Contest: Mission Main Street Grants for Small Businesses

Carla Hall was a competitor and fan favorite on Bravo’s “Top Chef."  Like many professionals, Carla started her career on a very different path. She was an accountant but soon discovered her true culinary passion and embarked on a new career path in the world of food. From accountant to celebrity chef, Carla is also an entrepreneur and owns Carla Hall Petite Cookies, an artisan cookie company that specializes in creating sweet and savory “petite bites of love.”
 

She's been involved in promoting Chase’s popular Mission Main Street Grants program which boasts Google as premier sponsor. The program is expanding its reach in its third year, raising the number of recipients from 12 to 20, with each selected small business receiving a grant of $150,000 – that’s $3 million in total capital for small businesses nationwide!  

Small businesses are important to the economy. In the United States, small businesses account for over half of U.S. sales and jobs. If you're interested in launching your own business, according to Carla, you need to be passionate and have energy to promote yourself. Of course, the Mission Main Street Grant would certainly help as well - and you only have until Friday to apply, so hurry! You can help your local small businesses also by visiting the program's website and voting (you can search by zip code to find ones nearby to you). Voting ends October 17th.