Small Business Connector’s pandemic relief funding boosts businesses in valley

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Wade Vandervort

Jadee Glover, owner of All Paperwork Services, helps Mills Carrasco, left, and Michael Elliott, right, with their nonprofit foundation, Superman Sports, on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. With the help of a loan secured through the Small Business Connector, Glover was able to take what had been a part-time hobby business and turn it into a career.

Tue, Dec 28, 2021 (2 a.m.)

Jadee Glover received an email from the city of North Las Vegas touting a new program nurturing small businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Small Business Connector partners with the UNLV Small Business Development Center, Employ NV Business Hub and the local Access Community Capital revolving loan fund to link businesses with needed cash, employees, marketing and behind-the-scenes basics obtaining a business license.

Glover is the main force behind All Paperwork Services, which is a comprehensive stop for people to file their companies or nonprofits with the secretary of state, get employer identification numbers from the Internal Revenue Service, find grants and do their taxes. With a $25,000 loan from the city’s partner, she can pay more helpers, especially tax preparers, to take the load off what is largely a one-woman band.

”I have a lot of people who I consider side hustlers. People who do hair, people who cook and sell plates (of food),” she said. “I have mechanics, tattoo artists, people who don’t operate on 9-to-5s, or they do have regular 9-to-5s and they also fund their own business outside of that.”

The Small Business Connector launched in October with federal pandemic relief funding. In its first month, it helped 10 businesses get nearly $68,000 in loans combined, said Linda Bridges, one of the city’s point people for the program. It’s gone to power enterprises like salons, in-home caregivers, mobile auto mechanics, moving companies and a brewery.

And the process was painless, Glover said.

She got an email from North Las Vegas promoting the Small Business Connector, followed the link to register her interest, and she heard back the next day. After an in-person interview the process culminated with a loan approval.

“It actually makes it personalized and actually makes me feel that my company has somebody on their side,” she said.

The program focuses on North Las Vegas residents and businesses owned by women, minorities and veterans. Loans can be as small as $1,000 or as large as $25,000, Bridges said, with 1-to-3 year terms and 4-7% interest rates.

Glover incorporated All Paperwork Services last year. She had been preparing taxes for about 10 years and helping friends and family launch their small companies for about two or three.

It was work she did to supplement her day job, doing customer service for a call center, but that job fell victim to the pandemic.

Like others who lost their jobs to the pandemic, she tapped a hobby that she knew she was good at and made it official. Now she’s her own boss full-time. It’s mostly remote work, though she rents a spot in a shared work space in an office tower just off the Strip to meet with clients.

Glover and her clients understand each other. But her fellow side hustlers often don’t know the benefits of incorporating, or they’re intimidated by it. Others may be more focused on their craft than business processes that can, admittedly, be tedious.

Glover’s reward is in helping people find the best tax write-offs, be self-sufficient “and put them in position to actually be a business versus just somebody doing hair.”

Most of her clients go the route of sole proprietor, limited liability corporation or 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Recently, Glover guided two young men through starting a nonprofit to benefit the youth basketball teams at The City Gym, the gym they own at Cheyenne and Walnut in North Las Vegas. The proprietors, Michael Elliott and Mills Carrasco, played professional basketball in the Dominican Republic and China and now live in the valley.

Glover told them some of their many options, now that they have a genuine nonprofit: how to potentially get a retired shuttle bus from the Regional Transportation Commission to drive their kids to games, or grants from Frontier Airlines to attend out-of-state tournaments.

Elliott grew up in Las Vegas and played basketball at the Doolittle Community Center and Canyon Springs High School. Now 30, he and Carrasco, a 28-year-old who lives in Las Vegas by way of New York, started their gym last year. Having a foundation — theirs is called Superman Sports — will help them accept tax-deductible donations and team sponsorships for their young players.

With the gym and its charitable arm, Elliott said they would “try to give kids the resources, the opportunities” that he and Carrasco had as children.

To connect with the Small Business Connector, visit this site.

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