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Even in these uncertain times, the federal government has a lot of tax dollars to spend. But if you run a small business, taking advantage of that opportunity can seem pretty daunting. A recent conference in southeastern Connecticut aimed to demystify the process of doing business with the feds.
WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.
Three Rivers Community College in Norwich hosted this day-long seminar, organized by the office of second district congressman Joe Courtney.
“We have had a stampede of interest. It’s partly obviously the economy and folks are looking for opportunities, but this year the response rate is the highest we’ve ever seen.”
Around a hundred attendees heard from an alphabet soup of experts – HUD, the USDA, the SBA and DECD about how to access grant money and how to compete for federal contracts. Randy Aimone works with Success Center USA in Moosup, a consulting service for small businesses.
“There is a lot of government funding out there. A lot of people aren’t going out and getting it. And that includes us. And that includes a lot of the clients who should probably be working with the government in some way, shape or form, but aren’t doing it well, or efficiently or effectively.”
One of those is Capik Creative, the Griswold based business of Jamie Caporaso.
“I’m hoping to find out if there is grant money available for very small companies.”
Caporaso started her web and graphic design company six years ago after being laid off.
“It was all out of pocket investment, so I had to start very small, so if I could get grant money that would help me buy equipment, it would actually allow me to grow, offer more services to my clients and then therefore be able to hire people.”
But Susan Turnbull, who advises Courtney’s office on grant funding, sounds a note of caution.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it’s usually too good to be true. And what we’re trying to do is make sure people have an understanding of what’s accurate.”
In other words, she says, there’s a limit to the free money out there. High tech companies in fields such as engineering and bioscience can sometimes get competitive grant funding for specific research proposals, but grants for non-tech companies are rare. She says they should focus on competing for contracts, where the government has to meet quotas on giving work to small businesses. She also says it helps to know where to look for the money.
“One of the things that’s happened now is with the lack of earmarks in communities, those dollars that had been appropriated are now back in the agencies, so there are more discretionary funds at the agency level.”
But sometimes it’s difficult to persuade a one or two person business that applying for those opportunities is worthwhile. Libo Suen works with small businesses at Dime Bank.
“In my experience the small businesses are either family businesses or start-up businesses and they usually don’t have the resources to do a lot of research. The government wants them to do well; the community wants them to do well. They’re not on their own, but they need to understand that message.”
Joe Courtney says he hopes his office can provide the bridge that some small firms may need.
For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.
