Small business owners in the City of Fulshear are thriving because the Fulshear Fast Track program is providing them the resources they need to succeed.

“We're an initiative started by the Economic Development Corporation of the city of Fulshear,” Managing Director Mat Yelvington said. “Our primary focus is helping start businesses that currently do not exist, and giving them the resources needed to succeed.”

The Fast Track program is a membership-based community of entrepreneurs where individuals can learn from others through peer mentoring, business management seminars and other special events.

“People are going to stay here in Fulshear if they have a job here, if their family is here, if they can live here, play here and work here,” Yelvington said. “We want people to stay here, and we think small business creation is the way to do that.”

Jada Powell and Venessa Homewood, owners of Houston Apparel Co., started attending Fulshear Fast Track meetings right after they launched their business.

“At one of the very first webinars that Mat had, he had a SEO expert named Regina Noriega, and we’ve found her to be a great resource, and we're using her services as a strategy,” Powell said. “Connecting with her really helped us catapult our business, and we have Fulshear Fast Track to thank for that.”

Jeff Murphy, who serves as one of Fulshear Fast Track’s advisors in addition to being a local business owner, said it is rewarding to see the business community grow.

“It is just really exciting to see the passion, especially when you're talking to someone and they're able to get over a certain hurdle they may have had,” Murphy said. “To be able to help them continue that business-owner dream that they've had, and be able to continue to grow their businesses and address those challenges has been really rewarding, and it's something that I'm excited about.”

Fulshear Fast Track is hosting an event called Home Business Accelerator on Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Irene Stern Community Center. This event is designed to help individuals running businesses out of their home take their next step.

“If someone is making something out of their garage, or they're making salsa out of their kitchen, and they want to highlight their product on their website beyond what they take on their cell phone, we're offering professional product shots and headshots,” Yelvington said. “We think that a website is crucial to any small business, and so having a good headshot and having good product shots will be really helpful for them. Along with that, we're going to have advisor sessions. We're going to have six to seven advisors on site, [talking about] anything from marketing to financial planning advice.”

One aspect of this program that makes it unique is that all of these resources are available to members at no cost.

“These advisory services that we offer are completely free,” Yelvington said. “They don't cost anything for the small business owners. It’s a great way for people like Jeff and our other advisors to give back to the entrepreneur community. They really want to see other people do well and succeed well, because they know what it's like to struggle through and experience the pain of starting a business. They want to help people not have to do that.”

For more information on the Home Business Accelerator event, or to get involved with the Fulsher Fast Track Program, go here.

The above story was produced by Multi-platform Journalist Mary Katherine Shapiro with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.