Fed grant funds CDC effort to help businesses

Olver: Gardner and area rely on small entrepreneurs

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The United States Department of Agriculture has awarded the Greater Gardner Community Development Corp. a rural business enterprise grant of $30,798 to provide support to 30 small and emerging local businesses. Congressman John W. Olver, D-Amherst, strongly recommended the grant. In a letter Mr. Olver wrote in favor of the grant, he emphasized the importance of providing the Gardner area with this additional funding. “Gardner and its surrounding communities are among the poorest in Massachusetts. Over the past two decades most of the area’s large manufacturing businesses have relocated or closed. The area has come to rely on small businesses for employment.” This is the third time the corporation has received the award, according to James Cruickshank, executive director. Mr. Cruickshank provided information about how the funds are going to be channeled throughout the various businesses in the area. “We distribute the funds with the intent of stabilizing a business to expand it,” Mr. Cruickshank said. “A lot of the time we see entrepreneurs and new business owners that are very focused on their product or their service, but there are other components that are characteristic of successful small businesses.” The problem facing most entrepreneurs, according to Mr. Cruickshank, is that they don’t account for the smaller aspects of starting a business which include legal matters, licenses, tax requirements and accounting. Mr. Cruickshank added that there is a process to granting these funds to each new business. “Usually for entrepreneurs for new business owners, we ask that they enroll into one of our free workshops, which is called ‘Nuts and Bolts for Entrepreneurs.’ These workshops offer an overview of the challenges facing owners who are trying to start or stabilize a small business.” During these workshops the prospective business owners are taken through a step-by-step planning process for all of the potential problems they may face in their new location. The information gained at these workshops provides new owners with a sense of security when they actually open, as opposed to recognizing these problems with it is too late.

Appeared on Page 1 on 4/3/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 80)