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A Letter from Phil Kirk
An
agency focused on entrepreneurship
 North
Carolina’s Small Business and Technology Center (SBTDC), a part of the
University of North Carolina, is a business development service that provides
counseling and technical assistance to the business community.
Its fundamental
mission is to support the growth and development of North Carolina’s economy
by encouraging entrepreneurship, assisting in the creation and expansion of
small to medium-sized enterprises, and facilitating technology development and
commercialization.
There are 70
professionals employed by the SBTDC in 17 offices across the state and each is
affiliated with a college or university. Since its formation in 1984, these
offices have serviced nearly 75,000 business owners. More than 95 percent of
their clients have rated the services as “good to excellent.” That is quite
a testimony to the value of the SBTDC’s work.
This assistance
often comes in the form of business counseling, education, technical assistance
and related services.
The management
counseling provided addresses such issues as financing, marketing, human
resources, operations, business planning and feasibility assessment.
The staff works
to provide high quality and innovative programs in a consistent and timely
manner. It also promotes strong, active constituencies, develops programs and
resources, and advocates policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises.
Its services are continually measured, evaluated and reported on.
There are many
government-related groups, which provide assistance to businesses so
collaboration and co-operation through partnerships are important. SBTDC has
cooperative working agreements with the U.S. Department of Defense,
Export-Import Bank, North Carolina’s Biotechnology Center, and the N.C.
Department of Commerce.
Clients receive
help in increasing revenues, creating jobs and commercializing technology.
Annual economic impact assessments undertaken since 1988 confirm an outstanding
return or investment from SBTDC services. Their clients significantly outpurse
non-SBTDC clients in both sales and employment growth. They also bring in more
impressive tax revenue for our cash-strapped treasury.
Last year the
staff devoted a significant amount of time to supporting the state’s business
recovery efforts as a result of Hurricane Floyd. Staff assisted thousands of
businesses in earlier North Carolina and processed nearly $24 million in direct
state disaster loans and interest rates.
During this
hectic and stressful time, the SBTDC successfully continued implementation of
its focus or service to high-growth, high-impact firms.
Fifty-two of
the 58 Small Business Development Centers around the nation were trained at the
SBTDC’s National Training institute here in North Carolina.
Last year the
SBTDC achieved notable success with offerings of its portfolio of management
education products — strategic needs assessments, management ad leadership’s
developed strategic facilitation, and Symmetries (a two-day business case
simulation).
Scott R.
Daugherty, the executive director, points out the challenges for the SBTDC in
the annual report — “continued
support for the business recovery effort in eastern part of our state, an
expanded emphasis on services to existing industry and business, and a focus on
growth strategies for small and medium-sized firms, which continue to provide
nearly all of the net growth in jobs across the nation.”
There are some
remarkable personalized success stories contained in the SBTDC annual report.
For a copy, call 919-715-7272 or 800-258-0862 (N.C. only) or check out the
homepage at www.sbtdc.org.
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