About Livelihood NW

Livelihood NW provides free and low cost professional business support services throughout Oregon and SW Washington. We offer a continuum of support to businesses in all industries, at all stages from pre-startup to scaling and growth.

Our services are centered around breaking down barriers and addressing the wealth gap for underserved populations, specifically low-to-moderate income individuals, BIPOC, women, and the LGBTQ+ community.

Services are available in both English and Spanish and include one-on-one in-depth technical assistance, business advising, workshops, trainings, cohort learning, bookkeeping setup & training, resource navigation and referrals.

livelihood_nw_Mission ©Tais Photography — MISSION

Our mission is to foster business sustainability and growth for historically under-served entrepreneurs within local communities. We provide exceptional business development support services to promote lifelong learning, empowerment, and positive economic impact.

EQUITY & INCLUSION

Equity & Inclusion IS CORE TO OUR MISSION

The way we approach this work is important. Follow the links below to learn more:

Values

Teamwork & Collaboration

We support a thriving business community by collaborating with all stakeholders to best meet the needs of the community, our partners, and funders.

Inclusion

We respect and value diverse life experiences while acknowledging life challenges. We encourage flexible and innovative approaches to our work in order to support the small business community “where they are at” through multi-culturally competent approaches.

Integrity

We do business with integrity and passion because we are committed to responsible leadership. We pride ourselves on maintaining a reputation of excellence.

Authenticity

We strive to be Authentic Consultants with a genuine desire to serve clients to enable their long term success, to provide assistance from a place of passion over pride, and to manage expectations by utilizing our strengths while being honest about our own limitations.

Learning

We believe in continual LEARNING for ourselves and our community. Learning is our pathway to growth, empowerment, and innovation for all. We are inquisitive learners, caring teachers, and dedicated partners in skill building throughout our community.

Flexibility

While we are unwavering in our mission and our commitment to excellence, we strive to maintain FLEXIBILITY in our thinking. We embrace change and continually adapt and improve our programs, partnerships, and services to meet the needs of our growing community.

Impact Reports

2023

How many business owners did we serve in 2023? Who won client awards? What are some of the changes Livelihood NW implemented over the past year to better serve the small business community? Check out our Impact & Storytelling Report to find out!

2022

As we move full speed ahead into 2023, we want to take a moment to celebrate some of the amazing achievements of our small business community, and spotlight some of Livelihood NW’s program highlights from the past year.

2021

Join us as we look back on 2021, celebrate the inspiring entrepreneurs we work with, & share a few program highlights.

2020

The Livelihood NW team put this together in place of our typical annual gathering, which was not able to happen due to COVID-19.

In this issue, we acknowledge the unique challenges of the past year, highlight our programs and impacts, and celebrate the amazing entrepreneurs in our small business community.

HISTORY

Since 1994, we have been part of Portland State University (PSU), specifically the School of Business, partnering to provide business development support to underserved entrepreneurs, while giving PSU business students the opportunity for community based-learning. On January 1, 2019 the BOP spun-off from PSU, becoming an independent non-profit. This strategic decision allows our organization more operational and financial flexibility, which ultimately allows us to execute our mission more effectively, yet we carry all our history and industry expertise forward with us.

From our communities perspective all will remain familiar. Under Livelihood NW you can expect the same great staff, offering the same exceptional business development services. We will maintain a public/private partnership with The School of Business (SB). Livelihood NW’s office remains in the SB, with satellite offices in E. Portland. Our staff continues to engage in teaching and mentoring SB business students in their experiential learning opportunities to bridge education and resources to Livelihood NW clients. We are also grateful to all our sponsors who continue to support our mission.

Free & Low Cost Services

In collaboration with various community partnerships, and supported by program grants and giving, Livelihood NW offers a variety of free and low cost programs. This allows us to remove or reduce the most significant barrier to receiving support for many entrepreneurs: Money.