Small businesses in the area can seek assistance in the form of counseling and help grow their business through the Small Business Development Center, located on the first floor of Winthrop University’s Thurmond Building.
The Small Business Development Center’s mission is to “advance South Carolina’s Economic Development by helping entrepreneurs grow successful businesses,” according to an Aug. 19 presentation by the SBDC.
The SBDC offers various services for both existing and new businesses at little-to-no cost. These services include assisting in developing business plans, counseling, workshops and financial planning.
“Whether just starting out or looking for advice on expansion possibilities, we invite you to participate in the business workshops we offer to benefit start-ups, business owners, CEOs and the companies they run,” reads a message on the SBDC website.
“We do a lot of training and workshops, we work with both startup businesses and existing businesses. It’s primarily free and in exchange, what we ask our clients is that we are allowed to report back to the state the economic development of what we do for them,” Todd Phillips, the manager for the Rock Hill Area Center and business consultant, said.
Phillips said this includes “jobs created, business started, retained jobs…sales growth, we report loans. Any loan help that we give to people. For instance, year to date I think we’ve helped people achieve over $7 million in loans across the state just for the Winthrop region.”
Although it is located and operated in partnership with Winthrop University, the SBDC is actually a government agency and is part of the Small Business Administration. There are centers throughout both the state and the nation. Each SBDC serves a multi-county region. The Rock Hill Area Center, which covers Union County, Cherokee County, Chester County, Lancaster County and York County, has been operating for more than 25 years.
The SBDC also partners with professors in the College of Business for workshops and presentations.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Phillips said that the small business development center is much more involved in disaster relief and helping small businesses navigate operating through a global health crisis.
Phillips said a lot of the businesses that utilize the development center are food service related.
“Probably the biggest percentage of what we see are either service related or food service, like restaurants. That’s probably the biggest areas that we deal with,” Phillips said. “I think it’s well over 60 percent of what we work with.”
The SBDC is not designed to be a single-use contact for small businesses. Phillips said that the center should be seen as a resource to come back to throughout the growth of one’s business.
“We meet with people ongoing for as much as they want, five years or more. We desire to be with people through the life cycle of their business It’s not show up one time, we give you some advice and off you go. Our goal is to build long term working relationships with small businesses,” Phillips said.
For more information about the Small Business Development Center, or to set up a consultation, visit their website at https://www.winthropregionalsbdc.org or contact via telephone at 803 323-2283.
Photo courtesy of the SBDC.
