Working together, neighbor helping neighbor, has been a way of life across the prairies of North Dakota. This philosophy of teamwork inspired the creation of the Entrepreneur Center of North Dakota (ECND). ECND is an effort of local, state and federal resource providers who offer access to more than twenty financing programs and a network of organizations who offer counseling, training, and assistance to North Dakota's start-up and existing entrepreneurs. The goal of this group is to work jointly with business people, lenders, economic developers and communities to streamline the financing process and provide timely service to borrowers. The Entrepreneur Center of North Dakota also offers access to counseling, technology, training, and business related materials designed to assist during start-up and expand existing businesses.
The SBA Resource/Outreach Centers are staffed with SBA employees who provide counseling and training services to start-up and expanding businesses in North Dakota. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam. It was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.
SCORE is a nationwide organization of retired business owners and professionals who volunteer their expertise to help entrepreneurs. SCORE offers individual counseling and low-cost workshops.
ND SBDC provides high quality business and economic development assistance to existing businesses and emerging entrepreneurs to promote growth, expansion, innovation, increased productivity and management improvement. The ND SBDC consultants are able to assist with business plans, financial projections and reports, loan applications specialized training, customized consulting referrals, and research services. ND SBDC consulting services are provided free of charge to the client.
Assisting businesses has been the mission of the North Dakota Small Business Development Center (ND SBDC) since its inception in 1986. Part of a national network of more than 1,000 centers, the ND SBDC serves the business community of North Dakota through a statewide network of eight regional offices and two tribal satellite centers.
The mission of the Dakota CDC is to bring a variety of finance tools to North Dakota businesses, working in conjunction with financial institutions and economic development organizations in communities across the state. The DCDC works with SBA's 504-loan program to provide growing businesses with long-term, fixed rate financing. The DCDC is also one of SBA's micro-loan intermediaries which provide up to $35,000. The DCDC also administers the InterRemediary Lending Program (IRP) for USDA-Rural Development.
