As part of the National Small Business Week celebration, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) hosted an awards ceremony where the Pace University Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was recognized with Small Business Development Center of Excellence and Innovation awards from the SBA’s New York District, as well as from SBA Region II. Center Director Andrew Flamm accepted the awards from SBA Regional Administrator Steve Bulger and New York District Director Beth Goldberg on behalf of the Pace SBDC team. The Pace SBDC was also pleased to celebrate National Small Business Week with Pace SBDC client Geopipe, who received the SBIR/STTR Recipient of the Year award.
Prior to the event, the Pace SBDC enjoyed hosting SBA’s New York District office leadership to provide a tour of its center and to meet with Neil Braun, Dean of Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. Dean Braun highlighted the focus on entrepreneurship in Pace’s programming, and also provided insight into how earlier in his career, SBA financing helped launch a film industry business at which he had a leadership role. To read more about the SBA’s visit, check out our blog.
The Pace University SBDC team recently attended the New York SBDC network's annual staff training conference, where they joined workshops and connected with NYSBDC colleagues to discuss small business assistance best practices. In addition to this invaluable professional development, the conference included an award ceremony where Pace SBDC client Earth Angel received the NYSBDC Environmental Business of the Year award. Earth Angel’s founder, Emellie O'Brien, has worked with the SBDC on growth strategies and to secure $100,000 in working capital financing from Excelsior Growth Fund.
Pace SBDC Senior Business Advisor Rawle Brown was also recognized for the highest number of new business starts of any NYSBDC business advisor; Business Advisor Anish Thakkar was recognized with a "Lead by Example" award for his dedication and initiative; and the center was recognized for enrolling the second highest number of clients in the BidLinx procurement bid matching system. Check out our blog for more detail.
Dr. Christopher Mitchell and Dr. Thomas Dickerson co-founded NYC-based technology firm Geopipe to produce models for enterprise customers in simulation, gaming and architecture. The client sought guidance and support on their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant application to the National Science Foundation, and the NYSBDC team and technology consultants provided recommendations to strengthen the commercialization plan and budget, and to implement program accounting best practices. Geopipe was awarded a $750,000 SBIR Phase II commercialization grant, creating two full-time and three part-time jobs.
New York State's 2019 Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) is now open. As part of Governor Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council Initiative, the CFA is a web-based application for accessing more than $750 million in grants, tax credits, low-cost financing, energy efficiency programs, and workforce development assistance from over thirty programs across ten state agencies. For information on the programs, as well as the application process, check out their website or attend the upcoming CFA workshop on June 20 at Brooklyn Borough Hall. CFA applications are due by July 26 at 4pm.
Since hurricane season kicked off on June 1, the Pace SBDC recommends that small businesses prepare for future disasters by taking photographs of physical assets and scanning tax returns, contracts and other key documents. Further, backing up accounting and other records and having access to documents electronically and/or somewhere other than your place of business will help document business operations should your business suffer physical damage. Check out an excerpt from the NYSBDC network’s disaster recovery planning guide, as well as disaster preparation guidelines from the U.S.Small Business Administration (SBA), and Pace SBDC's blog post for further detail.
