Small Business Development
Text Box: “In summoning people to match their talent and labor with small amounts of credit, microenterprise development meets low-income communities where they are, introducing new opportunities to create work, income and assets, and thereby affirming human worth and dignity.” - Jack Litzenberg, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Microenterprise development is an asset-based strategy that helps low-to-moderate income and other disadvantaged individuals start or expand microenterprises. More directly, microenterprise development fulfills personal, family, and community needs by creating income, building assets, and contributing to local employment creation. As a proven community building tool, microenterprise development assist families escape the cycle of persistent poverty by helping them fulfill their dreams and become contributing members to their community. Linked with SCOPP’s Family and Economic Development program, it is the mission of SCOPP’s Small Business component to support and encourage low-to-moderate income families start new microenterprises or grow existing ones. Participants in SCOPP’s Family Development program receive mentoring and technical training in the areas of financial literacy, homeownership and small business development. Utilizing the training elements of the FastTrac First Step Fund a program developed by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation, SCOPP’s Small Business Development component provides training and technical assistance in the following areas: Understanding life as an entrepreneur Communicating the Business Concept Gathering Information for Feasibility Products and Services Market Analysis: Industry and Competition Market Analysis: Market Segments and Strategies Pricing and Profitability: Pricing and product/service cost Pricing and Profitability: Profits Pricing and Profitability: Cash Flow Planning for Further Action: Resources for Success Planning for Further Action: Next Steps Feasibility Plan Although currently limited to participants in SCOPP’s Family Development IDA program, we are investigating ways of expanding the service to targeted areas of the community and opening the program to the general public and qualifying existing business. For additional information on SCOPP’s Small Business Development Program contact Jay Murdock at (330) 489-5489 or by email at jmurdock@scopp.org.

“Many American cities are rethinking their efforts to repair impoverished neighborhoods.  While providing the poor with affordable housing and preparing them for the work place are still critical elements, cities are increasingly returning to the market place as the engine for social change.”

Nations Weekly—November 1997