Find out more about the Small Business Growth Loan Program
The volunteers below have offered no-cost assistance reviewing business cashflow and financials, identifying potential resources, sharing ideas, and coaching/mentoring for successful loan repayment.
Athens-Clarke County Economic Development Department, Myung Cogan: myung.cogan@accgov.com
UGA Small Business Development Center, Athens Office: athens@georgiasbdc.org or 706-542-7436
Goodwill of North Georgia - GoodBiz Program, Jamie Parrott: jparrott@ging.org
SCORE – Northeast Georgia Chapter, Athens Branch, Charlie Schrauth: charles.schrauth@scorevolunteer.org
Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, Marissa Chastain: marissa@athensga.com
Athens Land Trust, Sydney Buffington: sydney@athenslandtrust.org
The Culinary Kitchen of Athens and Farm to Neighborhood, Kat Chaffin: katchaffin@gmail.com
Athens Land Trust: Offers Grow Your Business (GYB), an 8-week, no cost small business development training program to beginning and limited-resource entrepreneurs. Participants complete a business plan to help them start or advance their business.
Contact: Sydney Buffington: sydney@athenslandtrust.org
https://athenslandtrust.org/our-work/comag/wbfm/learn/grow-your-business/
UGA Small Business Development Center – Continuing Education: The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides tools, training and resources to help small businesses grow and succeed. The UGA SBDC work alongside local business owners by offering services at either no-cost to the business owner or at a significantly reduced rate. Browse courses and register: https://www.georgiasbdc.org/training/
Goodwill of North Georgia: Offers GoodBIZ!, a 15-week training program that helps established and prospective business owners develop, implement, and refine their micro-enterprise business plan. Upon program completion, participants are paired with a business coach with experience and resources to support them as their business grows and changes.
Contact: Jamie Parrott: jparrott@ging.org
https://goodwillng.org/training-programs/start-a-business/
University of Georgia Idea Accelerator Program: Offers the UGA Idea Accelerator Program which are two, four-week "business boot camp" sessions that prepare students for the next step in their business development and provides mentors and guides to help entrepreneurs to accelerate their business ideas. They also offer programs for women entrepreneurs. The Idea Accelerator is open to Athens-Clarke County community members to participate at no cost.
http://www.ugaentr.com/uga-accelerator
Athens Downtown Development Authority Revolving Loan Program: Small business owners within the ADDA boundary are eligible to apply for a small business loan. The ADDA will run a credit check through Innovative Credit Solutions and then partner with First American Bank and Trust to process the loan applications. The loan itself comes from ADDA, and the loan payments will be made payable to ADDA. Once credit has been approved, downtown business owners can obtain a business loan for fixed asset acquisition (land, buildings, machinery and equipment) or working capital. Businesses can borrow up to $10,000, and will incur a loan fee equal to 5% of the amount borrowed.
Contact: Rachel Swartz: 706-353-1421 or christi@downtownathensga.com
Application: https://downtownathensga.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ADDA-Micro-Revolving-loan-program.pdf
UGA Small Business Development Center (SBDC): In addition to educational training programs, SBDC consultants and staff provide confidential, no cost, one-on-one consulting by appointment to owners of for-profit businesses in Georgia. They can help small business owners with technical assistance with loan proposals, identifying sources of funding and capital, financial projects, debt restructuring analysis, financial ratio analysis, financial health check report, and comparing your company to industry standards.
Contact the Athens SBDC to make an appointment: athens@georgiasbdc.org or 706-542-7436
Minority Business and Nonprofit Association: MNBA’s mission is to support the development, growth, and sustainability of minority businesses and nonprofits. https://thembna.org
Additional Resources
Athens Area Chamber of Commerce: https://www.athensga.com
Serves as a voice for both member businesses and the business community as a whole. Supports the business community through supplier and customers connections, a regional business directory, education opportunities and small business networking.
Contact: David Bradley: david.bradley@athensga.com
Athens-Clarke County Department of Economic Development: http://www.investathensga.com
Works to attract and grow businesses within Athens-Clarke County. Help to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners to various groups and partners in the community and our region that can help them create and refine new or existing business plans, identify funding options, and help them through the site development process.
Contact: Ilka McConnell: BusinessSupport@accgov.com
Northeast Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce: https://negabcc.org/
Northeast Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce serves as an advocate for the creation and growth of competitive, profitable and sustainable Black-owned entities throughout the Northeast Georgia region. They are focused on creating economic opportunities for each of their member entities, assist non-profit members by aligning them to various funding opportunities, and advocate to ensure members’ economic interests are addressed.