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When Ahmad Goree attended the Mavs Business Assist program on Wednesday, he was there to stress one very important
entity to the over 100 entrepreneurs in attendance at the African American Museum.
“We have a lot of money available,” Goree said. “Last year as an agency we gave away $50 billion in lending to small businesses across the country.
“Right here in the DFW area, we get over a billion dollars just right here in lending to small businesses. There’s a lot of money out there for small businesses to take it to the next level.”
Goree is the United States Small Business Administration lead economic development specialist and public information officer. In his position, he sees a lot of funds go unused, primarily because small business owners are unaware of what’s available to them.
That’s why he was on hand to make the MBA entrepreneurs aware of his organization’s existence, and the role they play in helping small businesses 
prosper.
“Prior to Covid we were the best-kept secret in government, and Covid put us on the map,” Goree said. “What also put us on the map is partnerships like this with the Dallas Mavericks – sharing information.
“It’s all about going into communities where the small businesses are and telling them about our programs and services where they typically probably haven’t heard about them, but they pay their tax dollars for them. So, I think by sharing this information and giving this information out was very critical in helping these businesses get the resources and things that they may need to expand their business and take it to the next level.”
Rolando Blackman, the vice-president of corporate relations for the Mavs, also spoke at the meeting and pointed out the need for small business owners to reach out and tap into every resource that can help them enhance their business. Especially on a night when the discussions centered around money, banking and finance.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be a part of this Mavs Business Assist simply because there are people that need help,” Blackman said. “And the
access that they get through these programs is a fantastic piece to bring themselves together with other entrepreneurs and other people who are already in business to be able to enhance their contacts and understand what they need to do business-wise.
“(Wednesday) we had the opportunities to know banking to be able to get some more resources to be able to put themselves in a place where they use those same actions that they’re learning through the business assist program, and be able to utilize that for whatever business interest that they bring to the table, which is a heavy, heavy load that the Mavericks are giving to be able to help enhance that business owner.”
Mark Cuban Companies Investor Ainsley Carlile and City of Dallas Small Business Center’s Mario King also spoke at Wednesday’s session, with the ultimate goal being to provide important resources to the entrepreneurs in regards to financing and funding their businesses.
When entrepreneurs are looking for investors, Carlile said: “I’ll just kind of speak from my world in the venture capital side, it’s become, we’ll just say sexy, over the last five to 10 years to talk about raising venture capital. It’s exciting to get what kind of feels like free money.
“But I think the reality is that for most businesses, venture capital is really not a viable option for financing your company. I think for most businesses in the country – I don’t know what the numbers are – but I think most of them are lifestyle businesses, and you can have a wildly successful lifestyle business.
“I think the key point there is to ask yourself is this a company that I want to keep forever and past down to my kids and leave a legacy. Or is this the kind of company that can have a large exit. In our world a large exit either means that you’re going to be on the stock market or an IPO, or Facebook. If that’s not the trajectory that you’re looking for, probably you’re a lifestyle business. In that case you’ll be looking at loans or grants or some other type of funding options.”
King told the entrepreneurs that they can receive up to $2 million in loans.
“Our interest rates are one to two percent at the max, which is unheard of,” King said. “We have a city council that actually values minority businesses and women-owned businesses.
“We want to help you get your certifications, and utilizing us helps make it a lot easier. You want to attend our program and connect with us.”
Blackman acknowledged that his parents never discussed finance and banking when he was a kid, and that the Mavs Business Assist program helps folks go into business for
themselves instead of going to work for someone else.
“The number one thing is to be able to not only work with somebody, but to be able to create your own,” Blackman said. “And in creating your own, you have the opportunity now to branch out, put yourself in a place where you want to be and really have the opportunity to move yourself to a higher level of living.
“I think these kinds of programs are tremendous, simply because it just helps the entrepreneur enhance themselves, enhance their contacts and really puts them in a place where they’ve promoted themselves to be. It just increases the job market. These kinds of programs just helps entrepreneurs with the contacts, the opportunity to build themselves and the opportunity to exactly build the economy — the exact economy that we want to be able to have people working.”
X: @DwainPrice
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