CONNECTION OPPORTUNITIES
Connections are essential when launching and growing your business. Community building programs and events offered through The Greenhouse, along with our partners, link St. Pete’s entrepreneurs to the local ecosystem.
GREENHOUSE CONNECTS: 2020 SMALL BUSINESS LISTENING TOUR
The Greenhouse seeks to understand how small businesses are dealing with the pandemic disruption and what the community can offer to help small business owners overcome the challenges they are currently facing.
We want to hear directly from our business owners about their challenges, pivots and plans to move through this period. Through a moderated discussion, we are looking to ascertain the current landscape directly from our community’s small businesses. Information we collect from these connection sessions will be used to help us craft aid and additional services as we continue to move through this pandemic. Please join us for this important conversation.
Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 48% of American jobs and 43.5% of GDP (SBA, 2018). Yet while these smaller firms are an essential part of the U.S. economy, they’re often the most financially fragile, with little cash on hand or resources to buffer a financial shock. For these small businesses to come back after the pandemic, and once again serve as an engine of American innovation, they need assistance, aid and support.
St. Petersburg is the special place it is due to the vibrancy of our small business community – from our home based makers to our locally owned restaurants, to the brick and mortar professional services, to growing tech companies and everything in between. While we know our community continues to be impacted by the pandemic, we want to do everything we can to ensure St. Pete continues to be special and a place where small business can start, grow and thrive.
Would your business be interested in engaging with ongoing connection opportunities in 2021?
As our community continues to rebound and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, we would love to hear about your ongoing needs as a local small business. Would ongoing connection opportunities be helpful for your business needs? If you would be interested in continuing connection and networking opportunities into 2021, please complete the following brief survey:
ONGOING CONNECTION EVENTS
1 MILLION CUPS
A weekly event for local entrepreneurs to meet, present their startups, and gain feedback from the thriving peer network of St. Petersburg’s local business community.
The Greenhouse hosts 1 MC from 9 to 10 a.m. every Wednesday morning. The format of these caffeinated events is simple; a presenter speaks about their idea for six minutes followed by a twenty-minute question and answer forum.
NONPROFIT CONNECT
Nonprofit Connect is a monthly event held through The Greenhouse every 2nd Friday and designed to connect nonprofit organizations in the St. Petersburg community while driving innovation and sustainability through collaborative content sessions.
Nonprofit organizations are addressing the world’s greatest social, environmental and economic challenges. In Pinellas County, the number one capacity-related concern for nonprofits, outside of funding, is organizational relationship and networks, according to a 2018 study conducted by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg.