'Small Business Week' Highlights the
Economic Impact of Entrepreneurial Spirit

Columbia, Mo., April 1, 2005 — America's small businesses are big. They're big in number and significance.

The collective entrepreneurial strength of the 25 million small business owners across the country leads to vast national economic impact. That's what Small Business Week - sponsored nationally by the U.S. Small Business Administration April 25-29 - is all about.

Small businesses employ more than half of the country's private workforce, create three of four new jobs and generate a majority of American innovation, according to the SBA.

"This week-long event highlights the continual process in which small business owners and operators provide the ingenuity, perseverance and boundless energy that help keep our national and local economies moving," says Max Summers, state director of the Missouri Small Business Development Centers (MO SBDCs), part of the University of Missouri's Extension program.

The MO SBDC, headquartered in Columbia, is a network of offices around the state containing business counseling experts who provide advice on a range of business topics to established business owners and to promising entrepreneurs who dream of starting a firm.

"Our counselors are located throughout the state and offer guidance and individual consultation in such areas as marketing strategies, financial analysis, technology access, as well as many other business-related subjects," says Summers. "Regardless of the problem, MO SBDC counselors can help enterprising individuals find the answers to virtually any business challenge."

Here's a sampling of MO SBDC services:

• Financial Analysis: Assisting entrepreneurs in taking financial inventory, determining a company's growth potential and capital needs, and exploring funding options by assisting with financial plan development.
  
  
• Technology Access: Assessing the commercial viability of intellectual property and helping with manufacturing technology and processes, patents and trademarks, and investment presentations.
  
  
• Training and Education: Offering educational programs on a variety of business topics: management, marketing, financial analysis, strategic planning and human resources.
  
  
• Marketing Strategies: Helping develop marketing plans covering such factors as customer lists, site analysis, sales territory management, and demographic and competitor information for specific markets.
  
  
• Performance Excellence: Assisting businesses in the self-assessment process, highlighting opportunities for strategic improvement or offering suggestions for more efficient or cost-effective day-to-day operations.
  
  
• Government Contracting: Counseling through the Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (MO PTAC) provides advice to businesses seeking government contracts at the federal, state and local levels. Services include: bid matching, help with bid preparation, providing government specifications and standards, and assistance with electronic commerce.
  
  
• Technology Commercialization: Advising from the Missouri Federal and State Technology (MoFAST) partnership program helps businesses attempting to commercialize innovation and technology, linking them to the national Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, and providing other commercialization advice and assistance.

"SBDC counselors work in the large cities and in all regions of Missouri, serving urban and rural clients." Summers says. "These business experts offer timely advice based on some of the latest research and on solid business experience."

All SBDC counselors are tied to an academic host institution, such as Central Missouri State University, Missouri Southern State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Southwest Missouri State University, Truman State University, and the four campuses of the University of Missouri at Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis.

The MO SBDC network exists to help Missourians succeed in private enterprise. To learn more about this statewide business development network or to locate a business counselor near you, get on the Internet and go to www.missouribusiness.net