The most recent spherical of Verizon’s $10,000 small enterprise grants simply launched. Apply for a $10,000 grant in the present day!
The actual worth of Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared lies in the instruments and sources this system offers small companies to allow them to thrive in in the present day’s digital financial system.
Making use of is free and straightforward, however:
- In case you have not but joined this system (additionally free and straightforward), you are able to do that right here.
- After you’ve joined Digital Prepared, you’ll have to full any two of the various free programs or occasions this system provides.
- Apply for the grants themselves through the software interval.
Verizon will notify all candidates whether or not they’ve been chosen to obtain funding.
Whereas the monetary grants are one of the standard options of the Verizon program, the free programs, teaching periods and mentoring supplied by Digital Prepared can be found to anybody who has joined this system.
Register right here to get began.
To study extra about Digital Prepared, StartupNation spoke with Brianna Ellison, director of neighborhood engagement for Verizon. Ellison elaborates on the work Verizon is doing to assist entrepreneurs and on the advantages of the Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program, together with:
- Entry to free digital expertise coaching and sources
- Monetary help to help digital transformation initiatives
- Alternatives to community with different small enterprise house owners and specialists
- Entry to help from Verizon and its companions
As Ellison explains, Verizon is actively partnering with Michigan small companies to assist them succeed within the digital financial system, together with:
- Verizon has partnered with Grand Valley State College’s Veterans Entrepreneurship Lab to supply grants and help to veteran entrepreneurs.
- Verizon has partnered with the Metro Detroit Black Enterprise Alliance’s Capital Join Program to assist Black-owned companies entry funding and sources.
Beneath is the complete Q&A with Ellison, which StartupNation carried out in September 2022.
- What work is Verizon doing within the Detroit/Michigan neighborhood to assist small companies?
Verizon has actively partnered with Michigan small companies. We’re members of quite a few chambers of commerce and associations from throughout the state that work with small companies (such because the Detroit Regional Chamber, Grand Rapids Chamber, Dearborn Chamber, The Proper Place, MI Chamber, Automation Alley, Metro Detroit Black Enterprise Alliance, MI Enterprise Incubator Assoc.). Verizon participates in various thought management occasions with these organizations to share experience and sources with their membership.
In 2021, we prolonged a grant to Grand Valley State College’s Veterans Entrepreneurship Lab. Veterans and/or navy spouses work on their enterprise launch over a three-month interval. MVE-Lab equips individuals to establish their goal clients, community with others, and discover the sources they should launch profitably and efficiently. It concludes with a Pitch Showcase awarding no less than $25,000 in prize cash. Friends embody different veteran entrepreneurs, mentors, and specialists like attorneys and advertising and marketing specialists, together with the chief of Verizon’s veteran worker useful resource group who shared details about Verizon help for small enterprise house owners alongside along with his personal private expertise as an entrepreneur.
In 2021, we additionally established a partnership between Verizon’s Professional Bono Program and the Metro Detroit Black Enterprise Alliance’s Capital Join Program. This program is getting ready and connecting Metro Detroit Black-owned companies to varied funding sources to make sure their sustained success. If any of those companies want additional authorized help or one-on-one help, the Verizon Professional Bono Program staff has agreed to work immediately with these companies to establish further authorized providers.
Lastly, in September, Verizon launched Small Enterprise Digital Prepared. This on-line curriculum is designed to offer small companies the personalised instruments to reach in the present day’s digital world. This system contains studying modules, knowledgeable teaching, peer networking and a market of instruments and options. The free on-line useful resource is out there to any small enterprise throughout Michigan (and nationwide) and will likely be utilized by Verizon companions such because the Black Enterprise Alliance’s Capital Join Program.
- What do you imply by “Digital Prepared” and why is digital readiness essential for small enterprise house owners in the present day?
Digital readiness is about ensuring companies have all of the instruments and sources they should thrive in in the present day’s financial system. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unexpected challenges on entrepreneurs and additional accelerated a shift to digital methods of working. Greater than 75% of small companies pivoted their operations as a result of disaster and greater than 50% of SMBs say their on-line interactions with clients have elevated. To remain aggressive within the new financial atmosphere, small companies should be agile and adapt to shifting shopper preferences.
Small enterprise entrepreneurs perceive the significance of using digital instruments of their day-to-day operations, however discover it difficult to implement significant digital transformation. In response to knowledge revealed from Morning Seek the advice of and Verizon of their September 2020 report, “greater than two in 5 choice makers say it’s seemingly that their enterprise will increase by way of digital applied sciences and rely extra closely on communications.” On the identical time, greater than two-thirds of respondents acknowledged that including or transitioning to digital/on-line operations has been difficult for his or her enterprise to deal with. How can we bridge this hole? Entrepreneurs want easy accessibility—wherever they’re—to personalised studying and training sources in an effort to efficiently implement digital methods into their companies and have the arrogance to reach the post-pandemic future.
- Why is the Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program a great useful resource for enterprise house owners in metro Detroit and Michigan?
House to varied analysis organizations and anchor establishments, together with a vibrant and multicultural entrepreneurial ecosystem, Detroit’s wealthy roots embody the hardworking and modern ethos of its various small enterprise house owners. Detroit has roughly 50k small companies owned by entrepreneurs of shade and the town is dedicated to making sure residents are gaining equal entry to instructional and financial alternatives of the rising high-growth financial system. In response to a 2021 Detroit Ecosystem Evaluation, Detroit has 23% of all startup corporations in Michigan and has all the vital sources to launch and develop companies which might be digital prepared. As Verizon seeks to attach BIPOC enterprise house owners throughout the nation with this worthwhile useful resource and create extra equitable pathways for entrepreneurs to thrive within the digital financial system, we view the small enterprise house owners within the better metro Detroit space—and Michigan—as a vital person base within the effort.
Verizon’s Small Enterprise Digital Prepared program was constructed by (principally BIPOC) small companies for small companies. Jamiel Robinson, the chief director of Michigan-based enterprise improvement group, Grand Rapids Space Black Companies (GRABB), was a distinguished voice within the Small Enterprise Advisory Committee that helped form this system and its choices. Various material specialists drive our content material, interactive video modules, and training occasions. In brief, entrepreneurs in metro Detroit will likely be geared up with digital methods and related learnings—by way of curated curriculum matters, teaching occasions, and neighborhood teams—to use to their companies!
- What steering are the small enterprise house owners you’re employed with searching for?
We all know usually that small enterprise house owners are occupied with studying extra about financing, digital advertising and marketing, and operational effectivity. Our customers have instructed us they’ve obtained great worth from the academic sources and in connecting immediately with specialists–by way of each one-on-one mentoring and group teaching occasions. Fifty-eight p.c of customers on the platform are occupied with connecting with a finance knowledgeable and 64% of customers on the platform are occupied with connecting with a advertising and marketing knowledgeable. The most well-liked matter areas are accessing capital, digital advertising and marketing, and bettering on-line presence. Enterprise house owners would additionally want to be part of a neighborhood the place they will study from each other, as 52% of customers wish to join with friends with related pursuits.
- How can Verizon assist with neighborhood networking on a private degree, not a digital one?
Verizon Small Enterprise Digital Prepared is constructed to be a worthwhile device to the BDOs, Small Enterprise Improvement Facilities, CDFIs and different organizations which might be on the bottom serving to small companies daily. We’re partnering carefully with all these organizations and dealing with them to combine our sources into their choices. Small Enterprise Digital Prepared’s neighborhood part additionally lets companies join with different companies and sources by metropolis in order that they will connect with help of their native space!
On the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verizon started the grassroots work of internet hosting digital neighborhood dialogues centered on small companies in communities from throughout the state. The aim of those dialogues is to listen to in regards to the nice work small enterprise house owners and small enterprise improvement organizations are at present engaged in, the present and ongoing challenges small enterprise house owners are going through, and to debate how Verizon might be supportive shifting ahead. Attendees have included small enterprise house owners, small enterprise help organizations and chambers of commerce.
Now greater than ever, we at Verizon will proceed to construct on the extremely worthwhile relationships with the communities we serve. These dialogues are solely the start of what we hope will likely be long-term partnerships the place we are able to proceed the dialog and discover future alternatives to be supportive.
- What expertise do you carry to the neighborhood as a liaison between Verizon and small enterprise house owners?
As a neighborhood liaison between Verizon and small enterprise house owners, I work to construct bridges of reference to my friends, inside enterprise companions and exterior stakeholders to champion insurance policies that enrich lives and allow a digital future that serves all Michigan communities. I’m able to leverage relationships inside Verizon and with enterprise help group companions to kind coalitions to sort out the challenges small companies face, amplify successes and finest practices, and disseminate details about Verizon instruments and sources. Reflexively, I meet with companies to take heed to their wants and drive the best way wherein we deposit goodwill in our native communities and innovate to construct the networks that transfer the world ahead for everybody.
Q&A initially revealed in September 2022.
