Entrepreneurs Become Success Stories With Help from Small Business Development Center and Minority Business Center

By Joseph Peters

Business is booming at the Small Business Development Center and Minority Business Center (SBDC). In the past year, the center has provided more than 400 local businesses with counseling and training, and has packaged $1.25 million in loans, providing crucial assistance to businesses pursuing loans from banks and other lenders. Often this assistance is free or at a very nominal charge.

“Really, our core is management counseling,” explains Margaret Somer, the center’s director. “We analyze a business, where is it going to go, and how is it going to get there.”

Housed within the College of Management, Somer and the other staff members of the four-person center can turn to the college’s expertise when assisting businesses. At the same time, professors and their classes can draw upon the SBDC’s cases to provide real insight into what it takes to run a business and the dynamics of a local economy.

There are five other centers like the SBDC in the state. As a collaboration between the federal Small Business Administration and Massachusetts, this network of centers provides consultation and training for small businesses. Here, the SBDC maintains a specialty in minority businesses, reflecting the center’s origins as the Minority Business Assistance Center at the university.

As the saying goes, though, the reward for hard work is more hard work. The coming year could be a hallmark for the center. This fall the SBDC will kick off the Harbor Enterprise Center, creating a new framework for assisting business in the Greater Boston area. Fleet Bank has placed its support behind this initiative, providing $100,000 over the next two years. Also this coming year, the SBDC plans to partner with Senator John Kerry’s office in an initiative designed to strengthen and support day care centers in the state.

“There are about 14,000 women in the state who run family day care centers out of their homes,” explains Somer. “Our role will be to provide them with counseling and training to better manage or market their centers.”

While these initiatives will play a major role in the center’s immediate future, its core remains business counseling and training. The economic downturn underscores the need for good business advice, something reflected in the center’s day-to-day services.

From helping businesses find new markets as exporters to helping laid-off workers start their own consulting businesses to teaching successful entrepreneurs how to manage their growth, the SBDC plays a key role in stabilizing the local economy.

Somer, who holds a master’s degree from Tufts University in urban and environmental policy, has a long history with small businesses, including having managed a fund to help minority businesses, running her own pottery business and serving on the SBDC’s advisory board.

Somer says people like her and the others who work or consult for the SBDC do it because they enjoy the spirit of entrepreneurship. While big business dominates the headlines, many small businesses and the people behind them may play a role greater than what can be portrayed on a balance sheet. Local stores and services help establish solid neighborhoods and provide jobs and stability. But business owners also are success stories and community leaders. “These entrepreneurs become role models,” says Somer.

Image: SBDC Staff: Karen Sutherland, management counselor; Sheila Jones, administrative assistant; Margaret Somer, director; and Joseph Rivers, management counselor. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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