The U.S. Small Business Administration has awarded a $50,000 grant through the “Startup in a Day” initiative to the City of Long Beach, the city announced today.

President Obama pushed for widespread city participation in the first ever “Startup in a Day” initiative, encouraging them to take the “Startup in a Day” pledge. The 24 cities that took the pledge, including Long Beach, were invited to apply for funding through two prize competitions. Long Beach received the $50,000 prize from one of the competitions. 

According to a release, the award aims to support the development, implementation and improvement of online tools to help entrepreneurs learn more about starting a business, in addition to decreasing the usual time it takes to apply for permits and licenses.

“Entrepreneurs help to make Long Beach a great place to live, work and play,” said Mayor Robert Garcia in a statement. “It is our job to be supportive of them and remove any unnecessary obstacles as they pursue their dreams and build local businesses.”

The “Startup in a Day” funding will support the launch of StartupLB, which provides new resources to small businesses to facilitate their business launch and growth.

The city states that with “Startup in a Day,” the new small business-friendly online resource OpenCounter and a recently announced collaboration with the entrepreneur-partnering, New York-based Citymart, a wealth of new tools exist for budding entrepreneurs within the city.