SBDC Day is a national, collective proclamation of the success and impact America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) have across the nation in economic development and the small business community. The first SBDC Day will take place on Wednesday, March 22, 2017. “Bismarck has a thriving small business community that contributes to our community, attracting and retaining talent that drives a diversified economic future for our local and state economy,” said Mayor Mike Seminary.
The United States Congress created the federal Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) program to provide training and technical assistance for entrepreneurs and small businesses across the United States via 63 federal SBDC networks that provide nearly 1,000 local or regional service centers.
SBDCs are the most comprehensive small business assistance network in the nation and provide free client business advising and low-cost training on important small business topics such as business planning and logistics, capital acquisition, marketing, regulatory compliance and technology.
Business has changed dramatically in the last 37 years, from the introduction of new technologies to the expansion of global trade. And America’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) network has been there throughout — helping small businesses succeed, and helping aspiring entrepreneurs achieve the American dream of owning their own business.
The North Dakota Small Business Development Centers (ND SBDC) is a partnership between the federal government (U.S. Small Business Administration), State of North Dakota (Commerce Department) and North Dakota University System (University of North Dakota) that provides training and technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses across North Dakota from 10 service centers located in Bismarck, Bowman, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Minot, Wahpeton and Williston, serving all 53 counties in and clients from all 53 counties of North Dakota.
SBDC clients open, manage and grow their businesses, provide job creation and employment, offer goods and services to clients, pay taxes and contribute to their communities.
SBDC clients start a new business every 30 minutes, create a new job every 5 minutes, generate $100,000 in new sales every 7.5 minutes, and raise $100,000 in capital every 11.4 minutes. Job growth for SBDC clients is nearly 10 times greater than job growth for average businesses, and SBDC client sales growth is nearly 4 times greater than sales growth for businesses in general.
North Dakota Small Business Development Centers helped their clients to produce the following impacts during the last calendar year: 1,013 unique individual clients, 5,410 hours of free consultation assistance, 94 helped create new businesses in our state, 472 jobs created or retained and $41,433,981 capital formation/infusion into our state. To learn more about North Dakota’s network of Small Business Development Centers visit www.ndsbdc.org.