JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition, we’re focused on Comcast RISE. It’s described as a “major small business announcement” in the news release and includes $500,000 in grants for Northeast Florida entrepreneurs.
“Rise is our Small business grant program,” said Michelle Oyola McGovern, who is vice president of government affairs for Comcast Florida. “We focus on small businesses in the Jacksonville community. It’s a grant process where we select 100 grant recipients to receive all kinds of monetary and support services for their small businesses in order to help them grow and expand. [It] includes things like a commercial, like an ad and some also some training.”
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Rich Rollins is the vice president of Comcast Business. He explained how interested applicants could take advantage of the opportunity.
“So, the selection process is pretty straightforward. You need to be in business for three years. You need to be independently owned, and you need to have less than 100 employees. Besides that, we don’t have any other criteria. Now, we selected Jacksonville, one of five cities, because there’s a big veteran population here. So we’re looking forward to some veteran-based owners that win the grant in this round.”
One of those winners previously is Nichole Mobley, who runs T&N Xpress, a logistics and transportation company. She received a RISE grant about two years ago and at just the right time.
“When I got that call, I was able to have a video produced about my business, a 30-second clip, which helped people to know who I was, my brand, [and] what I had going on here. And it was a pivotal time during the COVID pandemic,” Mobley said. “So transportation, logistics, that area was like booming at that time. A lot of people started following me to ask me questions in regards to transportation. So needless to say, and with the help of Comcast, I was able to get my name out there.”
Mobley, Rollins and McGovern join the conversation for this week’s podcast.