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Services
Pre-Venture Business Services
You've got a great concept, but don't know where to start. Our business readiness assessment process helps you take the leap from concept to reality.
Through a referral to one of our strategic partner organizations or to one of our professional training programs, we'll help you develop the plan and walk with you down the path to success.
Startup Business Services
You have launched your business, the "Open" sign is up, but you've found that things aren't going as you expected.
Maybe customers aren't coming or they're coming too quickly. You need to realign or tweak your business strategies and you need professional assistance to guide you. We can provide the guidance you need during those incredibly important formative years when businesses run the greatest risk of failure.
Established Business Services
Maybe you're ready to expand your business and take it to the next level. Maybe your business is growing but you don't know how to manage its demands. In either case, it's time to start working on your business and not just in it.
Through our statewide network of professional business consultants, we can provide the professional guidance you need to make the critical strategic decisions necessary for long-term growth, profitability and success.
Contact
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
180 E 5th St Suite 1200
St. Paul, MN 55101
651-259-7423 or 1-877-653-8333
deed.mnsbdc@state.mn.us
Download our Minnesota Small Business Development Centers brochure.
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Consulting
Operating through a network of nine statewide regional centers, we offer confidential consulting to help clients identify, understand and overcome the challenges of running a successful business.
SBDC counselors have significant experience in the private sector, including extensive management and financial consulting backgrounds. Many SBDCs also use qualified faculty, students and volunteers to enhance their counseling services.
Highly regarded by clients for their business skills and expertise, our professional business consultants provide relevant, realistic and sound advice you can trust in such areas as:
- Access to Capital and Loan Packaging
- Financial Analysis and Assessment
- Accounting Systems and Literacy
- Marketing and Research
- Marketing Plan Development
- Feasibility Analysis
- Startup Assistance
- Business Plan Development
- Electronic Commerce/Web site Development
- Succession and Strategic Planning
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Eligibility
To qualify for counseling, businesses must be small as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Individuals who are considering starting a business are also eligible for counseling.
Clients must sign a Request for Counseling form and must agree to participate in surveys designed to measure the effectiveness of the SBDC program. To help maximize the value of the counseling, clients should prepare a draft business plan before meeting with the counselor.
Financial support from our committed funding partners allows us to provide our professional services at no cost to participants. Training programs and specialized projects or services are provided either at no cost or for a nominal fee.
Request Services as a New Client
You request services by completing this online form. Then the appropriate regional office will follow-up with you.
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Capital Access
We do not administer loan or grant programs. However, our consultants do help small businesses assess funding options and opportunities, identify financing sources, evaluate eligibility, and prepare documentation that lenders require.
In fact, many lenders require their borrowers to work with their local SBDC professional before submitting a loan application.
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Training
Register online to join us at our training events and workshops held throughout the state. See the calendar of events.
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Reports
The Minnesota Small Business Development Centers Network is an investment that pays big dividends in the form of good jobs, good pay, good benefits and everything else that successful businesses bring to their communities.
Our annual report highlights all the ways the SBDCs are working to ensure the success of small businesses throughout Minnesota.
Select from the links below to view or download our SBDC Annual Reports:
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Stories of Impact
Nathalie Shifts Business Model During Pandemic
DEED's Small Business Development Centers celebrated SBDC Day on March 17, 2021. This network of nine regional centers and additional satellite offices across the state provides a wide range of services to new and established businesses at no cost to those businesses - including everything from financial analysis and business plan development to help accessing capital. During 2020, Minnesota SBDCs assisted over 5,835 entrepreneurs and businesses - providing almost 33,000 professional consulting hours.
One of those entrepreneurs is Nathalie Nkashama, (in photo), a county social worker who started her business with the help of SBDC and other agencies. She opened World Mart, an ethnic grocery store, in Worthington, Minn., to provide specialized foods and other products to the African community in her area. But when the pandemic began, she shifted operations to a store-on-wheels, a trailer she has been using to make deliveries to customers.
"SBDC was really, really helpful," Nathalie said. Referring to assistance she received from her SBDC Consultant Bernadette "Berny" Berger, she said: "Berny Berger was an angel for me, and she pointed me in the right direction."
Mac Dhein Opens Makerspace in St. Cloud
Two consultants with the Central Region Small Business Development Center assisted Mac Dhein in opening a new makerspace in St. Cloud. The business is called "Make-It Mac's Makerspace" and it opened April 10, 2021.
Makerspaces are places where people who want to "do it themselves" can gather and build things using the business's equipment and tools. Saws, welding equipment, a forge, hand tools, and 3D printers make this a creator's paradise. The shop is well equipped already, but even more tools are on order. Use of the space is on a membership basis. The two SBDC consultants who helped with the project were Bri Torborg, who is now at Falcon Bank, and Brian Berget.
Mac (at center in photo) said his new business fulfills a long-time dream: "I know it sounds strange, but I've been dreaming about opening a shop like this ever since I was six years old, watching my grandfather in his thermostat control shop."
Krewe Restaurant Opens in St. Joseph
Experienced restaurant owners and chefs Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas (at left in the photo) opened their restaurant Krewe in St. Joseph, Minn., in May 2020. It specializes in Creole and Cajun dishes from Mateo's food heritage, which is rooted in his mother's hometown of New Orleans.
In preparing to open, they received business planning assistance from Bernadette "Berny" Berger, a professional business consultant with the Small Business Development Center at St. Cloud State University (at right in photo). The SBDC provided help with the business plan and financial projections which enabled Krewe to receive project financing through MinnWest Bank in St. Cloud and assistance from the St. Joseph Economic Development Authority.
The restaurant offers dishes such as muffulettas, jambalaya, and gumbo from family recipes - with shrimp raised locally in Minnesota. Erin also operates their partner business, Flour & Flower, a European style bakery which also opened in May 2020
