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News
09/25/09 - SCC Small Business Development Center wins $132,070 in new contracts
FAIRFIELD, CA – Solano Community College’s (SCC) Small Business Development Center (SBDC) has won two new contracts to provide business services for the City of Fairfield Redevelopment agency and the Solano County Community Development Block Grant Microenterprise Assistance Program.
The City of Fairfield contract, totaling $20,000, is a renewal of a contract SBDC has had with the City for many years. The contract is to provide training and one-on-one counseling to Fairfield businesses.
The Solano County State Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) contract for $111,070 is a new agreement for the SCC SBDC to provide counseling and training to microenterprises in what are called the non-entitlement cities (Benicia, Dixon, Rio Vista, and Suisun City) and the unincorporated parts of the county. Under the CDBG contract, microenterprises are businesses with five or fewer employees. Another requirement is that the owners must qualify as low-to-moderate income. The grant funded by a State Community Development Block Grant.
“This grant will allow us to serve microenterprises that may not otherwise have access to our services,” explains Charles Eason, SCC SBDC Director. “We will be bringing training and counseling to these the cities of Benicia, Dixon, Rio Vista, Suisun City and unincorporated parts of Solano County.”
The SCC SBDC has been around for over twenty years, providing training and counseling to small businesses in Solano County. The Center is part of the national Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Program, which consists of over 1,100 Centers nationwide.
In SBDC’s fiscal year 2008-09, they provided training to 1,828 attendees at 116 workshops and a total of 1,795 hours of one-on-one counseling to 362 businesses. The economic impact of their work helped create 83 jobs, retain 149 jobs, start up 38 new business startups, increase sales $4,977,383, and assisted in securing $5,299,112 in financing.
Funding for the SCC SBDC is provided through the Small Business Administration (SBA) on the federal level, the California Community College Economic and Workforce Development Program on the state level, and through local partners such as the City of Vacaville. The SBDC offers the following three core services:
The SCC SBDC offers workshops on small business topics such as business startup, business planning, financing, marketing, basic bookkeeping, government procurement and other small business topics. These short-term workshops are typically 2-3 hours in length and are designed to provide entrepreneurs the practical knowledge. In addition to the short-term workshops, the Center offers a 12 week NxLeveL Entrepreneurial Training Program designed to help entrepreneurs develop a thorough business plan.
They also offer no-cost confidential one-on-one counseling services to entrepreneurs seeking to start, buy or grow a business through a team of “been there, done that” Business Advisors who either own their own businesses or have owned a business.
To assist entrepreneurs, the SCC SBDC maintains a resource library and reference materials that can be accessed. Library materials can be checked out by the client. Resources include Nolo Press books, Entrepreneur Magazine Startup Kits, etc.
The SCC SBDC targets existing small businesses, but also works with startup businesses. One common theme for both startup and existing businesses is the need for access to capital. There are a lot of loan programs available to small businesses such as SBA guaranteed loans, state guaranteed loans, lines of credit, micro-loans, and local loan programs. The SBDC does not do lending, but can help businesses determine what their capital needs really are and then assist them with the application process for appropriate loan program.
The SCC SBDC is open Mon – Fri 8:30 – 5:00 pm. For additional information, contact Charles Eason, Director, Solano Community College SBDC, 360 Campus Lane, Suite 102, Fairfield, CA 94534, Tel: (707) 864-3382, Fax: (707) 864-8025 fax, Email: www.solanosbdc.org.
Last Updated: October 13, 2009
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