Small Business Development Center supports small businesses | Texas News

The Small Business Development Center at Blinn College-Brenham sits on the edge of the growing junior college’s bustling campus, close to the intersection of Blinn Boulevard and West Main Street.

While the structure itself is rather nondescript, the services provided to the small businesses in Washington, Austin and Colorado counties are far from mediocre.

For Director Matthew H. Wehring, it’s also been the site of his nearly two-decade career, teaming with advisor and business analyst John Tatum and marketing client coordinator Layla Barrett.

Wehring said it’s been gratifying work over the last 18 years, allowing him to give back to the community while working alongside the college that made an impact in his own life.

“I had a great time at Blinn,” Wehring said of his time on the Brenham campus before moving on to Texas A&M to complete his degree in economics. “I still keep in touch with some of my [Blinn] instructors.”

Life eventually led him back to the campus he loved so much, specifically to the SBDC at 108 Blinn Blvd., where he has had the opportunity to make a difference for local small business owners.

“Our tagline is, ‘We help businesses grow, expand and succeed,’” he said. “Whether you haven’t started it yet, or you’ve been in business for 30 years, we’re going to help with professional consulting for whatever your needs are.”

For owners (or aspiring owners) of small businesses, that can be a pretty wide variety of concerns, but Wehring said that’s exactly what they offer – a wide variety of advising and professional consultations that are free and confidential.

Because there are so many options for ways the team can help, it’s difficult to pinpoint any one concern that should bring small business owners to the team, but there are certainly ones where Wehring feels the benefit of using the SBDC can make a substantial difference.

One such instance is when small business owners are beginning their search into finding a loan, he said. The SBDC can assist with all kinds of financial loans, including everything from Small Business Association 504 or 7A loans from preferred vendors to more traditional loans with local banks.

“We don’t have any kind of set goals or metrics to meet in terms of bringing in SBA loans,” Wehring said, adding coming to the SBDC before reaching out to banks can bring a much larger array of options than small business owners expect.

“Come to us before you go to your local bank,” he said, adding that the SBDC may know of better sources that bring more favorable conditions with the loans, and that folks at the SBDC always are advising with the best interest of the business owner in mind.

Another time when Wehring feels seeking the guidance of the SBDC is prudent for small businesses is when the business owner is beginning to think about his or her exit plan, whether through retirement or sale of the business.

“It’s called succession planning,” he said of the process, “and we absolutely help with that, whether they’re selling or setting it up as an inheritance to be passed down.”

The team is even ready for instances where both the owner and buyer need help, he said, and will coordinate with another SBDC location to represent the other party to ensure both the buyer and seller are receiving advice and counseling that is in the best interests of them.

Succession planning is one service where Wehring said coordinating with the SBDC in advance, like years in advance, can make a substantial impact in the successful sale or succession of the business. Wehring said the SBDC team is able to offer insight and guidance that lets small businesses have their best foot forward when the time finally comes.

“We’re going to help people with a lot of these things and provide some of the best services for people who are individualized to those businesses,” he said, even if what that person needs is something his team isn’t familiar with.

Wehring, Tatum and Barrett act as an in-person search engine for all things business, he said. Even if they don’t have the answer, there’s a massive network they can reach out to who probably will.

“One of [those resources includes] a network of SBDC procurement centers to help [small business owners] if they wanted to sell to the government,” Wehring said.

One of the most common questions they get is, “What do you do for small businesses?” he said.

“I turn around and say, ‘What do you need for your small business?’ We like to say we kind of tailor our program to the needs of the business community,” Wehring said.

That can mean financing help, which he said is a pretty common form of assistance folks look for, but can also mean marketing, web design, graphic design or logos or assistance with the more analytical sides of business, including understanding financials or cost analysis reviews for profitability.

With all these powerful resources and the seemingly endless number of concerns the team at SBDC can help with, it may come as a surprise that local tax dollars aren’t what’s keeping the doors open.

The Blinn College SBDC is part of the wider University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast SBDC Network, which has 14 locations throughout Southeast Texas to support 32 counties.

“The University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center Network provides business advising, access to training, tools and resources to help small businesses start, grow, expand and succeed,” information on the University of Houston’s TxGC-SBDC website states. “Designated as one of Texas’s top business assistance programs, the SBDC has 14 centers from Lufkin to Lake Jackson that serve 32 counties in southeast Texas.”

Whether working with aspiring entrepreneurs or established business owners, Wehring said the SBDC is well-practiced in helping those folks realize their dreams.

“We like to have people know where the money comes from to pay for the program,” Wehring said. “Blinn College has been the host of our program for over 30 years, and they contribute the bulk of the financial means for the program.

“We also get financial assistance from the federal government, from the SBA and from the state of Texas through the Governor’s office.”

Those three financial sources allow Wehring, Tatum and Barrett to run the program for the community and really help make a positive economic impact, he said.

That impact includes roughly anywhere from 80 to 120 new clients a year, with more than 300 active clients in any given year. It also includes loans varying from a total of $1.5 million to tens of millions to businesses registered in Washington County (or surrounding areas.)

The Small Business Development Center is a source of services that Wehring and his team are proud to offer, and they said they they look forward to continuing their work in 2025.

To learn more about this free and confidential service, visit www.sbdc.uh.edu/sbdc/Blinn_College_SBDC.asp.