Small businesses often have a great need for technical assistance and training.  By necessity, entrepreneurs must “multi-task” at nearly every aspect of their business; in doing so, they often find themselves far from their area of expertise, lost in the weeds of finance or contract negotiations.  

In order to help small businesses overcome these challenges and thrive, the region needs to expand access to technical assistance, training, and business service programs; and it needs to do so in a way that recognizes the important distinctions between different types of enterprises and entrepreneurs.  Design and media professionals may face intellectual property issues that are irrelevant to retail merchants.  Immigrant business owners may have different expectations and needs than private consultants with corporate experience.  Technical assistance programs are often predicated on misplaced assumptions that undervalue the skills and abilities of the people who are seeking those services, and misunderstand their cultural sensibilities. The problem is often compounded because representation from the entrepreneur community is not involved in designing the support services.  

The programs of concern here take a variety of forms: training programs build small business capacity in specific skills or content areas; technical assistance provides targeted support for specific efforts or initiatives (such as a business plan); business services include professional advice such as auditing or legal counsel for lease negotiation.  

A more effective technical assistance system for small businesses requires a variety of actions: service providers, entrepreneurs, and the public sector should collaborate on the design and coordinated delivery of these programs; service providers through develop a common program evaluation methodology in order to document success and define best practices; more public funding is needed to support these programs.

10.a    The Massachusetts Office of Business Development should develop a region-wide inventory of technical assistance programs in order to increase access and reduce redundancy.  

10.b    MAPC should identify a candidate organization to develop a technical assistance program assessment methodology for community organizations

10.c    As part of the Immigrant Research Agenda, MAPC and allied organizations should develop “best practices” for delivery of technical assistance to immigrant entrepreneurs

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