Seattle's ABC Program: Free Business Consulting, and We Still Have Room for You
The City of Seattle will pay for up to 40 hours of business consulting for eligible small businesses and nonprofits. Here is what that actually looks like, what it has done for 394 Seattle businesses so far, and how to apply.
If you run a small business or nonprofit in Seattle, there is a good chance the city will pay for real one-on-one business consulting on your behalf, and most business owners have never heard of it.
The Accounting & Business Consulting (ABC) Program is funded by the City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development. Eligible businesses get up to 40 hours of free one-on-one consulting across accounting, marketing, business development, and loan support. Launch Industries is one of the approved consulting firms in the program.
What we actually help with
Launch's contract in the ABC Program covers the Business Development category specifically. Due to contract limitations, this is the only category we can provide free services in, so we cannot assist directly with brand development, social media marketing, bookkeeping, or tax work under this program. Within Business Development, here is what that covers in practice:
- Startup and capacity-building guidance for new and growing businesses
- Organization development and strategic planning
- Operations and process improvement, including documented systems that scale
- Business software and AI tool selection, implementation, and training
- Human resources and employment compliance, across the entire employee life cycle
- RFPs, grants, and certification support
What this looks like in practice
A mobile coffee cart operator came to us pre-launch and unpermitted, still trying to figure out which King County food permit actually fit how she planned to sell. We mapped out the real difference between a catering permit, built for pre-paid private events, and a mobile food unit permit, built for point-of-sale sales at pop-ups and markets, and pointed her toward the cheaper, faster option that matched her actual business model. We walked through the real costs (a one-time inspection fee, then an annual fee once food handling crossed into a higher risk category) and what she would need in place before her first hire: converting her business license to an employer license, setting up a Labor & Industries account, and getting low-cost payroll software running. She left with a clear, sequenced path from not-yet-permitted to compliant and hiring-ready.
A family-run auto repair shop, 16 years under its current owner with 7 employees, used its hours on two things at once: rewriting its employee handbook and migrating its entire payroll system. The handbook work closed real compliance gaps: combined PTO and sick time rules, a wildfire-smoke workplace policy, cell phone and driving liability language for staff who drive company vehicles, and an outdated retirement plan clause. Separately, the shop had been hit with repeated state Paid Family & Medical Leave penalty notices from a misconfigured payroll setup that its previous provider had already tried and failed to fix. We mapped a clean cutover to new payroll software, exact final and first payroll dates, PTO balance carryover included, and flagged the leave-notice issue for a dedicated audit. What had been an active source of fines became a concrete go-live plan.
By the numbers
As of this year, Launch has provided Business Development consulting to 394 Seattle businesses and nonprofits through the ABC Program, totaling 2,094.5 hours of free consulting delivered, an average of 5.6 hours per business. The most common kinds of help we provide, in order: operational strategy, management strategy and organizational development, human resources, business plan refinement, business software tool support, standard operating procedures, employee handbooks, and grants, funding, and certification support.
We still have room for Seattle entrepreneurs
We are still taking on new ABC Program clients. To be eligible, your business needs:
- A City of Seattle business license with a Seattle address on it
- 50 or fewer employees
- 2 or fewer brick-and-mortar locations
- $5,000,000 or less in annual revenue
Both for-profit businesses and nonprofits are welcome to apply, and the program prioritizes businesses that are BIPOC-owned, LGBTQIA+-owned, women-owned, or serve underrepresented communities.
Apply through the City of Seattle directly: Accounting & Business Consulting Program. If you'd like to work with Launch Industries, request Launch on the application form. Once you apply, tell us you did it so we can follow up with the office. If you aren't sure how you'd use your free hours with Launch once you are accepted, visit Launch's ABC Program page on our website, or just book a call with our team.
