City renews contract to provide support, services

Lafayette small, local businesses may receive free consultation and advice for how to improve their business. Director of Economic Development Brigid Keating provided City Council with an update Tuesday night on the Boulder Small Business Development Center programs. Keating said that the SBDC program has dedicated programs and support for small businesses through technical, consulting, outreach, marketing and resilience.

Keating said that the main components for 2023 services will be a minimum of 300 consulting hours per year, with an emphasis on small business and entrepreneurs. There will also be specialized workshops and training programs.

The program will be free for businesses, and Lafayette will pay $70,800 to the SBDC to perform the services. The funds will come out of Lafayette’s economic development account for 2023.

Keating said that Lafayette and Louisville in 2022 partnered with the development center to create satellite support services to local businesses. She said that after a successful year both cities will renew contracts with the SBDC.

Dan King, the main consultant for the Lafayette and Louisville SBDC program, said that the program is a nonprofit based in Boulder.

“Our mission is to help small businesses. To help them start, grow, thrive and survive,” King said.

King said that the SBDC has specialists in almost every business area, such as human resources, accounting, sales and marketing and finance. King said that the business the program works with must submit a form that details how help from the SBDC impacted the business. He said the SBDC does not extrapolate any data that details how their programs may have helped businesses.

Irhad Kozic, marketing and events manager for the SBDC, said that in 2022 there were four events to help businesses. Three were marketing seminars and a fourth was a business basics seminar.

Kozic said that there were more than 90 attendees for the events. He said that SBDC plans to have six programs this year, with marketing and business basics sessions. There will also be a sales essentials workshop and a financial “know-how” workshop to help businesses understand their customers and cashflow.