2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 147
LSU has been awarded the host-leadership position in a
statewide network that aims to aid small business activity
and promote a healthy state economy.
The network, called the Louisiana Small Business
Development Center, has locations all around Louisiana.
Small businesses across the state can seek consultation
by contacting their regional office and getting help. The
organization’s 10 offices will now take direction and report
to LSU’s Innovation Park—the host seat of the LSBDC.
Andrew Maas is the associate vice president for Research
for Innovation and Ecosystem Development at Innovation
Park.
“We can help them. We can help them look at market
opportunities, market size and the demographics of a
location,” Mass said.
Business consultation services provided by the LSBDC
are completely free.
Historically, the sub-centers have worked with a smaller
institution; Maas said it hasn’t been as easy to contract with
the smaller institutions compared to a larger one like LSU.
Maas believes LSU is well equipped for the job. The
university handles $165 million in research and contracts
annually and has the infrastructure in place to carry out
these operations.
Still, he doesn’t want to make this an “LSU-centric”
network.
“As the flagship institution, we have a job to educate the
community and state,” Maas said.
Maas wants to see “true collaboration” across the regional
offices and the host and wants to take a new approach to
the management of the organization. While employees
of the other offices won’t be the employees of LSU and
therefore won’t report directly to Innovation Park, he says
that they’ll enter contracts ensuring LSU’s oversight so that
the offices can reach their full regional potential.
The regional offices will meet on a quarterly basis to
discuss initiatives and the direction of LSBDC.
“Small business is the life blood of the U.S. economy,”
Maas said.
Smalls Sliders, a casual burger restaurant on Nicholson
Drive, used the services of the LSBDC and have now grown
to a second location, employing more people and further
stimulating the economy.
“The federal definition of a small business, depending on
industry but almost universally, is under 500 employees,”
Maas said, “So you could have a pretty big business and still
be defined as a small business, with regards to the federal
government.”
Because of the federal definition of a small business,
many businesses that wouldn’t be thought of as small still
qualify for the free services of the LSBDC.
Funding for the LSBDC comes from three levels:
federal, state and local. The Small Business Administration,
through tax dollars, funds around $1.8 million. The state
affords $1 million via Louisiana Economic Development.
The remaining money surfaces through local means and
LSU itself. All three levels total around $4.5 million.
Most of this is tax-generated money and goes into
paying the employees of the LSBDC so that they can
provide their free services.
Innovation Park manager Hutch McClendon says that
the LSBDC can be of great benefit to LSU students.
“Students need to know they can come to us to get
advice,” McClendon said.
There can be a stream of mutual benefit between
students and the organization, where students can use
the services of LSBDC and the state can push forward
economic innovation.
This would create more jobs for students joining the
Louisiana workforce. Maas speculates that a more vibrant
economy might encourage something like a bigger night
life and give more graduates a reason to stay in the state
after completing their degree.
Small business growth is easier to instigate than a larger
company.
Maas uses the example of a start-up that’s two people
compared to a company of 1,000 employees. The start-up
can grow by 600% if it hires only 12 new people, whereas
the larger company hiring 50 new employees only grows by
5%.
Pat Witty is the director of small business and
community service at Louisiana Economic Development, a
state office that works in partnership with the LSBDC.
He’s glad LSU is using its leverage outwardly and not
“living in its walls.”
“To say it is one thing, to do it is another; I think because
they have a strong small business program, a small business
development center, they already have an incubator, a
strong business school, a strong public administration
school,” Witty said “I think they have a great opportunity
to leverage all of that and put it into place throughout their
own small business development center.”
Witty looks forward to sitting at a table with the other
organizations— LSU, SBDC, SBA, and LED— and
ensuring the most effective use of their resources.
“If we can’t figure out how to support small businesses
in this economy, we’re going to be losing from the get-go,”
Maas said. “LSU brings a robustness to the ecosystem, the
network, that is more valuable to the small businesses that
are being serviced here.”
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