Regions Bank is teaming up with
Butler Snow Law Firm, Butler Snow Advisory Services, LLC, and the
Greater Memphis Chamber to bring the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) for the
Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) program to Memphis.
The program takes place four times a year nationally, including stops in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Dallas this year, and provides training and support for urban entrepreneurs in economically distressed areas to access capital, achieve sustainable growth, and connect with debt and equity providers.
“ICCC teaches and brings in world-class speakers that really get down to blocking and tackling with the business owners to get them to understand why their business is where it is and what it needs to go forward – it may debt, it may be equity, it may be both,” says David May, West Tennessee Area President for Regions Bank.
More than 70 companies from around the country - all for-profit corporations, partnerships or proprietorships with revenues of $2 million or more - participated in an executive education training session led by Harvard Business School Professor Stephen Rogers at the
FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis on August 14.
The program covered topics like entrepreneurial finance; debt and equity finance; components of an investor pitch; valuation methodologies and raising capital; financial matrix; strategy; growth through acquisition; negotiation skills for contracts; marketing and sales; and talent management.
“This program will help the businesses that are located in areas of Memphis that need revitalization and growth the most,” says Phil Trenary, Chamber president & CEO, who estimates that more than 80 percent of the chamber’s members are small businesses.
Companies that successfully complete the program will be eligible to pitch their business to debt or equity providers at a national conference on November 19 and 20 at
Fortune Magazine in New York City.
Nearly 700 inner city companies across the country and 150 equity and debt providers have participated in the ICCC program since it launched in 2005. The companies have raised more than $1 billion in capital, created or helped to create more than 5,600 jobs, and on average hire 40 percent of their workforce from within the inner city.
By Michael Waddell
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