Santa Barbara Enterprise Center
Santa Barbara, CA—The Santa Barbara Enterprise Center (SBEC) has been established at the SBBTC in Santa Barbara, hosted and co-sponsored by Jeff Bermant, Bermant Development Corp., SBTech Ventures, and operated by the Small Business Entrepreneurship Center, and joins the international Green2Gold (G2G) environmental/renewable energy enterprise incubator at SBBTC.
President Obama recently mentioned the power and success of business incubation to help economic recovery, and the National Association of Business Incubators has research showing almost a 90% SUCCESS rate among new enterprises utilizing incubation.
The SBBTC offers and array of affordable workstations, semi-private, and executive offices, high speed internet, receptionist and resources for businesses, and the SBEC offers incubation, mentorship, and business development resources to assist Start-Ups—such as access to angel/venture and debt funding capital, marketing and advertising, help with business plans, intellectual property, prototyping, international trade, staffing, management assistance, web design development and much more.
The SBEC also has a vast internship program for students of UCSB, SBCC, and Westmont that engages undergraduates in entrepreneurship, innovation, events, and projects that assist the SBEC clients—called “incubees”—and also assists those students starting enterprises, developing new technologies, etc.
SBEC and Green2Gold are also unique in that they also assist the creation of nonprofit organizations that can also be housed at SBBTC. Recent launches have included: PlayFulPlanet, Humanitourism, Dreamalings, and Lady Bug Jane institutions.
The SBEC/SBBTC will begin providing a monthly free workshop at 6:00pm on various business topics, followed by a regional chapter meeting of Inventor’s Workshop International and Green2Gold at the downtown facility at 402 E. Gutierrez St., between Olive and Laguna, across from the ACE Home Improvement Center.
Co-located at SBBTC are the famous Inventors Workshop International Education Foundation (IWI) and Entrepreneurs Workshop (featured on/in CNN, CNBC, Oprah, NPR, Business Week, Inc., Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal), SB SCORE (Counselors to America’s Small Business, santabarbarascore.org)—the volunteer program of U.S. SBA which offers free counseling to business every Wednesday morning, and by appointment, online counseling and a once a month business workshop, the Tech Brew—SB region’s premier networking and connecting Mega Mixers events, co-sponsored by Cox, Pacific Coast Business Times, Bermant Development Corp., and dozens of institutions.|
SBEC and Green2Gold invite partnerships and sponsors to join in these efforts to cultivate “Economic Gardening” in SB region, create jobs, wealth, which in turn helps support charities, tax base, and financial security of region.
Alan Tratner, Director of SBEC and G2G states: “The addition of the SBEC to the business assistance institutions at SBBTC produces a powerful, expert resource to enable people with great ideas to succeed, a real world home for young entrepreneurs involved in business and entrepreneurship education, complementing, for example, the programs at SBCC and UCSB, connects a wide array of institutions fostering enterprising.”
SBEC and G2G are involved in the upcoming International Women’s Festivals (womensfestival.org) which focuses on women in business on March 8th at UCSB and the next Tech Brew Mega Mixer, and the launch of the Clean Business Investment Summit (ccvt.org) on March 26th also at UCSB by the California Coast Venture Forum, which also resides at SBBTC.
Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups, and growing businesses interested in having offices and incubator assistance at SBBTC contact: sabine@bdcdevelopment.com (805) 564-8005. Information on SBEC is available at www.smallbizentrpcntr.org or alan@smallbizentrpcntr.org, or by phone: (805) 879-1729.