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1-on-1 Business Advising with CEDF

Small businesses find hope & opportunity here

Small businesses find hope and opportunity here. Meet one-on-one with a business advisor from CEDF, Connecticut's nonprofit small business lender. Free and open to the public.

On Tuesdays from 11AM to 1PM, bring us the business problems you're stuck on.

Every Tuesday, CEDF business advisor Steven Adamo sits down one-on-one with Hartford entrepreneurs at the Business Resource Center. Free, confidential, and open to anyone — whether you've been in business twelve years or you're still turning an idea over in your head.

• Book at https://calendly.com/sadamo-w1q/business-advisory

What you can get help with

• Financing — what CEDF lends, how much, on what terms, and what a realistic path to qualifying looks like for your business
• Whether borrowing is the right move right now — sometimes it is, and sometimes the answer is to fix something else first
• Running the business — management, marketing, and keeping your books and financial controls in order
• A specific problem you're stuck on — digging into what's actually happening and finding a path to a better result
• The owner's side of it — leadership, accountability, staying motivated, setting a plan and following through, and handling the emotional weight of running your own business

Who this is for

• Anyone starting, running, or thinking about starting a business. All stages welcome — idea stage through established. You do not need a business plan, a registered business, or a completed application to come in.

What to bring

• Bring whatever you have. Financial records, a business plan, a specific question — bring it. If you're at the beginning, just bring the question that feels most stuck right now.

Can I get a loan?

• Worth asking. CEDF evaluates each inquiry individually rather than applying a simple rule, so don't rule yourself out. With a motto like theirs — Small Businesses Find Hope & Opportunity Here — it's worth making an appointment and asking.

Who is CEDF?

• The Community Economic Development Fund was created in 1994 by the Connecticut legislature to do something banks generally don't: lend to small business owners in low- and moderate-income communities who can't get traditional financing. Three decades later that's still the mission. CEDF is Connecticut's leading SBA microlender, and they review applications with an open mind — no arbitrary cutoff on credit score, time in business, or collateral.
• Their advisors are former small business owners themselves. Steven brings that experience to the library every Tuesday, and these conversations carry no obligation to borrow anything.

Do they have educational resources?

• Yes — a deep online archive Steven can point you to, which is where their other motto comes from: We Teach Success. Self-paced courses on launching and growing a business, recorded webinars and seminars, instructional articles, and their small business podcast.

Session format

• Tuesdays, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Individual appointments, walk-ins welcome as availability allows.
• Free and open to the public.
• Loan eligibility, if you choose to apply later, is determined separately by CEDF.
• Appointments are scheduled directly with CEDF.

Book at:

• https://calendly.com/sadamo-w1q/business-advisory