Boulder SBDC now thriving under Maher’s leadership

BOULDER — The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Boulder has become one of the state’s better centers since Sean Maher took over in May 2002.

Boulder’s SBDC director has increased workshop offerings by three-fold, clients by five-fold and revenues by six-fold.

In turn, Boulder’s SBDC now is called one of best among the 17 SBDC centers in the state by Chris Greene, associate state director of the Colorado Small Business Development Center based in Denver. “They’ve done a great job over there,” Greene said.

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“Our job is to teach people about business and how to make money, but this business wasn’t making any money,” Maher said. To turn things around at the SBDC, Maher simply applied what he teaches — better marketing and better financing.

“Most of our revenues are based on how much training we do, so we added quite a few more classes. Overall, we had a more effective marketing campaign to attract people to the center,” Maher said. “The SBDC has been here since 1995, but I ran into so many people who didn’t know what we offered.”

Each workshop, covering subjects such as writing a business plan or buying commercial real estate, costs $40.

There is also a more intensive 12-week entrepreneur class offered during the spring and fall for $395.

Through networking with the University of Colorado, Downtown Boulder Inc. and other area corporate institutions, plus more advertising in local publications, Maher was able to make

Boulder’s business community more aware of the SBDC and its capabilities.

Once that was accomplished, Maher increased SBDC workshops from 24 in 2002 to 73 in 2003.

That has helped attract 1,525 people to use the Boulder SBDC this year, compared with only 271 clients a year ago. The SDBC also has increased its consulting clients from 130 in 2002 to 328 this year.

The surge in participants has led to higher operating revenues for the SBDC, from $10,000 in 2002 to $66,000 in 2003. Government funding to SBDC, from the federal Small Business Administration and the state, has also increased from $32,000 last year to a projected $48,500 for next year. The funding is based on how many people use the center.

“We’ve gone from losing money to making money,” Maher said. The center turned a profit of $14,000 by the end of last year, and Maher said this year also would be profitable. All profits made by the SBDC are reinvested into the center.

While Maher credits better marketing as the key to the Boulder SBDC turnaround, he also said the sluggish economy of the past two years has naturally created more interest among laid-off workers to start their own small business.

“A lot of our traffic has been from people laid off in the high-tech sector,” Maher said. “Many of them will look for a job for about six to eight months and then come here with an idea to start a small business.”

While starting a small business may not be the answer for the majority of them, Maher said the SBDC helps people better understand the business climate and where they see themselves fitting in.

“One of the things we do is actually talk people out of starting their own business,” Maher said.

“It’s a big financial risk.” He estimated that only 20 percent of the people, who come in wanting to start a small business, actually get their businesses up and running.

For clients with a solid business idea or an existing small business, Maher said the most common training requests at the SBDC are within the disciplines of marketing and finance.

“There are a lot of people with a great technology idea, for example, but they don’t have the business side of the equation,” Maher said. To help bridge the gap in knowledge from a good idea to a real business, Maher said the center uses a lot of local business leaders to share their experiences during the training sessions.

One of the many local small businesses that has benefited from the Boulder SBDC is Twisted Pine Brewing Co. Owner Bob Baile recently moved and expanded his brewing company from 2,500 square feet on Valmont Road to 6,000 square feet at 3201 Walnut St.

“The biggest thing they helped me with was making my business plan presentable to the banks for financing,” Baile said. “It’s hard for people to realize how many hats you need to wear to become a small business owner.”

After nine years of running his own business, Baile said his advice is to be prepared to work hard.

“Some people think if they start a business, all they have to do is sign paychecks. I’ve been working for nine years now, and I still work 60- to 70-hour weeks,” Baile said.

Back at the SBDC, Maher said he is working with other local business experts to create a Boulder virtual business incubator. The idea, already successful in Fort Collins, would bring together business minds, resources and information to help viable small businesses to start and stay in Boulder.

“One of the drawbacks of the SBDC is that it must give equal attention to everybody, regardless of their growth potential,” Maher said. The small business incubator would be a more intensive amount of help for people further along in the small-business setup process, he said.

Maher said there are no concrete details, but the virtual small business incubator would be discussed throughout the next year.