Amber Connor was baking keto-friendly sweets out of her house, and she was ready to expand her business, Sinless Sweets. She connected with Rick McMurtrey, area director at the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (UGA SBDC) in Augusta, to learn the best way to scale her business. McMurtrey helped her review potential retail locations, evaluate build-out costs, prepare financial projections and organize the financials and management of the business. Since working with the UGA SBDC, Sinless Sweets has moved to a brick-and-mortar location, experienced a 300% increase in sales and added six employees.

When projects slowed at Pro-Seal & Paving during the pandemic, majority owner Tammy Roberson and her husband, Joel, turned to the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center (UGA SBDC) in Rome for assistance. UGA SBDC business consultant Patricia Devlin guided the Robersons as they submitted an application to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to keep the business running.