This is National Small Business Week, which recognizes that small businesses annually create every two of three new jobs in the U.S. and Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is on the forefront of that movement in Utah.
We talked with Beth Colosimo, Executive Director of The Mill & Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at Salt Lake Community College.
She says it's the most successful small business training program in Utah with more direct impact on growth and direction of small businesses than any other public or private program in the state.
In fact, nearly 700 Utah small businesses that trained in the program recently surpassed combined total revenue of $1 billion.
The course is free for participants and no state dollars are used. The Goldman Sachs Foundation funds the program and SLCC recently renewed its ninth grant from the foundation.
SLCC is now recruiting for the next round, and is looking for as many as 40 small businesses to participate. Recruitment ends May 21.
If you're interested, Colosimo told us to think of the program as an "MBA on steroids". It's held in evenings over 15 weeks. In addition participants meet with their business advisers
three or four times outside of class.
They create a growth plan focusing on money and metrics; marketing and selling; leadership; operations and processes; and more. At the end of the course, they present their plan to the group.
Colosimo said they have businesses from architects to farmers, doctors and lawyers to hair salon owners... you name it, who've taken the program.
For more information, visit 10ksbapply.com.
