THE QUEENS
MAY 2019
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
New small biz center for immigrants debuts in Flushing
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
To mark National Small Business
week, Queens College and LaGuardia
Community College offi cials along with
Flushing Congresswoman Grace Meng on
Monday offi cially launched the opening
of a Small Business Development Center
(SBDC) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony
at Queens College.
A joint eff ort between Queens College
and LaGuardia Community College of
the City University of New York (CUNY),
the SBDC — located at Queens College
Kissena Hall at 64-19 Kissena Blvd, Suite
01 — will serve immigrant entrepreneurs
and other under-represented populations
in Flushing with initial outreach in
English and Mandarin.
“Th is new center will provide vital assistance
to budding entrepreneurs, including
immigrants, whose start-up businesses
are indispensable to our borough
and city,” said CUNY Chancellor and
Queens College President Felix v. Matos
Rodriguez. “We very much look forward
to seeing the results of successful collaborations
between the center’s clients and its
skilled staff , complemented by the talents
and contributions of our Tech Incubator
team, faculty and student interns.”
Th e Queens College SBDC will initially
be overseen by Rosa Figueroa, director of
LaGuardia Community College’s SBDC.
Since its opening in 2001, the center has
served nearly 6,000 businesses helping
them invest more than $60 million in the
area’s economy and create, or save nearly
2,000 jobs.
Figueroa will train two business advisors
who will support the business community
on site at the Queens College
SBDC.
“We work with businesses who are basically
an idea, those who are starting up,
those who are in business and would
like to grow,” said Figueroa. “We provide
services other than English in Spanish,
Mandarin and Korean. With Queens
College, we’ll have a total of six business
advisers. We have three Asian advisers
and they have been working with
this area, this way we’ll be able to further
expand our services for the community.”
Areas of advising include how to start a
business, legal requirements, business and
fi nancial planning (including creating projections
and preparing loan packages), marketing,
business expansion, assistance with
franchises, international trade and more,
according to the LaGuardia Small Business
Development Center, that is partially funded
by the U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) and operates within the Learning and
Innovation Center at LGCC.
As a member of the House
Appropriations Committee, Meng was
proud to secure $130 million for SBDC’s
nationwide and last year’s spending bill
for Fiscal Year 2018 —$160,000 of which
she helped steer toward establishing and
funding the facility in her congressional
district.
“As the daughter of small business owners
I know fi rsthand the critical role that
small businesses play in our borough and
in our city,” said Meng. “Small businesses
as you know, bring investment and innovation
to our communities. Th ey create
jobs, provide important services and
contribute to our tax base. Th at’s why we
must do everything we can to help those
succeed.”
Meng added, “Th is new center will
serve as a vital asset to local small business
owners, including those from immigrant
and under-represented communities,
and it will ensure local entrepreneurs
will have the tools and support they need
to thrive.”
Following a Small Business
Subcommittee fi eld hearing held in 2014
across the street from Queens College,
Meng began working towards the goal
of creating a SBDC in northeast Queens
aft er local entrepreneurs stated that establishing
a center was essential in better
serving the needs of local business owners,
she said.
Th e Tech Incubator at Queens College
(TIQC) — the fi rst facility of its kind
in the borough — and the college’s programs,
including its bachelor of business
administration and its minor in business
and liberal arts, will off er opportunities
for collaborations among SBDC clients
and Queens College faculty and students.
Th e Queens College SBDC will also focus
on supporting the tech business community
— from start-ups to established businesses
— leveraging the college’s strengths
in computer and data science, and drawing
on the resources of the TIQC.
LaGuardia Community College
President Gail Mellow said she hopes the
deep connection with Queens College on
the new SBDC will help small businesses
in the community thrive.
“Having this opportunity to expand
support for immigrant entrepreneurs and
other small business owners in Flushing,
Queens, through our partnership with
Queens College, is extremely meaningful,”
said Mellow. “Not only is this a model for
future collaborations — bringing expertise
to communities where it’s needed,
and thereby shortening ramp-up time.
But small businesses are the lifeblood of
our communities — when they thrive, our
communities thrive. Th ey provide jobs,
close access to services and more. We’re
very pleased to be working with our colleagues
at Queens College in this important
endeavor.”
Photo courtesy of Queens College
CUNY Chancellor and Queens College President Felix Matos-Rodriguez, Congresswoman Grace Meng and others helped cut the ribbon on the new Small
Business Development Center at Queens College on May 6.
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