Babson faculty members are involved in the effort to develop portions of the curriculum for the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 10,000 Small Businesses effort.

Babson has been observing a pilot program that is underway at LaGuardia Community College in New York. It is actively preparing the curriculum for the next classes set to being in August involving the Los Angeles Community College District and the Long Beach Community College District.

The Babson effort is led by Prof. Patricia Greene and includes faculty members Richard Bliss, Candida Brush, Dennis Ceru, Elaine Eisenman, Michael Fetters, David Hennessey, Heidi Neck, Eric Noyes, and Elizabeth Thornton. President Len Schlesinger is a founding Advisory Council member.

The first community college to participate in the 10,000 Small Businesses effort is LaGuardia in Queens, New York, which houses a Small Business Development Center. Classes began in the spring of 2010. The first CDFI who will be receiving financing from Goldman Sachs will be Seedco Financial Services, Inc. based in New York City. Loans to underserved businesses in the New York area are expected to commence in 2010.

The Los Angeles/Long Beach initiative will enable small business owners to access a dynamic combination of coursework, business advising, and other services that will help them grow their firms.

Through the grant support of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, each community college will be able to provide business owners selected to participate in 10,000 Small Businesses with a full scholarship covering tuition and program materials.

Program scholars will:

• Complete the program with a personalized growth plan tailored to their business;
• Participate in an 11-session business entrepreneurship training program that examines business fundamentals through the lens of the participants’ actual business experiences;
• Be fully integrated with comprehensive one-on-one business advisory services that help owners to develop and implement tailored growth plans; and
• Provide access to technical assistance and mentors to help business owners to focus on their most critical business issues and increase capacity.

For information on:

• LACC, visit http://www.lacc10ksb.com/
• LBCC, visit http://www.lbcc.edu/10000smallbusinesses/
• LAGCC, visit http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/

10,000 Small Businesses Program

10,000 Small Businesses is a $500 million initiative that will unlock the growth and job-creation potential of 10,000 small businesses across the United States through greater access to business education, financial capital, and business support services. It is based on the broadly held view of leading experts that a combination of education, capital, and support services best addresses the barriers to growth for small businesses. It is now operating in New York and Los Angeles and will continue to expand to communities across the country.

10,000 Small Businesses is modeled on the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, which creates partnerships between academic institutions and non-profit entities to provide a business and management education to women around the world. 10,000 Women is currently operating in 20 countries, where it is helping women entrepreneurs create jobs and growth in their communities.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a global financial services firm. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other major financial centers around the world.