PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria County has officially launched a website that can help small business owners get started — and, with that, potentially get a startup grant.
The website is StartABusinessGP.org — and is an effort led by County Board District 6 Democrat Eden Blair, Ph.D., chair of the board’s Advisory Committee for Enterpreneurship and and Small Business Development.
“It’s a platform for people in the Peoria County area who are interested in starting a business, to be able to go and start asking themselves the right questions in the right order,” said Blair, to WMBD’s Craig Collins. “If you have an idea for a business, there’s things that you need to make sure you understand.”
Blair says the site was launched in cooperation with the entities in Peoria County who work with business and economic development, and will have access to mentors you can contact if you try to start a business and need help.
Blair says the help available can otherwise be hard to find.
“They come up with an idea, they’ve been tinkering with it for awhile, and they don’t realize that we have organizations here in the area that can help them,” said Blair. “Right now, you either have to know one of those people, or know the right name to Google.”
The county, as part of the website launch, is making ten $5,000 grants available to start-ups, with details available at the site.
Blair says despite the potential for an economic recession, now is still a good time to start a business.
