Reimagining Main Street

The Orange County Inland Empire SBDC graduated 50 new businesses that all went through the OC Made Program. All 50 graduates received a free booth at the local marketplace and each participant generated at least $500 in sales and officially started their business. Many of the graduates were minorities and from underserved areas of the network.

In Earn and Trade's case, the entrepreneurs attended a six-week training program at the UC Irvine office SBDC, where they learned from angel investors how to establish their business, network and prepare for funding. Earn and Trade received the $10,000 grant in August, which they plan to use to fund forays into new markets and grow their footprint.  “I found the six-week training program – which went over everything, including the basics of structuring a successful tech company all the way to how to pitch investors for funding – very beneficial since the program directors were highly qualified, and both were executives at successful companies. The SBDC is a great place to grow regardless of how far you are in terms of progress."

SealCath is currently a medical device company. The business was seeking Pitch deck development and presentation skills, Fundraising for a seed round and future A Round, overall investor strategic roadmap, job creation strategies, and revenue growth strategies. In addition, the client was seeking access to local Orange County Hospitals. As a part of our ongoing process of refining the client's pitch deck to optimize it for the purpose of ensuring each slide resonates with investors to allow them to see the client's startup opportunity as a benefit to solving a real problem and thus, investing in the client both from the standpoint of equity as well as strategic support. The client raised $500,000.

Nicole Suydam, president and CEO of Goodwill of Orange County, needed funding to keep a staff of 1,400 employed during the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Suydam reached out to U.S. Congressman and Titan alumnus Lou Correa after having been turned down for the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Correa in turn referred Goodwill of Orange County to the Small Business Development Center. Experts at access to capital and specifically on federal disaster funding options such as the EIDL and PPP, the SBDC utilized their resources to help Goodwill OC access $10 million in PPP funding. This funding has allowed Goodwill of Orange County to keep its pre-covid staff of almost 1,400, employed during the pandemic.

The office of Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris announced the Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach Small Business Clinics, a program offered in collaboration with the OCIE SBDC. The Small Business Clinics brought business assistance and support to the small business owners who were affected by the recent oil spill. Business owners had the opportunity to meet with an SBDC consultant at no cost for a 30-minute one-on-one session.

Janelle Le is a first-generation immigrant.  She worked her way through school to become a pharmacist but also saw a need for a quality boba tea store in her area. The Client was able to start their business on March 7th, 2022. The Client has held both a soft and grand opening generating sales of $800.00. The Client fully self-financed the project with an owner equity investment of $400,000 and has created 16 jobs.