The e200 Emerging Leaders Program Could Help Your Business Grow

By Rieva Lesonsky

Could your business benefit from a specialized training course to help you achieve small business success? Are you in an underserved market (lower-income, urban, Native American reservation or other area hard hit by unemployment)? If so, the e200 Emerging Leaders program could be for you.

The SBA recently announced it is expanding the e200 program to eight additional cities (for a total of 27). In this seven-month training program, you’ll commit about 100 hours of classroom time and work with experienced mentors, attend workshops and network with peers, city leaders and those in the financial community.

The SBA reports that the e200 Emerging Leaders initiative has helped more than 600 promising small business owners nationwide since it launched in 2008. Despite the recent recession, more than half of the businesses that complete the e200 training have shown an increase in revenue of over $7 million. Nearly 60 percent have created new jobs in their communities. They also report having secured nearly $10 million in new financing for their businesses and have landed nearly 500 federal, state and local contracts, worth more than $112 million.

“Over the last few years e200 has been a catalyst for expanding opportunities for many promising small businesses in underserved communities – in particular those who have been most impacted by these tough economic times,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said in announcing the program’s expansion. “Graduates of the program have increased their revenue, created jobs and helped drive local economic growth in their communities.”

The 2011 training session begins in April, and local SBA offices are recruiting small business owners now. For more information and to see if e200 is in a city near you, visit the SBA’s website.

Image by Flickr user ><))> (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.