Business Center Opens For, Well, Business.

Guilford Technical Community College's Small Business Center has opened a second location.  Now there's one in Greensboro, and one in High Point.

It's funded by the State of North Carolina, and Center Director Mark Hagenbuch says it offers a good many free services to new entrepreneurs and small business owners.

"There are two main things that we do," Hagenbuch explains, "We serve a lot of start-up entrepreneurs in the early stage of  forming their business plans, and a lot of that we do through free programming.  We offer probably between 120 and 150 free seminars and workshops on everything from licenses and permits, putting a business plan together, financing, to developing a marketing message and understanding financial statements."

The new Small Business Center is located in the High Point Chamber of Commerce, 1634 N. Main Street in High Point, and has been open since July 1st.

"High Point has a long-standing tradition of entrepreneurial activity,"  Hagenbuch says, "And we want to continue to foster and support innovation and new business development by offering the experience, resources and contacts that are already in place with the SBC and our statewide network.  We're about improving business knowledge and expertise and helping business owners improve  their operations."  To that end the Small Business Center will collaborate with the High Point Chamber of Commerce to deliver new programming for Chamber members and local businesses on a variety of topics, including social media, cloud-based businesses solutions, and finding government contracts, to name a few.

Hagenbuch says, "Primarily what will be happening at the High Point location, in the High Point Chamber of Commerce, is our free, confidential business counseling, where we sit down with people to, perhaps, review their business plan, to help them tighten up their financial projections before they go to a lender if they're seeking capital.  We also have access to some nice resources such as some software called Profit Sense which does financial analysis for an existing business.  So maybe for owners or managers who aren't numbers people this actually provides a nice graphical report card, if you will, for the business."

Kelly Sain, board chair of the High Point Chamber, says the partnership with GTCC's Small Business Center will help the Chamber further serve the needs of the High Point business community and provide additional resources to its members.

"We look forward to a great partnership with GTCC that will evolve over time as we get a better understanding of our members' needs," Sain said. "Our members will benefit greatly from Mark's impressive experience and the resources he will bring.  The Chamber will continue to advocate for its members by implementing programs and bringing resources to help our members grow and thrive in today's economy."

The Small Business Center's main location is at the Nussbaum Center, 1451 S. Elm Eugene Street, Suite 1201, in Greensboro.  Business Hours are 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM