By 2017, we were seeing an ever-increasing demand for our services from entrepreneurs, community and corporate partners, and volunteers. In response, we opened a second office in Oakland, California, and a third office in San Jose, California three years later.
By this time, we had been working with several thousand small businesses. While we helped these businesses build a strong legal and financial infrastructure, their revenue wasn't increasing as quickly as we knew it could. It became clear that many of the entrepreneurs we assisted needed marketing support to establish a strong brand and promote their products or services. We introduced the Marketing & Sales Program to help entrepreneurs attract more customers and increase their revenues.
In New York, Start Small Think Big has worked with Empire State Development to build out a robust commercial lease assistance program, serving over 200 clients in 2020. We continue to build with this agency in 2021 as a technical assistance provider for the NYS Pandemic Recovery Small Business Grant.
DC Bar Pro Bono has been an integral partner to serving more DC-based small businesses. Together, we supported businesses owners at the height of the pandemic in 2020 through our Rapid Response Program. We also rapid response coalition with other DC service providers. They continue to be a key partner as we enter into the COVID recovery phase.
ICA has been an important partner to us in the Bay Area in 2021. Over recent months, we have collaborated to identify new opportunities to refer their community into our 1:1 small business services to expand their programming capacity. We are honored to work with a partner like ICA who deeply cares about uplifting access for historically marginalized communities in the Bay Area.
Having partnered with Harlem Community Development Corporation for many years now, we are committed to collaborating on providing critical tools, including technical and financial assistance, to local business owners to start and grow small businesses. In 2021, Harlem Community Development Corporation has partnered with us on several workshops, including sharing information on a number of legal and finance-related small business topics. We’re proud to partner with HCDC to deliver crucial services to small business owners in Harlem and across the country.
Like any valued partner, Centro has become an integral part of our extended community. With Centro’s help, we have been able to navigate providing Spanish-speaking clients with hands-on technical assistance. Centro has always engaged with our staff to develop creative solutions to problems that our shared community of small business owners face.
For many years, Small Business Majority has worked with us to bring innovative and important content to small business owners. Through our partnership, we collaborated on a shared survey to small businesses to identify the impacts of Covid-19 on microbusinesses. With this work, we spearheaded a joint briefing to share our findings with the small business ecosystem, including funders, corporate partners, community organizations, and small business owners.
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"#AllforSmall means showing support for small businesses. It best simplifies Start Small Think Big's mission to provide legal, financial and marketing resources to small businesses that will benefit them in their path toward success."
“The Blackstone Charitable Foundation is committed to helping increase diversity, equity, and inclusion across the firm, our portfolio, and the communities in which we operate. It’s been an honor to partner with Start Small Think Big to help transform our commitments into impact through corporate volunteering.