Upcoming Small Business Workshops

It's 2011 and the perfect time to put your dreams of a business of your own into action ..... and we have some great opportunities for you to get started .... and for expanding or diversifying existing businesses as well!

First, you may remember that we had to cancel a workshop a couple of weeks ago due to the untimely arrival of a real honest-to-goodness snowstorm. We have now rescheduled that "How to Start a Small Business" workshop for Monday, Jan. 31st, 6-8 pm in Room 210 of the Thurmond Building.

If you think you'd be interested in having a franchise business, Doug Stout, a Franchising and Self-Employment Coach with Entrepreneur's Source in Greenville, SC will conduct a workshop on Franchising on Tuesday, Feb. 7th, 6-8 pm in Room 210 of the Thurmond Building.

For driving directions, or information on more workshops currently scheduled, please visit our web site and or click on the calendar at the bottom of this page, and then on the date for additional information.

DBEs ..... Important Information for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises

Important Meeting for DBEs ...... Time to Re-Engineer, Re-Energize, Re-Focus.

This is a SC Dept of Transportation Public Consultation Meeting. We would like to get your input. How can you broaden your opportunities with the SC DOT?

Hear how some DBEs are successfully re-engineering their offerings for future opportunities. Hear what other are doing to ride out recession.

Not a Certified DBE with the SC Department of Transportation? We've got information for you!

This Workshop will be held at The Colonial Center, 801 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC from 1-4 pm on Thursday, Feb. 3rd.

To Register: Call 803 737-6426 or email hollispc@scdot.org -- your will need to provide the name, address, email and phone number of your business, and the names of the individuals who will be attending.

One more day .....

Our SBDC office at Winthrop will be closed for one more day.

Snow, sleet and ice in this quantity makes it unsafe for us and our clients to drive to the campus.

So pretty .... so inconvenient! We'll see you all soon!

Workshop Cancellation

Due to predictions of dire weather and dangerous road conditions for late Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, our scheduled "How to Start a Small Business" workshop has been cancelled.

This workshop will be rescheduled at a later date. Please watch our web site calendar for more information.

Reflection on 2010 Challenges & 2011 Opportunities

As we prepare to close our offices tomorrow for the holiday week ahead, we want to reflect on the past year and end 2010 on a positive note.

Yes, economically things got pretty rough there for a while; but we know that gloom and doom can't be allowed to rule or we'll never get out of the hole. So here at the SBDC we choose to forge ahead .... to look for and act on positive signs ... to help our clients with creative brainstorming as well as basic business building blocks ... and develop new ways of solving old problems.

It has been our pleasure during the past year to assist many entrepreneurs as they worked through the planning phase of their start-up businesses and took the next step to actually opening a business. We'll be here for them again this year whenever they need to talk.

We were also blessed to have many clients we've worked with over the years return in 2010 to talk about ways to refocus or expand their businesses, re-write their business plans in preparation for applying for small business loans to do that, and even in a slow economy get those loans! Knowing that we played a part in their successes is a feeling we can't quite describe; but we know we like it! And we want it to continue!

Larry Stevens, Director of the Winthrop Regional Small Business Development Center in the College of Business, says "The work of assisting our local small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs has never been as important or diversified as it will be in 2011." The SBDC is currently developing programs and preparing to venture into areas that will provide opportunities for both new ventures and existing businesses poised for expansion.

As a participant in the developing Nuclear Cluster (see http://www.newcarolina.org/), the SBDC joins a consortium of private industries, higher education and nonprofit organizations working in unison to support South Carolina's nuclear energy industry by strengthening small businesses which support that industry. Additionally, new funds being made available through the Small Business JOBS Act of 2010 will provide new training opportunities and specialized counseling for business owners looking to expand to create new jobs. Workshops are now being developed to aid businesses in increasing sales, marketing, and creating an online presence on a budget. Watch the SBDC web site for details http://www.winthropregionalsbdc.org/.

All in all, the staff of the SBDC is looking forward to an exciting new year of helping to strengthen South Carolina's economy! Farewell 2010 .... and thanks for the challenge! Welcome, 2011! We're ready to embrace all you have to offer!

US Dept of Energy Hosts Nationwide Business Expo

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, is proud to present The 12th Annual DOE Small Business Conference & Expo, at the Kansas City Convention Center, Kansas City, MO, May 10-12, 2011.

The DOE would like to make sure that small businesses nationwide will learn about this great opportunity to do business:

• This event will feature plenaries, educational workshops, an Exhibit Hall with over 200 exhibitors/sponsors, as well as business matchmaking sessions. Over 1,600 attendees will represent all levels of federal, state, and local government agencies, the small business community, large/prime contractors, minority educational institutions, and many more!
• The largest civilian contracting agency within the Federal government, DOE spent over $25 billion in contracts in FY 2010. The 12th Annual DOE Small Business Conference & Expo is a great opportunity for Small Business owners, large companies, and universities alike to network and partner.
• Registration will open mid-December 2010.

For more information, please visit http://smallbusinessconference.energy.gov/ or call the Conference Hotline: 866-925-5708

Expanding Opportunities for Veteran Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

Supporting veteran-owned small businesses is an important part of the Small Business Administration’s mission. Veterans over-index in entrepreneurship. One in seven veterans are self-employed or small business owners, and about one quarter of veterans say they are interested in starting or buying their own business. The leadership and management skills veterans have learned during their active duty and reserve service are ideally suited for success as an entrepreneur. With this in mind, SBA has an extensive portfolio of effective loan, counseling and contracting programs that benefit the veteran community.

SBA Programs Supporting Veteran Small Business Ownership

Loans Supporting Veteran Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

o SBA’s two largest loan programs, 7(a) and 504, offer effective financing opportunities for veteran entrepreneurs and small business owners. In FY 2010, the SBA supported more than 4,800 loans totaling over $1.25 billion to veterans through these two loan programs.
o The Patriot Express Loan Pilot Program offers low interest loans to members of the veteran and military community. Since it was created in 2007, the SBA has approved 6,510 Patriot Express loans supporting more than $500 million in small business lending to veterans, reservists and their spouses.

Entrepreneurship Education for Veterans Wanting to Start or Grow Their Business

o SBA’s Veteran Business Outreach Center Program (VBOC) offers outreach, counseling, training, online assistance and coordinated access to local SBA and other entrepreneurial assistance program. Over the past year the SBA doubled the VBOC Program from eight to 16 locations.
o The Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), a partnership between SBA and Syracuse University, delivers entrepreneurship training through a one-year “boot camp” for service-disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who want to start or grow small businesses. EBV is designed to open the door to business ownership for our veterans. The EBV program is expanding to a total of seven business schools at universities around the country: Syracuse University, University of Connecticut, UCLA, Florida State University, Texas A & M University, Purdue University and Louisiana State University.
o Operation Endure & Grow is a new program that expands on the SBA and Syracuse University ”boot camp” and will provide high quality training, networking and mentoring to support Reservists and U.S. Military family members. The SBA expects 550 individuals to participate in 11 eight week online training cycles and courses during a 24-month period.
o Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) is a second new program under the partnership between the SBA and Syracuse University that will deliver high quality training, networking and mentoring in seven locations to 1,400 women veterans during a 36-month period. The program consists of a three-day, off-site training program, online training and network support structures.

Expanding Opportunities for Veterans to Compete for and Win Federal Contracts

o The Small Business Jobs Act established “parity” or a level playing field between service-disabled veterans and other groups of small business owners in the contracting arena. Parity will increase government contracting opportunities for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), helping to achieve the government wide 3 percent SDVOSB goal.
o The Small Business Jobs Act established the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses, which will be launched in 2011.
o The SBA is expanding its outreach to service-disabled veterans with a new online contracting tutorial to help veterans and military spouses who own small businesses identify and take advantage of federal contracting opportunities.
o The Office of Veteran’s Business Development provided SDVOSB procurement training to more than 4,000 SBVOSB’s in 2010 to help achieve the 3% SDVOSB goal.

The Recovery Act provided $1.67 billion in contracting dollars to service-disabled veteran owned businesses, exceeding the 3% contracting goal for SDVOSB.

Continuing to Strengthen Support for Veteran Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

o SBA’s Veterans Outreach Initiative provided small business ownership guidance and assistance to over 140,000 veterans and reservists in 2010. This program was recently expanded to 30 SBA district offices.
o SBA’s resource partners, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), SCORE and the Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) support the veteran community through counseling and training efforts. Many specially designed programs have also been created such as virtual veterans’ centers. In 2010 these resource partners served 61,454 veterans, 9,214 service- disabled veterans, and 4,218 reservists and/or National Guard.
o SBA chairs the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development focused on improving and expanding opportunities for veteran business owners. These efforts include increasing access to capital, improving business development opportunities, and meeting Federal contracting goals for veteran-owned small businesses service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.