Small Business & Entrepreneur Resources

Last week I attended a quarterly meeting for the Business Resource Roundtable for Cabarrus and Rowan Counties. This is an informal group of small business service providers – organizations that serve as resources for small business growth in the region. It is organized by Barbara Hall, director of the Small Business Center at RCCC, and helps to keep each agency updated about what others are doing. Here are some highlights:

• The Five Ventures annual business plan competition and conference is coming up April 13. This is an opportunity for early-stage, high-growth businesses to compete for awards and resources to grow their businesses. The deadline to enter is February 16. If you are not in the competition, attending the conference is a great way to hear about new business ventures and network with other entrepreneurs and service providers.
• Self-Help, a community development lending institution with an office in Charlotte that serves the region, has received funding to provide loans to small businesses that are unable to find financing from traditional banks. They are looking for small businesses ready to invest these funds!
• The Centralina Workforce Development Board has an incumber worker training program that helps existing businesses upgrade the skills of their workers to position the company for modernization and expansion. The grants are competitive and the deadline for the next round is May 24. For more information, click here.
• SCORE, the group of retired small business executives that helps existing small businesses, will be starting a marketing and sales seminar. Although the group is based in Charlotte, they are available to come up to Cabarrus and Rowan Counties for counseling visits.
• The Department of Commerce is working with the local SBTDC to offer Biz Boost, a program for companies with 10 or more employees to help them grow and create jobs. The companies work with the SBTDC on areas such as marketing, financing, and strategy development.
• The Small Business Center is offering two entrepreneur training programs to help people develop their business strategy and business plan: REAL (Tuesdays Feb 16 – Apr 13), and FastTrac (weekly, Mar 22 – Apr 7). The SBC also launched the Business Connector, a database that links the people who make purchasing decisions at the NC Research Campus to local businesses.

Small business and entrepreneurship are very important to our local economy, and we all need to do what we can to help them grow. For a more comprehensive overview of small business resources, click here and here.