CareerSource Suncoast is pleased to announce its recent hire of Linda Benedict, who joins the team as Business Development Director. With this role, Linda will discover, research and implement potential revenue streams including new Lines of Business and alternative funding sources. She will build innovative programs, develop contract proposals and creatively implement the vision of CareerSource Suncoast.
Linda states, “I am very happy to be the new Business Development Director. For more than a year, I had an office in the CareerSource Suncoast building while I was working for another agency. As I became acquainted with the CareerSource staff, I was impressed with their warmth, integrity, enthusiasm, and competency. When offered a chance to join the team, I took it gladly and I am looking forward to the future.”
Linda comes to CareerSource with many years of experience in business development. As a Business Consultant with FSBDC at the University of South Florida, Linda showed small businesses in Manatee County how to double or triple their revenue to reach the five-million-dollar goal. She provided company chief operating officers and key executives with financial and marketing analytical reports, marketing studies, and made impactful recommendations. In addition, she helped entrepreneurs start their businesses by providing them with industry profiles, local marketing reports, and helped them develop their business and marketing plans.
Before coming to Florida, Linda worked in New York as a licensed attorney. She graduated from law school with a certificate in community development and taught Business Law and Employment Law at the college level. She has an MBA with over fifteen years of business experience and worked with over 300 businesses. In addition, she owned a business consulting company specializing in teaching for-profit and not-for-profit businesses how to successfully market their services.
As director of the Business and Community Development Division of a community action agency, she supervised five staff, over 13 contracts, and taught pre-venture and start-up entrepreneurs how to start their businesses and established small businesses how to successfully grow their bottom line. Raising community and political support, she created a business development center that served a three-county area. After realizing that small businesses in the service area were not being offered business loans, she successfully created a lending Institution and was its CEO.
Linda was a founding member of MicroBizNY, New York State’s first statewide association supporting microbusinesses. She has been a presenter on the needs of small businesses to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) and the New York Department of Labor.
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About CareerSource Suncoast
CareerSource Suncoast is a non-profit dedicated to providing education and tools for employers and job-seekers. Our mission is to recruit, train and retain talent for employers on the Suncoast. An equal opportunity employer/program. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. All voice telephone numbers on this document may be reached by persons using TTY/TDD equipment via the Florida Relay Service at 711.