Contra Costa Small Business Development Center
300 Ellinwood Way, Suite 300
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Contact: Oscar Dominguez, Director
Phone: (925) 602-6840
E-mail: info@ContraCostaSBDC.com
Overview
The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) offers classes, consulting services and business planning resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners. The SBDC is focused on developing and implementing programs and services that support innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, growth and social impact.
Classes
SBDC offers entrepreneurs and business owners a way to learn and implement new strategies, skills and ideas across varied business disciplines. Taught by experienced instructors, including industry experts, their classes are tailored to fit entrepreneurs in any stage of the business development process. The SBDC partners with leading organizations to offer specialized classes and programs.
Consulting
SBDC consultants have expertise in business planning, accessing capital, financial projections, marketing, technology management, contracting and business strategy. They are selected through an extensive interview and training process based on their knowledge and capability to assist with a wide array of business issues. Most of their consultants have MBAs or Ph.D.s and many have experience in running their own small business.
Tools for Business Success
The City's Tools for Business Success website provides an online toolkit of training options to help you operate a successful business in Brentwood. Entrepreneurs who want to start a business or business owners who currently have a company can:
- Form a business - Choose a business legal structure and then by led step-by-step through the formation process with links to all the state and federal forms and reporting requirements.
- Find the State and Federal business programs - all in one place!
- Use free business planning software, marketing training programs and business turnaround programs.
- Learn about business certifications and find State and Federal contracts open for bid.
- Establish business credit using the Funding Toolkit.
- Have access to Disaster Planning and Recovery assistance programs.
- Get salary information for 850+ positions.
- Access information on local business training, support, and free counseling.
- Save hours of staff time by using a New-Hire email and Employer's Kit.
- Evaluate and improve an existing business using tools such as the Business Report Card.
Tools for Business Success Online Toolkit
United States Small Business Administration 
San Francisco District Office
455 Market St., 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Contact: Michael Elkin
Phone: (415) 744-8491
E-mail:
melkin@sba.gov
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent federal agency established by Congress to assist, counsel, support and protects the interest of small business concerns and to assist them in their start-up and growth. In addition to the SBA’s financial guarantee programs, these centers provide businesses with the tools for enhancing and growing their businesses.
New SBA Web Tool Helps with Market Research
SizeUp Allows Business Owners to Research Data and Analytics To Start or Grow a Business
Small business owners and start-ups across the country can now take advantage of a new business tool to help them compete and grow. The free tool, called SizeUp, helps businesses identify new customers and compare their performance against other businesses in their industry with data collected from hundreds of private and public sources. The tool can be found at www.sba.gov/sizeup.
“Market research and analysis is critical for the success of any small business owner or entrepreneur. Tools like SizeUp deliver data right to the fingertips of business owners to help make smart decisions and have the greatest opportunity to start, grow, compete and succeed,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “In today’s challenging economic environment where small businesses create nearly all net new jobs in the U.S., help for small businesses is more important than ever before.”
SizeUp works by analyzing a business in comparison to other similar businesses in the same trade and provides geographic information on the marketplace, areas recommended for advertising, and prospective customers. This useful tech tool delivers market data directly to business owners to help them make better business decisions based on competitive research analysis.
The SizeUp tool provides data analysis in three key ways:
- Benchmarking an existing business to see how it sizes up by comparing performance to all other competitors in the same industry;
- A mapping feature to see where customers and suppliers are located; and
- Finding the best places to advertise by choosing from pre-set reports to find areas with the highest industry revenue and the most underserved markets. Custom demographic reports can also be created.
GIS Planning, Inc., the company that created SizeUp, has licensed the tool to SBA for one year. SBA’s acceptance of this product is not an endorsement of the opinions, products or services of GIS Planning, Inc.
East Bay Score
492 9th Street, Suite 350
Oakland, CA 94607
Phone: (510) 273-6611
Fax: (510) 273-6015 E-mail:info@eastbayscore.org
SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is America’s premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide.
Contra Costa Means Business
E-mail: ccbiz@contracostasbdc.com
Contra Costa Means Business is designed to be your one-stop source for business information, resources, services and expertise in Contra Costa County. Through this business portal, you can easily get connected to the BESTeam—the agencies and organizations that serve businesses in Contra Costa as well as to many useful and informative websites.
Brentwood Branch Library
751 Third Street
Brentwood, CA 94513
Phone: (925) 634-4101
Located in the eastern corner of Contra Costa County, the City of Brentwood has grown from its agricultural beginnings to a diverse, multicultural community of commuters. Built in 1979, the Brentwood Library is located in the City Park and serves a population of more than 40,000. The library collection includes materials in both Spanish and English. It also offers a wide variety of media, including DVDs, CDs and audio books, as well as a large print collection. The library offers a number of programs for all ages, including story times for babies and toddlers.
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Manex Small Manufacturing Assistance
Manex is a consulting firm that specializes in assisting small manufacturing firms, helping them to adopt best practices, improve output and efficiency, and increase profitability. For more information, go to: http://www.manexconsulting.com/about-manex or contact Bill Browne at Manex’s San Ramon office at (925) 807-5103 or wbrowne@manexconsulting.com.