Of the many challenges that face start-ups, one is assembling a network of advisors to assist in achieving the company’s goals.  Fortunately for Portland area companies, there is a strong entrepreneurial community that plays that role.  Think of groups such as OEN, OTBC, Oregonstartups.com or even OECDD, not to mention the wealth of Internet resources.  On a national level, the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) plays a significant role in providing financing to start-ups, as we wrote in our recent Financing Startups post, but also plays an advisory role in business planning, networking and training.  One of the SBA’s programs, geared for encouraging business growth in inner-city small businesses, is its Emerging 200 Initiative.  The good news for Portland area start-ups is that the Initiative will be expanded in spring 2009 to include Portland companies, which you can read more about here and here.  If successful, the Initiative should trigger continuing growth in areas of the city that historically have lacked resources for entrepreneurs.

Tags: Corporate, financing, startups

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Corporate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.