Workforce Innovations

CONNECT! Partner

Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center

In the past year, the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC) asked itself some of the same questions it asks of its small business clients: Were they reaching their target market? What changes could they implement to ensure that they did reach their intended market? And how could the organization better serve its customers?

As a result, important changes were implemented in the way in which Silicon Valley SBDC provides services to the small business community of Santa Clara and southern San Mateo counties, including their expansion to four locations in Silicon Valley, increasing the number of counselors available, providing services in a number of different languages, and revamping their existing Web site (www.siliconvalley-sbdc.org) to be much more user-friendly and informative.

SBDC is a national organization that assists entrepreneurs seeking to start or expand their business. Counselors help with clarifying business goals, developing business plans, and creating financial strategies for business growth, covering such things as strategic planning, capital formation assistance, management operations, and marketing.

Any business employing up to 500 employees can obtain services through the organization. Silicon Valley SBDC 's target market is those businesses with fewer than 25 employees, which is a considerable segment of Silicon Valley total business population. In 2002, The U.S. Census Bureau reported that of the 135,000 businesses located in Santa Clara County, two-thirds have just one employee. Examples of businesses in this group include real estate agents, insurance agents, and high-tech consultants.

Within Silicon Valley, services are now offered at SBDC's headquarters in the Entrepreneurial Center in downtown San Jose, and in three new satellite offices located in East San Jose, Milpitas, and Sunnyvale, which just opened in the CONNECT! Job Seeker Center on July 18, 2006. Becki Walker, interim director of the Silicon Valley SBDC, said that they opened satellite offices so that business owners would not have to waste valuable time driving to and from appointments. With four locations to choose from, business owners should be able to find a location that is close to either where they live or where they work.

Each satellite office is open two days a week and offers one-hour counseling sessions at no charge to small business representatives. There is no limit on the number of sessions attended, so long as the individual is moving forward with the agreed-upon activities from prior sessions. Because of the expansion, "We've seen two and a half times more clients this quarter than in the quarter before," Walker said. "We're on track with our expectations of assisting 600 to 700 businesses this year."

Walker pointed out that it's rare to find an entrepreneur who is an expert in all the minutiae involved in running a business. Once he or she receives assistance in accounting, marketing or whatever particular topic is required, the entrepreneur can concentrate on his or her core competency allowing the business a greater chance of achieving success, which is defined in both conventional and unconventional ways by Silicon Valley SBDC. Typically, success is seen as increased revenue, but Walker notes that sometimes "success is the realization at the end of one or more counseling sessions that the business model is not viable or that personal issues must be resolved before embarking on establishing a new business." In any event, the client's time has not been wasted, she said, because the entrepreneur has clarified his or her goals and may see an entirely new direction.

Along with counseling, Silicon Valley SBDC offers training courses for modest fees. A three-hour course typically costs $35-45. Classes are held at De Anza College in Cupertino, at the Entrepreneurial Center in San Jose, and in Sunnyvale on the CONNECT! campus, as well as at various locations within Palo Alto, Milpitas, and San Mateo County. Because many clients have taken Silicon Valley SBDC's basic training courses and are ready to move on to the next level, several higher-level training courses will soon be available to the community.

Silicon Valley SBDC 's headquarters are located at 84 W. Santa Clara Street, Suite 100, in San Jose. For more information about the organization or its services, please visit them online at siliconvalley-sbdc.org or call (408) 494-0240.