Helping Businesses Grow & Succeed
In Miami, a coalition of funders, leaders and local Community Development Financial Institutions came together to ensure that as many of our small businesses as possible would survive the pandemic. The RISE Miami-Dade Fund (RISE), which the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners seeded with CARES Act funding, distributed $20 million to […]
We checked in on a few of the small businesses we followed during the pandemic. They have survived, and dare we say it, thrived because of the steps they took and pivots they made during the pandemic, sometimes painful, to get through it. These are just a few of the […]
Fees can add up when obtaining an SBA small business loan. Here’s some good news on that front. Starting Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022, the US Small Business Administration will waive both the upfront guaranty fee on the 7a, Express and EWCP loans, among others, as well as the ongoing servicing fee, for amounts up […]
There’s good news and bad news in the latest NFIB Small Business Optimism survey. First off, there is still a lot of uncertainty out there: The NFIB Uncertainty Index decreased seven points to 69, the lowest level since January 2016. “As the economy moves into the fourth quarter, small business owners are […]
It’s been nearly three years since Florida International University launched StartUP FIU Procurement to help minority-led small businesses grow and navigate the world of government and anchor institution contracting. Let’s check in with StartUP FIU Procurement Director Barbara Cotto and see how they are doing. The small business incubator was […]
Here is an Aug. 11, 2021 press release with information about the Shuttered Venue Operations Grant program offered by the SBA. The deadline looms: Aug. 20. Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration is announcing a call to all eligible Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) applicants seeking economic aid for live entertainment small […]
The help wanted signs are everywhere. If your small business has had trouble hiring, you are not alone. A nationwide survey found that that was a big problem small businesses are facing as they struggle to recover from the pandemic. And hiring challenges are not even the biggest proglem. For […]
The Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, the Florida Chamber Foundation, CareerSource Florida, and the University of West Florida Haas Center today released new data from the second phase of a research study to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the state’s small businesses as the pandemic and subsequent economic impacts surpassed the one-year mark. […]
We all know that the pandemic has been devastating for small businesses, We don’t have to look any farther than our neighborhood strip shopping center to see small business that have closed for good. And for many of those companies that have survived, their business is far from what it […]
The COVID-19 pandemic was tough for many businesses – that is an understatement — yet few industries felt the wallop as much as restaurant owners and their workers. But the restaurant businesses that were successful in navigating the crisis were flexible and adaptable. They were not afraid to pivot and […]