Want to start a new business or expand an existing one?

Some of the best help when it comes to doing that is available at Beaufort County Community College’s Small Business Center, operated by the college’s Business and Industry Services division. How good is the Small Business Center? It’s director, Lentz Stowe, is the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce’s Community Leader of the Year for 2013. His efforts with the Small Business Center and those it serves earned him the award.

“I’m very busy, and that’s a good thing,” Stowe said Monday. “I truly believe it’s great resource that’s relevant for the times.”

Stowe believes the Small Business Center is effective because it’s part of an ever-growing network that provides resources to people who want to expand existing businesses and people who want to start new businesses.

‘The Small Business Center is a place to plug in across the state,” Stowe said.

The Small Business Center provides one-on-one counseling, custom-designed programs that help with acquiring funding for a new business or expanding an existing one, assistance to owners of existing businesses seeking direction and information to help them with those businesses and seminars and workshops related to small businesses.

Those seminars and workshops include how to start a business, how to write a business plan, how to finance a business, marketing, how to export goods, how to deal with business-related taxes and recordkeeping. The center’s resources include pamphlets, books and videos available for loan.

Specialized training is offered to meet the specific needs of individual businesses, industries and other organizations. These customized training classes have differing enrollment and tuition requirements. The training can be conducted at the college or at the business, industry or organization requesting the training.

 

 

“I would say since the mid-1980s, the Small Business Center has been in existence. It can touch every citizens across the state of North Carolina through a network through the community college system,” Stowe said. “On the local level, it was started and well-conceived and a great foundation was built by my predecessor, Bill Morgan. Since I’ve been here’, I’ve just tried to build a good network, both on a local level and a statewide level, to try to bring resources to our service area.”

Stowe said taxpayers are getting a great return on the tax dollars invested in the Small Business Center.

“We have 70 to 80 clients and year, and between 400 and 600 people attend our workshops every year. Those are two of the core competencies of what we do. The third leg to the stool there is more of being a resource venue for people in terms of a place to plug in and take away as well,” Stowe said. “All the resources are free. In terms of being successful, the economy has something to do with that as well in the sense that a lot of people see entrepreneurism as a way to create an income stream or create their own jobs. So, people are looking for resources to help them with that. The Small Business Center is a great place to plug in for anyone.”