Press Release

Study Finds Small Business Development Centers Help Thousands of Pennsylvania Entrepreneurs Realize Dreams Each Year
2,994 New Businesses Opened in Single Year with Help from the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers

PHILADELPHIA, PA, June 11, 2007 – When opportunity knocks, sometimes it takes a lot of preparatory work to open the door and welcome it.

Each year the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) help thousands of prospective business owners prepare to meet opportunities small business presents. The SBDCs help entrepreneurs choose a business structure, develop a business plan, obtain financing, acquire licensing, research markets and understand regulations, among many other activities.

“In terms of starting my business, I knew what I had done, but I didn’t know what I hadn’t done,” said Wendi Wetzel, owner of the living assistance franchise Comfort Keepers® in Bethlehem, Pa. In Wetzel’s case, the Lehigh University SBDC helped her identify and complete the missing steps she needed to get started.

Help from the statewide network of 18 university- and college-based Small Business Development Centers resulted in 2,994 new businesses in a single year, according to recent independent research. In real time, that figure translates as a new business opening every 2 hours and 55 minutes.

Another study, also conducted by Dr. James J. Chrisman of Mississippi State University, found that companies started with assistance from a Small Business Development Center survive and grow more than those companies started without SBDC assistance. Eight out of ten SBDC-assisted new businesses were still operating eight years later, a survival rate nearly 40 percent greater than that of the average new small company.

“It’s the work we do up front with new owners that can make all the difference to their success,” Gregory L. Higgins, Jr., state director of the Pennsylvania SBDC, notes. “We not only help them open their doors, we make sure they’ve planned their business properly and are prepared to meet some of the toughest challenges a small business owner can face.”

Since its inception in 1980, the Pennsylvania SBDC program has been instrumental in helping more than 22,000 new businesses across the commonwealth open.

The “First Step” workshop, offered on a regular basis by all 18 centers, is specifically designed to help potential entrepreneurs consider the risks and details of going into business. After completing the First Step, an entrepreneur may proceed with no-fee, confidential, one-on-one consultations tailored exclusively to meet the entrepreneur’s unique needs. To learn more about this and other programs for new businesses, visit www.pasbdc.org/education.