SBA: Six Cities Launch Their "Startup in a Day" Solutions

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six cities: Los Angeles, Boston, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C., and Jackson, Michigan have launched their "Startup in Day" (SIAD) solutions making it easier for businesses to get started.  Several additional cities will be launching their solutions over the next month. 

"I joined President Obama last summer in calling on our colleagues at city halls and in Native American communities across the country to pledge to make it easier for every entrepreneur to start a business by building streamlined, business-friendly, online tools.  I'm so pleased to see nearly 100 cities and communities have taken the pledge and many are now implementing their solutions," said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.  "I'm encouraging more cities, large and small, as well as Native American communities to join this initiative and take the Startup in a Day pledge."

Last year, as part of the initiative, 25 cities and two Native American communities were each awarded a $50,000 prize as part of the Startup in a Day – Start Small prize competition.  One city, Los Angeles, was awarded a $250,000 prize as part of the Startup in a Day – Dream Big prize competition.  For both competitions, each winner was funded based on their proposed ideas on how to meet the SIAD competition challenge.  These ideas have evolved over the last several months resulting in a variety of solutions.

"I am particularly pleased the City of Los Angeles took on the additional challenge of creating an online tool that is open-source and can be shared with cities and communities across the country.  This effort will make it possible for even more entrepreneurs to have better access to the information and services they need," said Contreras-Sweet.

Los Angeles officially opened their business portal today (http://business.lacity.org/). The LA Business Portal is an online resource for entrepreneurs looking to start a business in LA or businesses looking to grow their operations.  It entails key product features such as the Start Up Guide, which provides a roadmap for business registration based on answers to questions around business types, Starter Kits which are quick how-to-guides supporting the most popular business types in the city, a Resource Library, as well as content pages related to how to plan, manage, or grow a business.  Several unique visual elements are also built into the site to engage the user and navigate them through the content on the site.

Los Angeles' code, as well as code from other open-source SIAD solutions, can be found on GitHub at https://github.com/StartupInADay

Business portal links for other launched cities:

Boston: https://www.boston.gov/starting-business
Jackson, MI: http://buildmybusiness.cityofjackson.org/
Milwaukee: http://city.milwaukee.gov/StartSmart
Salt Lake City: http://www.slcgov.com/buslicense
Washington, D.C.: https://business.dc.gov/

Each of the Startup in a Day winners and nearly 100 additional cities have taken a pledge to work towards meeting the Startup in a Day challenge.  To help with these efforts, cities and communities that take the Startup in a Day pledge are invited to join the Startup in a Day Community of Practice.  The goal of the Community of Practice is to connect cities on a peer-to-peer level with other city staff that are creating online platforms for business permits and licenses. The Community is linked via conference calls, webinars, and an online discussion board.  SBA, along with the National League of Cities and Code for America support the Community by connecting participating cities with various, non-monetary resources.

For more details about Startup in a Day visit www.sba.gov/startup.  This site will continue to be updated as solutions are launched. 

ABOUT THE U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (SBA)

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and since January 13, 2012 has served as a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.  The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses.  Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. www.sba.gov

Release Number: 16 –65  

Contact:  Terry Sutherland, (202) 205-6919  
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news
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SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

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