City Forms Public/Private Team to Help Small Businesses
Small Business Assistance Team Will Provide Direct Services and Resources to City's Small Business Community

SAN DIEGO - The City of San Diego has created a new public/private partnership designed to provide hands-on assistance and resources to its vitally important small business community. The new partnership, dubbed the Small Business "A" (Assistance) Team, is made up of several government, non-profit and private sector organizations and is designed to offer direct assistance and follow-up services to local business owners in need of fast, personalized attention to help their businesses succeed.

The Small Business "A" Team is designed to give business owners useful assistance and easy access to important services and resources that will help their businesses run more productively. Additionally, the "A" Team will meet with businesses on a one-on-one basis in as little as one week notice if the need is urgent. The Small Business "A" Team is comprised of the following public, nonprofit and private entities:

• City of San Diego Council District Offices
• City of San Diego Office of Small Business
  (Community and Economic Development Department)
• City of San Diego Development Services Department
• Small Business Development & International Trade Center - Southwestern College
• Business Improvement District Council
• San Diego Workforce Partnership
• San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
• San Diego Gas and Electric Company

The Small Business "A" Team will use its wide array of small business knowledge to help businesses deal with a variety of possible issues and challenges they may experience. The Team offers a variety of direct services and resources including technical and financial assistance, permit expediting, relocation assistance, staffing solutions, access to a network of industry professionals and business development opportunities.

"Through the creation of the ‘A’ Team, the City is taking proactive and innovative steps to ensure our small business community stays healthy and continues to fuel the City's economic engine," said Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins who represents Council District Three. "More importantly, the ‘A’ Team will provide personal attention and interaction with our business community ensuring that businesses receive the assistance they need to make their enterprise a success."

Each of the City's eight Council District offices will send letters to 1,400 randomly selected businesses located throughout the City inviting business owners to make an appointment to meet with the "A" Team to review their business and determine if existing City and partner agency programs and resources might help them maximize opportunities for success. The City of San Diego's Community and Economic Development Department will oversee the program and serve as the liaison between Council Offices and respective businesses assisted through this new effort. Currently, the City is planning to conduct outreach efforts through the "A" Team twice during the City's fiscal year.

"It is very important the City does everything it can to make sure small businesses, which represent the backbone of our economy, receive the tools they need to prosper," said Hank Cunningham, director of the City's Community and Economic Development Department. "The ‘A’ Team is a great mechanism through which small businesses can utilize a 'one-stop' shop of agencies and services that will guide businesses through certain challenges they are encountering."

The City of San Diego created the first municipal Office of Small Business in California to assist entrepreneurs with useful programs and initiatives, which in part help to curtail the high rate of failures common to many small business start-ups. Small businesses are the driving force of San Diego's economy, representing more than 70,000 businesses (approximately 90 percent of all businesses in the City).

For more information about the Small Business "A" Team, contact the City's Small Business Advocate, Lynette Jones, at (619) 685-1386 or via email at lajones@sandiego.gov.

For more information about other business assistance programs offered by the City of San Diego's Community and Economic Development Department, please call (619) 685-1390 or visit the City's Web site at www.sandiego.gov/cpci.

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With an emphasis on the City's urban core neighborhoods and low and moderate income residents, the Community and Economic Development Department strives to improve the quality of life and ensure a healthy economy in San Diego through job development, business development, neighborhood revitalization, public improvements, redevelopment, social services, and revenue enhancement.