Need More From Your Business?
Founded in August of 2017, the North Shore Business Alliance is a nonprofit collaboration of exceptional public and private service providers, business professionals, government representatives, community leaders and generous individuals. Working together, they have formed a social enterprise that organizes community resources to help small businesses thrive.
Get Connected
We help business owners do more than create customers; we help them build a sustainable small business ecosystem. As a social enterprise we become a community platform with a mission of connecting small business owners with two very important parts of the community – the experts and each other. We introduce them to a network of service providers, get expert advice, and gain the latest insights. We also help them connect with each other, share views and experiences. These two critical resources can turn their community into a thriving small business ecosystem.
Why Us?
We believe small businesses aren’t failing to start, they are failing to survive. We believe a health small business ecosystem is the key to our economic future. Responsive, resourceful, hardworking and innovative, small business has always been the source of our economic DNA. We started the North Shore Business Alliance, to focus on the economic health of the local small business ecosystem. We like to think of our community based platform as a retail complex for the services and support that small business owners need – not only to survive – but to thrive. This new type of social enterprise is designed to aggregate and promote the kind of programs, services and information that advances the capabilities of the small businesses ecosystem.
Need another reason to join?
Our basic client membership for small business owners is free and it offers access to a great deal of helpful information and free coaching. Need more? Become an annual subscriber and get more access to more information and service discounts.
About us
Organized in 2017, the North Shore Business Alliance is a collaboration of agencies and professional service providers with a special purpose: to help entrepreneurs better run and grow their small business.
Based in Bothell Washington we are a 501 (C) 3 non-profit corporation funded by memberships, grants and donations.
Our Primary Services
We have three categories of service coaching and mentoring; education and training; community building. In addition to those services we develop a deeper understanding of the issues and barriers to successful operation and administration of small businesses.
Our Goal
Our goal is to develop a healthy and collaborative small business community and ecosystem that creates value and jobs.
Everyone at NSBA focuses on helping small businesses develop capabilities in three areas:
- Innovation: the abilities to continuously improve people, processes and products.
- Performance: the skills to fulfill the purpose and promise of their business by delivering quality and service value flawlessly.
- Trust the ability to develop a small business community that cooperates collaborates and develops economic complements.
Our Mission
Our mission is to improve the quality of the small business communities on the North Shore of Lake Washington by enabling individuals and businesses to do more and thrive. To achieve this mission we are helping entrepreneurs and small businesses pursue a strategy that delivers sustainable performance through innovation and the expanding creation and delivery of value.
What We Do
The North Shore Business Alliance aggregates, coordinates, promotes and facilitates the delivery of developmental services to potential and current small business owners. As an aggregator we build connections and complimentary relationships with every public agency and provider of service to small business in the region. As a retailer, we focus our marketing efforts on promoting awareness, access and availability of these services to the economic community on the North Shore of Lake Washington.
Our History
The seeds that would become the North Shore Business Alliance were planted back to early 1980. After serving in the US Navy, our founder attempted to start a small restaurant in Seattle. While the venture quickly failed, the lessons learned and the experience of working with the Small Business Administration and SCORE eventually led to organizing business students to help entrepreneurs write business plans.
This exposure to dozens of small business would ignite a passion that would lead to series of events including earning the first of six business related degrees. He would eventually become a business broker, a management consultant, a business teacher and a SCORE mentor. He would serve as a volunteer mentor in the Entrepreneurship Center at the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University for 15 years.
During this span of close to forty years, the number of federal, state and local agencies focused on helping entrepreneurs, as well as non-profit providers helping small businesses would also grow significantly. Unfortunately, the impact to reducing small business failures has not been realized. It is the culmination of this history that has fostered the deeply held belief that small business is the economic foundation of every community.
Our Executive Team
The day to day operations of the North Shore Business Alliance are managed by a team of people who are really passionate about small business. The Executive Director is responsible for the leadership and management of the organization and is assisted by the executive team.
Our Board of Directors
Responsible for the long term direction and the system of corporate governance, the North Shore Business Alliance Board of Directors is ultimately accountable for the activities, strategy, and financial performance of the organization.