Column: Get small-business help to start the new year fresh
BY KELLIE LEDET
The U.S. Small Business Administration is all about jumpstarting and elevating America”™s small businesses. Collaboration with SBA resource partners is essential to our mission of helping small businesses ”” the engines of our economy ”” start and grow.
SBA resource partners provide one-on-one counseling, training and mentorship that can help to unleash your small business”™ potential. In fiscal year 2014, these efforts helped obtain more than $4.7 billion in capital infusion for small businesses, start more than 13,500 new companies and create and retain more than 70,000 jobs.
The help is free and available to help you build your small business”™ success, regardless of whether you”™ve received SBA assistance previously. There are a handful of SBA resource partners that can cater to your small-business needs or concerns.
The SBA”™s resource partner network is composed of SCORE, Small Business Development Centers and Women”™s Business Centers. In addition, 15 organizations serve as Veterans Business Outreach Centers through cooperative agreements with the SBA”™s Office of Veterans Business Development. Overall, the SBA”™s resource partners try to make small businesses into a big deal. Small Business Development Centers counseled and trained 485,487 clients, SCORE counseled and trained nearly 442,000 clients and Women”™s Business Centers provided assistance to 140,037 clients in 2014.
The administration”™s network of resource partners is smart and accessible. They serve and mentor the dynamic demographics of the U.S., including women, entrepreneurs over the age of 50, veterans and millennial entrepreneurs. The SBA”™s resource partners have helped the small-business community raise startup and growth capital, start new companies and sell billions of dollars in products and services globally.
One business that received SBA resource partner assistance is Noor Hallal African and American Market in the Bronx. Ismaila Bah, an immigrant and refugee from Guinea, received $10,000 in assistance to launch his international grocery store in an underserved community there. Bah obtained an SBA microloan for $5,000 and $5,000 from SBA”™s resource partner, the Business Outreach Center, along with counseling, technical assistance, training and support to launch his business. Working with the SBA and BOC, Bah”™s dreams of making it in America became a reality. He reminded others, “Everyone that comes here (America) can get want they want, not just from Africa, but from anywhere in the world and here in the USA.”
If you”™re thinking of starting, growing or managing a small business, connect with your SBA district office at sba.gov/local. You can also search the nearest SBDCs, SCORE chapters and WBCs to empower your next small-business move.
Kellie I. LeDet is regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration”™s Region II, which serves New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.