Owners can find plenty of answers at #SBDCDay
Q: I’ve been trying to get a loan for my small business, and my banker suggested that I go to the UH Small Business Development Center for help. How can they help if my banker can’t?
A: The UH Small Business Development Center, or SBDC, can help you prepare to go back to your banker with all your ducks in a row. That will increase your likelihood of getting a loan — if you’re eligible.
Business advisers at the SBDC, many of whom are ex-bankers or have owned their own small business, can work with you to determine the feasibility of your project, develop financial projections, and put together a business plan and any other documentation your banker needs. If your banker still doesn’t approve the loan, your adviser may be able to help you identify another lender who is willing to do the deal. All of this is at no cost to you, and it is kept confidential.
But it’s not just a matter of helping you put together the right documentation. Your adviser might look at your financials and recommend that you do a better job of managing your cash flow before you take out a loan. Or perhaps your adviser will suggest that you need to pump up your marketing efforts to attract more customers to bring in more money.
The point is, your SBDC adviser can help you get to the heart of the issue.
If you’d prefer to get some general information about financing before you meet one-on-one with an adviser, the SBDC also offers business workshops that will get you started on the right track.
There’s a free workshop on March 14 called “Strategies for Financing Your Business” that would be perfect for you if the reason you didn’t get your loan was a low credit score. On March 23, the low-cost “Making Sense of the Numbers” will help you learn how to use your financial statements to track your business’s performance.
But the SBDC doesn’t help only with financial issues. SBDC workshops offer practical information on all sorts of current topics, all for a nominal fee. Business advisers help with startup, management & growth issues, marketing & sales, government procurement, hiring new employees, exporting, and more, all at no cost.
If you want to learn more about the UH SBDC and meet some of the staff, be sure to attend the second annual #SBDCDay on Wednesday, March 21. #SBDCDay is part of a national celebration of the work SBDCs do around the country and the successes of the small businesses they help.
The #SBDCDay event in Houston, at 2302 Fannin in Midtown, will feature a speaker on lead generation using social media.
The $29 fee also includes a box lunch and best of all, free headshots by a professional photographer. Register for #SBDCDay or any other workshop at sbdc.uh.edu.
Jacqueline Taylor is deputy director of the Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center Network, a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the University of Houston C.T. Bauer College of Business. jtaylor@uh.edu