From the Director Summer time represents vacation time for many families. Here, many staff members are enjoying a little time off with families and friends but that doesn't mean the work stops. Special thanks to staff members who stepped up and performed superbly in supporting roles. Miami SCORE chapter and Florida SBDC supported SBA national initiative Boots to Business Reboot held at the Miami Veterans Administration Hospital auditorium, July 29-30. More than 90 veterans and spouses attended this successful event. This month, the district will be signing a strategic partnership with the City of Palm Bay and renewing the partnership with the Town of Jupiter. Our last was signed with South Florida Minority Supplier Development Council on June 26. These partnerships are important in helping us raise the awareness of SBA resources available to small business owners and entrepreneurs throughout south Florida. We're proud of the inroads we've made through the 27 SAMs we have in our district, of which 12 were signed this fiscal year.  Upcoming events in South Florida Free or low-cost business training workshops are scheduled throughout the South Florida District through our network of SCORE resource partners! Click on the links below to find a class this month near you! Miami/Dade South Broward/North Miami Naples/Collier Fort Myers Boca Raton West Palm Beach Fort Pierce/Stuart/St. Lucie Melbourne Pinellas County Sarasota Tampa Charlotte/Desoto Pasco/Hernando County Free or low-cost training workshops on a wide variety of business topics from financing to government contracting are available statewide through the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Their schedule of workshops can be found HERE. For women entrepreneurs, the two Florida Women's Business Centers offer training for you HERE and HERE.
SBA South Florida District Directory Francisco "Pancho" Marrero, District Director (305) 536-5521 ext. 118 Jonel Hein, Deputy District Director (305) 536-5521 ext. 147 Miguel Gonzalez, Assistant District Director Lender Relations (305) 536-5521 ext. 141 Jeffery Campbell, Assistant District Director 8(a) Business Development (305) 536-5521 ext. 137 Althea Harris, Assistant District Director for Marketing and Outreach, Area1 (Miami) (305) 536-5521 ext. 152 Vincent LoPresti, Assistant District Director Marketing and Outreach, Area 2 (Ft. Pierce) 772-466-3176 Robert Chavarria, Assistant District Director Marketing and Outreach, Area 3 (Tampa) (813) 228-2100 ext. 24 James Brooks, Veterans Business and Public Information Officer (305) 536-5521 X104 "Let's Talk SBA" Radio Segment EVERY Tuesday, 8:30 AM  MIAMI – Join SBA South Florida District every Tuesday morning on the Pete De La Torre Business Hour radio show where we "Talk SBA". The segment airs on WZAB radio 880 AM "The Biz" at 8:30 a.m. Listeners outside of Miami can listen ONLINE. SBA Participates in Doral Chamber of Commerce Small Business and Veteran Expo  DORAL - SBA South Florida District Business Opportunity Specialists Gwen Carrion and Rabon Lewis met with veterans and other small business ownersat the Doral Chamber of Commerce's Veteran and Small Business Resource Fair held in the Miami Airport Convention Center, July 23. Dozens of veterans and small business owners learned about the resources available to them from the SBA district office and how they can grow their business through government contracting. |  | | SBA South Florida Success Story |
Miami-based Lunacon Engineering Group has something in common with widely-successful businesses like Harley Davidson, Apple Computer, and Disney. Like these ubiquitous companies, owner and President Patricia Bonilla started Lunacon Engineering in her garage. READ MORE Federal Government Achieves 2013 Small Business Federal Procurement Contracting Goal WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration announced Aug. 1, that the federal government reached its small business federal contracting goal for the first time in eight years, awarding 23.39 percent in federal contracts to small businesses totaling $83.1 billion of eligible contracting dollars. SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet made the announcement at a press conference held at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md. READ MORE Federal Government Meets Commitment to U.S. Small Businesses  From the Regional Administrator Cassius Butts As Regional Administrator for the Southeast Region for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), I am proud to announce our federal government met its small business federal contracting goal for the first time in eight years, thanks to the SBA and President Obama's commitment to increasing small business contracting opportunities. In Fiscal Year 2013, our government awarded 23.39 percent in federal contracts to small businesses which is $83.1 billion of eligible contracting dollars according to SBA's Small Business Procurement Scorecard. READ MORE |
A New Strategy to "Drive" Small Business Growth Three years ago, entrepreneur Maurice Brewster made one of the best business decisions of his life: He signed his limousine company, Mosaic Transportation, up for IBM's Supplier Connection – a collaboration between small businesses and the supply chains of Fortune 500 corporations It was a wise decision because small firms that enter the supply chains of major corporations grow their revenue by an average of 250 percent and their workforce by an average of 150 percent. READ MORE Miami VA Hosts Successful Boots to Business Reboot Program  MIAMI – More than 70 veterans with a passion for small business attended a two-day "Introduction to Entrepreneurship Class" at the Miami VA Hospital on July 29-30. Miami was one of 12 sites for the SBA entrepreneurship training course. Counselors from SCORE Miami and Florida Small Business Development Center at FIU volunteered as instructors. More information on Boots to Business REBOOT can be found HERE. Getting Started With Exporting: Training and Educational Resources to Help You Take the First Steps With two-thirds of the world's purchasing power in foreign countries, exporting represents a big opportunity to tap in to new markets, expand your customer base, and grow your business. However, getting started with exporting can sometimes feel like a complex maze of regulations, policies, and other barriers. To help small businesses understand how to overcome these barriers and prepare to sell internationally, the federal government has several free training and educational resources that enable entrepreneurs to chart the path to exporting success. READ MORE Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR): How it Works and How to Qualify Small businesses are the key to advancing America's economy by bringing cutting-edge, high-impact technologies to the marketplace that improve health care, strengthen our military and protect the environment. However, small businesses often have difficulty competing with larger technology companies due to lack of capital for research and development (R&D) work that is critical for moving products from the planning to deployment stages. To help entrepreneurs successfully commercialize their products and services, the federal government established the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer program, commonly known as SBIR. READ MORE Employee Fraud: What You Can Do About It Employees are one of your biggest assets, even though they don't appear on your balance sheet. They help you operate your business and are the faces of your company brand. But employees can also be a big liability if they steal from you. What can you do to protect yourself? READ MORE Get Over Those Dangerous Business Planning Myths If you don't plan your business because you don't need a formal business plan document for a loan application or investors, you're missing out. Planning is a tool for steering and managing your business – something that benefits all businesses, whether they need the formal document or not. That fear and doubt so many business owners have (are you one of them?) is associated with several dangerous myths about business planning. So let's dispel those myths. READ MORE 5 Reasons Your Business Credit Scores Don't Get You the Credit You Need When you apply for a new credit line or request a credit limit increase for your business, suppliers, creditors and lenders want to see how your company has handled its existing credit obligations in the past. This enables them to determine if they should approve your request and to help determine what terms they should offer. Lenders often use business credit scores to help them assess the level of risk a company presents. Business credit scores are calculated based on the information in a company's credit report. In most cases, higher business credit scores mean lower risk to a lender when extending credit to a business. READ MORE |
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