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Call the Entrepreneurship Center at 216-622-0999, ext. 315. Our hotline is open 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., EST, Monday through Friday to help research and answer your business resource questions and to guide you to the right organization for business assistance.

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Founded by the National Urban League * Business Roundtable * Stonehenge Capital LLC
* Small Business Administration * Urban League of Greater Cleveland

Giving Back to Entrepreneurship
"Growing small and medium-sized minority owned businesses is one of the best ways to close the wealth gap in America."
Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League

Welcome to the ULGC Entrepreneurship Center

The Entrepreneurship Center works with private, public and nonprofit resources to build strong, sustainable and successful minority businesses. The result will be wealth creation, job creation and better economic health in the minority and urban core communities of Cleveland.

What does the ULGC Entrepreneurship Center do?

The Entrepreneurship Center assesses the needs and capabilities of minority business owners in the Cleveland area. Then those aspiring or current business owners are linked with resources, classes, training and counseling that will help them grow to the next level of success. Each person contacting the Entrepreneurship Center will receive an initial assessment of their needs. Then they will be matched to the appropriate resource or service that meets those needs.

Who sponsors it?

The Entrepreneurship Center is part of a national program, of the same name, developed through a partnership of the National Urban League, the Business Roundtable and the White House National Economic Council. In Cleveland, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland hosts the Entrepreneurship Center.

How can I get assistance with my business?

Simply contact the Urban League of Greater Cleveland through our Hotline number, 216-622-0999, ext. 315 or through our online Resource Navigator

What kind of services are offered?

Many resources are available in the Cleveland area to help start or expand businesses. The list below highlights the most frequently requested services:

  • Business planning
  • Financial resources and assistance
  • Franchising
  • Legal services
  • Libraries and research organizations
  • Management issues and training
  • Manufacturing, high tech and life sciences development
  • Marketing
  • Networking
  • Nonprofit development
  • Office, laboratory and meeting space
  • Product development
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Selling to the government and large corporations
  • Tax services
  • Technical assistance

How much do services cost?

The initial assessment and matching is free. There may be fees for counseling, training classes, etc.

Do I have to meet a certain set of standards to get help?

The program is designed for minority business owners who live or work in the Cleveland area.

News From The Wall Street Journal
  • New York's Tech Start-Up Scene Comes of AgeBy Therese Poletti In the late 1990s, as Silicon Valley's tech industry headed into boom-land, so too did New York City.A slew of startups formed, many focused on "new media," or advertising on the Internet. I lived in the city for part of it, and it was a crazy time. Venture and corporate money flowed, and dot-com parties became a frequent occurrence in lower Manhattan, where many of the new media startups clustered. Somehow along the way, the moniker "Silicon Alley" was given to one of the densest urban areas in the U.S., where nary a computer chip firm was to be found.But much like its namesake in the San Francisco Bay area, New York also imploded after the dot-com boom and bust, with Darwinism getting rid of the worst ideas, like the free delivery service, Kozmo.com. Slowly, though, over the last decade, New York has been building a real tech center, where software, media, and ad-related startups are thriving, a venture capital community is growing and serial entrepreneurs are as commonplace as they are in Silicon Valley."There is a general feeling here, a buzz, that there is momentum here," said David Silverman, a partner PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York.And like Silicon Valley, where many veterans from eBay Inc.'s PayPal have become successful angel investors and entrepreneurs, Google Inc.'s acquisition of DoubleClick has had a spillover effect in New York.Some co-founders of DoubleClick have also become angel investors and have gone on to found other companies. Kevin Ryan has invested in a TheLadders.com, a job searching service and the Gilt Groupe, an invitation-only luxury goods shopping site. Mr. Ryan also co-founded the business news site, Silicon Alley Insider, with DoubleClick co-founder Dwight Merriman and former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget, and a content delivery network called Panther Express.DoubleClick's former chief executive, Kevin Rosenblatt, recently emerged as chairman of a new startup still in stealth mode, with funding from three venture firms and former AOL Time-Warner executive Bob Pittman. The company, Group Commerce, develops group advertising buying technology and payment infrastructure for publishers, according to its website."As one of the most successful financial exits from the dot-com era, DoubleClick made people in Silicon Valley realize that there may still be some fire coming out of New York," said Tristan Louis, a New York-based entrepreneur and blogger (and also a friend).Like Silicon Valley, New York entrepreneurs have learned from their mistakes in the past. They are starting companies on smaller budgets and conserving funds, unlike the free-flowing days of the boom. And because many of New York's young companies focus on financial services, Internet software and advertising, they have lower initial costs compared to the semiconductor and hardware companies that begot Silicon Valley in its early days, which are more capital intensive and require more space."Startups don't need a lot of capital," said Jeff Stewart, founder and chief executive of Urgent Career, who has also founded a half-dozen companies.Mr. Silverman of PWC also said the startups in New York, like their counterparts on the West Coast, are more focused on reaching profitability. "Back then it was a gold rush mentality," he said of the late 1990s. "Now it's building a business."Recent PricewaterhouseCooper Money Tree data shows that the New York region ranks number four in total venture capital investment, after Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Boston. And in terms of funding for software companies, New York ranked only second to Silicon Valley for venture capital funding in the second quarter.One New York startup that is well-known in Silicon Valley is Foursquare, the geolocation company which lets people check in with their mobile devices at restaurants, museums, stores and other venues. The service lets your friends know where you are via Facebook or Twitter and users accumulate points for frequent visits.Foursquare's two founders, Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai met when each was working at a different startup in the same building in New York. They launched Foursquare in 2009 and have raised about $21 million in funding in the last two years.A Foursquare spokeswoman said New York ended up being a perfect place to launch their service. "They were able to find plenty of great talent in New York," said Erin Gleason of Foursquare. "New York is a challenging city to build location-based services for because of its density, so once they built a product that could work well in New York City, they figured it would work well in other, smaller cities as well."It's hard to get an accurate count of how many startups there are in New York, because the number is quickly growing. Next month, the New York Venture Capital Association is holding an "Ingenuity" conference to showcase some of the region's firms and the growth of the New York venture community. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures is now seen as a veteran among New York venture capitalists, as is Draper Fisher Jurvetson's Gotham Ventures arm. Bonnie Halper, who is also a friend, is president of Sendresume, a recruiting firm, and founder of Startuponestop.com, a free business-to- business community helping out startups. She noted there are now more angel investors and startup incubators in New York. Venture capitalists are also now more willing to provide seed funding than they had in the past."Don't forget that startups don't always necessarily want huge investment up front," Ms. Halper said. "They want to own more of their own product, so they may take $250,000 instead of the $1 million to $5 million."And what about that inappropriate moniker? No one calls New York "Silicon Alley" anymore."Now we just call it New York," Ms. Halper said. "The industry in New York has finally come of age."
  • Partners Can Help, or HinderBy Sarah E. Needleman For start-ups lacking sufficient cash to survive, a partner with deep pockets may be a more attainable lifeline than traditional sources of funding. Venture-capital investments in seed and early-stage companies totaled just $6.31 billion in 2009, compared with $6.96 billion in 2008, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association. Meanwhile, only half of small businesses that tried to borrow money last year got all or most of what they needed, concludes a study from the National Federation of Independent Business, a Washington trade group. And with the unemployment rate at nearly 10%, family and friends may be just as unlikely a resource. But small-business experts warn that a partner's offering of quick cash can create new headaches for entrepreneurs."The much bigger issue is control," says Nancy F. Koehn, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. Potential partners are sometimes entrepreneurs themselves, looking for the next opportunity; other times, they're professionals who have always wanted to start a business, but lack strong ideas. Most partners "want not just a claim on future earnings. They also want a whole lot of say," Ms. Koehn says, adding that it's common for partners to try to tinker with a company's products, fire employees and make other changes upon joining a start-up. Cynthia Typaldos found herself in this situation in late 2008 after failing to secure investors for her technology start-up, Kachingle. Desperate for enough money to file a patent application on time for the company's micropayment technology, she took on a business partner she hardly knew because he was willing to immediately invest $40,000. But the arrangement quickly proved problematic. "There was a lot of dissention," says Ms. Typaldos, who parted ways with the partner after just a few months, though he maintains equity in her business.On the bright side, the partner's brief contribution made it possible for her to afford the patent she needed. Kachingle's first product launched in February and the company now has more than 1,000 clients. Another potential downside to recruiting a business partner for financial support is if he or she lacks relevant expertise. Carl Restivo and Mildred Restivo, co-founders of Innovative Toys Inc., enlisted three partners in 2009 to join their Westford, Mass., business, which makes plush dolls called ScareMeNots.The husband-and-wife team had accumulated roughly $30,000 in revenues from selling their merchandise to 30 retailers and wanted to broaden their market reach, but they were broke."We had maxed out our home-equity line," says Mr. Restivo, adding that none of the couple's friends and relatives were able to lend them money, and they were advised against seeking a bank loan, angel or venture capital.The Restivos' three partners invested a combined $135,000 in their company. They say one partner lacked technology skills essential to running their operation, though it wasn't a major stumbling block. "He needed some hand-holding to get up to speed," says Mr. Restivo.Today, ScareMeNots are for sale in roughly 100 stores nationwide and the company's earnings have tripled since a year ago.Without the partners involvement, "we wouldn't have a company," says Mr. Restivo. Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

News from Entrepreneur.com