SBDC
Sparks Economic Growth, Now More than Ever
By Carol Olechowski
When the economy is down, traffic picks up at
the University at Albany’s Small Business Development Center.
That’s only natural.The SBDC’s purpose, noted Director William Brigham, is “to save and create jobs” by serving as “a clearinghouse for all the resources available to entrepreneurs.” Each year, Brigham and his staff see about 1,000 men and women looking to start or expand businesses, but “we actually broke the 1,100 mark last quarter.”
UAlbany’s SBDC, founded in 1984, was one of the first of 22 centers statewide - most affiliated with State and City University of New York institutions - created to provide free, confidential counseling to prospective business owners in an 11-county region. It is funded primarily through the federal Small Business Administration but derives support from the state and the University, as well. Headquartered at One Pinnacle Place, just off Western Avenue, the center maintains two other local offices: in Troy’s Rice Building, which also houses a Center for Economic Growth outreach office, and at the University’s East Campus in East Greenbush.
Ten SBDC staff members assist existing and would-be business-owners “one to one,” assessing “what they want to do and getting into some of the rules and regulations that govern business. We start the business planning process and do market planning and financial projections. Right now, we’re seeing a lot of dislocated workers who are interested in starting their own businesses. The diversity [of the potential startups] is just incredible; it ranges from agriculture to technical to all types of services,” said Brigham.
The clients themselves are as diverse as their business interests, and the center offers a range of programs geared toward all of them: veterans, defense contractors, manufacturing plant operators, service providers, and dislocated workers. Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the New York State Department of Labor, a business adviser at SBDC works with people on unemployment. The Self-Employment Assistance Program “is very successful” at “scoring people’s qualifications and backgrounds” - and gauging their potential for entrepreneurial success.
One tool lending institutions, in particular, look at in making the same assessment is the business plan, “a feasibility study that tells the story of a business: what it is, where it’s going, and what makes it successful,” Brigham explained. “It entails a description of the business, as well as analyses of the competition, market trends, sales and marketing strategies. The business plan builds the case for the lender that the business is going to be profitable and successful.”
SBDC counselors also address the issues of intellectual property and patents, project month-by-month cash flow for the first year and beyond, and otherwise assist aspiring businessmen and -women by answering their questions and helping with paperwork. “Each of the people here derives satisfaction from being able to help create a business,” commented Brigham, who has been with the SBDC program for seven years and has directed UAlbany’s center since January 1999. Early in his own career, he worked with an immigrant who wanted to manufacture air-filtration systems. The man “spoke broken English and couldn’t write very well, but he and I sat together and wrote his business plan on my desktop,” Brigham recalled. “He eventually got $250,000 in funding to start his business. He’s still in business; he’s moved out of the area but is still in New York.” Such an experience, Brigham said, “gets you hooked on this job.”
The SBDC’s client base consists mainly of individuals exploring the possibility of going into business for themselves. “Many of the people we counsel decide not to go into business. Frequently, they have no background within the industry, or they aren’t able to come up with a 20 percent investment to cover startup costs. And many don’t really understand that a business will require 50- to 60-hour workweeks the first few years.”
But the center also serves existing companies “wanting analysis and feedback on what they’re doing and how they’re doing.” Although the business plan is “a fundamental tool,” Brigham pointed out, “many firms don’t have one until they need funding. Getting people to put a business plan on paper is the hardest thing. ”
Often, the SBDC calls upon the University’s School of Business and its MBA program to help firms evaluate where they are now and where they’re headed. “The students have done case studies in marketing and accounting for several of our clients. We’re looking at bringing to the school more living cases, where business owners come to class to make presentations or the students go onsite to the companies. The students have a lot of new, young perspectives on old business, so it makes a lot of sense,” stated Brigham, who is himself enrolled in UAlbany’s evening MBA program.
“Our integration with the School of Business has worked out well,” he added. “The students are a great resource for small business, and we certainly should utilize that resource.” In addition to benefiting the firms, the SBDC-school liaison “gives students the experience of some real-life business situations.”
Brigham has also publicized the SBDC on “Business Matters,” a new University-School of Business television program hosted by Dean Richard Highfield and aired Sundays at 11 a.m. on WRGB, Channel 6. Brigham and “one of our clients, who manufactures a combination sunscreen and insect repellent for use on the golf course, were the first guests. We’ve gotten so many calls asking for assistance as a result of that show. We’re very conscious of the need for outreach.”
In addition, Brigham is grateful to President Karen R. Hitchcock for her support. She and the University are “extremely dedicated to economic development and to the community,” he said, and the SBDC is “a small subset of what they’re doing for the Capital Region.”
SBDC success is measured in many ways. Overall, center staff have spent more than 90,000 hours in the past 16 years conferring with 10,482 clients. Of the clients seen each year, approximately 15 to 20 percent - or between 150 and 200 - launch or expand businesses. Since 1984, UAlbany’s SBDC has helped to create 3,082 jobs and saved 1,353 others.
A 1999 independent study by Dun & Bradstreet indicated that 94.9 percent of the firms guided by SBDC were still in business after five years. Since most small businesses fail within three years, that success rate is impressive -- and is due, in no small measure, to the business owners themselves, said Brigham. “Their diligence and patience and persistence have made them successful. We can help, but we can’t write the business plans ourselves because we don’t know the businesses as well as they do. This is a client-driven process, and our clients are incredible.”
For more information about UAlbany’s SBDC, call 453-9567, or e-mail albsbdc@nycap.rr.com.
While the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon unnerved and frightened most Americans, they also had another unsettling effect: They further eroded an already shaky economy. Now, UAlbany’s Small Business Develop-ment Center is helping the economy recover.
For the next few months, on a rotating basis, an SBDC counselor will spend a week in New York City, counseling people whose shops, restaurants, and other businesses suffered in the fallout from the attacks. The first center staffer to offer his services was Joseph Verbanic, who was in Manhattan the week of October 22. (He will provide an account of his visit in a future issue of UAlbany Update.)
“It’s great that our counselors are able to go down and help out,” said SBDC Director William Brigham. “I’ve spoken with Joseph, and he said it was an eye-opening experience to see the differences between a development center downstate and ours. Because there are 22 SBDCs around the state, each one takes on the characteristics of its area. Software development and biotech are big areas in the Capital Region, and our client base reflects that.”
According to Brigham, Verbanic “had some clients who are, understandably, very upset. They’re wondering just how they’re going to start all over again.”
In the wake of the attacks, New York was declared a disaster area as far north as Greene and Columbia counties. Later, owing to the magnitude of the economic impact - the stock market shut down for several days; airports were closed as planes were grounded - President Bush declared the entire country a national disaster area, Brigham said. As a result, the Small Business Administration has been flooded with inquiries.
“Companies all over the country have been hurt by the disaster in New York City,” he continued. “For them, this wasn’t a physical injury or a natural disaster, but an economic one. It’s absolutely overwhelming. No one could have anticipated the impact of these acts.”
Added Brigham: “We had a transportation company in here yesterday. What the firm needs to do is measure the extent of its drop in revenues compared to historicals. After it does that, we’ll be able to help.”
Nathan Gottschalk
University at Albany Professor Emeritus of Music Nathan Gottschalk
passed away September 3 in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 85.
A Massachusetts native who took up the violin as a child, Gottschalk studied at Juilliard until enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1942. During World War II, he and other soldiers in his unit toured the United States with Irving Berlin’s show “This Is the Army,” raising millions of dollars for war bonds and later starring, with Ronald Reagan, in the movie named for the tour. The orchestra also performed around the world for such audiences as American troops and the English royal family.
Following his discharge from the army, Gottschalk joined the Pittsburgh Symphony as assistant concert master. He left that post to attend Dartmouth College and Yale University, where he earned a B.A. and a master’s degree in music.
Gottschalk began his teaching career at Oberlin College. He subsequently received a doctor of musical arts degree from Boston University as the institution’s first Albert Spalding Memorial Fellow. Gottschalk later joined the faculty of the Hartt School of Music, serving as the school’s executive director and as a member of the committee that established the University of Hartford.
Gottschalk left Hartford to chair the University at Albany’s Department of Music and conduct the University-Community Orchestra. He remained at UAlbany until his retirement in 1994.
In addition to teaching, Gottschalk conducted the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra in Greenfield, Mass., for 36 years and spent 27 summers teaching and conducting at Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Mass. He also chaired Chautauqua, N.Y.’s Music School and conducted its Festival Orchestra. A member of several organizations, including the musicians’ union, he also chaired District 6 of the National Association of Schools of Music.
Gottschalk is survived by his wife of 55 years, Pauline (Polly) Winneg; a son, Michael Lee Gottschalk; a daughter, Susan Gottschalk Silver; two grandchildren; and a sister.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the music department’s Nathan Gottschalk Scholarship Fund through either the department or The University at Albany Foundation. Checks should be made payable to The Foundation and designated for the Gottschalk Scholarship.
