07 October 2011
By Dr. Scott Taylor, Small Business Management
Minnesota Mentors win $161,000 grant
The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s office of civil rights awarded South Central College’s Minnesota Mentors program (AKA Small Business
Management) $161,000 to teach business skills to owners of small businesses participating in their Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program for
highway heavy construction. “This is the 10th year we’ve done MnDOT training and they’ve asked us to expand our offerings every year,” said a proud
Dan Sprague, lead instructor on the project.
“I feel so small next to Dan,” whines Scott Taylor after having been awarded a $3000 grant to help the community of Braham, MN put the final touches
on their USDA loan guarantee. “The local task force has done an amazing job of raising one of the 1.7 million needed to start construction. They need
just a little more push to get it done.”
A group of mid-size businesses is getting together every month in Faribault to improve their business skills. Executive Dialogues is designed to provide
a forum to learn from speakers and each other. Scott Taylor moderates the 6 session series in its second year.
When Governor Dayton’s job tour arrived on the Faribault campus last month, the Minnesota Mentors presented him with a white paper for jobs
improvement. Included in that paper where these interesting statistics:
- 94% of all businesses in Minnesota have 10 employees or less
- These “micro-businesses” engage 50% of all employees
- Micro-businesses create 64% of all new jobs
These jobs are special because: - Micro-businesses are the first to hire and the very last to fire workers
mid and large size firms.
