Are you still promising yourself that this is the year you will finally launch your own small business? Are you still hesitant because you don’t know where to start, what steps to take, afraid you might get bogged down in red tape?
The City of Mesa has your back and is here to help.
The list of acceptable excuses just got a lot shorter thanks to the City of Mesa’s Business Builder program. This free toolbox gives you the confidence and access to the resources you need to get a successful start and keep your company headed in the right direction.
“Staff members provide unique assistance at the municipal level, acting as facilitators between the client and city, state agencies, private and public sector, academia, and more,” the city’s Business Builder website says.
The Business Builder program is part of Mesa’s Office of Economic Development and will work with you from the business development process until your business becomes a reality.
“We work as a team with our partners to provide solutions and ensure your transition to starting, running, expanding, or relocating a business in Mesa is smooth and successful,” the website says. “We are empowered to help you build your business.”
The City helps with the little things that can often stand in the way between someone’s dream becoming a vibrant and successful reality and just another good idea that went nowhere.
The program can act as a liaison between you and state agencies, a process that can often feel overwhelming, especially for those who have no idea how to take the next step and get intimidated by filling out the necessary paperwork or online forms. The program even offers clarification on, and support, for permitting, information on tax incentives, and related issues.
The Business Builder program provides free consulting, networking, and training resources, and helps you find land or even lab space, which can be especially helpful for tech startups.
“You’re an innovator and a dreamer but having the right guidance and support at the crucial stages of building your business may very well decide your success or failure,” the City’s LaunchPoint website said. LaunchPoint acts as a greenhouse, where entrepreneurs can grow their dreams while around like-minded people, and city experts are there to help, according to Project Manager Kelley Keffer, with the Mesa Office of Economic Development.
If you need more education in a specific area to get your business off the ground, the City also offers tuition for you to take classes through Mesa Community College. The program offers 17 business certificate programs in a long list of fields, including accounting, general business, animation and graphics, management, marketing, organizational leadership, social media marketing, small business management, and Spanish language and culture, among others.
Once you have your business plan in place, which the program will also help you develop, you can size up the competition with the Business Builder program’s market analysis tool. This lets you see how your company compares to the competition in areas such as revenues, salaries, turnover, healthcare costs and much more, and will provide suggestions on how to use the information most effectively.
You can figure out your target customer base and suppliers, which will help you make strategic decisions, and determine the best places to advertise.The program also provides a demographic analysis to determine what time of labor force is in your area and what sort of expenditures consumers make. It’s customizable so you can get down to a specific level, allowing you to plan and strategize based on that detailed information.
There is an online business resource platform focused on grant applications and funding if your business qualifies, consulting assistance, and a hub of other small business owners who are there to encourage each other and provide realistic feedback.
If your business exports its products internationally, the Business Builder program can even help educate you about the best way to do that, and Mesa’s Business Export Assistance Program defrays the costs.
The program benefits the City by creating an export savvy core of small to medium sized businesses. “In turn, these businesses will help elevate the City by creating more opportunity for company expansions in sales, employment, investment, and real estate at home and abroad,” the program’s website says.
Finally, you can keep track of the latest news affecting small and medium-sized businesses and be in the know about the next decision you might need to make.
But first, it’s time to make the move to start the business you’ve been thinking about for years, and the City of Mesa is there to help at no cost to you through its Business Builder’s program. Time is not standing still, and neither are the people who may have a similar idea.
For more information, visit the website selectmesa.com/business-environment/ mesa-business-builder-start-or-grow-your-business.