What Resources Should Be Available for Entrepreneurs/Small Businesses?
“Quality programs to help individuals and companies get their businesses off on the right track.”
This is a more specific question than the others and, not surprisingly, money rose to the top in terms of the number of responses. But there were other categories of responses as well: networking, support, mentoring, marketing, and education.
Education
- Alternative education programs
- Good schools
- Scholarships for small business owners/employees
Marketing
- Marketing
- Marketing (not social media)
- Publicity
- Web design help (Facebook would be fine)
Mentoring
- Mentors/mentoring/mentorship (3 responses)
- Mentoring and support
Money/Finance
- Access to capital
- Connections to angel investors
- Finances/financial (2 responses)
- Funding support guidance
- Funding/grants. Free business plan prep, incubator.
- Grants/grant assistance (4 responses)
- Helping with funding
- Loans
- Seed money
- Money mentorship
- Small business loans
- Start up funds for entrepreneur/ small business
- Start up incentives
- Waive tap fees
- Help with startup, utilities, and taxes (property sales) for 1st 3-5 years
Networking
- A place to gather regularly with a speaker (education or business owner)
- Meetings such as the one tonight. Workshops that have smaller groups and can hear the program.
- Peer support groups
- Sense of community
Support
- A real small business incubator
- An understanding by local government of the risks small businesses face and how badly we need them to do their job
- Business incubation mode
- Community and city leadership support
- Embracing
- Incentives (2 responses)
- Incubation for business
- Incubator and training
- Incubators, Information resources, coworking spaces
- More accessibility for knowledge of small businesses
- Reduced business license
- Space
- Support
- The resource programs would turn dreams into an economy
- Support from elected officials
- To become more reliable
- We need to pull people to and start a program such as start:me