Collaborative for Enterprise Development

With start-up funding from the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, the Collaborative for Enterprise Development (CED) was created to address the challenges and opportunities faced by small businesses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Each member of CED brings a unique set of enterprise development services to offer comprehensive assistance to entrepreneurs, including business planning assistance, credit counseling, marketing assistance, accounting system development, working capital loans and equity investment opportunities.

To seek assistance in restarting a business or nonprofit organization or enhancing an existing enterprise, please submit our online Request for Assistance form. A member of the Collaborative will contact you to assist in the development of your business.

To be eligible for CED assistance, the owner or director must have been in business in Orleans parish prior to Hurricane Katrina.

After one year of working together, the collective efforts of the CED members resulted in the following outputs / outcomes:

275 small businesses and nonprofits connected to assistance
1,477 jobs created or retained
133 loans / grants leveraged totaling $2.3 million

News

Business and Home Inventory Professionals
Prior to the storm, Michael Hall owned his own tax service franchise. However, as with many New Orleans entrepreneurs, the business was lost following the hurricane. After witnessing all of the challenges that residents faced with insurance companies, Hall decided to start a business that would document property and provide a complete written, digital and video inventory to protect people against the unexpected.