For 15,019 small businesses in Louisiana, the SmallBiz Suite has been a direct link to entrepreneurial training, legal needs, marketing, computer skills and accounting assistance. Developed by Louisiana Economic Development (LED) and Technology Engineers, this Internet-based system gives small businesses and LED administrators a new and important tool for putting Louisiana’s economic development programs to work on a large scale.
LED’s SmallBiz Suite is an integrated set of Internet-based systems designed to facilitate and increase small business use of the state’s programs for economic assistance. The suite has four main components:
- Small and Emerging Business Development
- Bonding Assistance
- Post-Certification Technical Assistance to Small Businesses Through Intermediaries
- Small Entrepreneurship Program
- Hudson Initiative
- Veteran Initiative
- Mentor Protégé Tax Credit Program
- On-Line Certification
- Track Treasury Funds for Bonding Assistance Availability
- Louisiana Government Procurement and Contract Preferences.
 These systems place LED administrators, intermediaries and small businesses in direct and immediate contact with each other. Considering the large number of registered participants and intermediaries, the LED staff managing these programs is quite small and efficient, primarily because there is little or no paper interaction, only electronic. Applicants are no longer required to download, print, and fax or mail their applications, then wait for a faxed or mailed certificate – everything is now done through the Internet.
The SmallBiz Suite affords those with Internet access an immediate opening to all of the programs offered by Louisiana to help small business development. Depending upon eligibility, which can be determined on-line and directly from the SmallBiz certification component, owners can obtain bonding assistance (construction industry), Mentor Protégé tax credits (construction industry), and state government procurement preferences for both small businesses and veteran-owned businesses.
LED also uses the system to track intermediary assistance to businesses requesting help. Assistance Providers have their own set of screens as participants in the program. Through SmallBiz they can create Requests/Invoices, view contract information, post assistance invoices, generate assessment/monitor invoices, obtain reports and search the SmallBiz master database. The system has completely eliminated the need for intermediaries to fax or mail paper reports, shortening the process for communicating with LED, and lowering overhead costs.
Businesses certified to participate in the SEBD program can obtain help from Small Business Development Centers, universities and consultants throughout Louisiana. The SmallBiz Suite offers businesses the convenience of being certified on-line; and once they are certified, the system helps intermediaries throughout the state provide training and assistance to eligible
businesses. Certification is quick and available to business owners without having to call or visit LED or Small Business Centers located throughout the state. The Basic Data Flow for Certification Programs diagram gives an idea of the steps involved.
To pre-qualify, interested individuals simply have to answer thirteen “Yes/No” questions on a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire screen, click the Submit button, and they are immediately returned their eligibility status for certain programs. They can then fill out the Application for Certification information and submit it. The information is generally reviewed by an LED administrator within a couple of hours, who then responds with an email notifying the applicant that he is certified. The business owner can then print his certification certificate.
For more information on Smallbiz and Louisiana Economic
Development please click here.
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