Pennsylvania SBDC Releases 2014 Results
PHILADELPHIA, PA. (PRWEB) June 23, 2015 -- The Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) have released the results of their services in 2014.
The number of aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners who received no-fee, expert, confidential business management advice totaled 8,640 individuals, resulting in 100,573 hours of business consulting delivered by 18 SBDCs statewide. The number of educational programs held by the Pennsylvania SBDC network in 2014 totaled 614, attracting 12,372 attendees.
“As these figures demonstrate, demand for SBDC services remains strong,” said Pennsylvania SBDC State Director Christian Conroy. “We are committed to offering high-quality, impactful services to help meet the needs of the Commonwealth’s entrepreneurs and small businesses, which is a challenge due to flat state funding for the past four years,” he concluded.
Highlights from the 2014 services summary include:
Entrepreneurs/Businesses Consulted: 8,640
Total Consulting Hours Provided: 100,573
Educational Workshops & Seminars: 614
Educational Event Attendees: 12,372
New Client-Obtained Investment: $162,745,307
New Client International Trade Sales: $44,172,452
New Client Government Contracts: $167,939,837
Assets Preserved: $25,381,020
The Pennsylvania SBDC maintains that stable state and federal funding for the SBDC program is what is needed to best serve entrepreneurs and small businesses in Pennsylvania. National data provided by the Association of Small Business Development Centers shows that for every federal dollar invested in SBDCs in 2011 created $1.90 in federal revenue and $3.13 in state revenue.
The Pennsylvania SBDC measures its impact on factors including job creation and retention, sales increases, capital formation, new business starts and government contracts received. Economic impact data is verified and validated through a multi-step process which includes verification by the SBDC-assisted business and through an established Pennsylvania SBDC review process and data verification policy.
Additional outcomes of the 2014 services summary are as follows:
CONSULTING TOPICS: Business plan development was the most requested SBDC service in 2014, followed by start-up assistance, ranking third was marketing, sales and customer relations.
BUSINESS SIZE: 57 percent of small businesses who worked with the Pennsylvania SBDC had between one and five employees in 2014 and 30 percent had six to fifty employees.
CLIENT INDUSTRIES: In 2014, 55 percent of small firms who were assisted by the Pennsylvania SBDC were operating in the service industry. The second largest group served was manufacturers at 15 percent. Retail companies made up 14 percent, followed by companies in the ‘other’ category at seven percent, construction at four percent, and lastly wholesalers represented four percent of SBDC clients in 2014.
Out of these industries, the top ten business sectors serviced (sorted by NAICS code) were:
1.) Food Services and Drinking Places
2.) Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
3.) Personal and Laundry Services
4.) Administrative and Support Services
5.) Individual and Family Services
6.) Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries
7.) Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries
8.) Construction of Buildings
9.) Repair and Maintenance
10.) Educational Services
To view the full Pennsylvania SBDC 2014 services summary infographic, visit http://pasbdc.org/results/services-summary.
To read more about the Pennsylvania SBDC’s data integrity process, visit http://pasbdc.org/about-us/about-the-sbdc/data-integrity.
###
About Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)
The Pennsylvania SBDC network is the only statewide, nationally accredited program that provides high quality one-on-one consulting, training and information resources to empower new and existing businesses. SBDC consultants work with entrepreneurs in confidential, individualized sessions to help them with a range of business issues including testing a new business proposition, shaping a business plan, investigating funding opportunities, and much more. The SBDC program is a public/private partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and 18 universities and colleges across the Commonwealth. For more information on the Pennsylvania SBDC services and impact, please visit http://www.pasbdc.org.
Kelly Cofrancisco, Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), http://www.pasbdc.org, +1 (215) 746-6474, [email protected]
Share this article