This spring, the city of Port St. Lucie teamed up with Indian River State College’s Corporate and Community Training Institute (CCTI) to organize an 11-week business management course for local small businesses.
The first of its kind in Port St. Lucie, the recent Business Accelerator Program guided a handful of participating businesses through several crucial classes on social media marketing, small business financing, employee retention, and other topics specifically catered toward small business enterprise.
The program was funded by a $25,000 Community Development Block Grant through the city and a matching donation from CenterState Bank. Not only did the funding cover tuition for the 22 participants who graduated from the program in May, but also offered each of them the opportunity to apply for a reimbursement grant of up to $5,000 to be used for a wide variety of applications.
Nine of the participants applied for the grant, and approximately $35,000 was distributed to help further the applicants along their business trajectories.
The Corporate and Community Training Institute is a part of IRSC’s Dan Richardson Entrepreneurial Development Institute, which also runs the local Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Pioneer Incubator program.
Tom Kindred, regional director for the SBDC, says that the collaboration between the city and the Entrepreneurial Development Institute was a natural one. “I give the city of Port St. Lucie a lot of credit for being visionary and innovative in their political leadership. They said, ‘Look, we’ve got a lot of existing small business in our community, and we’d like to turn our attention to existing businesses, and think about how we could support and grow what already exists within the community … rather than focusiong all of our attention on recruitment,’” he said.
When the city began looking for avenues to bolster its small business community following the economic downturn in 2008, the EDI had already been well established as a community resource for local businesses. The EDI also runs a program called Fast Track to Manufacturing that certifies participants in introductory manufacturing skills, and provides a host of custom-made services for businesses at every level of development.
The Business Accelerator Program was a raging success, according to Susan Klein, business solutions consultant with CCTI: “We were thrilled with the participation in the program, and I think it speaks a lot to the support that Port St. Lucie gave to the program in promoting it, but I think it also speaks to the need that most every community has with small business. The training helped these businesses move to the next level and helped them with how to run their business the most efficiently, and avoid certain pitfalls.”
In addition to the specialized training and reimbursement grants, the program fostered an environment for local business networking, says David Dow, owner of Dow Decorating in St. Lucie West, who qualified for one of the programs grants.
“It was a small enough group that you really did get a decent amount of one-on-one with the instructors,” Dow says.
“This also helped among ourselves. We certainly had a camaraderie amongst the other people who were there, and this helped us out in various aspects. We did some networking, too, and now some of us are doing business together.”
Though the SBDC has orchestrated similar programs in Martin County and Stuart, the particular business climate of Port St. Lucie seems to be an especially good fit for the program.
Elijah Wooten, Port St. Lucie business navigator, who was instrumental in developing the funding apparatus for the program, says that the city is starting to see a lot of business moving in. “Some large and also small businesses are gravitating toward Port St. Lucie,” he says.
“Some of the unintended consequences of growth in South Florida are traffic issues. Depending on the business, if it relies on logistics, travel and moving product, sometimes it’s a strain in Dade or Broward. It’s more beneficial up here, where you don’t have those same traffic congestion issues as you do down south. There are also other factors, such as land cost and lack of land down there, that also make this area attractive for business expansion in a new location.”
The CCTI is already accepting registration for its 2019-2020 Business Accelerator Program course. Classes start in October.
For further information on the program and to apply, visit irscbiz.com.
Article by: Adam Laten Willson