BRX Pro Tip: Leveraging Your Local SBDC
Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, you know, we often will say we’ll take all the help we can get, but we have really been more diligent, I think, in trying to live in to that philosophy. And one of the things that we’ve really come to appreciate is this opportunity to leverage your local small business development center, your local SBDC. Talk about that a little bit.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] Sure. During a recent GSU Entrepreneurship show that we do out of Georgia State University, we got a chance to meet somebody at the SBDC out of GSU. And they’re usually affiliated with universities. That’s usually where they work out of. And so, we got to meet a guy named Paul Wilson. He’s the area director. And he was kind of enamored about what we do. And we got a chance—you got a chance to kind of see it, live it. And then, he invited us and said, “Hey, there’s ways that we might be able to work together, one of which is no charge. SBDC works, and it’s all part of the Small Business Association, so there’s no charge to business owners. So, that’s really a no harm, no foul.” So, Stone and I, you know, we like to take these meetings. We’re always happy to articulate the message, talk about the mission, and any opportunity to do that, kind of, we’ll take.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:21] So, he came in, and he kind of asked us a bunch of hard questions, and said, “What are you trying to do?” And we really enjoyed it. And we became kind of a client. We created a formal relationship, and we’re going through the process, and he’s holding us accountable, asking us hard questions, and we feel like we’re really benefiting.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:41] And the beauty of this is that every one of you, studio partners, can use the SBDC in the same manner. It’s no charge. You’re already paying for it with your tax dollars. They’re usually affiliated with a university near you. And, you know, have a conversation with them. Talk to them about your business, what your challenges are, and they have a ton of research resources available. Whether it’s research, whether it might be partners, whether it might be funding, there’s lots of ways to leverage SBDC to grow your business, and it’s a free resource, and I highly recommend having a conversation at the minimum with your SBDC rep near you.
Stone Payton: [00:02:18] I think it’s been incredibly rewarding already. For me, personally, out of our very last meeting, which was just a few days ago before we’re making this Business RadioX Pro Tip recording, for me, it’s got me personally refocused on what I’ll characterize as metrics that matter. But, you know. And then, the next time we get together may have me, you know, kind of recommitted to something completely different, but I’m enjoying every minute of it. And I just—I can’t recommend it highly enough.
