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Palm Springs will expand a support program that helps small businesses in the city grow.
The city council voted unanimously Sept. 9 to invest $1 million in BizUp: Palm Springs, which provides training, coaching and grants to businesses looking to get started, according to a statement released by the city.
That program, which will also help established businesses improve or expand, will be run by the city and Caravanserai-Alliance for Entrepreneurs, a Palm Springs nonprofit that helps individuals who lack the resources to start a business or a mission-oriented nonprofit.
Palm Springs will invest $200,000 a year for five years, according to the agreement approved by the council. It joined the program two years ago.
Seventy five percent will go to micro-grants, which typically range from $500 to $5,000. The remaining 25 percent will pay for business training,
So far, the pilot program has helped 70 entrepreneurs, provided funding to 35 businesses, helped create 21 jobs, and pumped nearly $1.2 million into Palm Springs’ economy, according to a staff report.
The updated BizUp program will produce two cohorts – groups of businesses with a common approach – annually, with approximately 20 to 25 businesses in each group. The program is expected to train 40 to 50 start-up business owners a year, and up to 250 during the agreement.
Ten one-on-one coaching sessions, and several optional workshops, will be offered. The latter will feature programming in English and Spanish, and will help with marketing and business planning and development.
All Palm Springs businesses will be eligible to participate.
“BizUp is not just for new businesses,” said Councilwoman Grace Elena Garner. ”It’s also for established businesses that maybe have been around for a few years and the owner wants to take things to the next level, The program has already had a huge impact. I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support this effort.”
Since it began in 2024, Palm Springs has invested about $138,500 in BizUp, said Franzene Minott, co-chief executive officer of Caravanserai-Alliance.
The program began when Caravanserai-Alliance approached Palm Spring about creating something that would help start-up businesses get established, a difficult process under the best of circumstances.
The goal was to combine workshop training, with individual consulting and micro-grant funding. Palm Springs was Caravanserai-Alliance’s first large-scale project.
“We’ve done some other programs with smaller cities, including Coachella, but nothing close to what we’ve done with Palm Springs.” Minott said. ’It’s the blueprint for what we’re trying to do everywhere.”
To date, Caravanserai-Alliance has received $138,500 from Palm Springs
“For the city to commit $1 million is a major expansion from what they’ve been doing so far,” Minott said of the substantial increase. “It shows us we can have a large impact on Palm Springs’ economy if we do this right.”
The city’s five-year commitment is crucial, because it will allow Caravanserai-Alliance to help aspiring business owners refine and improve their idea for a business, then help them get it up and running.
Council members embraced the $1 million expansion without hesitation.
“The program we’re looking at focuses on helping businesses in Palm Springs, which is what I’ve been focused on since day one,” Councilman Ron deHarte said. “We know there are going to be successes, and that they’re going to be homegrown, which is a good thing.”
Several participants deHarte spoke with gave the program positive reviews, and not only for the loans they received.
“Getting money to help get a business started is important, because you have a lot of challenges when you’re doing that,” deHarte said. “But some of the people I’ve talked to said the best part of the program wasn’t the grants, it was the workshops and the consultation sessions. They said the information they got there was priceless, and I think we need to keep that going.”
Priority will be given to Section 14 survivors: residents and their descendants, primarily African-American and Latino, who were forcibly removed from their homes during the 1950s and 1960s.
Those houses were located within a one-square mile parcel next to downtown Palm Springs owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Those who lived there were removed after the city designated that land for redevelopment.
“We made a promise to invest in survivors and descendants of Section 14, and the BizUp Small Business Support Program backs that commitment with training, mentorship, and access to capital,” said Palm Springs Mayor Naomi Soto in the statement.
Local governments have multiple ways to help small businesses get started, including speeding up registration and permitting with online portals, and publishing guidelines to help would-be entrepreneurs select the correct business and remain in compliance with the law.
Cities and counties will sometimes relax zoning rules for at-home business, and offer tax incentives and reserve some contracts – a practice known as procurement – for small, local, and minority-owned businesses to help them get started.
Anything that helps small businesses get started in Riverside and San Bernardino counties is to be praised, said Mike Stull, director of the Randall W. Lewis School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Cal State San Bernardino.
“I’m a huge fan of anything that helps small businesses get started and grows the local economy,” Stull said,. “One million dollars is a huge investment, and it looks like most of the money will be going to the people who are trying to start business, which I think is fantastic.”
