Arizona is receiving almost $8 million from the federal government to expand state programs that support small businesses.
“The SBA Office of Advocacy puts out the state numbers and Arizona is 99.5% small businesses, in the businesses in Arizona,” said Robert Theobald, the state’s Small Business Ombudsman and Vice President of the Arizona Commerce Authority’s small-business services. “And [they] employ nearly half the employees in Arizona. And so small business is extremely important – not just here, but everywhere.”
Theobald said the expansion efforts will focus on technical support, education and scaling opportunities, especially in rural areas.
One benefitting program helps provide education for owners on the fundamentals of business planning.
“One of the key metrics that we have is to have 300 businesses go through the DreamBuilders program,” Theobald said. “That’s kind of the key, starting metric and then it kind of funnels through those other programs.”
With this new money, he said they’ll bring the DreamBuilder program to the Small Business Development Centers in every county.
Specifically, the hope is for DreamBuilder graduates to participate in a business plan competition focused on rural communities called the Moonshot Rural Pitch Tour.
“It doesn't matter if they're in rural, if they're in an urban area, if they're, you know– speak English or Spanish,” said Theobald. “These programs are to help whoever wants to start a business and get them on the right track, give them the tools to help them be successful long term.”
While there may not be readily available startup grants, he added, the educational and training support these programs provide will help small business owners’ long term success.
