Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Access Silicon Valley is made up of Lori Hall (left), marketing and outreach coordinator; Robert La Mere, director; and Teresa Stirling, marketing and outreach.

Access Silicon Valley aims to assist small businesses

By Leigh Ann Maze

Not everyone who owns a small business knows where to turn for help.

"Small businesses are so busy doing their business that they can't get their heads up to look around at what's available to them," says Robert La Mere, project director for Access Silicon Valley, a new website.

The site, launched Oct. 22 as part of West Valley College's small-business assistance program, is designed to put small businesses in touch with the bounty of resources available to them.

Abby Krimotat, executive director of the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce, says she is well aware of the gap between business resources and their beneficiaries. The most recent Chamber newsletter was dedicated to getting the word out to local businesses about the resources the Chamber provides.

La Mere is hopeful the ASV website will make this connection, not only for the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce (which is one of about 100 nonprofit, government and educational organizations on the site), but also for businesses and business resource providers throughout the Silicon Valley.

"The site is geared specifically to assist small business and start-ups which make up such a large portion of the economic base in Silicon Valley," says Lori Hall, ASV's marketing and outreach coordinator. According to a 1991 study by the University of Houston, companies with 20 or fewer employees account for 85 percent of all employment and 50 percent of the gross domestic product.

Many free and low-cost resources appear on the website, offering services to help with taxes, finding forms, loans, workshops, seminars, business plans, marketing strategies, access to capital, consulting, referral services and classes.

"It's almost a one-stop shopping guide to starting a small business," says Pat Castillo, a small-business owner and vice chair of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, one of the founding sponsors of ASV.

In 1996, the state Legislature passed a bill stating that community colleges are required to be regionally active in economic development, La Mere said. A seed grant from the state of California funded the initial development of ASV, and La Mere hopes the site can soon support itself through advertising, sponsorship and for-profit provider listings. Nonprofit organizations may list information for free. The site is still in the process of building its resource base.

La Mere has sensed a need for this service in his more than 15 years working with small business, first as head of the small business office at NASA Ames, and now as part of the small business assistance program at West Valley College. "Resources for businesses are really an invisible asset for the community. If we can figure out how to make them more visible, it will have a powerful economic impact," La Mere says.

According to Hall, the ASV team has not yet launched a full-scale promotional campaign, but has been surprised by the number of people visiting the site. On the site's first day, it received about 300 hits, and 600 hits on the second day. The numbers have been steadily growing.

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