ESHIP Long Beach engaged grassroots and entrepreneur leaders in efforts to grow connectivity, collective impact, and community alignment in support of the City of Long Beach Economic Development Blueprint, as well as its goals for economic inclusion and entrepreneurship.
The ESHIP Long Beach initiative was supported by the City of Long Beach.
LONG BEACH BUSINESS CROSSWALK
A one-stop online resource, the Long Beach Crosswalk launched in 2022 to support aspiring entrepreneurs and those currently operating their businesses to access the resources and support needed throughout their business journey. Consisting of several entrepreneurs and representatives from local entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs), the ESHIP Long Beach Council has worked for two-plus years to support the creation of this innovative new online tool in partnership with the City of Long Beach.
Created out of a demonstrated need early on in the pandemic, the collective council developed this free online tool designed to support entrepreneurs during every stage of business ownership. Ensuring entrepreneurs and ESOs will use the tool as a virtual “pocket guide,” it includes a design element which integrates a necessary layer of technical assistance and customized support for the platform from Fuller Management. The Crosswalk contains hundreds of resources and detailed information — available for all, for free including the base categories of Funding, Planning, Legal, Local, Gig, and Equity.
Storytelling highlight
Meet Our Council
Get to know the power behind the work! Meet our group of council members who made our local efforts happen.
Kena Fuller
Kena FullerESHIP Long Beach Local Organizer
With a passion for business development, Kena Fuller set out to build a consulting firm revered for its hands-on expertise, expansive knowledge, and award-winning services. Aligned with her education in Behavioral Economics, Global Business Management, Marketing, and Small Business Enterprise, it is her 20-plus years of experience in business management, development, sales, marketing, and higher education management that provides each client with a level of professional prowess that is unsurpassed.
As Executive Director of Fuller Management, Kena is adamant about client engagement and overall customer satisfaction. Personally managing every client account, it is her careful attention to detail and integrated strategy that has helped consistently support and grow each client's revenue year over year. "It is an absolute pleasure to work with and represent the clients we serve. From our team to yours, thank you for choosing Fuller Management Corporation!" - Kena Fuller
VIEW PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
The assessment process, involving both qualitative and quantitative data collection, is designed to increase ecosystem stakeholder understanding of the entrepreneurial assets, barriers, and opportunities that exist in a given ecosystem. Having a data-informed perspective ensures that actions intended to fortify the ecosystem, whether through programmatic efforts or other means, are guided by sound justification.
Essential in this process is a need to center those people most impacted by the barriers identified, ensuring that the ultimate goal is to use the data to inform practices to alleviate those barriers and create a greater chance of success for the identified target population. The purpose of the Research Summary is to inform the local council on the latest ecosystem data available as they support and form current and future pathfinder projects to solve for those identified barriers.
This Kauffman Foundation initiative was led by a collaborative council of individuals who represent different stakeholders from across the community. Forward Cities managed the implementation of this effort as a grantee of the Kauffman Foundation.
