Women Entrepreneurs Get Plugged into the Financial Game
PGCEDC Launches Step Forward Program to Increase Capital Reach for Minority Women Business Owners
in Prince George’s County
Women-owned businesses now have a program focused specifically on getting them in the best business shape to pursue business capital. The Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation (PGCEDC) just launched its Step Forward program for women-owned business this week. Step Forward is designed to assist women-owned businesses in getting the right connections in order to accelerate business growth.
Alicia Moran, Manager of Small Business Services at PGCEDC, says that the Step Forward program “will provide programming, counseling, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities, as well as enhance financial literacy and loan readiness to minority led small businesses. This program is different in that it is specifically designed to help female led county-located companies move forward with enhanced financial management skills. A program like this can incredibly impact small business growth in one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs – women of color.”
A few of the expected program outcomes for Step Forward participants include their ability to identify loan package deficiencies/shortfalls, have a completed loan application package ready to submit for funding and have their loan application pre-viewed/prequalified by lenders.
Funded by a grant from Wells Fargo, Step Forward is a cohort of ten (10) women-owned businesses based in Prince George’s County that are competitively selected on annual basis to join the program. Participants will meet one-on-one with a business and/or banking counselor to work directly on their specific needs as well as strengthen and/or mitigate shortfalls in their loan packages. Once a month, the Step Forward cohort will come together to participate in intense training sessions with industry experts to navigate the financing process from start to finish. A few of the expected program outcomes for Step Forward participants are that they will be able to identify loan package deficiencies/shortfalls, have a completed loan application package ready to submit for funding and have their loan application pre-viewed/prequalified by lenders.
The first session held this week covered proper business structure. Attorney Midgett S. Parker, Esq. led an engaging session on choosing the proper business structure, building a team of experts to support it and the many ways to source business capital. Participants were excited to have an industry expert guide them through the process of making sure that their businesses were structured in the most successful way.
To get to know our 2022 Step Forward cohort, track their progress through the program and celebrate their successes connect with the PGCEDC at www.pgcedc.com/stepforward or follow us @pgcedc on Facebook/Instagram and @ExpandPGC on Twitter. For more on the overall business resources of the PGCEDC visit https://www.pgcedc.com/business-resources.