An organization operated by Syracuse University’s business school is expected to launch a new entrepreneurship program for women- and minority-owned businesses this month.

The program, called a Business Growth Accelerator, would be managed by the South Side Innovation Center, a community-based business hub located in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management operates the SSIC.

El Java Abdul-Qadir, director of the SSIC and an SU employee, said the program is expected to launch during the week of Feb. 12.

SU could improve its support and retention of regional entrepreneurs, said Mike Haynie, the university’s vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, in an interview with The Daily Orange this past fall.

Start-up companies affiliated with SU, in Fiscal Year 2015-16, generated about $1 million in additional income throughout central New York, according to a consultant’s study detailing the university’s economic impact published earlier this academic year.

That’s just the equivalent of 11 jobs, according to the report.

“We have a remarkable entrepreneurial culture at this university. But the reason why that number is so low is they’re not starting businesses in central New York,” Haynie said. He was specifically referencing students.

Bea González, the university’s vice president for community engagement, said in an email she’s excited about the new BGA program with the SSIC. In the interview with Haynie, González said SU was having “conversations” with the SSIC and CenterState CEO about expanding “entrepreneurial fabric” on the South Side. CenterState CEO is a chamber of commerce organization based in Syracuse.

Samantha Brennan, a secretary at the SSIC, recently said González had stopped by the offices to discuss the new program.

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Latoya Allen, the city’s common councilor of the 4th district, said on Wednesday she hadn’t heard of the BGA program, but thought it was a good idea. The 4th district includes most of the South Side and University Hill.

There are lots of single mothers in the area, Allen said. They can be penalized at jobs, if they have to leave to take care of their children, she said. Single parents running their own businesses as entrepreneurs, however, can make their own schedules in a flexible way, Allen said.

Allen said she believes that, in turn, entrepreneurship can help single mothers and fathers “parent 100 percent” and still successfully run a business.

“Something like this, that is actually going to focus on women … that is tremendous, and is well-needed,” Allen said.

The BGA program is being funded by a $150,000 grant over a two-year period from New York state’s Empire State Development, an umbrella organization for two other public-benefit corporations. ESD can also award tax credits, among other things.

“The real goal of that program is to assist businesses on the ‘growth path,’” Abdul-Qadir said of the BGA. A growth path is a developing business that’s finding its footing, Abdul-Qadir said.

To qualify for the BGA, which has already started accepting applications for assistance, Abdul-Qadir said a minority and/or women-owned business must make “anywhere between $100,000 and $3 million,” be on a growth path and have a minimum of two employees.

It’s a unique program, Abdul-Qadir said. Participants in the BGA will have access to information, capital and different “networks” to help businesses with “growing pains,” the director said.

Entrepreneurship programs have become a key promotional tool at SU. Whitman’s department of entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises ranks 13th nationwide, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best College listing. The Institute for Veterans and Military Families runs a small-business management training program for veterans with disabilities, called the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans.

“I’m gonna always say they can do more,” Allen said of SU’s outreach in Syracuse, though. “Only because of the capacity of the university, and all of the different departments that they have, all of the talent that they have there, they can always do more. Not just at the center, but within our communities in general.”

Allen said the SSIC is good to have on the South Side, but thinks people have to be educated more about what the hub is.

“As SSIC, I’d say we’re an extension of the university in the community,” Abdul-Qadir said. “I’m a Syracuse University employee. Just the fact that we … are down here, in a building, offering programs out of our flagship entrepreneurship program up at SU. We are the university.

“From wherever I stand in the city of Syracuse, I can see a Syracuse University building.”

— Senior Staff Writer Sara Swann contributed reporting to this article.

Published on January 31, 2018 at 9:02 pm

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