Cal State San Bernardino’s Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) and the city of San Bernardino will host the grand opening of the Entrepreneurial Resource Center (ERC), a place for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs and small business owners in the city that will provide resources to launch and grow businesses.

The celebration of the ERC’s opening will take place from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2. The ERC is centrally located in downtown San Bernardino at Studio D, 330 N. D Street. Studio D is a newly established co-working and business hub designed for entrepreneurs at every stage that is committed to building a dynamic and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city.

“The new center will improve access to resources for all aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, increase the rate of business creation, and foster greater success and long-term sustainability for local small businesses,” said Mike Stull, a professor of entrepreneurship and director of the IECE and the CSUSB School of Entrepreneurship.

The ERC will bring together a wide range of entrepreneurial support programs and organizations to provide a complete set of training, business counseling, and access to resources for small business owners and entrepreneurs in the city.

The ERC grew out of the city and the university’s participation in the Aspen Institute Latinos & Society Program’s City Action Lab, a unique initiative that focuses on Latino majority cities and communities to strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems. San Bernardino was one of six cities nationally chosen to participate in the program, which focuses on generating long-term, inclusive economic growth through business ownership.

Out of the city-university partnership with the Aspen Institute, the ERC emerged as one of the ways CSUSB, as an anchor institution in the region, could strategically work with the city.

About CSUSB’s Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship

The Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at Cal State San Bernardino is the largest and most experienced organization in the Inland Empire dedicated to supporting small business and entrepreneurship on campus for the Jack H. Brown College of Business & Public Administration’s School of Entrepreneurship, and within the community throughout the Inland Southern California region. Established in 1999, the IECE has served over 173,000 individuals and business owners with comprehensive business counseling, mentoring, innovative training programs and engaging events. These services have resulted in the creation and retention of nearly 42,000 jobs and an economic impact of $534 million. The center is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and continues to expand its reach to all business owners to support them through the post-pandemic repopulation and beyond. The top-tier segments of the IECE include the Women’s Business Centers (IEWBC.org) (CVWBC.org), the Small Business Development Center (IESBDC) (ociesmallbusiness.org) and the Cross Border E-Commerce-Asia program  (CBEC Asia) (cbecasia.com) and the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards (spiritawardsie.com).

To learn more about IECE and all of the programs available visit entre.csusb.edu.