Success stories

The Liddle Cable Company, Concord

The Liddle Cable Company is a woman-owned cable assembly firm specializing in building coax and wire harness needs of the aerospace and technology industry. Customers include Xradin, Nyad, Savi, Jabil and Lockheed. The business was started in 2005. During the first 4 months of starting their home-based business both husband and wife held full time day jobs, working 16 hour days and weekends. The promised Monday deliveries and they delivered.

Kit and Caboodle – The Hobby Shop, Oakley

Kit and Caboodle--the hobby shop, offers many remote control cars, trains, rockets, science and educational projects providing fun for all ages. Beginning in 1972 and located in Albany, Kit & Caboodle has had many owners; the last being Doug’s grandmother Margaret Collins. Instead of closing the shop Doug, a Part’s Manager at an auto body shop, and Emily, a middle school teacher, could realize their dream of being entrepreneurs. They chose to move the business closer to their home in Oakley and wanted to re-start the business.

Store Inside, Milpitas

Company Profile: Store Inside provides indoor storage and services for valued recreational vehicles, boats and cars. As a family owned business, they care for vehicles as if they were their own, thus giving the owner more time to enjoy their toys! Store Inside ensures that a vehicle is clean and secure while in storage and ready to go when the owner wants to travel or play. Their theme ‘Relax--We’ve Got You Covered’ says it all.

CGT Systems, Inc., Concord

Company Profile: CGT Systems, Inc., is an electrical construction company that specializes in the installation of security, electrical and audio/visual systems. They service commercial, industrial and residential markets. The business started with three friends (Cravines, Gutierrez and Thompson; CGT) who met while members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union. Each friend specialized in a different area of electrical construction. After working together for several years on various commercial and industrial projects valued in the millions, they decided to combine their skills and start their own home-based business part-time in 2003.

PsiNapse Technology Ltd, Pleasanton

PsiNapse Technology is a leading provider of staffing services and was ranked #24 on the San Francisco Business Times 2007 annual list of the Largest Latino-Owned Businesses in the Bay Area. The list is comprised of companies located in the San Francisco Bay Area and is based on FY 2006 revenues.

CPR-FAST, Brentwood

Company Profile - CPR-FAST helps individuals, business owners and cities prepare for health emergencies. The company provides Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Training, an emergency procedure for a victim of cardiac arrest, and First Aid Training. In 2004, owner and Ohara Park Middle School Teacher Kristen Helmick and her husband Brian, a Battalion Chief with East Contra Costa Fire Department, recognized that there was a need for emergency and first aid training in Oakley and nearby Brentwood communities. Since opening, they ensure that everyone from childcare providers and firefighters to industrial works and EMT’s are confident in providing emergency care.

Pine Creek Realty, Bay Area

Company Profile - After successfully working in large banking and real estate corporations most of his life, Henry Giovannetti wanted a new challenge: owning his own business. Fortunately, while attending a downtown Concord business association meeting he heard about a 12-week training class focused on business plan development — the Contra Costa Small Business Development Center’s New Venture Training.