21st Century Arrowhead Initiative
The 21st Century Arrowhead Initiative is a collaborative program sponsored by the UMD Center for Economic Development (CED). The goal is to assist small businesses with making crucial decisions about incorporating new technologies that will serve to increase their revenues, decrease costs and/or improve efficiency. Once a company completes a Client Needs Assessment and becomes a UMD CED client, the business receives on-site counseling. Training services are also available.
Technology Counseling includes:
- Website planning, usability, accessibility
- Increasing traffic to websites, ecommerce revenue and search engine ranking
- QuickBooks accounting procedures, financial statement generation
- Broadband Internet options
- Software search and recommendations
- Hardware and network specifications
- Training recommendations
What to expect:
- On-site consulting to small businesses
- Unbiased, vendor-neutral opinions
- Clients become self-sufficient
- Provide referrals to local vendors
- Provide planning and coordination
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The 21st Century Arrowhead Initiative was cited as an innovative example of growing entrepreneurism and small business in rural areas through technology by the National Association of Development Orgrantizations (NADO).