hope will be helpful to you and your small business. Continue Reading »

This is a unique and free opportunity to advertise your business to the 50,000 people that will be walking through Oakland during June’s East Bay Open Studios. Pro Arts and OMLF want to help promote Oakland and collaborate to collectively market our businesses and artists. We highly recommend every take advantage of this free opportunity! The deadline is March 31. Continue Reading »

February 27, 2008 Listen to audio click here

1 hour 21 min.