The Soldotna Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the Spark Soldotna grant event in November – the chamber’s annual Shark Tank style event aimed at giving new entrepreneurs the opportunity to present new or enhanced business products or ideas to Soldotna.
“The chamber has awarded $14,000 to community entrepreneurs through [this] Small Business Scholarship program,” said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Maddie McElrea. “The winner receives a $4000 prize, and really this can be everything from new ideas to established businesses. You can use this grant for marketing, training your employees, new equipment or software, product costs, really anything if you think that you know you could benefit from $4000 from your business or business idea.”
Interested applicants must complete the online application no later than Friday, October 13th at 5:00 PM. Applications will be reviewed by an internal Soldotna Chamber team, and selected applicants must be prepared to present their business idea, and or product in person to the Sparks Soldotna Business Scholarship Selection Committee the evening of Saturday, November 11th at 5:30 PM.
“It’s a really fun event whether you win or not. It’s also fun to watch our local entrepreneurs give their speech, tell us more about their businesses, so we’ll give a good highlight to all of our chosen participants as well,” said McElrea. “We’ll have about a week to review all the applications Select. Our participants and then give them some time as well to get their presentations together.”
Paper applications will not be accepted, all applications must be submitted online.
Anyone interested in attending the event to watch may register on the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce website.