Kamau and Associates. Since 2003 - The World's 1st Blog for Black & Minority Business
Saturday, January 10, 2004
$100,000 Ford Motor Company Business Grant
Please read the following press release and pass the info along.
The Ford Motor Company has launched a $100,000 national Building your Entrepreneurial Success Today(BEST) business plan competition open to emerging and established businesses.
A grand cash prize of $50,000 and two runner-up cash prizes of $25,000 will be awarded to the nation’s best business plans. SCORE is the exclusive judge of the contest. Entry deadline is February 29.
(AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSWIRE)DEARBORN , Mich.,– The history of Ford Motor Company is a story of the American dream. Armed with big ideas and a bankroll of just $28,000, Henry Ford set out to make the automobile accessible to everyone, giving birth to one of the world’s largest companies.
In that spirit, the company is sponsoring the Ford BEST Business Plan contest in association with SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” and DiversityInc. The contest asks individuals with the drive to become entrepreneurs, to submit a business plan to be judged by SCORE counselors for a grand prize of $50,000 and two runner-up prizes of $25,000 to start up the business of their dreams.
“Sponsoring this unique contest is in keeping with our heritage and tradition of supporting the communities where we build vehicles and do business,” says George Frame, executive director, Dealer Development, Ford Motor Company. “At Ford, we believe the wealth gap in America will be closed by creating jobs and opportunities, and experts agree that this can best be achieved through entrepreneurship and demonstrated excellence in the workplace,” Frame adds. “This mission to empower individuals to achieve personal wealth, and its residual effect of building communities through economic development, has been a goal for Ford Motor Company since its inception.”
The Ford BEST Business Plan contest requires individuals to submit a business plan comprised of five main elements, including type of business, product or service, pricing considerations, target market and competition, and general operations. An advisory panel of SCORE counselors will review the plans based on the following judging criteria: overall presentation of the business plan, the viability of a success, funding requirements, anticipated sales, analysis of competition and overall benefit to the community.
The rules are simple: Winners will be announced in April 2004, with a grand prize award of $50,000 along with two runner-up prizes of $25,000 each, to be used towards implementation of the winners’ business concept.
In addition to the cash award, winners will be assigned a SCORE counselor to assist in businessplan development, startup and operation. The www.ford.com/go/best website is also a valuable resource to upstart business planners by providing links to the best small business websites on the Internet. Finally, Ford is also providing to all competitors a free online subscription to DiversityInc.com. For more information please see these sites: Ford and : Diversity Inc.
Please read the following press release and pass the info along.
The Ford Motor Company has launched a $100,000 national Building your Entrepreneurial Success Today(BEST) business plan competition open to emerging and established businesses.
A grand cash prize of $50,000 and two runner-up cash prizes of $25,000 will be awarded to the nation’s best business plans. SCORE is the exclusive judge of the contest. Entry deadline is February 29.
(AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSWIRE)DEARBORN , Mich.,– The history of Ford Motor Company is a story of the American dream. Armed with big ideas and a bankroll of just $28,000, Henry Ford set out to make the automobile accessible to everyone, giving birth to one of the world’s largest companies.
In that spirit, the company is sponsoring the Ford BEST Business Plan contest in association with SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” and DiversityInc. The contest asks individuals with the drive to become entrepreneurs, to submit a business plan to be judged by SCORE counselors for a grand prize of $50,000 and two runner-up prizes of $25,000 to start up the business of their dreams.
“Sponsoring this unique contest is in keeping with our heritage and tradition of supporting the communities where we build vehicles and do business,” says George Frame, executive director, Dealer Development, Ford Motor Company. “At Ford, we believe the wealth gap in America will be closed by creating jobs and opportunities, and experts agree that this can best be achieved through entrepreneurship and demonstrated excellence in the workplace,” Frame adds. “This mission to empower individuals to achieve personal wealth, and its residual effect of building communities through economic development, has been a goal for Ford Motor Company since its inception.”
The Ford BEST Business Plan contest requires individuals to submit a business plan comprised of five main elements, including type of business, product or service, pricing considerations, target market and competition, and general operations. An advisory panel of SCORE counselors will review the plans based on the following judging criteria: overall presentation of the business plan, the viability of a success, funding requirements, anticipated sales, analysis of competition and overall benefit to the community.
The rules are simple: Winners will be announced in April 2004, with a grand prize award of $50,000 along with two runner-up prizes of $25,000 each, to be used towards implementation of the winners’ business concept.
In addition to the cash award, winners will be assigned a SCORE counselor to assist in businessplan development, startup and operation. The www.ford.com/go/best website is also a valuable resource to upstart business planners by providing links to the best small business websites on the Internet. Finally, Ford is also providing to all competitors a free online subscription to DiversityInc.com. For more information please see these sites: Ford and : Diversity Inc.
Subject: Grant Opportunity for College-Age Entrepreneurs
Please contact the following party to find out grants for college-age Entrepreneurs in the NYC area. From past experience, I know that the City University of New York, CUNY network is full of creative, enterprising youth, and I could really use your help in finding all of them. Our largest event takes place at BMCC. Please feel free to contact me
with questions! And Happy New Year!
Sophie Nurani, Assistant Director
Youth Solutions
Citizens For NYC
305 Seventh Avenue, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 989-0909 x309
Fax: (212) 989-0983
www.citizensnyc.org
Please contact the following party to find out grants for college-age Entrepreneurs in the NYC area. From past experience, I know that the City University of New York, CUNY network is full of creative, enterprising youth, and I could really use your help in finding all of them. Our largest event takes place at BMCC. Please feel free to contact me
with questions! And Happy New Year!
Sophie Nurani, Assistant Director
Youth Solutions
Citizens For NYC
305 Seventh Avenue, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 989-0909 x309
Fax: (212) 989-0983
www.citizensnyc.org
Friday, January 09, 2004
Boost Your Business in 2004
Attend the Small Business camp with Andrew Morrison and take your Business to the Next Level. Despite growing up in the tough streets of Brooklyn NY. Andrew built a 3 million dollar business before he was 30 years old. Now he wants to help you take your business big time. Sign up for his free tele-course today at: Small Business Camp
Attend the Small Business camp with Andrew Morrison and take your Business to the Next Level. Despite growing up in the tough streets of Brooklyn NY. Andrew built a 3 million dollar business before he was 30 years old. Now he wants to help you take your business big time. Sign up for his free tele-course today at: Small Business Camp
Monday, January 05, 2004
Contracting Process for Small Businesses Simplified
Subject: FW: SBA Release 03-85: SBA, OMB, GSA and DOD Work Together to
Integrate Pro-Net and CCR Database and Simplify Contracting Process for
Small Businesses
U.S. Small Business Administration
News Release --
SBA, OMB, GSA and DOD Work Together to Integrate Pro-Net and CCR Database and Simplify Contracting Process for Small Businesses
Internet Address: www.sba.gov/news/
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Small Business Administration, the Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration are taking steps to simplify the federal contracting process by creating an integrated database of small businesses that want to do business with the government. The integration of the existing Pro-Net and DOD’s Central Contractor Registration (CCR) databases will create one portal for entering and searching small business sources and will assist small businesses with marketing their goods and services to the federal government. The integration will begin on Jan 1.
The CCR-PRO-Net linkage is part of a comprehensive strategic effort to transfer Pro-Net’s functions to the E-Gov Business Partner Network BPN in order to simplify government-wide vendor registration. The network is part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE), one of the e-government initiatives under the President’s Management Agenda. IAE is carrying out OMB’s mandate for new processes to streamline federal acquisition by creating common integrated business processes for buyers and sellers in the federal marketplace. The network incorporates DOD’s CCR database. Registration in CCR is now a requirement for federal contracts. After Dec. 31, CCR will assume all of Pro-Net’s search capabilities and functions and small businesses will no longer need to manually register in both
Pro-Net and CCR.
"We are continuing to make strides in simplifying the process to help small businesses conduct business with the government," said SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto. "By integrating PRO-Net’s functions into CCR, the foundation of the Business Partner network, we are helping to advance the President’s goal of a single, user-friendly, integrated acquisition environment."
This merger is another step toward the goals to unify common systems and ensure that data need only be entered once and then reused.
Procuring agencies and contracting officers who rely on Pro-Net as the authoritative source for vendors that are certified in SBA's 8(a) Business Development program, HUBZone Empowerment Contracting Program and Small Disadvantaged Business program will now access this information through CCR. To conduct market research and confirm eligibility for SBA’s procurement preference programs, users will go to the CCR Web site at www.ccr.gov and click on the "Dynamic Small Business Search" button. All of the search options and information that existed in Pro-Net will now
be found at the CCR Dynamic Small Business Search site.
Within SBA, Pro-Net will be superseded by the Small Business Source System, an internal database of businesses certified by SBA as participants in the 8(a), HUBZone and SDB programs. Businesses will no longer have to self- certify as small businesses. The SBSS system will perform calculations necessary to determine whether companies are small, based on employment or revenue information entered into CCR. Firms will update their records on the CCR Update Web page and should follow the links and directions found there.
For more information about CCR, please visit the CCR Web site at www.ccr.gov. For more information about IAE, visit the Web site at http://egov.gsa.gov. For more about SBA e-Gov activities, please contact Ronald E. Miller, SBA Program Executive Officer for E-Gov at (202) 401-8214.
Kamau Austin, Principal
Integrate Pro-Net and CCR Database and Simplify Contracting Process for
Small Businesses
U.S. Small Business Administration
News Release --
SBA, OMB, GSA and DOD Work Together to Integrate Pro-Net and CCR Database and Simplify Contracting Process for Small Businesses
Internet Address: www.sba.gov/news/
WASHINGTON-The U.S. Small Business Administration, the Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration are taking steps to simplify the federal contracting process by creating an integrated database of small businesses that want to do business with the government. The integration of the existing Pro-Net and DOD’s Central Contractor Registration (CCR) databases will create one portal for entering and searching small business sources and will assist small businesses with marketing their goods and services to the federal government. The integration will begin on Jan 1.
The CCR-PRO-Net linkage is part of a comprehensive strategic effort to transfer Pro-Net’s functions to the E-Gov Business Partner Network BPN in order to simplify government-wide vendor registration. The network is part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE), one of the e-government initiatives under the President’s Management Agenda. IAE is carrying out OMB’s mandate for new processes to streamline federal acquisition by creating common integrated business processes for buyers and sellers in the federal marketplace. The network incorporates DOD’s CCR database. Registration in CCR is now a requirement for federal contracts. After Dec. 31, CCR will assume all of Pro-Net’s search capabilities and functions and small businesses will no longer need to manually register in both
Pro-Net and CCR.
"We are continuing to make strides in simplifying the process to help small businesses conduct business with the government," said SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto. "By integrating PRO-Net’s functions into CCR, the foundation of the Business Partner network, we are helping to advance the President’s goal of a single, user-friendly, integrated acquisition environment."
This merger is another step toward the goals to unify common systems and ensure that data need only be entered once and then reused.
Procuring agencies and contracting officers who rely on Pro-Net as the authoritative source for vendors that are certified in SBA's 8(a) Business Development program, HUBZone Empowerment Contracting Program and Small Disadvantaged Business program will now access this information through CCR. To conduct market research and confirm eligibility for SBA’s procurement preference programs, users will go to the CCR Web site at www.ccr.gov and click on the "Dynamic Small Business Search" button. All of the search options and information that existed in Pro-Net will now
be found at the CCR Dynamic Small Business Search site.
Within SBA, Pro-Net will be superseded by the Small Business Source System, an internal database of businesses certified by SBA as participants in the 8(a), HUBZone and SDB programs. Businesses will no longer have to self- certify as small businesses. The SBSS system will perform calculations necessary to determine whether companies are small, based on employment or revenue information entered into CCR. Firms will update their records on the CCR Update Web page and should follow the links and directions found there.
For more information about CCR, please visit the CCR Web site at www.ccr.gov. For more information about IAE, visit the Web site at http://egov.gsa.gov. For more about SBA e-Gov activities, please contact Ronald E. Miller, SBA Program Executive Officer for E-Gov at (202) 401-8214.
Kamau Austin, Principal
Small Biz Loans in Atlanta
Small Loans for Small Business
SCORE/Atlanta and Innovative Bank are offering a new service to the small business community in Atlanta. Innovative Bank is promoting the Small Business Administration's Community Express Program under the name of Small office/Home Office Banking (SOHO). SOHO Banking offers the potential qualified business owner a $5,000 loan with a 7-year term, no pre-payment penalty, minimal paperwork, technical assistance as needed, and a fast approval.
SCORE/Atlanta and Innovative Bank are offering a new service to the small business community in Atlanta. Innovative Bank is promoting the Small Business Administration's Community Express Program under the name of Small office/Home Office Banking (SOHO). SOHO Banking offers the potential qualified business owner a $5,000 loan with a 7-year term, no pre-payment penalty, minimal paperwork, technical assistance as needed, and a fast approval.
