Jan. 29, 2014

By Rumasa Noor

In order to achieve success, there needs to be a plan. That is true in many areas of life: going through school, graduating from college and finding a job. Many students and community members in Whitewater needed a plan to start their own businesses, and the Small Business Development Center was there to push them in the right direction.

SBDC provides consulting and training to the people who own a small business and those who want to start a new venture.

The Whitewater chapter of SBDC has been helping small businesses grow since it was founded in 1980. Keith Bach, the center’s business counselor, guides prospective business owners with their plans.

“My main purpose is to help people build business plans so they can start a business,” Bach said. “They can either use their business plan for both running the business and also to take it to a lender or investor.”

Bach said SBDC is involved in doing feasibility studies and third party assessments. He started his career at SBDC as a student when he got an email from the outreach account.

From there, Bach had to fill out an application, provide writing samples and other documents, including grade point average.

“It’s just like any other job,” Bach said. “You apply for it, you interview and then they’ll give you a chance.”

Sheila Vold, the office business manager for SBDC and the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center, said students get real-world experience by working with SBDC.

“They are actually working with real clients, our researchers are actually helping businesses, and for inventions to get started,” Vold said. “It’s not like just answering the phone type job; it prepares them for work after graduation.”

Bach also emphasized the importance of getting real world experience for students at SBDC.

“It really offers insight into not only how to create a business, but the minutia that it takes to run a business that you don’t get in class,” Bach said. “You know, you get the basics in class, especially at the undergrad level, but when you actually see how it’s done and you actually have things to work with.”

SBDC occasionally has students that are also clients, but the students that they hire work to help businesses.

Vold said SBDC is mainly guided by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which assigns SBDC goals and tells the development center what needs to be achieved.

“I think it has always been our mission, our goal, to help businesses grow and to get success stories,” Vold said.

SBDC also offers an online course called First Steps, which gives people a good idea of what running a business is like. SBDC staff suggests this course to people who come to them with questions about business.

“It’s a class that you take when you are thinking about going into business,” Vold said. “It’s an online class that’ll let you know everything that’s involved in doing business.”

SBDC has clients who contact them when they need help with their businesses. They go through a process of filling out forms, agreements and fulfill other requirements required by the SBA depending on their needs.

“Clients come to us and say they need help with financials, marketing, or sometimes they just need help to get started and go through the whole process,” Vold. “They contact us and let us know what they are looking for.”

Amanda Davis, a senior at UW-Whitewater, works as an administrative assistant for SBDC. She further elaborated on the process of helping clients, saying that SBDC doesn’t reach out to people. Instead, the clients usually contact SBDC when they need help regarding their business.

Vold and Bach also emphasized the importance of having a good business plan. As a part of his job, Bach sits down with people and goes over their plan to make sure they don’t leave anything out.

“They also have statistics on people that had their business plan and how much more successful they were than the ones that did not have business plans,” Vold said.

Vold also mentioned SBDC’s director Ronald “Bud” Gayhart,  who looks after the higher end of things such as strategic planning, and working with larger companies.

SBDC works nationwide, and every state has SBDC. Each of the offices has assigned counties in their state. The Whitewater chapter of SBDC controls five counties in Wisconsin: Dodge, Jefferson, Rock, Walworth and Waukesha Counties.

“It’s my belief that it helps every student here no matter what they do,” Bach said. “If they are counselor here or working on a project, they want researchers; it’s incredible experience.”

Vold also mentioned SBDC does not charge for its services; it is completely supported by SBA. It also offers internships to students.