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Start Small Think Big is a nonprofit that helps small businesses with high potential and limited access to the resources needed to create thriving businesses. We partner with corporations and communities to build a network of skill-based volunteers, connecting entrepreneurs to free legal, finance, and marketing assistance. While marketing and financial services are offered nationwide, please note that we can only provide legal assistance to businesses based in New York or California. If you want to learn more about what we offer, please visit our What We Do page. Please note that we do not assist with litigation, disputes, commercial eviction, or anything that may go to court. We also do not provide tax assistance. *Please note that the wait times for our services are dependent on volunteer capacity, and we cannot guarantee specific timelines for our services.
We do not provide the following:
Funding: Start Small Think Big does not provide direct funding. The financial services we offer are bookkeeping, financial projections, and pricing strategy.
Support with taxes: Unfortunately, we do not have any Certified Public Accountants on staff. We cannot assist with taxes or provide specific tax-related advice.
Litigation and eviction support: Unfortunately, our legal volunteers are unable to support clients with litigation, conflicts, or anything going to court. While we provide general counsel around lease agreements, we do not provide direct litigation support for eviction cases.
Business mentorship: Unfortunately, we do not provide general business mentorship or counseling. Our network of skills-based volunteers can assist entrepreneurs with specific marketing, legal, and financial services. Similarly, please note that we cannot ensure entrepreneurs will be paired with a volunteer within a specific industry or identity. For networking opportunities, please check out our events page to register for upcoming "Ask an Expert" networking sessions.
*Please note that we will do our best to make recommendations to additional resources if any needs you mention during intake fall outside of what we can provide.
Thanks for your interest in joining the Start Small Think Big community! Your next step in working with us would be to review our eligibility requirements here and then apply for our free volunteer services here.
Upon submitting your application, our team will review and process your application within approximately five business days. Once your application is approved, you will be invited to schedule an onboarding meeting with our team. You may also be asked to upload supporting documentation to verify your eligibility for our services.
Unfortunately, Start Small Think Big is not able to assist with urgent needs. As wait times for our services are dependent on volunteer capacity, we are not able to guarantee a specific timeline for our services.
If your business is seeking immediate assistance, we encourage you to check out our Community Partner Resources page to learn more about small business assistance nationwide and in your area.
Our services are free to eligible small business owners thanks to the generous support of our donors, corporate partners, and volunteers. This includes services provided by our staff and volunteers.
Please keep in mind that we do not cover any fees imposed by third parties, including state or federal entities (for example: LLC filing fees, and trademark registration with the USPTO). Our staff or volunteers may recommend external resources which may impose additional fees. However, in these cases, we will discuss the value of any external resources to help you determine if they are worthwhile investments for your business.
Additionally, Start Small Think Big doesn't take or require any equity in any of the small businesses we work with.
We do not lend to or invest in businesses and we do not offer direct access to loans, grants, or other capital. We are also not able to directly assist with grant or loan applications. However, we can help establish your financial systems and management infrastructure and help you build financial projections for your business - which can better position your business to obtain funding through loans, equity, or other forms of financial assistance.
At this time, Start Small Think Big is not equipped to support:
- Non-profit organizations
- Businesses located outside of the United States
- Residential or commercial real estate businesses, including landlords*
- *This policy does apply to businesses that self, buy, rent, and/or lease residential or commercial properties - e.g., short- and long-term rental businesses.
- *This policy does not apply to third-party ancillary businesses - e.g., property management businesses or real estate agents.
- Financial services businesses that directly handle, invest, manage or have access to a client's finances or assets
- Businesses handling Cryptocurrency (including NFTs, Bitcoin, etc)
- Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Businesses
- Franchisees of large corporate entities
- Businesses that raise FDA, ethical, or other concerns
- Marijuana-based or marijuana-tangential businesses
- Co-ops with over 5 business partners*
- *Services may be available on a case-by-case basis. We believe it is important to support equitably-owned worker-cooperatives that provide business ownership opportunities to their employees.
- Generally speaking, our organization is only able to support co-ops with under 5 business owners and below $75,000 in investment shares.
- If you do not meet the above criteria but believe your worker-cooperative is equitably owned and should be considered for free services, please reach out to financial@startsmallthinkbig.org and provide additional information about the structure and finances of your cooperative.
Business owners who are NOT in the same household as the original applicant and have a 20% (or greater) ownership share in the business and/or are involved in the daily management of the business must (1) submit a separate application, and (2) be found eligible, for the business to be eligible.
Business owners who ARE in the same household as the original applicant do not need to fill out a separate application, since the primary application should already capture their personal financials.
Note: A household is defined as a group of people who live together and share money (whether they are related to each other or not).
Business Owner Responsibilities: By default, the original applicant will be recorded as the Primary Business Owner and will be Start Small Think Big's point of contact. This means that they have the sold ability to schedule meetings and manage services. Every additional applicant will be designated as an Additional Business Owner. Additional Business Owners will not be included in standard communications or be able to manage services for the business. That being said, all business owners should attend the SSTB Intake Appointment, at which time any additional questions can be answered.
Our staff works to process all applications within five business days. If you haven't heard back after that, please check your email, including any spam folders, to ensure that you haven't received an email from us. If that's still the case, please email us at applications@startsmallthinkbig.org.
To be fair and equitable to all applicants, we adhere strictly to our eligibility requirements. No exceptions can be made.
Regardless of eligibility, all entrepreneurs can access our monthly small business workshops and events. These are free and open to the public. You can view our upcoming events here and click here to see our past recorded events.
Start Small Think Big partners with a network of organizations that provide technical assistance to small businesses. We encourage you to check our Community Partner Resources page to learn more about small business assistance nationwide and in your area.
Because our mission at Start Small Think Big is to support businesses with limited access to resources, we may ask for additional information and documentation to verify that our clients are eligible according to our SSTB Eligibility Policy. We cannot make exceptions, as we work with a network of pro-bono volunteers to administer our free small business services. Many of the law firms that we work with to provide free legal services have internal policies that prevent them from providing pro-bono legal work to clients who do not fit these financials criteria.
If you saved your application, but now can't access it:
Please email applications@startsmallthinkbig.org providing your full name, email address, and describing your issue. Please allow between one and three business days for our staff to respond and send next steps to complete your application.
If you are unable to go to the next page of the application:
Carefully review the page to ensure all required fields have been completed and that numbers are formatted without commas.
Thank you for your interest in supporting our mission at Start Small Think Big! For information about volunteering to support small businesses, please visit Volunteer Opportunities where you can access our volunteer application For questions regarding volunteering, please contact volunteer@startsmallthinkbig.org.
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