Greensboro is the 3rd-largest city in North Carolina and is a home for many women business owners and female entrepreneurs who are just launching their enterprises. Providing business opportunities, benefits, and grants to women-owned enterprise the City ensure that their success and entrepreneurial growth is achieved.
The Economic Development Division of the Planning Department
The Economic Development Division provides support to women entrepreneurs through individualized services geared towards achieving success for their businesses. The Division provides business services include referrals to various assistance programs, offering solutions to business problems, and helping women entrepreneurs to assess their eligibility before sending applications to existing programs. the division also helps women business founders in selecting the available city contracts and offering counseling services regarding the City’s policies, regulations, and procedures for starting and running businesses. The goal of the Economic Development Division is to promote and encourage investment in the City of Greensboro. The division strives to achieve its goal by facilitating the creation of more job opportunities and supporting the expansion of both small and medium-sized women-owned businesses to enable them to achieve success. Find out more at https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/business/economic-development-business-support/assistance-programs.
The Greensboro Office of Workforce Development
Looking for work in the City of Greensboro? Well, the Office of Workforce Development is there to help you with that. By connecting you to the local employers, providing you with career counseling, the office ensures that you get access to the right job. The Office also helps women business owners by connecting them with talented employees to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in their companies. Their goal is to promote both the personal and professional growth of women and to achieve economic development. Please visit https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/business/office-of-workforce-development.
Starting a Business in North Carolina
Starting a business is a process. It always starts with coming up with a business idea, developing a plan, and making various decisions for the growth and development of your enterprise. Developing a viable business plan involves putting your great idea into a plan of action, explaining step by step, your intentions. Remember, it has to be out down in writing. A business plan is important, especially when seeking funding support such as loans and grants from business assistance programs. it is the model for making your business thrive. After developing a plan, the next step is registering your business, and for this, ensure you observe the regulations put in place by the State of North Carolina. Acquire licensing for your business. Your business may need more than one license to operate. For instance, if you opening branches in other locations. Once you obtain licensing for your business, it is time to seek information about the City taxes. Please note that depending on the size and your business structure, taxation can be simple or sometimes complex. See tax information in North Carolina at https://edpnc.com/start-or-grow-a-business/start-a-business/employer-requirements-business-tax-information/. After taxation, seek funding. Identify the potential sources of business financing. Done? Now is time to register yourself as n employer and start hiring. See employer requirements at https://edpnc.com/start-or-grow-a-business/start-a-business/employer-requirements-business-tax-information/. For more details, please visit https://edpnc.com/start-or-grow-a-business/start-a-business/.
Women Impacting Greensboro
Women Impacting Greensboro (WIG) is a group of women who work together to make a difference in community life. Why join this group? You get a chance to connect to many people including successful women in business and other professionals that can impact your entrepreneurial success and help you achieve professional growth. This group also provides financial support to non-profits striving to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods. Read more at http://womenimpactinggreensboro.blogspot.com/.
Women to Women Greensboro
Women to Women is an organization dedicated to empowering women by providing funding support to women-owned businesses and non-profits that offer services that create a positive impact on the life of women. The organization has given out more than $1,000,000 as grants to projects that provide opportunities for women to ensure their growth. The organization believes in the power of investing in women and the impact it can bring in the economic development of a community. They also help to address the issues of financial insecurity and inadequate opportunities that might prevent women from thriving. For more details, please visit https://www.womentowomengreensboro.org/.
Women’s Resource Center of Greensboro
The Women’s Resource Center of the City of Greensboro is dedicated to supporting women in getting through the hardships of life by helping them acquire the necessary skills to achieve personal and professional growth. The center provides networking opportunities that connect you with services that help you make the right decisions in life. by assessing the needs of women, the center works to help them achieve self-reliance and connect them to community resources, including business assistance programs to help women achieve success. They also provide job training to enable women to acquire the education and skills they need to get access to the available employment opportunities. For more details, please visit https://www.womenscentergso.org/about-us.html.
The U.S. Minority Business Development Agency
The business development agency specializes in supporting women-owned businesses. Please note that the agency cannot provide funding support directly to female entrepreneurs. Instead, the agency can refer you to the available resources and help you explore the available funding options. Please visit https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/?splash=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mbda.gov%2f&____isexternal=true.
Better Buildings Neighborhood Program
Greensboro’s Better Neighborhood Program is committed to promoting employment creation, economic development, and consumer education. The program provides grants and incentives to women-owned businesses that focus on improving energy efficiency in the neighborhoods. For more information, please visit https://community-wealth.org/content/better-buildings-neighborhood-program.
East Market Street Development Corporation
The East Market Street Development Corporation focuses on fostering the economic development of the City of Greensboro by supporting women-owned startups and existing businesses. The organization supports economic growth by making the economic development services, business resources, and community development programs available to women entrepreneurs to ensure they achieve growth and expansion for their small businesses. That helps in creating sustainable communities in Greensboro. For more information, please visit https://community-wealth.org/content/east-market-street-development-corporation.
North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center
The North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center is dedicated to supporting the growth of women entrepreneurs. The center helps women start and run successful business venture, and to help increase the number of enterprises in the City of Greensboro. It runs programs that aim at promoting and cultivating an entrepreneurial culture in the community. The center focuses on social entrepreneurship, franchising, healthcare entrepreneurship, and family business. Visit https://community-wealth.org/content/north-carolina-entrepreneurship-center for more details.