The 2021 Impact Report has been released by the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), and the data demonstrates that the IECE continues to have a growing and influential economic presence in the region.

When the total loans, contracts, and exports were added, the IECE had a net positive economic impact of little more than $70 million in 2021.

The Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship 

The Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at Cal State San Bernardino is a non-profit organization dedicated to building and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Inland Empire.

The IECE provides an array of programs to assist entrepreneurs at all stages of their business development. Their goal is to support the entrepreneurs to help them succeed in building and growing their businesses.

2021 IECE Economic Impact Report

The report available online at https://entre.csusb.edu/ provides an overview of the center’s activities during the last year, including its various programs and events and its organizational reach and impact.

IECE facilitated $70.1 million in funding to entrepreneurs through its programs and initiatives focused on increasing business success and growth through entrepreneurship education and coaching. The center also assisted 2,530 minority-owned businesses with business development services and provided free one-on-one coaching sessions to 4,645 businesses.

In addition to providing business development services to entrepreneurs, last year, IECE hosted more than 1000 events that educated hundreds of entrepreneurs on a variety of topics designed to provide them with the knowledge needed to help grow their businesses. These events were related to networking and also delivered basic training. 

In 2021, IECE was also responsible for developing and retaining 17,000 employees. Hospitality, logistics, technology, construction, and retail services are among the industries represented by the positions. After founding their businesses, entrepreneurs who become self-employed fall into another category of occupations.

“Due to the pandemic, a great deal of focus in last year’s impact to the economy was in assisting companies in keeping employees on the payroll. We did a lot of work to keep people employed and keep their employees in-house. And so that’s reflected in that number as well.” 

Paul Nolta, Manager of the IECE Small Business Development Center

Last year, IECE hosted over a thousand training and networking events, with over 17,000 attendees. With over 2,000 and 2,500 firms supported, women-owned and minority-owned businesses were also significantly featured in the IECE training and assistance initiatives.

View the original report at: https://iece.csusb.edu/pdfs/IECE_2021_Impact_Report_PRO.pdf

Author: Sharjeel

Sharjeel joined Startempire Wire as emerging technologies editor. Earlier, he worked at Silicon Canals, a leading English language technology media source for the Benelux and wider Europe. He covered the European technology and startup ecosystem digging into latest funding rounds of startups.