Feds award Thurston EDC $1 million for business owner training

The Thurston Economic Development Council has inked a contract with the federal government that will award it close to $1 million over five years.

The grant funding, about $980,000, comes courtesy of a Small Business Administration program called the “Scale Up Initiative.”

The EDC will use that money to invest in specific programs to help business owners avoid common pitfalls and become more successful, said Michael Cade, executive director of the EDC.

The program, Scale Up Thurston, will offer two, 12-week intensive training sessions in 2016, said Celia Nightingale, director of the EDC’s Center for Business and Innovation.

The first is set to run January through March, while dates for the second are to be determined, she said. The completion of the first program should provide guidance for the next, Nightingale said.

The Center for Business and Innovation is a partnership between the EDC and South Puget Sound Community College, both of which are based at SPSCC’s new Lacey Campus. The new campus opened Monday.

Nightingale said the training programs will be free, but also competitive, which means business owners will have to apply to participate. Application requirements have not been decided, although the program will be looking for businesses that have been open 1-5 years, have 1-10 employees, and $150,000-$500,000 a year in revenue. They also will be looking for business owners who want to grow and add employment, she said.

The first five years of running a business are a key time for a business owner because after putting so much effort into starting it, they now need help sustaining it, Nightingale said.

“We want to give them the ability to step back, look at what they have and develop a strong foothold for more opportunities,” she said.

The training curriculum will include specialized technical assistance, coaching and mentoring, and connections to traditional and alternative lenders, according to a news release.

The twice-a-year program will serve 10 to 25 business owners, half of whom will be women, veterans, tribal members, minorities or rural business owners, Nightingale said. That’s in line with the SBA’s Scale Up Initiative, which targets the types of business owners who have traditionally been underserved.

The training program lead will be Daryl Murrow, who is now business growth strategy manager and the former business resource center manager at the EDC.

Before that, Murrow was a business consultant and the owner of Boomerang Entertainment, formerly CD Connection, in Lacey.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 3:52 PM with the headline "Feds award Thurston EDC $1 million for business owner training."