When Patricia Dillard and her husband ran their own business, no one offered them training, coaching or grant money to help them get established.
“Starting up a business is extremely expensive and very difficult,” Dillard, a councilmember, said at the June 23 meeting of the La Mesa City Council. “To have all this extra help along the way is phenomenal.”
The help she was describing is LEAP: the La Mesa Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program. The council voted unanimously that night to spend the city’s last $45,000 in federal pandemic relief money on one final round of it.
The new phase, called LEAP Forward, will support 20 existing La Mesa businesses in two cohorts of 10. The San Diego East County Economic Development Council will administer the program in partnership with the Small Business Development Center, continuing an arrangement that dates to the program’s launch. No general fund money is involved.
The council created LEAP in 2022 with $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to help the local economy recover from the pandemic. Its first two cohorts targeted entrepreneurs looking to open brick-and-mortar businesses, offering training, one-on-one advising and grants to offset startup costs. According to the presentation to council, 16 of the 27 businesses accepted into those cohorts signed leases in La Mesa.
By 2024, commercial vacancies had fallen enough that the city shifted the program’s focus from filling storefronts to keeping the businesses already there. The third cohort provided grants and technical assistance to 33 existing La Mesa businesses.
LEAP Forward continues that direction but drops the grants. Instead of direct funding, participants will get case management, at least three hours of one-on-one advising, help with business planning, and assistance navigating the city’s licensing and permitting process. They will also complete four training sessions covering financial projections, social media marketing, human resources fundamentals and — new this round — using artificial intelligence tools in small business operations.
Councilmember Laura Lothian asked whether the money would go to businesses that already went through the program. Staff said the preference is for new participants.
Matt Sanford, who became the East County Economic Development Council’s president and CEO about three months ago, told the council he knew the program by reputation before he arrived. In his previous role with the City of Carlsbad, he said, officials there looked at LEAP as a model for economic development partnerships.
The program will track job growth, revenue growth and other performance measures for participating businesses.
The vote closes the loop on La Mesa’s ARPA-funded business assistance. City staff described LEAP Forward as the final phase of the initiative, shifting from direct grants to what the staff report called long-term capacity building, or supplying the tools and knowledge for businesses to stay competitive after the federal money is gone.
Dillard, for her part, hoped the investment would pay off in loyalty.
“I hope that the business owners that have been able to receive these funds will dig in and stay with La Mesa,” she said.