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Lending a Helping Hand
Small Business Development Center offers support when it’s needed
John Melvin heads the Clermont Chamber’s Small Business Development Center, which has been helping businesses get up and running for 22 years.To understand the impact John Melvin has as the director of the Small Business Development Center at the Clermont Chamber of Commerce, you have to talk to one of the 600 business people he helps in an average year.
“He’s like a god to me,” says Sarah Wagner, owner of Barresi’s, an upscale Italian restaurant in Deer Park. “I purchased the restaurant in 2005, and I couldn’t have done it without him.
He was the most pleasant and patient person I’ve ever worked with.”
Melvin’s main contribution was to help Wagner develop a thorough business plan; as a restaurant worker and culinary school graduate, she had no idea what was required. The plan helped her get a business loan and ultimately increase patronage at the 40-year-old landmark restaurant.
“The focus of the SBDC is really to provide assistance more to existing businesses than to startups, because that’s where there is more opportunity to make a significant impact on the economy,” Melvin says. “What it really boils down to is that the basics of operating a business are consistent no matter what type of business you’re dealing with, so I see the full spectrum, from agricultural to light manufacturing, retail and service.” Most have 10 employees or less.
Most often, an SBDC client is someone who has been in business for two years or more and is struggling with marketing, cash flow or human resource issues. Next are the mature businesses facing growth opportunities and needing to expand their space or acquire more equipment.
Startup businesses rank a distant third, says Melvin, who has been the director for six of the 22 years the chamber has had the SBDC. Its support services include answering questions, providing coaching and counseling, offering formal training programs such as Steps to Starting a New Business, and making referrals to other resources when necessary.
The center is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which partners with the Ohio Department of Development. The state closely monitors the program and reports that, in 2005, its statewide SBDCs had a direct economic impact of $5.6 billion and 31,482 jobs. The indirect impact as a result of these activities is another $3 billion and nearly 18,000 jobs. To help assure such a high impact, the state requires SBDC advisers like Melvin to be certified, a process that includes 30 hours of continuing education every year.
An SBDC is not limited to serving a specific geographical area. It can work with any for-profit business; although 75 to 80 percent of Melvin’s contacts are from Clermont County, others such as Barresi’s are located elsewhere in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Story by Jim Elliott
Photo by Michael W. Bunch
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