 From the District Director I hope you have a chance to read SBA's new Administrator, Maria Contreras-Sweet's report on her first 100 days in office. Her vision for the SBA's future is inspiring, and in the Illinois District Office, we are doing everything we can to achieve what the Administrator referred to as, "entrepreneurial equality" and inclusiveness for all the individuals and businesses we serve throughout Illinois. This month our 2014 Emerging Leaders class moved past its halfway mark, and this year's 17 class members represent many different groups from across the region and its underserved communities. This past week we hosted the Chicago edition of ChallengeHER, an SBA initiative designed to include women-owned businesses, to the greatest extent possible, in government contracting. Finally, our recent Boots to Business: REBOOT and participation in events like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Hiring Our Heroes event in Peoria, demonstrate our commitment to ensuring veterans have opportunities to learn how to start a business and showcase their valuable skills before potential employers. With events across the state supporting access to capital, business advisory services, and opportunities for small business subcontracting with large firms, SBA's Illinois District Office is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in Illinois shares in the value of our programs and services. As we look forward to further implementing Administrator Contreras-Sweet's vision, our focus will be on ensuring that everyone in Illinois understands what SBA can do for their business and their community. Bo If you haven't visited SBA.gov/tools, you might be surprised at what you'll find there. SBA constantly invests in online resources to help small businesses grow. Here are a few of the tools available at the link above: Business Plan Development Tool - Using the form-fillable tool to enter and calculate vital information about your business or idea. Size Up - To research your competition in a similar industry in any geographic area. SBA Events Calendar - Find out what SBA staff and partners, throughout the country, have planned. Online Training - Videos, web chats and online courses to help businesses from any web-enabled device. Government Contracting - An online calculator to determine whether your business qualifies to win government contracts. |  A few weeks ago, SBA's 24th Administrator, Maria Contreras-Sweet discussed her first 100 days in office in a progress report published on SBA.gov last month. The new Administrator noted several of her accomplishments including those related to expanding access to capital, opportunities for veterans in business and the launch of SBA's Scale-Up America initiative. Please take a moment to read Administrator Contreras-Sweet's 100-Day Progress Report. As she mentioned in her Progress Report described above, Administrator Contreras-Sweet is committed to entrepreneurial equality, a concept she discussed in her June 10 speech at the Center for American Progress. There the Administrator discussed the importance of ensuring all groups, including veterans, women and minorities have access to the resources they need to start businesses and grow jobs. The Administrator also discussed her own career and her goal of increasing SBA's inclusiveness. Her remarks that day are posted at this link. For more information about Administrator Contreras-Sweet, please visit this link to her biography as well as her blog posts and other speeches. Congratulations to the new Administrator on a successful first 100 days! |
UBS and Valley Economic Development Corporation are working together on a new initiative called Elevating Entrepreneurs. On Tuesday, August 19 from 8:30am to 12:00pm UBS Elevating Entrepreneurs will host its Ascent: Capital & Connections, Chicago event. SBA Region Five Administrator, Marianne Markowitz, will offer opening remarks to the assembled guests before a panel discussion and workshops. The event's discussions will target businesses operating for at least two years with annual revenues of at least $500,000. Visit this link to register. SBA Illinois District Office International Trade Webinars SBA is committed to helping small business understand the possibilities of growing revenues and jobs through increased international trade. During the months of August and September SBA's Illinois District Office will offer four 45-60 minute webinars on the topics below. Each webinar will conclude with a question/answer period during which participants can ask questions of the presenter. August 20 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Introduction to International Trade Opportunities August 27 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Elements of Direct and Indirect Exporting September 10 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm
International Trade Counseling Research and Training Resources September 17 - 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Export Pricing, Tax and Accounting Options Visit the links above to register for one or more of the webinars. Lenders, financial services professionals, non-profit executives, economic and community development professionals, potential entrepreneurs and small businesspersons, please consider attending the Metro East St. Louis Small Business Access to Capital Summit on August 26th from 7:30am to 11:00am CDT, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Collinsville, Illinois. Sponsored by the Illinois Small Business Development Center at SIU-Edwardsville, Justine Peterson, The Meridian Society, Small Business Monthly, SCORE and PNC Bank, the Metro East A2C Summit is an opportunity to learn more about how small business lending institutions are meeting the growing need for small business financing and alternative forms of capital in the Metro East region. The event's keynote speaker is Mark Pinsky, CEO of Opportunity Finance Network, who will discuss options and opportunities for small businesses to access capital. SBA's Illinois District Director, Bo Steiner, and SBA's Springfield Branch Manager, Val Ross, will also be on hand to discuss SBA's own efforts to help make capital available to qualified entrepreneurs and small businesses. The event is FREE but registration is required and space is limited. Visit this link to register today. Each year SBA publishes its Small Business Procurement Scorecards, which measure federal agencies' progress toward meeting their small business and underrepresented business prime and sub-contracting goals. This year, SBA announced that, for the first time in eight years, the federal government met its annual 23 percent goal for small business contracting. In her August 1 speech at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, SBA's Administrator announced the FY2013 Scorecard's release and noted the federal government's progress toward increased small business procurement activity as well as new initiatives like Quick Pay, which helps small business suppliers to the federal government get paid in 15 days or less. Visit this link to see how each agency fared in reaching its goals. For more information about SBA's Goaling Program, visit this link where you will also find more information about SBA's efforts to help federal agencies achieve their statutory goals for small business procurement. |
No comments:
Post a Comment