Today, Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, along with the Darcy Carter, director of the Vermont office of the Small Business Administration (SBA), and Linda Rossi, Assistant Director of the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) unveiled Community Business Connections, an important project designed to create new jobs by helping Vermonters start and expand businesses.
These are difficult times for Vermont families and we believe that each one of us must do everything we can to jump-start our economy. Markowitz said. Whether we are government officials, individual entrepreneurs, local chambers of commerce, or members of civic and service organizations we could be doing more to help Vermonters start and expand businesses. Carter said, There are a wealth of resources available to help new and existing businesses and Community Business Connections was developed to get this information to the people who need it most.
Community Business Connections includes three components
One-Stop-Shop for Starting a New Business. www.startabusinessinvermont.net is the Community Business Connections website. It is a new resource designed to provide everything a person needs to know to start or expand a business in Vermont. This one-stop-shop for starting or expanding a business provides step-by-step information in checklist form and important links to help entrepreneurs develop a business plan, obtain financing, navigate tax requirements and regulations, find customers and expand sales.
Community Outreach. Community Business Connections is reaching into every community to get the word out about the free resources available to help Vermonters start or expand businesses. With stickers for public access computers in libraries and public buildings directing Vermonters to the new website and posters advertising the free resources available through the Small Business Administration and the Vermont Small Business Development Centers the program is expected to reach Vermonters in every part of the state.
Training for Local Economic Development Ambassadors. Community Business Connections also provides training to local officials, librarians, individual entrepreneurs and citizens to help them become local economic development ambassadors. Through trainings given around the state and webinars the Secretary of States office, the SBA and the SBDC are educating people across Vermont about what they can do to help jump start their own local economies.
Rossi said, Our goal is to reach people at the most local level . . . people who may not be accustomed to thinking about business, either for themselves or on behalf of others in their community. In each of our communities there are people who are losing their jobs and need to figure out what they re going to do next, said Markowitz. Starting a business may not be right for everyone, but if we all took a moment to reach out, I bet we would be surprised by the number of people in our communities who are ready to take the plunge.
For more information about this program, please contact the SBA at 802-828-4422, the VtSBDC at 800-464-7232, or the Vermont Secretary of State's Office at 800-439-8683.
Business Fact Sheet
According to a survey by FindLaw.com reported in March 2009, 61 percent of Americans have either started or thought about starting a small business. Thirty percent of Americans say they have started at least one small business. An additional 31 percent have thought about starting their own business at some point in their lives.
The Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC) has a long history of providing advice and training to Vermonters. To date, they have trained over 20,000 Vermonters in 1,700 separate events, and provided individual, in-person, confidential counseling to over 8,000 business people representing all stages of business. In 2007, 1,868 new jobs were created by client businesses of the VtSBDC, and these businesses contributed over $4.4 million in new tax revenues.
The Vermont office of the U.S. Small Business Administration reports:
Vermont had 18,937 small employers (fewer than 500 employees) in 2006, representing 96.8 percent of the state s employers and 63.5 percent of its private-sector employment.
The retail trade industry was the state s largest small business and overall employer in 2006.
Small businesses created 51.7 percent of the state's net new jobs from 2004 to 2005
Vermont's real gross state product increased by 1.5 percent in 2007. By comparison, growth in the New England region was 2.1 percent and the United States, 2.0 percent. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis).
The Vermont Secretary of State s Office reports that in 2008 over 8,631 new business entities registered in Vermont.