SBDC, UNC BizHub joining forces

GREELEY — Small-business champion Dick Pickett is a bit busier these days after taking on the duties of integrating a university’s business incubator into the East Colorado Small Business Development Center he runs from Greeley.

Pickett, executive director of the center, also is executive director of the new BizHub Collaborative, a program that combines efforts of the one-year-old UNC BizHub created by the University of Northern Colorado and the federally, state- and locally funded East Colorado SBDC.

The new academic and public-sector initiative will allow clients and members of both groups to tap into each other’s resources and do it virtually, a good thing since the service area covers approximately 23,000 square miles in rural Colorado.

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UNC’s Monfort School of Business has hosted the East Colorado SBDC for the past six years, and Pickett has been associated with the UNC BizHub incubator from the start.

“SBDC was always an integral part of the BizHub,” said Dan Weaver, vice president for external and university relations at UNC in Greeley. “Their services are complementary, not duplicative.”

The incubator was formed one year ago and headed by Ryan Speir, who recently stepped down for personal reasons. Its mission was to provide incubator space for startups that could tap into the university’s resources and research.

Several small companies joined the UNC BizHub, but it is unclear if they will transfer to the Collaborative. UNC officials declined to comment on whether the startups remain at the university or not.

“After a year of watching, it seemed a closer integration would benefit both parties, and this was a good time to make that happen,” Weaver said. It will be shifting from providing a physical space and mentorship for startups to providing all services – including mentors – virtually through the use of technology.

Kelly Manning, director of the Colorado SBDC Network in Denver, said when UNC approached her to combine efforts, it made sense financially – and, more importantly, it could provide better service to clients.

“Incubator clients will have access to SBDC resources and vice versa,” she said. “The BizHub is aligned with the SBDC’s mission and strategies. I anticipate there will be cost-savings for both organizations.”

Accessing higher education

Manning, Weaver and Pickett believe that having access to what higher education can offer to developing businesses and access to the technology that will allow services to be handled virtually are huge pluses.

“Getting community colleges and universities to collaborate with the business sector would be a new thing,” Weaver said. “It will be a beautiful thing to see.”

Pickett is working to line up financial and service support from other colleges in the region besides the University of Northern Colorado, such as Colorado State University, Aims Community College, Morgan Community College and Northeast Colorado Junior College, to provide more access to data bases, mentors and student interns.

Being able to provide virtual services will be a boon for Pickett, whose crew serves SBDC clients from 25 satellite offices, many open just one day a week and sprawled over 13 counties, the largest geographical territory of any of the state’s 14 SBDCs.

Besides Weld, the counties include Cheyenne, Elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Kit Carson, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma, plus the eastern portions of Adams and Arapahoe.

Covering that much land in less-populated rural Colorado requires a lot of “windshield time,” Pickett said. “Clients in the Eastern Plains always get shortchanged.”

Courting key industries

Pickett has targeted three industries in the East Colorado region with which he wants to develop relationships – oil and gas, agriculture and ag tourism, and health and wellness.

“These three are huge in my area,” Pickett pointed out. He said an example of collaboration would be tapping into UNC’s school of nursing in health care, and developing partnerships with established businesses in those three industries to create programs that would aid startups and growing businesses that would in turn bolster those industries in the area.

Pickett also wants to develop long-term relationships with clients and keep them involved after they graduate after three to five years in the program.

Manning said the program’s sustainability is critical.

“It’s always exciting in the beginning, but it fades away after several years for startups,” Manning said. “We need to create an infrastructure to stay viable, and this could be a good start to that.”

Pickett is working with a $450,000 annual budget that could grow if he can attract new sponsors, he said.

UNC will provide about $19,000 of financial support in the first year, and from $19,000 to $35,000 for the next two years, Weaver said.

The collaborative recently received a $150,000 grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

The first year of the grant will provide $75,000 in funding for the collaborative to begin operating, with the first clients expected in early 2015. It will receive $50,000 in its second year, and $25,000 in its third.

Doug Storum can be reached at 303-630-1959, 970-416-7369 or dstorum@bizwestmedia.com