The City of Oakley has over 700 small businesses. The growth and sustainability of these
businesses is critical, as they will provide future local jobs and occupy Oakley shopping
centers.
In an effort to support these business towards long‐term success, the City’s Economic Development Division established the Entrepreneur Training Program. For the last two years, Oakley Economic Development has sponsored this 11‐week program for existing Oakley businesses or Oakley residents serious about starting up a new business.
The class is designed to walk students through the creation of a business plan, in order to help them gain the tools needed to successfully establish or grow a business.
Interested? Please attend one of three upcoming informational sessions to learn more.
Informational sessions will be held on October 13th, November 9th, and December 6th from
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at City Hall, located at 3231 Main Street.
The Entrepreneur Training classes will be held at City Hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon. The classes run from January 10th through March 23rd. Training scholarships of $1,000 per student are being provided by the City for Oakley residents and/or business owners. Scholarships do not include a $200 fee for registration and training materials.
Class size is purposely limited to allow for collaboration between the students and the instructor during the process of putting together the business plan for each business. In past classes, participation included existing businesses as well as individuals in the process of starting up a business. Past participants have given the following positive reviews from
their experience:
- “The Entrepreneur Program helped me develop a realistic plan, enabling me to
actually start a company.” – Benjamin Plung - “The Entrepreneur Training class was the perfect opportunity and the smartest thing
we have done for our business.” … “We were shown tools to better understand how
to reach our target market and to map out a smarter plan for the future of our
company.” – Sasha - “This class forces you to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and
individually evaluate the integral parts of what goes into making your business
successful…” – Gerry - “The main take away for me from this class was direction! I know what I have done to this point and now I can honestly know where I am going. I personally feel more confident about my business and myself.” ‐ Monica
For more information, please visit the Economic Development page of the City of Oakley
website (www.ci.oakley.ca.us) or contact Dwayne Dalman, Economic Development
Manager, at (925) 625‐7006 or by email at [email protected].
