San Diego District Office  

San Diego District Office Delivers Outreach to the Imperial Valley

^{Photo above: (left to right) SBA San Diego District Office, Marketing and Outreach Specialist, Luci Montgomery, and Economic Development Specialist, Jamye Pritchett Solorzano; and the Imperial Valley Small Business Development Center’s, Director, Jaysel V Mendoza; and Advisors, Jesus Solorzano and Viridiana Rosales}

Earlier in the year SBA, San Diego District Office collaborated with the City of Calexico, and the California State Controller’s Office to present at an online event. COVID and the resulting border closure had negatively impacted commerce, creating increased challenges for both Calexico and the rural agriculture based Imperial Valley. While helpful, this rural area needed an in-person presence to reach a broader audience.   To that end, the San Diego District Office participated in an open house with the City of Calexico and the Imperial Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Situated on the U.S. Mexican border, Calexico is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. The event which coincided with the full reopening of the border, was positively received. Local community leaders, the mayor, city council members, Chambers of Commerce, and a large array of small business owners attended.

Economic Development Specialist, Jamye Pritchett Solorzano and Outreach and Marketing Specialist, Luci Montgomery provided Outreach materials and delivered bilingual services to participants who visited the SBA Booth. To continue to support small businesses in their efforts to recover from COVID-19 economic impacts, the specialists shared SBAs Mission and program information, as well as information about the Federal small business loan programs. Participating businesses included restaurants, real estate agents, brokers, importers, construction workers, retailers, contractors, manufacturers, and small artisans. It was most encouraging to see the large number of entrepreneurs pivoting from COVID, interested in starting new businesses. SBA continues to assist many of these small business owners after the outreach event and look forward to finding new ways to deliver assistance in the coming year. Specifically, SBA strives to meet the unique needs and opportunities in the area such as Trade and Export, HUBZone Program (Historically Underutilized Business Zones), contracting etc.

Special thanks to the City of Calexico for collaborating with the SBA and enabling us to increase our reach and serve more small businesses.  

Bee-ing True to the SBA Mission

^{Photo above: (left to right) SBA San Diego District Office, Marketing and Outreach Specialist, Luci Montgomery; Imperial Valley Small Business Development Center, Jesus Solorzano; and SBA San Diego District Office, Economic Development Specialist, Jamye Pritchett Solorzano}

San Diego District Office Reaches out to Local Veterans 

^{Photo above: (left to right) SBA San Diego District Office, Economic Development Specialist, Jamye Pritchett Solorzano, and Marketing and Outreach Specialist, Luci Montgomery; Southern California Veterans Business Outreach Center, Director, Keli Benham-Anthis; Alpine VFW Post #9578, Auxiliary Chaplain, Jan Bazdorf; and attendees.}

The San Diego District Office hosted a National Veteran’s Small Business Week Webinar with the support of the SoCal Veterans Business Outreach Center on November 4, 2021.  The online event commenced with inspirational words from San Diego District Director, Ruben Garcia, a Vietnam veteran himself.  Economic Development Specialist/Admin Officer, Jamye Pritchett Solorzano moderated the event and provided an overview of “How the SBA can help fund your business.”   A highlight of the event was comments by Jan and Theo Bazdorf, veterans.  Jan recounted how having the help of an SBA loan helped her scale her business, and ultimately change her life. 

Outreach and Marketing Specialist, Luci Montgomery provided a presentation on starting or expanding your veteran owned business.  Southern California Veterans Business Outreach Center Director, Keli Benham-Anthis, gave an informative presentation on business plans and provided VBOC information and services to all attendees.

The event included Veterans from multiple eras and in all stages of business ownership. The San Diego District Office was proud to provide this well-attended event to a very attentive audience.

Featured Upcoming Events:

Join The Women’s Business Center and

SCORE San Diego for

Why you need to pay yourself first. And how to do it!

January 21, 2022, 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. PST

REGISTER

Virtual Event   Fee: $9.99

January’s Women’s Networking Zoom Event is all about building your confidence around the money part of your small-business.

 You will:

• Get to Network with other aspiring or established small-business owners
• Write down your money goal for 2022
• Create your own measuring stick and timeline for success
• Estimate your small-business sales
• Determine your top three costs

Business Financial Fitness Series

January 25, 2022, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. PST

 REGISTER

 Join the South San Diego Small Business Development Center for this FREE Live in-person event in National City.  This is the first of a four part program on Business Financial Fitness.  Topics include: business management, pivoting from COVID and business financing.  

Launch It! eCommerce 101 For Mil Spouses  January 26, 2022 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. PST  REGISTER     This eCommerce workshop is built for the amazing men and women who sacrifice so much in support of their military and veteran partners – Military Spouses (Mil Spouses). Frequent moves and a hectic schedule often mean that careers and business ideas can be placed on the back burner. The goal of this eCommerce workshop is to help you build a business that can travel around the world with you and your family! eCommerce is an exciting opportunity for you to launch, expand or pivot a business idea from home (where ever that is) while working around your busy schedule.

January is National Mentoring Month

Looking for a business mentor? During National Mentoring Month, connect with a business mentor through SCORE San Diego, an SBA resource partner or one of our other amazing resource partners.  SCORE, a nonprofit organization, is the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, dedicated to helping small businesses plan, launch, manage and grow.  Working with a business mentor will increase your chances of success.

SBA’s support of or participation in the above events is not an endorsement of any product, service, or entity.

Find All Upcoming and On Demand Webinars

Several On Demand and Recorded webinars are offered by SBA’s resource partner organizations. New and updated webinars are being added regularly. Use the links below to view them all. (Most webinars are free.)

• San Diego and Imperial Valley SBDC Network (use search to select a topic – some in Spanish and Arabic)

• San Diego & Imperial Women’s Business Center (some in Spanish)

• San Diego SCORE Workshops  (some in Spanish) (Free and low cost programs. Most in-person workshops are $25)

• SoCal Veteran’s Business Outreach Center

• Procurement Technical Assistance Center

• Find SBA Webinars

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