LOS ANGELES – A business development center focused on meeting the financial needs of small business owners in Chinatown held its grand opening on Thursday, March 26.
The Chinatown Neighborhood Business Development Center (Chinatown NBDC), a Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) center, will use a culturally appropriate approach to assist local entrepreneurs understand what operating a small enterprise entails, including financial requirements and the tasks required in daily operations. The center will also help them gain access to capital necessary to grow and sustain their businesses.
“When it comes down to building sustainable communities, we really try and create those places, those neighborhoods and communities of opportunity and choice,” said Joe Horiye, western region program vice president of LISC. “In order to do that, we know that we have to make an investment in ourselves [and] in our small businesses … we know at the end of the day, you have to be intentional, strategic, comprehensive to have impact. Not just for families but also for neighborhood entrepreneurs at the end of the day. That’s what this investment is all about.”
The center will focus on Chinatown to spur job creation and revitalize the neighborhood.
“The idea behind this is we think that focusing small business development and technical assistance in a particular neighborhood will have a larger impact than doing something on a much broader scale,” said Ron Fong, director of the Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program. “We see in Chinatown…that there’s a little more momentum happening here, in an area that, for decades, really hasn’t seen a lot of investment.”
Fong added that there appears to be an opportunity to work with the existing businesses and property and help them be better positioned to take advantage of the greater economic activity happening in Chinatown.
The center will offer financial training to entrepreneurs seeking assistance, with an emphasis on those of low to moderate incomes. Services will be provided in English and Chinese dialects, including a needs assessment of local businesses; targeted workshops and training focused on the needs of local businesses; technical assistance and mentoring focused on strategic/business planning and growth and expansion; and small business/microenterprise financial education and literacy focused on finance, access to capital and conventional banking products, and asset building.
Although the center is focused on Chinatown, it is open to other neighborhoods.
“We’re not limited strictly to Chinatown,” Fong said. “Since Historic Filipinotown is close, we would be available to provide services to entrepreneurs [there].”
In addition to job creation in the community and revitalization of buildings in the neighborhood, stakeholders believe the center will result in an enhanced multicultural fabric of Chinatown and asset building for current small business owners in the area.
The Chinatown NBDC is located at the Chinatown Service Center at 767 N Hill Street, Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
