The hamlet of Montezuma is located at an important crossroads connecting to trails, towns, villages, within 20 minutes of the Cayuga County seat, Auburn, NY, and the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge. Its rural character offers many unique small business opportunities to meet the growing needs of bicyclers along one of the nation’s premier multi-use trails, the cross-state Erie Canalway Trail. As a part of the newly opened Empire State Trail system upstate New York is becoming a cycling destination.
Do you have a business idea or dream you’d like to explore that might serve local residents and visitors to our 160-acre historic Erie Canal Montezuma Heritage Park? There are resources and services in Cayuga County that are free and confidential, and they can help you connect with other valuable resources to help start or grow your business.
RESOURCES
CEDA: Growing Cayuga Businesses. The Cayuga Economic Development Agency (CEDA) provides businesses with easy access to all of the information, incentives, and resources needed to start or grow in Cayuga County. For instance, CEDA can help businesses and entrepreneurs find a location or mentor, as well as assist in accessing tax incentives, low-interest loan programs, technical assistance, or State grant funding. For more information on how CEDA can assist your business, please call (315) 252-3500 or visit: https://cayugaeda.org/for-start-ups/specialist-assistance/
Entrepreneurial Assistance Program (EAP)
There are 21 EAP centers throughout New York that are available to provide instruction, training, and technical assistance to new and very small businesses. To get in touch with the EAP center closest to Cayuga County, please call (212)803-3234 or visit www.esd.ny.gov/businessprograms/EAP.html.
Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)
The Small Business Development Center provides individual business counseling, research network libraries, workshops, seminars and online classes for entrepreneurs via 24 regional centers. These services are either free of charge or are minimally priced and are designed to improve the performance of an existing business or provide information about government procurement. For more information on the SBDC, please call the Onondaga SBDC at (315) 498-6070 or visit http://www.nyssbdc.org/centers/centers.aspx?centid=14.
SCORE
SCORE is a national organization of experienced business professionals who offer free confidential counseling and low-cost education programs to assist new and existing small business owners. This national network is comprised of hundreds of local chapters. The Auburn chapter is located at 2 State Street, along with the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce and the Cayuga Economic Development Agency (CEDA). For more information about the Auburn SCORE Chapter, please visit auburn.score.org.
CNY Regional Planning and Development Board (RPDB) is a public agency that was established in 1966 by Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Oswego Counties that provides a comprehensive range of services. This agency administers the Central New York Enterprise Development Fund, a financial and technical assistance program aimed at the region’s rural micro-entrepreneurs. This program is based on the belief that supporting rural entrepreneurs can be a sustainable economic development strategy. This approach offers several significant advantages over other economic development models: lower costs compared to attraction strategies; smaller-scale development results, and; the creation of home-grown companies more loyal to communities and more likely to interact with other local businesses/producers. For more information on this program download below a brochure and application or contact: Michael Rosanio, Regional Loan Manager, Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, 126 North Salina Street, Suite 200, Syracuse, NY 13202, (315) 422-8276 or e-mail at mrosanio@cnyrpdb.org.
cnyrpdb.org/docs/economic/RMAP_Loan_Brochure2011.pdf
cnyrpdb.org/docs/economic/LoanApplication2011.pdf