The city’s Office of Small Business recently celebrated 14 graduates from its first BizUnlocked Boston Business Access Program on June 28. In partnership with Tessi Consulting, the new program offers resources, fundamental business training and connections for small business owners just starting out.

“Entrepreneurs, especially small businesses, they’re the engine. They’re the heart of the economy, whether it be here in the city of Boston or in other parts of the U.S,” said Tessi Consulting founder and CEO Christie Lindor. “We wanted to ensure that they had the tools, the wherewithal, the knowledge, the access to certain city resources in order to take their business dream to the next level.”

The inaugural cohort of 14 entrepreneurs represented a wide range of professions, including health and wellness, education and social impact and print and publishing. Selected from 168 local applicants, the cohort participated in workshops and coaching with experts from May 13 through June 27, building confidence and tools to sustain their business ventures.

For participant Shaulita Francis, founder and owner of Locd In Hair Studio, the impact was immediate and personal. Seeing her fellows in the cohort work on their business models was motivating, she said. “If they do this, then I can do this.”

“I feel so grateful, so accomplished, so blessed,” she added.

“There’s just so much information I wouldn’t have known unless I did this program,” such as how vital systems are.

“You can have the skill, you can have the passion, but you [must have] the systems in place…to think about inventory operations, to think about planning goals. If you don’t have those systems in place, your business will not be sustainable,” Francis said.

The program has been years in the making, according to Aliesha Porcena, the city’s director of small business. She witnessed graduates support one another while seeing their confidence grow in real time. “It was a reminder that putting the work into your business at the beginning is so important. It is so fundamental to making sure that you are set for success,” she said.

The city recognized the necessity of having a program like this for local entrepreneurs after witnessing the landscape and hearing from business owners who faced challenges like scaling up operations, using technology to improve their businesses and marketing.

Lindor, who also facilitated several workshops for the cohort, added that entrepreneurs best thrive when provided access to the right tools and support at the start. The program provided instruction and skills for entrepreneurs to dispel myths or discomfort, such as how to price services.

“There’s mechanics to pricing. You have to think about your expenses. You have to think about what it takes for you to deliver said product or service — so thinking outside of someone’s comfort zone to really look at their business objectively and remove some of the emotion that sometimes holds people back from making the decisions that help them build sustainable businesses,” said Lindor.

Key to sustainable business models, too, is having a network and community of people going through the same challenges, even across industries. Porcena said she hopes graduates will continue to tap into the community they have built with each other over the last five weeks.

The program was designed to support “building this community, this idea of making sure that they don’t feel alone in this process, this idea for them to feel confident, move with intention, and not fear,” Porcena said. “The group now is a group. They’re connected.”