Small Business Development Technical Assistance

The law aims to keep free or low-cost business advising and training available while making state-funded services more consistent, accessible, and accountable. It prioritizes underserved businesses and requires comparable reporting across grantees.

What the law does ​

• Lets technical-assistance centers apply jointly as a network with one fiscal agent when their active contracts use the same funding authority.
• Sets uniform eligibility rules for applicants supported by nonstate funding, including operational capacity, fiscal-agent, funding-match, and reporting requirements.
• Requires the Office of Small Business Advocate to establish common performance metrics, reporting rules, and outcome measures for all program grantees.
• Requires publicly funded services to be available to eligible small businesses regardless of membership, affiliation, dues, or participation in the grantee organization.
• Temporarily lets certain centers whose federal contracts were canceled, frozen, or rescinded in 2024–25 use prior federal-contract information to qualify for state grants through 2027–28, unless the contract action resulted from noncompliance.
• Requires monitoring of these temporary grantees, recordkeeping, and reports to the Legislature on findings, actions, and aggregate outcomes; the temporary rules end June 30, 2029.

Who it affects ​

• Small business technical-assistance centers and their regional or statewide networks.
• Small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking consulting, training, or startup assistance, especially women-, minority-, and veteran-owned businesses and businesses in low-wealth, rural, and disaster-impacted communities.
• Chambers of commerce and membership-based organizations receiving program funds.

Context ​

The California Small Business Technical Assistance Program provides grants for free or low-cost one-on-one consulting and low-cost training, and can distribute Dream Fund startup microgrants of up to $10,000 when funds are appropriated.