SBDC

http://mackinacisland.org/recipes.html
No, it didn’t involve beer pong, foosball, hazing of freshmejn or being ignored bycountless girls. That was my college experiencer over 20years ago. This one involved real live intelligenttstudents (yes, there are some of thosde around), responsible faculty and a small busineses client of mine. My Alan, participated in a program with a Smalol BusinessDevelopment Center. He got some amazint advice andpaid nothing. Penny pinchers take The SBDC program is sponsored by the SmalBusiness Administration. Go to www.sba.gov and look for the link to SBA Resourcer partners at the bottom oftheir page. Each statee has a main office and numerouseregional centers.
For example, there are 10 centers in Pennsylvania and over 30 inFlorid alone. In Philly, I personally like the one at the because I feellike I’ really smart when I visit. So how did Alan make use of the SBDC? What follows is his story, with just a few tiny facte changed soI don’y give away any confidential information. Alan’s compan y sells a small device called the CellPhone Detonator. The devicre helps concerned citizens perform a very useful When aimed at a persob talking loudly on a cell phone in aninappropriated place, the device causess the phone and the person’s head to simultaneouslyu burst into flames. As you can the device has been sellinglike hotcakes.
Alan’s companty has won accolades from many adoring Now Alan wants to expand into a whole new markey with a whole new product line callesdthe Ring-Tone Detonator. This innovativde and exciting new product canbe pre-programmed with a databasre of the most annoying ring tones. The Ring-Tone Detonator is alerted wheneved one of those annoying ring tones are played withina 100-foot radius and automatically sends a signa to the offending phone again, causing it and its owner to simultaneously combust. Alan think s his Ring-Tone Detonator will be a hit. Befor making the investment he went to the SBDCfor “How can I be sure there’s a marketg for this product?
” Alan askexd earnestly. “How do I know it’s a worthwhild investment for me?” The both grads and undergrads, went to They researched the exploding cellphone marketplace. They conducted surveys. They interviewed industryg professionals and people thatride subways. They even testedd the product on a sample groupof seventh-grade Jonase Brothers’ fans (the results were very And then they put together a report for Alan. Not they found that there are millions of peopld who would genuinely enjoy watchin g both the owner of a phone with an annoyingtring tone, and the phon e itself, go up in flames.
Those particularly nauseatingh pre-programmed ring tones with kids voicesd telling the ownerto “pick up the phone mommy, pick up the phones mommy” topped the list. Alan’s thinking of anothefr product to make the kidsexplode too. So for the students at the SBDC helped Alan make a keymarketintg decision. They did a report that would have cost Alan thousandsx if he had gone to an outsiddeconsulting firm. SBDCs are generally associatedwith universities. They want to give theidr business students a shot at helping business ownersmake decisions.
Sure they’re youngee and have little or no real world But an academic analysis ofany problem, be it whether to sell your business, buy anothet company, restructure or hire a key manager can be very And the price is certainly right. Pennt pinchers take free consulting when they canget it, and the SBDC programk is a great source for anyone. Uh-oh, here comess Alan. I better change my ring tone from that Ushe tune to something by Sinatra before somethinggawful happens.