Effective November 5, 2010, the US Small Business Administration will be adjusting the limits and guidelines as to what defines a “Small Business” for a number of SBA programs including SBA loans, small business set asides for government contracts, and other programs. Basically “small” just got bigger. This change is designed to make capital and opportunity more accessible to entrepreneurs and small business. The goal: help these businesses grow so they can create more jobs.
Category: News
This year, for the fifth year in a row, Arizona’s entrepreneurial community will be gathering at AZEC10 on November 17, 2010 at the Desert Willow Conference Center in Phoenix, AZ for a day where we will share ideas, engage, and build the kind of connections that help our businesses and community grow. I will be there and I hope that you will join me. (Click herefor more information. )
The theme of this years’ full day conference is The Great Re-set.
Don’t dwell on the past. Create the future
By Joan Koerber-Walker, OTEF Chairman of the Board
As I have worked with our team to create the new OTEF Website over the last few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time looking at the past. And there was lots to look at…
AZEC09 Breaks Fundraising Record

by Francine Hardaway
We had a very successful AZEC09 (formerly Fourth Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference) last week. It was oversold, at the last minute. The bills aren’t all paid, and the sponsorship money hasn’t all arrived, but I know for a fact that we raised the money to offer another program to the disadvantaged, and we are going to research and choose an agency to partner with now that we know we have the funds. Let me first thank Joan Koerber-Walker, Steven Groves, and Merlin Ward, board members who took their responsibility above and beyond to help put on the conference.
This spring, the Foundation Board voted to target out of work and laid off residents of Maricopa County for our entrepreneurial training. The Board agreed that enough people were laid off that wide-ranging outreach was necessary to help people consider alternatives to the traditional job search.