Small business development subject at Rotary

By Shantelle Breaux

CROWLEY – Mark Galyean was the guest speaker at Tuesday’s meeting of the Crowley Rotary Club.

Galyean was at the meeting to speak about the Louisiana Small Business Development Center, of which he is the regional director of at UL.

According to Galyean, the center at UL, which is under the College of Business, is one of nine centers throughout the state, and is nationally accredited. The SBDC centers serve as business consultants, and offer their services at no cost. Because of their federal, state, and university partnerships, they are able to offer a lot of resources to small businesses.

Started in 1983, the SBDC was originally started to help existing businesses, and now help quite a few start-up businesses. Services provided by the SBDC include business planning, strategic planning, management and technical assistance.

“We are an information resource,” said Galyean.

Because a small business is classified as any business with less than 500 employees, there are not many businesses that are not eligible for SBDC help. SBDC primary partnerships are with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Louisiana Economic Development, and host institutions such as UL and USL.

The SBDC center at UL generated about 150 jobs last year.

“In our center, we see our mission as preventing business failures,” said Galyean.

SBDC can also help small businesses gain government contracts by guiding them through the steps.

According to Galyean, every day his clients create an average of four jobs, and prevent another two from being lost.