The Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services awarded a $60,0000 grant to Lane MicroBusiness in June 2007 to cover the period of July 2007 to June 2008 for the entire state of Oregon.

Lane MicroBusiness will now be able to provide free services to vocational rehabilitation clients until June 2008. Any OVR counselor can contact Lane MicroBusiness to ask that their client be provided with services to help them start or build a business.

Lane MicroBusiness typically works with 60 to 85 VR clients during the course of a year throughout Oregon

The typical steps for a voc rehab client are to first develop a feasibility plan to determine if the client has a potentially viable business. We will provide the voc rehab client with a 15-page business feasibility assessment form at the first meeting.

LMB is frequently able to bring in a number of other financial resources to help the client. For example, many of the voc rehab clients will be eligible for our IDA matched savings program which represents an additional $4,000 of capital equity available. LMB may be able to provide free business classes to the voc rehab clients if they live within certain geographic areas covered by our grants.

In addition, we also have access to several loan programs, provided that the VR client has reasonably decent credit.

By spreading out the start up costs among different grants and other agencies, we are able to lower the costs to getting voc rehab clients started in their own business.