On May 10th 2014, at the Americans Entrepreneurs’ Expo, hosted by Mayor Eric Garcetti, I heard him say that the city of Los Angeles has the highest concentration of small business owners in the country….sadly, it also ranks among the least small-business-friendly cities in the nation.  But do not despair, small business owner, you don’t have to move to a weather-challenged state simply because they promise the grass will be greener, (BTW, Florida has a 6-7% sales tax on commercial leases ) here at GRR, we work with many small business programs created by the State, City and County to help small business owners increase their chances of success.  One of them is www.SCORE.org .   For the past 50 years, SCORE has been known as one the nation’s top supporters and facilitators for small businesses.  SCORE has served more than 10 million existing and aspiring small business owners since inception and helps to create more than 58,000 new businesses and over 71,000 new jobs annually.  It also empowers and inspires 320 chapters and 11,000 volunteer mentors across the nation. 

SCORE is affiliated with the U.S. Small Business Administration who provides financial, technical, and management assistance to help Americans start, run, and grow their businesses. SCORE volunteers work with the SBA to provide small business mentoring and training to entrepreneurs through SBA offices. On that note – I have two pieces of good news for the independent entrepreneur seeking to increase its knowledge in commercial real estate and economic opportunities:

            1)  On Wednesday, September 3rd, at the City Club Los Angeles from 11:30am – to 1:30pm, our amazing and fabulous  U.S. SBA Administrator, Ms. Maria Contreras-Sweet, will be addressing the Los Angeles business community.  Contreras-Sweet will speak about her vision for the SBA and the role of Southern California’s vibrant and diverse small business sector in job creation and economic prosperity…..I’ve already registered…yaaay…to register go here.

            2) GRR, represented by yours truly, will be conducting a two-hour workshop titled, “The 3 most important elements in Commercial Real Estate: PREPARATION, LOCATION & PROTECTION.” Said workshop will be held at SCORE’s offices in Glendale on Thursday, September 4th from 6:30pm – 8:30pm. Go Here to Register.