Putting Small Businesses on Track

One of the nation’s most acclaimed small-business programs is being launched in Orange County in partnership with the Orange County Business Council. Premier FastTrac will hold entrepreneurial training sessions in Irvine, Anaheim and Garden Grove, starting in June.

Formed 12 years ago in Los Angeles, FastTrac has grown into an international program that trains business people in more than 100 locations. Now based in Denver, the program has been lauded for helping inexperienced entrepreneurs learn the basics of running and expanding a business venture.

The Orange County sessions will be held in English and Spanish, and will include hands-on instruction, one-on-one coaching, peer learning, guest speakers and workbooks. Graduates will also have access to two other business council programs, the Tech Coast Angels, which provides seed money for new businesses, and the Tech Coast Advisory Group, an organization of business mentors.

“We want to grow our own in Orange County,” said Jay DeLong, director of strategic initiatives at the business council. Half of FastTrac’s graduates double their sales within two years, he said, because they learn to identify what their companies do best, who their customers are, what their prices should be, and other business basics.

Plus, he said, graduates leave the program with a well-developed business plan, an essential tool for entrepreneurs hoping to obtain financial backing. “It may be the ticket to get the financing they’ve been waiting for,” he said.

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Patrice Apodaca covers economic issues for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5979 and at patrice.apodaca@latimes.com.