The Oceanside center offers free one-on-one consultations in four private rooms while a larger room can hold about 30 people who come for workshops about bonding, insurance, financial management, grants and other business-related topics. Schedules are available at www.SanDiegoSmallBiz.com.

The center also has scheduled a “Meet the Buyers” session or 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Town and Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle, in San Diego.

“It’s all about showing small businesses how to work with large businesses how to work with large businesses, government agencies and organizations,” Pittman said about the session. “It’s all about helping small businesses have an even playing field.”

While the center works with entrepreneurs and business owners, students and young people interested in starting a businesses can find help through the college’s Business and Entrepreneurship Center, one of seven in the state that were created by California Community Colleges’ Economic and Workforce Development Program two years ago.

 

Both centers share the same building at 1823 Mission Ave. in Oceanside.
Joe Molina, director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Center, said the organization also hosts the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, which includes a curriculum that teachers can download, and business-related contests.

Sonya Ziegler Meline, a co-owner of Lush Coffee & Tea in Vista, studied business at MiraCosta and was a finalist in the Youth Entrepreneurship Program’s 2011 Business Plan competition.

Although her pitch for a professional organizing company did not win, Meline said the experience helped her learn how to make a successful business plan, which led to her opening Lush in April 2011.

 

The Fallbrook resident also credits MiraCosta, and professor Christina Hata in particular, with encouraging her to open her drive-through coffee shop.

“There was a segment about sustainable businesses and I just really thought that would be something applicable to coffee-drinking,” she said. “Being green and sustainable at the same time is a good thing to be getting into now, and I wondered, ‘How can I get on board with this?’”



Meline and her partners plan to open a second Lush location at 324 Main St. in Vista in December. Following the success of her small coffee shop, this location will be a larger, walk-in coffee and tea lounge focusing on healthy, organic food and beverages.

“With the economy the way it is, starting a business may be a lot easier than getting a job,” Meline said about becoming an entrepreneur. The Business Plan competition is open to college students throughout the county, and the top student plans will advance to a statewide competition for $5,000 in May. The deadline to submit plans to the regional level is Dec. 7.

The Small Business Development Center also recently began working with AARP on an initiative to help people 55 and older begin their own businesses. Center director Sudershan Shaunak and Molina also meet with military members about to leave the service to help them transition into the business world. Shaunak said that so far this year, the center has provided 4,000 hours of one-on-one consultations to 800 people. It has organized 120 workshops for 1,700 participants.

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Also this year, Shaunak said the center has helped 11 business get off the ground, while others that already were in operation have reported sales revenue increased by $8.8 million.

Capital infusion, or loans and equity from self-loans, increased by $2.2 million, and 98 jobs were created or retained from businesses that worked with the center.