$143,000 Grant to Fund Small Business Center : Van Nuys: State money will be used primarily to counsel self-employed people and potential entrepreneurs.

The California Department of Commerce has awarded a Van Nuys agency a $143,000 grant to open the city’s first Small Business Development Center.

The new center will be operated by the Valley Economic Development Center and will offer owners of small businesses free counseling on matters such as licensing requirements, business plans, marketing, accounting and financing, said Edward Kawahara, director of the state’s Small Business Development Center Program.

“The principal service . . . is one-on-one counseling to small business owners with the objective of expanding businesses and creating jobs,” Kawahara said.

The Department of Commerce operates 20 such centers throughout the state through a partnership with the Chancellor’s Office of Community Colleges and the U.S. Small Business Administration, Kawahara said.

In March, the state received a $1.9-million grant from the federal government to expand training and counseling services at existing centers and to establish others.

The new center will be called the North Los Angeles County Small Business Development Center and will serve the San Fernando Valley area and the northern portion of Los Angeles County, Kawahara said.

The Valley Economic Development Center will operate the center from its current offices at 14540 Ventura Blvd., center Director John Rooney said.

Rooney said the decline of the aerospace industry has been deeply felt in the Valley and is changing the economic landscape.

“The only thing that has been the saving grace is the entrepreneurial economy that’s starting to flourish in the San Fernando Valley,” Rooney said.

“While the aerospace companies are laying off all these executives, a lot of them are turning into entrepreneurs.”

The agency will help new businesses get started while helping other businesses downsize and find new markets overseas for their products as a way of surviving the current recession.

If the center meets state requirements, it will receive a $270,000 grant next year, Kawahara said.