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The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is a free service to help businesses, probably the only thing government does for business. It is funded one-half by the feds and the other half by the State. It is attached to UH-Hilo and located in the American Savings Bank building, Suite 109. The State office is located in Hilo. Kim introduced the speaker as a business therapist. Judi Mellon, Ph.D., center director and former marine, described the range of services offered to start-ups as well as existing businesses.
The SBDC offers the following types of services to existing businesses to overcome struggles, expand, or raise capital:
Why do businesses fail? Too much capital expense, poor customer relations, unrealistic plan, no clear focus, don't have the personality to run a business. There is a growing trend for work at home independent consultants who have a shared or rented space to meet as the need arises. The fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs are over 50 years old.
- Strategy Development
- Human Resources
- Prepare to Seek Financing
- Raising Capital
- Marketing Assistance
- Expansion
- Selling/Buying a Business.
The SBDC offers the following types of services to aspiring start-ups:
- Choice of business entity
- Written Business Plan
- 36-Month Financial Projections – Income/Expense
- 5 C’s of Credit:
- Character – trustworthy, good reputation. Credit Score
- Capital – expect to have to invest something yourself – 20%+?
- Collateral – assets as 2ndary source of repayment
- Capacity - your company’s ability to repay debt
- Conditions – how will your company & industry be affected by economy
An underutilized resource is the business research that can be conducted by a SBDC librarian, such as rules-of-thumb metrics that can be used for business planning. Upcoming workshops offered in August and September at the Hawaii Community College include Business Insurance 101, Value Added Products, Starting a Small Business in Hawaii (request a workshop brochure from the SBDC for more information).