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Program helps small businesses succeed

Page Last Updated: Saturday December 5, 2009 12:27am PST

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Victoria Campbell, News 4

The City of Reno will hand over the reins of a federally-funded program to help small business owners to Nevada Microenterprise Initiative early next year.

The Community Block Development Grant program has been run by the city since 1991. It provides flexible, low-interest loans to business owners with low to moderate incomes, or business owners who will employ people who fall into the same category.

"The City Council felt it was important to help new and expanding businesses, to create jobs and stimulate the economy," said Terri Hendry, a city spokesperson. "And they felt this was the fastest way to do that."

But cutbacks in manpower at the city prompted council members to shift administration of the program to NMI, a non-profit program that has provided free counseling and low-interest loans to small businesses for nearly two decades. President and CEO Deborah Prout said the organization is happy to help qualified business owners form business plans and apply for the money.

"At the end of the day, it comes back to doing the slow, careful homework of developing a financial projection, thinking of the what the costs of the business will be, what are the start-up costs, how much do you need to bring in every month, and what does that mean in terms of sales," said Prout. "So there's a good, logical, analytical process people can go through to help decide if this is a good time [to go into business]."

NMI also provides help to owners of existing businesses who would like to expand, or would like to become more successful. For more information on Nevada Microenterprise Initiative, click here.

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