Small Business Who Are Impacting Dallas Inner City

 FORT WORTH, TX (Bizasiamag.com) The U.S. Small Business Administration Dallas-Fort Worth District Office will honor 14 small businesses participating in its Dallas Emerging 200 Initiative (e200) at a graduation ceremony scheduled on November 19, 2009, at the Dallas City Hall Flag Room from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

In Dallas, one of 15 cities nationwide participating in the program, the 14 small businesses attended 13 three-hour training sessions, starting in April and ending in November. They will be the first graduation class of Dallas.

Since small business drive our economy, the Emerging 200 Initiative constitutes one of the several undertakings where the SBA, in cooperation with our co-sponsors, have invested in upgrading the skills of e200 business, said Herbert Austin, Director for the SBA D-FW district. The MBA-style program is aimed at extending news tools and networking contacts to our graduates. They have had a great class experience and we are sure that the DallasFort Worth economy will benefit from their continued success, said Austin.The program provided a mechanism to identify inner-city businesses nationwide that showed high potential for growth and to provide them the network, resources and motivation required to build a sustainable business within a designated inner-city geographic location.

The cornerstone of the e200 program in Dallas was a free in-depth 80-hour educational program which focused on topics such as organization management, financial management, growth strategies and management, market development and strategic planning.  The program also included CEO mentoring sessions among the participants.  SBA contracted Futures Consulting to conduct the executive training.

Futures Consulting trainer, Lin O Neill, delivered the Dallas e200 curriculum. O Neill worked with the e200 small business owners to produce a three-year strategic growth plan with benchmarks and performance targets for their individual businesses.

The graduates of the program are:

Bailey Furniture - Charles Bailey, Owner

Consumer & Market Insights LLC - Royalyn Reid, President

Furniture Your Way Inc. - Marvin Vigil, President

·        Gabino Advertising - Vickie Cedillo-Trevino, President

Great Southwestern Fire & Safety - Guy Brown III, President

Janitors World - Paul Kim, President

Joy Promotions Inc. Donna Green Joyner, President

L.D. Floors Co. Sonia Delgado, President

Lewis Dental Associates – Joanthony McGee, CEO

The Dallas Weekly – James Washington, Publisher

Triad Commercial Services Ltd – Duane Rettig, President

Vortex Construction – Senaido Adam Trevino, President

The selection of Dallas as an e200 city was a prestigious one. There were 23 cities nationwide that applied to take part in this initiative. Along with Dallas, other e200 cities chose included Albuquerque,Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston,ChicagoDes Moines, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. The nine-month training that includes approximately 100 hours of classroom time per participant will continue in Dallas for 2010.

Those partner organizations joining SBA District office to bring e200 to Dallas were:

City of Dallas

Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce

Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce

Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Minority Business Development Agency U.S. Department of Commerce

NorthTexas SmallBusinessDevelopment CenterNetwork

SCORE, Dallas Chapter 22

Participation in e200 was free to qualifying business. Criteria for participation included having been in business for a minimum of three years, $400,000 or more in gross annual revenues, and a business location within the geographic boundaries defined by the SBA. Participation was limited to 200 businesses nationwide.

For more information about all of the SBA’s programs for small businesses, visit the SBAs extensive Web site at www.sba.gov.