Promoting Growth

The UI Small Business Development Center (SBDC) serves the Iowa counties of Cedar, Johnson, Iowa, Poweshiek and Washington and assists businesses with 500 or fewer employees.

The Small Business Development Center program was created by Congress in 1980 through a joint effort by Iowa Congressman Neal Smith and Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. The SBDC program in Iowa commenced in 1981 with Iowa State University as its host sponsor. Since then, the Iowa SBDC has grown from four to fifteen regional centers. These centers are hosted by the three Regent universities and ten community colleges, all of them coordinated through the SBDC state center on the Iowa State campus.
 
Small business is one of the leading drivers of the national economy. Firms of 500 or fewer employees represent 99.7% of employer firms, employ half of all private sector employees, pay more than 45% of total U.S. private payroll, and have generated 60% to 80% of net new jobs annually in the past decade.
 
Additionally, small firms create more than half of non-farm private gross domestic product, supply 22.8% of the total value of federal prime contracts, hire 40% of high-tech workers, and make up 97% of all identified exporters, producing 28.6% of the known export value. Small innovative firms produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.
 
The Iowa SBDC is a proud contributor to the vitality of Iowa’s economy and business climate. The fifteen regional Small Business Development Centers in Iowa are dedicated to providing hands-on assistance to all kinds of businesses, from start-ups to 500 employee firms, to the marketing of new and promising technologies. Our work is done quietly and in confidence, but the SBDC’s impact is huge.
 
Since its inception in 1981, the Iowa SBDC has spent 350,000 hours counseling over 60,000 clients. In 2007 alone, we spent 11,474 hours counseling 2,152 clients. These clients added or retained 824 jobs and raised over $29 million in capital for their Iowa businesses.
 
In the last three years, Iowa SBDC clients have: 

·  Contributed $11 million in new state taxes through increased sales and employment.

·  Contributed $4.53 in new federal and state taxes for every tax dollar invested in the Iowa SBDC program.

·  Increased firm gross revenues by $240 million.

·  Added and retained 3,795 jobs.

·  Raised $77 million in new capital.

·  Grown 3.5 times faster than the average Iowa business. 

No organization in Iowa does a better job of providing hands-on support to small businesses than the Iowa SBDC.

Contact the UI Small Business Development Center if you need:

One-on-one counseling by qualified professionals for business plan development and financial alternatives, such as Small Business Administration loan assistance.

Access to a variety of learning opportunities, including workshops, classes, on-line assistance and publications and other resources.

Connections to other service providers, federal, state and local resources, sources of capital and similar assistance for small businesses.