Simply “not knowing what they don’t know” may be the most serious impediment to success for Radford small businesses.
“Most small businesses simply need to understand their problems. What people perceive to be the problem is often not the problem,” Keith Hartman, director of the Roanoke Regional Virginia Small Business Development Center, said speaking to about 15 Radford small-business owners gathered for the monthly Radford City Chamber of Commerce “Business over Breakfast” event.
Hartman was there to promote SBDC’s services available for free or low-cost to new and existing small businesses and to announce the Roanoke-based center’s intention to increase its focus on the NRV.
That focus has increased especially since the loss of a, by all accounts helpful, small-business support center housed locally at Radford University.
“We’ve always had a focus on the NRV, and from my perspective,” Harman said in a later interview, “the NRV is an area of opportunity that I see where we can have even more impact than we currently are having.”
With a goal of increasing the number of small-businesses taking advantage of the Center’s services, Hartman spoke to the group at the Radford Coffee Company (333 W. Main Street, Radford) emphasizing the importance of seeking guidance and training whether a business is new or already up-and-running.
Citing a classic “Plan, Do, Assess, Adjust, Repeat” management philosophy, Hartman reiterated the importance of the often-overlooked “Plan” step and the role of the Center in that planning. Sixty percent of the businesses the Center serves are existing businesses, offering start-up workshops, financial and legal guidance, and marketing training. One program focuses on veterans and their specific strengths and challenges.
For businesses that can’t afford to hire a paid consultant, the SBDC fills the critical planning role.
“We work as advisor and consultant, and either we counsel directly, or we’ll find a resource to help a small-business,” Harman said. “What we do is connect business to the market place, focusing on the plethora of issues small businesses [defined by the Center as 20 employees or fewer] face.”
There are 27 SBDCs in Virginia positioned so people need to travel no more than 100 miles to reach one.
“The state encourages us to have a long-term relationship with our clients,” he said.
“In 2018, investing 1039 counseling hours, the center helped create 88 jobs and another 103 retained and that’s just for our particular center, increasing sales by more than a million dollars,” Harman said. “We’re in it for the long-run.”
Because of the immense economic and civic ramifications of small business success, SBDC is sponsored by, not only US Small Business Administration, counties and economic development authorities, but also local banks, law firms, power companies and real estate businesses.
Those sponsors benefit when small businesses are successful, are sound credit risks and contributing to a region’s stable economic and cultural foundation.
Further, training by the SBDC relieves other institutions like banks of the burden of counseling and training small-businesses seeking loans.
“Business over Breakfast” regular, Gabriel Brame, of Brame Construction, LLC, launched his company with advice and guidance from the RU-based Center nine years ago.
“It was really confusing at the beginning that it didn’t cost anything,” he said.
Advice from the at-the-time Radford-based small business development center helped him decide to make his company an LLC.
He designed a realistic 10-year plan that culminated in his achieving a Class-A General Contractor’s license, an aim indicating his company is prepared to handle large jobs that he completed with time to spare.
Brame now employs eight workers demonstrating the economic impact of the center.
Because of the economic implications of bolstering small businesses, all states have small-business development centers.
The Roanoke based SBDC supports the counties and cities in the Roanoke Valley and the New River Valley. For every dollar spent, $2.39 is generated in federal and state tax revenue
“That’s reflected in all the jobs retained, jobs created, and the new startups,” Hartman said. “It’s a nationwide network they do this in all states.”
Also present at the breakfast meeting was a Radford University representative. Radford City Chamber of Commerce Director Lisa Davis suggested an opportunity to connect the university’s career center to the SBDC to encourage student-driven businesses and keep student entrepreneurs in Radford.
The SBDC is also in conversation with New River Community College.
“I would include RU in the group of potential partners. We are always looking for opportunities to develop relationships and strengthen our ties with the community,” Hartman said.
He sees no impasses, just a matter of focus and attention.
“One of the reasons I was there yesterday was to enhance our visibility in the NRV community and develop partnerships with RU and NRCC,” he said. “It’s a big task so I’m always looking for partners. We’re very relationship based. We can’t do it ourselves.”
But the center’s services a simple pragmatic exchange. It also has a program specifically serving veterans.
Monthly workshops at the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce (210 Jefferson St., Roanoke) are available. Some focus on the actual process of starting up, other financial workshops discus strategies to find capital, QuickBooks tutorials, and marketing advice.
Hartman’s goal is to enhance the level of awareness of the center in the New River Valley.
For more information about small business development, visit www.roanokesmallbusiness.org.
