SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER (TUCSON)

by Chuck Umeda 9909

Joe Donato, Director of SBDC (Small Business Development Center/Pima Community College, told what SBDC is about.  It is located at 4905A E. Broadway #101, Tucson; phone: 520-206-4906.  He discussed SBDC’s Practical Help for Your Business, SBA’s (Small Business Administration) Borrower’s Guide, Small Business Development Council’s booklet on Start, grow, expand your business and a page listing useful websites.

Joe’s message was that SBDC offers a wide range of services for people desiring to start a small business or enhance an existing one.  Inventors fit into this category nicely and can receive free counseling, workshops, research materials through the Tucson Main Library Business Center where Tom Farmer is the Resource Librarian.  (See “Tucson Public Library – Information Goldmine).  For an “affordable fee,” there is training on starting a business or developing a business plan.

Events such as the SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) Workshop, “$1 Billion for Small Business” are conducted periodically.  These may feature a founder of a company, which started business through a SBA program.  SBIR/STTR is looking for worthwhile ideas, which are solutions.  There is funding available for inventors who have such ideas.  Funding is in three phases from researching an idea, to developing into a product to getting into production.  SBDC can provide guidance to improve the inventor’s position to obtain a grant or loan through their pre-qualification loan program.

SBDC has contacts to the financial world as well: venture capitalists and a group of investors, which is forming in Tucson.