Successful entrepreneurs often say that the guidance they’ve received from trusted people and resources played an essential role in their achievements. For small business owners, a great place to start building your team of trusted advisors and resources is your Small Business Development Center (SBDC). In this guide, you’ll learn what an SBDC does, how it can grow your business, and where to find one near you.
How do SBDCs help small businesses?
SBDCs are local and regional organizations funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to help small business owners.
As you’re planning, launching, and growing your business, you’ll face many new situations and challenges. Whether you’re putting together a business plan and financial projections for the first time, exploring financing options, or assessing new market opportunities, sometimes you simply need someone to talk to who has more or different knowledge and experience than you.
Whatever your situation is, your SBDC team can help.
They offer free consulting services and low-or-no-cost business training with the goal of helping all entrepreneurs gain access to expertise and resources that set them up for success.
The types of services that SBDCs offer include:
- One-on-one consulting: You can meet with an SBDC staff member in person or online for personalized advice. You can talk about your business, review your plans, financials, and projections, discuss challenges you’re facing and get ideas to overcome them, and identify new opportunities and how to leverage them.
- Educational events: SBDCs offer events focused on launching and growing small businesses with experts on topics such as choosing a business entity, financing your venture, and marketing.
- Workshops and webinars: This includes workshops and webinars on topics that are essential for small business success, such as human resources issues, tax topics, and how to grow.
- Networking opportunities: You can attend networking events to help you meet and connect with other entrepreneurs in your area or industry.
Your SBDC representatives can give you insight to help test your business idea or hone your target market, offer suggestions to strengthen your plan and financials to help you secure financing, and provide key information and resources for growing your business. In addition, SBDCs offer additional support for minority-and-women-owned businesses (MWBs) and veteran-owned businesses.
Where to find your local SBDC
To make it easy to access their services, SBDCs are located throughout the U.S. – there are nearly 1,000 SBDC network centers, and they’re often located on public college campuses or in community centers. In addition, many free SBDC workshops and one-on-one meetings can also take place online.
Here are just a few offices they have:
- 22 regional offices and 70 satellite offices in New York State
- 12 regional offices in New Jersey
- 15 regional offices in Pennsylvania
- One office in Connecticut
- 37 offices in Illinois
- 12 offices in Nevada
- 33 offices in Washington State
If your business is located outside this area or you want to find specific information on your closest SBDC, enter your ZIP code into this SBDC center locator.
It’s important to note that while all SBDC offices offer the same core services, there may be some variations based on location. For example, those in a rural area may have some additional or different offerings than those in a large urban center. Depending on your business, industry, and needs, contacting several SBDCs in your area could open additional opportunities for assistance.
Like Pursuit, SBDCs are here to help small businesses succeed
Whatever questions you have, bring them to your local SBDC representatives – soon, they’ll be a trusted resource and a key part of your advisory team.
Pursuit is also a partner for small business success, offering financing for entrepreneurs in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Nevada, Illinois, and Washington. We offer more than 15 loans and a line of credit, along with insightful resources and expert business advisory services for all small business owners.
Contact us to learn more.
