small business association Archives

Telisha Jackson with Small Business Development Center and Jeff Patterson with Small Business Administration

June 7, 2019 by angishields

Atlanta Business Radio

Telisha Jackson with Small Business Development Center and Jeff Patterson with Small Business Administration

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Telisha Farrow Jackson brings her engaging personality, as well as, over 15 years of experience in managing all levels of large scale projects to the SBDC. She has an extensive and varied career in multiple industries, including lending and underwriting; business development; project management; compliance and controls.

She has initiated negotiations, partnership initiatives and cost analysis for businesses majority of her career. Her expertise lies in analyzing and evaluating the effectiveness of program operations to ensure that strategies can be effectively and efficiently executed.

One of her most rewarding professional experiences was developing young minds as an elementary school teacher. In addition to her classroom responsibilities, she developed curriculum and led multiple school-wide process improvement and best practice initiatives.

Telisha has used her people skills to build community involvement and awareness by participating in various community outreach events and professionally moderating conferences. She is an inspiring talent and we look forward to the innovative outlook she’s going to add to the UGA SBDC at Georgia State University team.

Follow SBDC on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Jeff Patterson has 34 years experience as a commercial banker. He has been in senior management for the majority of those years serving as Chief Credit Officer, COO, and CEO of a Community Bank. He joined SBA Georgia District Office 4 months ago and has a passion to help small business and our economy grow.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Peter Hildebrandt with SCORE, Sandra Font with Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, and Jorge Valentin-Stone with the U.S. Small Business Administration – Georgia District Office

September 19, 2018 by Mike

Gwinnett Studio

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Peter Hildebrandt with SCORE, Sandra Font with Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs, and Jorge Valentin-Stone with the U.S. Small Business Administration - Georgia District Office

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Peter Hildebrandt, Sandra Font, Jorge Valentin-Stone

Peter Hildebrandt/SCORE

SCORE is a national nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. They have been doing so for over fifty years. Because their work is supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and thanks to their network of 10,000 volunteers, they are able to deliver our services at no charge or at very low cost.

They provide:
Volunteer MENTORS who share their expertise across 62 industries
Free, confidential business MENTORING in person, via email or by video
Free business TOOLS, templates and tips
Inexpensive or free business WORKSHOPS (locally) and webinars (online 24/7)

Sandra Font/Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs

Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs (ACE) is a non-profit organization that provides loans and business development resources to help its borrowers create and grow sustainable businesses which generate jobs.

The ACE Women’s Business Center (ACE WBC) is the educational arm of ACE. With a mission to empower women, minorities, and low-to-moderate income entrepreneurs through financial education and training, the WBC provides a full range of services for women at all stages of business planning, implementation, and growth.
Our services include: Long-term classes, workshops, seminars, webinars, one-on-one consultations and connections to resources.

Jorge Valentin-Stone/U.S. Small Business Administration – Georgia District Office

The U.S. SBA was created by the Small Business Act of 1953. Their mission is targeted to ‘for-profit’ small business concerns -pre and start-up or existing- to provide them with the technical assets/partners of the SBA and the training needed to launch and grow their businesses. By partners they refer to SCORE, UGA Small Business Development Centers (17 offices in GA) and our two Women’s Business Centers in Georgia; The Edge Connection in Kennesaw, GA., and the ACE WBC in Norcross, Georgia. With these partner assets the SBA strives to promote and help expand small businesses in Georgia, and the nation as a whole.

Government Contracting

August 25, 2015 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio

Government Contracting

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Government Contracting

NOWaccount CEO, Lara Hodgson, stopped by the studio to talk about government contracting for small businesses. I also hosted 3 experts who serve our community by helping children and adults in need of foster care, and help/treatment for developmental challenges and/or mental illness. Tom Russell and Lori Brickman of Creative Community Services, and Pat Strode of the Georgia Chapter for the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) joined us to talk about the vital role they play for children in foster care, particularly those who face those developmental issues or mental illness.

Lara discussed a recent event where an SBA representative shared information about doing business with the federal government. Did you realize there’s over $100 BILLION dollars of federal contracts available? And that there’s ~23% are earmarked for small businesses who are able to fulfill the need for goods and services?

We talked about what to do to prepare to do business with the government, where to go to register, where to go for information on contracts available, as well as resources available that can facilitate accepting government contracts even if invoices are paid slowly.

I also learned that there are over 11,000 children in foster care in Georgia. The folks from Creative Community Services and NAMI, came by to talk about how they serve our community by working to help this vast population of children in need of loving, safe environments, along with supportive care they require as well if they’re facing developmental challenges or mental illness.

We talked about how important getting treatment and medication is for patients who are dealing with mental illness is. We also discussed how important it is for first responders to be certified to be able to identify and handle persons suffering from mental illness rather than simply assuming they’re criminals.

Tom explained that many of these children lack any real positive role models or mentors

The groups have regular events to raise funds to enable them to provide support and treatment for patients in need. Be sure to visit their websites for more information on events as well as opportunities to serve with your time as volunteers or mentors.

Special Guests:

Lara O’Connor-Hodgson, CEO of Nowaccount Network Corporation