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State, JumpStart To Help Minority Business

Bright, would-be minority entrepreneurs often have difficulty moving their ideas forward because they lack access to capital needed to start a company with growth potential.

Now the state's Minority Business Enterprise Division is teaming up with the Cleveland-based business development non-profit Jumpstart, to help.

Over five years, the plan is to take 100 small firms with the potential for multi-millions of dollars in sales or business, and provide the economic leg up that they lack.

Darrin Redus is the Economic Inclusion Officer for JumpStart. He says
companies smaller than that can't effectively compete for business from large multinational ones.

DARRIN REDUS:
"They're asking a lot more of their vendors and suppliers today, and those additional ask-and-demands tyically mean you've got to be able to take on much larger projects and much broader geographies, and it's almost systematically eliminating most minority companies that don't have that capacity."

The program will roll out in the 21 Northeast Ohio counties served by JumpStart, then spread statewide. The plan is to target firms with unique strategies or proposals for economic redevelopment in the region, and beyond.

Rick Jackson, 90.3.

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Rick Jackson is a senior host and producer at Ideastream Public Media. He hosts the "Sound of Ideas" on WKSU and "NewsDepth" on WVIZ.