Local Artisan Store Sees Success With Help of UGA SBDC
September 18, 2023
Friends of the SBDC expand our capacity to reach and unlock the potential of Georgia’s small businesses with their financial support.
Our public service mission guides us to come alongside Georgia’s business owners by offering our services either at no-cost to the business owner or a significantly reduced rate. Accordingly, each year hundreds of business leaders find personalized tools and strategies for their business through our consulting and training programs.
These services are made available through the generous funding of our partners including state universities, the SBA, corporate sponsorships and donations from you, our Friends. When you give, and thereby become a “friend of the SBDC” you extend and strengthen our arm to reach more of Georgia’s small businesses.
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With 18 offices across the state, whether business owners are looking to develop a plan or take what they have to the next level, we are here to help move them forward. As you recall, just in the last five years, we have helped to bring in $10.3 billion dollars in sales, assisted in starting 1,626 new businesses, created 12,472 new jobs and raised $673 million dollars in capital for SBDC clients. We charge nothing for our one-on-one consulting and low to no-cost for our training.
After 26 years with the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center, Eric Bonaparte retired – but his contributions to the UGA SBDC would continue. Together with his sister Carol Bonaparte, Eric gifted funds to UGA to create the Eric Stanley Bonaparte Award Endowment Fund. The fund was established to provide ongoing financial support for annual Consultant of the Year and Support Staff of the Year awards.
After serving as area director at the UGA SBDC in Rome, Richard Montanaro, Jr. made a charitable gift to help assess the needs of small business owners across the state of Georgia. This gift, combined with a matching gift from the UGA Foundation Trustees, established The Next Best Thing Fund. These resources will allow SBDC staff to partner with local community stakeholders, particularly in rural areas, to conduct region-specific needs assessments targeted at business owners. These assessments will determine which classes and trainings will be most effective in promoting small business growth.
Your generous, tax-deductible gift to The SBDC Fund benefits the overall SBDC program which includes helping qualified entrepreneurs attend SBDC Continuing Education programs such as GrowSMART, StartSMART and other classes which are all intensive, multi-module, facilitated peer-learning courses for business owners seeking to substantially accelerate development and growth. The SBDC Fund helps fulfill the SBDC mission to improve the economic well-being of the state through educational services to small businesses that result in enhanced job growth and wealth creation.
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All programs of the UGA SBDC are open to the public on a non-discriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance.
Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The University of Georgia
Small Business Development Center
382 East Broad Street
Athens, GA 30602-5412
P: (706) 542-2762