Page 4 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023

Getting a Leg Up
LEDC Provides Grants, and Much More, to Small Businesses
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
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ony Bermudez started his digital-media venture just before the pandemic hit.
And like just about everyone else who was in busi- ness at the time, he lost considerable momentum — and opportunities — when the state essentially shut itself down.
Indeed, his business has many components, but specially event video work, and for the first year or more of the pandemic ... there were no events, or very few of them, anyway.
Bermudez, again, like many others, slogged his way through to the other side of COVID. But money has always been tight, and
that’s why he considers himself fortunate to receive, and is very appreciate of, a mini-grant from the Latino Economic Development Corp. He is one of several to get one of the grants in a first round issued late last year, with another nine grants awarded in a sec- ond round just a month or so ago. Another round of grants will be awarded later in March.
‘Mini,’ in his case, means $1,100. But Bermudez was able to use it to secure software and some new equipment, specifically a light- ing kit, that will help him take his business, Tony Digital Music & Media, to a higher level.
Beyond the small grant, though, Bermudez has been able to secure invaluable coaching from the LEDC, and through it he has been able to make important connections, including one with Mercy Medical Center that enabled him to secure work to create a video to
4 MARCH 6, 2023 << FEATURE >> BusinessWest
Pedro Arroyo says the LEDC mini-grant helped him and his sister, Elizabeth Arroyo, secure better signage for their business.