Fresno, CA: As part of their ongoing mission to support entrepreneurs and small businesses, the Valley Community Small Business Development Center (VCSBDC) is opening an outreach office at the America’s Job Center of California in Hanford, CA.

In a just-announced agreement, the VCSBDC will collocate within the Kings County One Stop Job Center to the benefit of businesses and residents of Kings County. The Kings County Job Training Office is the main source of technical and managerial assistance for small businesses, which includes providing support through workforce services funded under a number of different programs. The mission of the VCSBDC is to promote growth, innovation, productivity, and revenue for small businesses through improvement to their business administration.

Rich Mostert, VCSBDC Director, is excited about the opportunity.

“Through the generosity of our host organization, Clovis Community College, we have been serving Kings County from our Clovis office for many years. Having an outreach office within the County enables us to better provide in-person training and one-on-one advising to area small businesses in a professional setting. Our goal is to help local companies rebuild, refocus and reimagine their business as we emerge from the pandemic.”

The VCSBDC offer a full spectrum of no-cost consulting services as well as workshops and webinars (ValleyCommunitySBDC.com). The anticipated opening date of the office at 124 North Irwin Street, in Hanford is June 1, 2021.

“The majority of the more than 3,000 business in Kings County are small businesses,” remarked Lance Lippincott, Kings County Job Training Office/Economic Development Corporation Director.  “This partnership was specifically entered into with the goal of providing easily accessible assistance within the County to help small businesses to succeed.  We greatly appreciate the partnership with the VCSBDC, and look forward to our continuing collaboration with this latest project.”

The VCSBDC is part of the Central CA SBDC. Since 2003, the Central CA SBDC has assisted thousands of companies, from start-ups to established firms with no-cost consulting services, workshops and assistance in sourcing funds. This has helped to create and retain over 10,000 jobs, as well as creating more the $435 million in loans and equity. The Central CA SBDC and its five dedicated satellite Centers serve 14 counties in Central California: San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Monterey, Stanislaus, Merced, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Tulare, Kern, Mono and Inyo Counties.