Expanding business opportunities for minority-owned enterprises is one of the main strategies of Advance Northeast Ohio.
Several organizations collaborate on one program — the Minority Business Accelerator 2.5+ — that is producing results in that important area. Recently, the MBA 2.5+ announced that it had helped client companies close two deals. First, the Coniglio Company won a $500,000 bank branch renovation project with KeyBank . Over the past five years, the construction company has grown from three employees, handling small, private general-contracting projects, to more than 20 employees, completing projects ranging from $5,000 to $2 million.
In the second deal, HotCards.com, a full-color, offset printing and direct-mail company, has won a printing contract with Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland-based company, which had $4.5 million in sales in 2007, has 75 employees in 12 cities who handle more than 1,000 customers each week and prints more than three million postcards and flyers per week. Forty employees work at the 18,000-square-foot facility in Cleveland.
Since the MBA 2.5+ launched in January it has helped five companies secure deals worth more than $3 million. It intends to assist at least five more companies close deals before the end of the year.
