Verizon’s program for small enterprise simply launched data on its newest spherical of grant funding. The grant program is in partnership with LISC, and thru it, Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared has dedicated $1M in small enterprise grants for 2023.
To grow to be eligible for the grants, you must first be a part of Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared. It’s free.
With VSBDR, you’ll not solely get entry to programs, stay teaching classes led by business specialists and different assets, however you’ll additionally be capable to apply for the unique pool of $10,000 small enterprise grants.
To unlock the appliance for the present spherical of grant funding, register on Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared, full any mixture of two programs, teaching occasions, and group occasions, and apply by Could 12, 2023.
Final yr, we reached out to Brianna Ellison, director of group engagement for Verizon, as a part of our initiative to convey the Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program to entrepreneurs and aspiring enterprise house owners. She described among the advertising instruments, one-on-one mentoring and different elements of this system that may assist small companies all through Michigan and the Nice Lakes area.
- What work is Verizon doing within the Detroit/Michigan group to assist small companies?
Verizon has actively partnered with Michigan small companies. We’re members of quite a few chambers of commerce and associations from throughout the state that work with small companies (such because the Detroit Regional Chamber, Grand Rapids Chamber, Dearborn Chamber, The Proper Place, MI Chamber, Automation Alley, Metro Detroit Black Enterprise Alliance, MI Enterprise Incubator Assoc.). Verizon participates in quite a few thought management occasions with these organizations to share experience and assets with their membership.
In 2021, we prolonged a grant to Grand Valley State College’s Veterans Entrepreneurship Lab. Veterans and/or navy spouses work on their enterprise launch over a three-month interval. MVE-Lab equips contributors to establish their goal prospects, community with others, and discover the assets they should launch profitably and efficiently. It concludes with a Pitch Showcase awarding no less than $25,000 in prize cash. Company embrace different veteran entrepreneurs, mentors, and specialists like attorneys and advertising specialists, together with the chief of Verizon’s veteran worker useful resource group who shared details about Verizon help for small enterprise house owners alongside together with his personal private expertise as an entrepreneur.
In 2021, we additionally established a partnership between Verizon’s Professional Bono Program and the Metro Detroit Black Enterprise Alliance’s Capital Join Program. This program is making ready and connecting Metro Detroit Black-owned companies to varied funding assets to make sure their sustained success. If any of those companies want additional authorized help or one-on-one help, the Verizon Professional Bono Program group has agreed to work instantly with these companies to establish extra authorized providers.
Lastly, in September, Verizon launched Small Enterprise Digital Prepared. This on-line curriculum is designed to provide small companies the customized instruments to achieve at the moment’s digital world. This system contains studying modules, professional teaching, peer networking and a market of instruments and options. The free on-line useful resource is accessible to any small enterprise throughout Michigan (and nationwide) and will likely be utilized by Verizon companions such because the Black Enterprise Alliance’s Capital Join Program.
- What do you imply by “Digital Prepared” and why is digital readiness necessary for small enterprise house owners at the moment?
Digital readiness is about ensuring companies have all of the instruments and assets they should thrive in at the moment’s financial system. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unexpected challenges on entrepreneurs and additional accelerated a shift to digital methods of working. Greater than 75% of small companies pivoted their operations as a result of disaster and greater than 50% of SMBs say their on-line interactions with prospects have elevated. To remain aggressive within the new financial atmosphere, small companies should be agile and adapt to shifting shopper preferences.
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Small enterprise entrepreneurs perceive the significance of using digital instruments of their day-to-day operations, however discover it difficult to implement significant digital transformation. In response to information revealed from Morning Seek the advice of and Verizon of their September 2020 report, “greater than two in 5 choice makers say it’s probably that their enterprise will increase by digital applied sciences and rely extra closely on communications.” On the identical time, greater than two-thirds of respondents acknowledged that including or transitioning to digital/on-line operations has been difficult for his or her enterprise to deal with. How will we bridge this hole? Entrepreneurs want easy accessibility—wherever they’re—to customized studying and training assets in an effort to efficiently implement digital methods into their companies and have the boldness to achieve the post-pandemic future.
- Why is the Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program useful resource for enterprise house owners in metro Detroit and Michigan?
Dwelling to varied analysis organizations and anchor establishments, together with a vibrant and multicultural entrepreneurial ecosystem, Detroit’s wealthy roots embody the hardworking and progressive ethos of its numerous small enterprise house owners. Detroit has roughly 50k small companies owned by entrepreneurs of shade and the town is dedicated to making sure residents are gaining equal entry to academic and financial alternatives of the rising high-growth financial system. In response to a 2021 Detroit Ecosystem Evaluation, Detroit has 23% of all startup firms in Michigan and has the entire mandatory assets to launch and develop companies which might be digital prepared. As Verizon seeks to attach BIPOC enterprise house owners throughout the nation with this helpful useful resource and create extra equitable pathways for entrepreneurs to thrive within the digital financial system, we view the small enterprise house owners within the better metro Detroit space—and Michigan—as a crucial consumer base within the effort.
Verizon’s Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program was constructed by (largely BIPOC) small companies for small companies. Jamiel Robinson, the chief director of Michigan-based enterprise growth group, Grand Rapids Space Black Companies (GRABB), was a outstanding voice within the Small Enterprise Advisory Committee that helped form this system and its choices. Various subject material specialists drive our content material, interactive video modules, and training occasions. Briefly, entrepreneurs in metro Detroit will likely be geared up with digital methods and related learnings—by curated curriculum subjects, teaching occasions, and group teams—to use to their companies!
- What steering are the small enterprise house owners you’re employed with looking for?
We all know usually that small enterprise house owners are curious about studying extra about financing, digital advertising, and operational effectivity. Our customers have advised us they’ve obtained super worth from the tutorial assets and in connecting instantly with specialists–by each one-on-one mentoring and group teaching occasions. Fifty-eight p.c of customers on the platform are curious about connecting with a finance professional and 64% of customers on the platform are curious about connecting with a advertising professional. The most well-liked matter areas are accessing capital, digital advertising, and bettering on-line presence. Enterprise house owners would additionally desire to be part of a group the place they’ll be taught from each other, as 52% of customers need to join with friends with comparable pursuits.
- How can Verizon assist with group networking on a private degree, not a digital one?
Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared is constructed to be a helpful device to the BDOs, Small Enterprise Improvement Facilities, CDFIs and different organizations which might be on the bottom serving to small companies on daily basis. We’re partnering intently with these kind of organizations and dealing with them to combine our assets into their choices. Small Enterprise Digital Prepared’s group part additionally lets companies join with different companies and assets by metropolis in order that they’ll hook up with help of their native space!
On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verizon started the grassroots work of internet hosting digital group dialogues centered on small companies in communities from throughout the state. The aim of those dialogues is to listen to concerning the nice work small enterprise house owners and small enterprise growth organizations are at the moment engaged in, the present and ongoing challenges small enterprise house owners are going through, and to debate how Verizon might be supportive transferring ahead. Attendees have included small enterprise house owners, small enterprise help organizations and chambers of commerce.
Now greater than ever, we at Verizon will proceed to construct on the extremely helpful relationships with the communities we serve. These dialogues are solely the start of what we hope will likely be long-term partnerships the place we are able to proceed the dialog and discover future alternatives to be supportive.
- What abilities do you convey to the group as a liaison between Verizon and small enterprise house owners?
As a neighborhood liaison between Verizon and small enterprise house owners, I work to construct bridges of reference to my friends, inner enterprise companions and exterior stakeholders to champion insurance policies that enrich lives and allow a digital future that serves all Michigan communities. I’m able to leverage relationships inside Verizon and with enterprise help group companions to kind coalitions to sort out the challenges small companies face, amplify successes and finest practices, and disseminate details about Verizon instruments and assets. Reflexively, I meet with companies to hearken to their wants and drive the best way wherein we deposit goodwill in our native communities and innovate to construct the networks that transfer the world ahead for everybody.
Initially revealed in September 2022.
