{"id":313496,"date":"2022-07-19T09:03:02","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=313496"},"modified":"2022-07-19T09:03:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T16:03:02","slug":"leap-looks-to-have-business-in-la-mesa-hopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/leap-looks-to-have-business-in-la-mesa-hopping\/","title":{"rendered":"LEAP looks to have business in La Mesa hopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Mesa\u2019s one-stop boulevard for shopping, pizza, tacos, and coffee could soon welcome some more options to the neighborhood.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs in San Diego now have an incentive to open up shop in the city of La Mesa. On July 1, applications for the La Mesa Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program (LEAP) opened. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

LEAP is the first program of its kind in California and, potentially, the nation to allocate a portion of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) \u2014a 2021 economic stimulus bill \u2014 to support up-and-coming entrepreneurs. $20,000 is available to each entrepreneur accepted into the program after fulfilling eligibility requirements.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of innovative programs with the caveat that they’re not usually coming out of the small local city governments,\u201d said James Sly, president of S<\/span>an Diego\u2019s East County Economic Development Council (ECEDC)<\/span>. \u201cI think it\u2019s very forward-thinking of La Mesa to decide that this is how they\u2019re going to try to reinvest that money back into the community, and, hopefully, they\u2019ll be able to see that return on investment.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Dr. Mark Arapostathis and Sly, created LEAP with the hopes of helping the La Mesa business community overcome the setbacks that resulted from COVID-19 and welcome more local businesses.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we started to see more and more vacancy in the downtown and all across the business areas of La Mesa, we wanted to promote more local businesses or independent businesses as opposed to national chains and corporate business,\u201d said Arapostathis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation became, \u2018What can we do to replace all these vacancies, bring more jobs, and strengthen the small business community?\u201d said Sly.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The answer was LEAP. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Arapostathis said offering support for the small business community and residents through a program like LEAP is something a local government should participate in.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the things we [the city] should do: Try to provide an avenue to open businesses that the residents want. That\u2019s part of our responsibility,\u201d said Arapostathis.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the ARPA relief funds, Arapostathis explained that offering city financial support to local businesses was a difficult, if not impossible, task, which is why this is potentially the first of its kind.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is limited. When people were trying to raise money for businesses that were struggling during the pandemic, it was a Chamber of Commerce, an EDC, or another outside source because [the city] can\u2019t raise money or make money,\u201d remarked Arapostathis. \u201cAs the federal and state governments gave us a road map of what we could use [with the ARPA], we started to brainstorm regarding how to best help the business community with relief funds but also encourage people to step out on a limb if they were anxious to open a business.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting LEAP plan requires participants to complete workshops hosted by the ECEDC and one-on-one advising sessions with business owners and advisors. The $20,000 will be dispersed in installment grants based on a payment schedule outlined in the <\/span><\/span>LEAP guide<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jeff Bernstein,<\/span> a business advisor with 45 years of experience in the flooring retailer industry and a workshop presenter for <\/span>the ECEDC\u2019s <\/span>Small Business Development Center (SBDC),<\/span> said a program like this is something he\u2019s been hoping for to help entrepreneurs like the ones he worked with.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the kind of program I have only wished for over the past few years,\u201d said Bernstein. \u201cThis is really aimed at startups. They\u2019ve got a lot of challenges, and they need support. They have a lot of obstacles to overturn.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bernstein will be helping the entrepreneurs hurdle the initial business obstacles in the first two LEAP workshops, \u201cOptimizing Your Start-Up: Simple Steps to Starting Your Small Business\u201d and \u201cBusiness Plans That Get Results.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot of things. I also made a lot of mistakes along the way,\u201d added Bernstein. \u201cI kind of feel like it\u2019s my obligation to be able to pass both the positives and the negatives along so people can be more successful.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Applications for LEAP are available until July 30. However, the program will run until 2026, focusing on long-term efforts to help entrepreneurs, the business community and the city bounce back from COVID-19.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis will benefit the businesses, but in the end, it will also benefit the city because we want the city to become a destination,\u201d added Arapostathis. \u201cWe want people to come here, live here, shop here. It\u2019s mutually beneficial for both groups.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more or apply, visit: <\/span><\/span>eastcountyedc.org\/leap-program\/<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/u><\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/span> Elaine Alfaro es estudiante de periodismo en Point Loma Nazarene University y ex pasante de La Mesa Courier.<\/i><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La Mesa\u2019s one-stop boulevard for shopping, pizza, tacos, and coffee could soon welcome some more options to the neighborhood. Entrepreneurs in San Diego now have an incentive to open up shop in the city of La Mesa. On July 1, applications for the La Mesa Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program (LEAP) opened. LEAP is the first program […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":983,"featured_media":313500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"La Mesa\u2019s one-stop boulevard for shopping, pizza, tacos, and coffee could soon welcome some more options to the neighborhood.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11550],"tags":[12717,13654,12421,13653],"class_list":["post-313496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-top-stories","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-la-mesa","tag-leap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}