Helping small businesses grow

Jose Paul Corona

Lynn Dangtu hopes to create 500 new jobs in Orange County when she

opens her new business in Garden Grove in 2004.

The 40-year-old Huntington Beach resident has just received a

$2.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic

Development Administration division to open E-Business Development

Inc.

The E stands for entrepreneurial.

Her venture will help small businesses in depressed areas

throughout the county expand by providing small business owners

access to business networking, marketing, accounting, secretarial and

legal services.

“Our goal is economic development and job hiring,” Dangtu said.

Set to open in 2004, E-Business Development Inc. will have 100

full-service executive suits in Garden Grove with state-of-the-art

technology.

The city of Garden Grove donated 3.2 acres for the venture, and

Dangtu applied for the federal grant.

She knew that she wanted to help small business owners when she

quit her job with Toyota Motor Corporation in 1996.

Through her work lecturing to small business owners with the Small

Business Development Center in Santa Ana, Dangtu has gained hands-on

experience she thinks will help.

Her master’s degree in business entrepreneurship from the

University of Southern California has also helped her tremendously,

she said.

“This is the hardest project of my life,” she said with a smile.