According to the California Small Business Profile, produced by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, there are 711,313 small employers and 2,688,453 non-employers that make up California's roughly 3.4 million small business owners. These entrepreneurs make significant contributions to the state's economy by bringing innovative products and services to the marketplace. They are an important source of employment and opportunity throughout the state. In fact, more than 51% of California's jobs are within the small-business sector, defined as companies with fewer than 500 total employees (California Small Business Profile, February, 2011).
Many of these small business owners start their companies after they have left another career as product or service experts without realizing the financial, resource planning, procurement, sales & marketing, and management skills needed to help their businesses succeed.
The Business & Entrepreneurship Center (BEC) Program is working to encourage entrepreneurial education by building Youth and Faculty Entrepreneurship Programs throughout the state. These programs boost the capacity of existing California community colleges' faculty to educate students about entrepreneurship and small business ownership, better equipping class participants to join the ranks of small business owners in California.
p>By increasing the availability of entrepreneurial education on community college campuses, the BEC programs will build the skills of California's new and potential entrepreneurs, preparing a new wave of business owners in California to succeed personally, while creating jobs and contributing to the State's economy. To learn more about the BEC and its programs, contact BEC Statewide Director Michael Roessler at (916) 361-2964, mroessler@cccewd.net, or go to www.cccewd.net/initiative_business_entrepreneurship.cfm
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