BOI Results

In 2006 BOI leaped forward, producing exceptional growth in clients and territory served, programs and services offered, client satisfaction achieved and foundations built for the future.

In Clients and Territory Served

BOI served fewer than 100 people in 2003 and more than 16 times that number in 2006, making it one of the fastest growing nonprofit organizations in central Indiana. These numbers reflect both an increased demand for and a greater community awareness of the programs and services that BOI offers.

At the beginning of 2004, BOI served Marion County only. With the addition of the Central Indiana Women's Business Center, the organization expanded its outreach to include Hamilton, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Brown, Morgan, Hendricks, Putnam and Boone counties.

The following table illustrates the growth in BOI programs since 2003.

Business Ownership Initiative of Indiana, Program Growth 2003 - 2006
	2003	2004	2005	2006
Total Clients Served	75	125	1,055	1,623
Graduates of Business Beginnings Classes	62	117	227	157
Business Workshops Offered	-	-	46	97
Business Workshop Participants	-	-	824	1,837
Clients Receiving Business Counseling	-	-	477	686
Hours of Counseling Provided	-	-	1,012	1,523
Total Hours of Service Provided	1,240	2,340	7,784	9,260

In Programs and Services Offered

In 2005, BOI launched the Central Indiana Women's Business Center through a five-year grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Sharing BOI's mission, the CIWBC provides business-training classes and workshops, one-on-one business counseling and mentoring to women in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. In 2006, SBA designated our women’s business center as a Tier One women’s business center. This placed us in the top 10 percent of the more than 100 women’s business centers that receive SBA funding.

Also in 2005, BOI launched the Indianapolis Microloan Fund, offering loans of $500 to $10,000 to very small-business owners in Marion County who do not have access to traditional sources of business financing. The IMF is administered by BOI, and funded by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Community Choice Federal Credit Union and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

In 2006 BOI provided assistance to five loan recipients, including two recipients of Indianapolis Microloan Fund (IMF) loans and three recipients of SBA Community Express loans. The total dollar amount of the loans is $88,000.

Nearly 400 graduated from BOI's Business Beginnings course in 2005 and 2006. The 20-hour Business Beginnings course is designed for people who have an idea and would like to start a small business. The course helps these aspiring small-business owners decide if their idea is likely to succeed, learn the ins and outs of small-business ownership and craft a business plan.

In mid 2005, BOI celebrated the 500th Business Beginnings graduate since the organization's inception in 1997. While it took eight years to reach 500 graduates, the course is on track to reach 1,000 graduates within the next three years. We now have more than 750 Business Beginnings graduates since our launch in 1997.

In 2006, BOI rolled out a number of new services:

One-on-one life coaching to help clients identify and address situations or actions that may be slowing or stopping their progress toward reaching their business goals.
Caregiving: A Critical Business to help low-income women become self-employed caregivers. Caregiving includes care for children, for the disabled and the elderly. There are many sincere, capable and gifted women who are living at or near poverty. They want to contribute, to be productive and self-sufficient. Many have the ability to become high-quality caregivers. BOI ’s program focuses on women who want to provide paid home-based child care or non-medical assistance for the elderly and disabled.
The Exploring Business Ownership workshop series for those who have thought about starting a business but need help in selecting the type of business to start and a better understanding of the steps leading to business start-up.
The Business Plan: From Pen to Paper workshop to assist clients who have a solid business idea or are current small-business owners complete a business plan.
The Enhancing Your Life Skills workshop series for clients interested in strengthening their own internal motivation to succeed in business. The series includes five modules: self-discipline, self-awareness, integrity and setting limits, verbal communications and setting and reaching goals.
The Simple Steps Financial Workshop series includes workshops that help clients address the most common financial challenges they face (such as recordkeeping, cash flow and financing) as a small-business owner.

BOI added a new target group for our services. We took our program Exploring Business Ownership to soon–to–be–released prisoners at the Plainfield Re entry Facility. The free, six–hour program provides a "road map" to self–employment as a component of their transition back into society.

In Client Satisfaction Achieved

While growth in the number of participants is important, BOI strives to offer quality programming that is highly valued by participants. To determine the quality of BOI's programming, all Business Beginnings course participants are asked to evaluate the course at its conclusion. The 2006 evaluation results indicate that Business Beginnings participants were very satisfied with the course:

Business Beginnings course participants also indicated that they have significantly increased their business knowledge and skills during the course.

PRE- AND POST- COURSE KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT	Business Beginnings Course 2006
Topic - How to:	Pre-Course	Post-Course	Precent Change
Set and reach goals for yourself	3.05	3.65	19.8%
Develop a business plan	2.10	3.47	65.5%
Market your product or service	2.47	3.37	36.5%
Select a legal structure for your business	2.09	3.28	57.1%
Sell your product or service	2.51	3.38	34.9%
Maintain records for your business	2.37	3.41	43.7%
Select insurance for your business	1.94	3.32	71.7%
Develop cash flow projections for your business	1.67	3.18	90.2%
Understand your personal credit history	2.27	3.49	54.0%
Apply for a business loan	1.87	3.38	81.0%
Understand a balance sheet/income statement	2.00	3.32	66.0%
How to network myself and my business with other people	2.53	3.67	44.8%
How to develop a sales forecast for your business	1.68	3.05	81.9%
How to price your product or service	2.26	3.20	41.7%
Rating scale for topics 1 no knowledge at all 2 very little knowledge 3 some knowledge 4 very knowledgeable

In addition, the participants were asked to compare how prepared to start a business they felt at the end of the course compared to when they started it. Nearly all 2006 Business Beginnings participants felt better prepared after completing the course.

Please compare how prepared you are today to start a business with how prepared you were when you started the Business Beginnings course
I am less prepared today to start a business	I am no better prepared today to start a business	I am somewhat better prepared today to start a business	I am much better prepared today to start a business.
0%	2%	27%	70%

The success of our clients is a tremendous source of pride for BOI. It is what spurs us to grow and develop new programs and services to meet their needs as they develop and grow their business. We believe business ownership should be within the grasp of anyone with a viable idea and the motivation to make it happen.

We have many success stories. Our clients operate businesses that offer services including:

party planning
janitorial services
clothing alterations
graphic design
parenting skills
cultural consulting
heating and air conditioning
landscaping
hair styling
balloon decorating
real estate rental
document notarization
child care
recording artist services
event planning
public relations
travel agency

and retail products including:

custom wedding gowns
quilting supplies
gardening supplies
candles and body oils
collectable and antique items
novelty goods
handbags
sculpture
religious articles
gift baskets

Over the longer term, the Indianapolis community and its neighborhoods benefit when new businesses are started. Since many of our graduates have low- and moderate- income and live in inner-city neighborhoods, new business start-ups can enhance the depressed economies of these areas. Initially, a new small business provides the owner with additional income. Over time, the business could grow to provide employment opportunities and income to other Indianapolis residents as well. A successful venture also encourages others in the community to start a new business.