Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — June 3, 2015
(DALLAS) — Small business owners who want to learn more about managing and expanding their businesses — and about hiring great employees — are invited to apply for the Goldman-Sachs
10,000 Small Businesses program in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Registration closes on Monday, June 8, 2015, for the next class/cohort in the free program, which starts on Sept. 11.
Interested small business owners can apply online now for the program; visit the Dallas County Community College District’s website at
www.dcccd.edu/10KSB.
Teaching small business owners how to run their companies more efficiently, plus providing capital to support their efforts, are key components of the
10,000 Small Businesses initiative created by Goldman Sachs, an internationally known finance corporation. In May 2014, the 10,000 Small Businesses program came to Dallas-Fort Worth — and DCCCD delivers courses for the initiative through the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development at El Centro College.
The
10,000 Small Businesses initiative seeks out community colleges like DCCCD to deliver its education component of the program because they are at the center of economic development and they are accessible to many people who are in need.
Several graduates of the program already are seeing positive results. Two graduates of the first cohort of students, Dustin Gadberry of Gadberry Construction and Quincy Roberts of Roberts Trucking, both were named this spring among the 2015 members of the Dallas Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” business people to watch in this area. Additionally, David Shutler, who graduated from cohort 2 and who is the president of Utility Solutions Systems Inc., was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2015 Texas Small Business Person of the Year.
The program involves three key components: business and management education, access to capital and business services. The business education classes are designed to help small business owners develop a business growth plan to assist them as they increase revenues and hire new employees. The course modules include: “You and Your Business,” “Growth and Opportunities,” “Money and Metrics,” “You Are the Leader,” “It’s the People,” “Marketing and Selling,” “Operations and Processes,” “Being Bankable” and “Action for Growth” (two parts). The 100-hour curriculum is taught in 11 sessions.
Other local DFW partners in the program with DCCCD and Goldman Sachs are Accion Texas Inc. and PeopleFund; those two institutions will use funds from the program to make loans to small business owners in the area.
For more information, call (214) 860-5798, send an email to
10KSB@dcccd.edu or contact Cristin Thomas at
cjthomas@dcccd.edu.