CHICO — After spending 30 years in the health care industry, Chico-raised Ashley Juhl-Darlington decided to run a business, which is now Bapa’s Market.

On Thursday, Bapa’s Market was one of six stops by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate to promote a program that helps small businesses, like Juhl-Darlington’s, make business plans from scratch and become attractive to lenders, all at no cost.

It’s called the Success, Capital Access and Leadership for Entrepreneurs program, and the state is promoting it to support the “biggest job creators,” in the state and nation, which are small business owners, according to Clair Whitmer, director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

Whitmer on Thursday said the Small Business Administration in 2022 reported small

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