News Releases

KU Small Business Development Center wins award of excellence

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

BY LAURA WOLFE

The KU Small Business Development Center (KU SBDC) was awarded the Main Street Award of Excellence in Business Development for Leavenworth by the Kansas Downtown Symposium at Leavenworth's Riverfront Community Center.

"We work with quite a few businesses in the Main Street program," said Will Katz, regional director of the KU SBDC. "We have spent quite a lot of effort and time working with those businesses. We helped some companies raise capital, along with providing free-of-charge business consulting services."

The Kansas Downtown Symposium is a three day event, sponsored by the Kansas Main Street Program, and provides members with the opportunity to network, discuss development of downtown areas in Kansas, and attend seminars.

"The award was a surprise," said Katz. "A very nice surprise."

The SBDC is a small economic development agency that has made a significant impact on the state of Kansas. In order to fulfill its mission of "Growing Kansas Entrepreneurs," the SBDC provides one-on-one general business consulting free of charge for small businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as offering low-cost training workshops.

"Every day we help people navigate the start up process, as well as a variety of other issues small business people face, from HR concerns to cash flow problems to advertising and marketing issues," said Katz. "We can frequently offer operational advice to existing businesses."

The KU SBDC is a partnership program between the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Kansas Department of Commerce, the KU School of Business, and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. The KU SBDC serves Douglas, Franklin, Jefferson, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Doniphan counties as one of eight Kansas Small Business Development Centers and one of over 1,000 SBDCs in the United States.

For more information about the Small Business Development Center, call 785-843-8844.


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