SBA ‘Rural Outreach Tour’ to Coos County

On Tuesday, July 19th, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) NH District Office staff traveled to Coos County. In Lancaster, the staff connected with SBA Community Advantage lender Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC) and discussed changes to the Community Advantage Program and other funding resources and how they can be utilized to help North Country businesses. Later that day, SBA hosted a lender roundtable event at the Town Hall Auditorium, 25 Main Street, which was attended by 18 lending institutions and other partners to discuss SBA program updates and the current lending environment. The SBA ended the day with a small business visit to Phlume MEDIA, a video and film production company, and met with owner, Chad Fillion, and his team discussing the company’s history, successes, growth plan, and challenges. See Success Story Here

On July 20th, the SBA partnered with the City of Berlin to hold a ‘Small Business Rural Resource Event’ at the Service Credit Union Heritage Park. Small Business owners had the opportunity to meet with representatives from City of Berlin, Coos Economic Development Corporation, Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC), White Mountains Community College, North County Council, NH Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC), Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA), Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) and NH Small Business Development Center (NH SBDC) to ask questions and find the resources they can use to start or grow their businesses.

SBA representatives met with partners from the Coos Economic Development Corporation at one of their client’s business, Exile Burrito, where we visited with owner, Adam Hammill, and had lunch. The day wrapped up with a visit to the Federal Correctional Institution in Berlin to meet with their contracting team to discuss federal procurement opportunities at the prison. Joined by the NH Procurement Technical Assistance Center (NH-PTAC), SBA discussed the small business contracting programs and ways SBA and PTAC can help small businesses looking to do business with the prison.