Sound Startup Advice Leads to Rapid Growth for Canine Rehab Center

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Georgia Bottoms is a licensed physical therapist. She treated people in acute care and skilled nursing facilities in Savannah before becoming the wound care coordinator at Memorial Health. However, her focus changed from people to their dogs after her pup, Ripken, needed extensive rehabilitation to recover from knee surgery. “The physical therapist in the clinic […]

Certification Leads to Larger Orders, Greater Growth for Macon Fabrication Shop

Stan Greene, owner of Greene Machine and Manufacturing, was ready to retire when he asked Larry Collins, who had worked with Greene since the late 1990s, if he would be interested in purchasing the business.  Before making a decision, Larry and his wife, Gwen, attended a class for start-ups offered by the University of Georgia […]

Business Owners Benefit from SBDC Assistance

The 2018 Economic Impact Study of the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (UGA SBDC) provides solid evidence that entrepreneurs utilizing UGA SBDC assistance experience greater sales and employment growth than the state averages. The study found that the employment base of UGA SBDC’s existing business clients grew by 14.1 percent, while overall employment […]

Knowledge, Networking and Persistence Bring Disaster Relief to Mid-Georgia Manufacturer

MF&H Textiles is Taylor County’s largest single-point private employer with nearly 50 employees. Its 19-acre campus between Columbus and Macon was dead in the path of Hurricane Irma on September 11, 2017. Irma’s gale force winds damaged the roof surface of MF&H’s main production facility. “Irma ripped off 20 percent of the synthetic roofing membrane […]

UGA Offers Georgia Farm Business Education Conference

The UGA Small Business Development Center, UGA Extension, and the UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences announces a partnership to bring the Georgia Farm Business Education Conference to Tifton, Georgia. This Conference is open to all of Georgia and surrounding states. The Georgia Farm Business Education Conference is designed for growers and producers who […]

Why StartSMART and GrowSMART? The Value of Business Training

Phases of Business Life Cycle

A guy I used to work with in public safety, Steve Mattoon, used to say, “In a critical situation, we do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”  That statement is as true in law enforcement and the military as it is in running a small […]

SBA Disaster Assistance: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Michael

On the evening of Tuesday, October 10th, Hurricane Michael entered the state of Georgia as a Category 3 hurricane.  According to the National Weather Service, “Hurricane Michael was the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall along the Florida panhandle as well as the first major hurricane (Category 3+) to directly impact Georgia since the […]

A UGA-Assisted Doggy Day Care and Dog Treat Bakery in Savannah is Thriving

When Tonya and Nick Rintye decided to open a day care and boarding facility for dogs, they went to the UGA Small Business Development Center (UGA SBDC) in Savannah for assistance. They learned right away that they needed more than an idea to start a business. “I didn’t have any money to put down on a […]