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Brazos Valley Small Business Development Center: Open for Business
By REBECCA WATTS

Jim Pillans shocked when Brazos Valley business owners say they have never heard of the Brazos Valley Small Business Development Center (BV-SBDC). Tucked into the Chamber of Commerce offices on East 29th St., the center is one of the Brazos Valley’s most underutilized resources. “I’m always out in the community ,” Pillans, director of the BV-SBDC said, “making speeches or presentations, but people still don’t know about us,” said Pillans, director of the BV-SBDC..”

The center offers local business start-upses a method through the madness involved in small business start-up with free consultation services from experienced consultants, low-cost training, and a central resource location. The center sees as many as 150 new businesses in addition to their regular clientele, but Pillans said the center has the capability to see more. In a typical year, the center helps start 50 new businesses, which can create as many as 200 new jobs in the area and $5 to $6 million in capital production.

“Our goal is not to put them in business,” Pillans said. “Our goal is to try to help them determine if their business is economically feasible. If its ist, then we try to help them in every way we can.”

The primary reason businesses contact the center is for help navigating the financial processes involved in business start-up. The center’s consultants walk businesses through the process of applying for SBA loans and additional lines of credit. They also assist in forecasting and budgets, cash flow analysis and control, ratio analysis, and reading and preparing financial statements. Pillans said, “Financial statements are like a short -story. If you read it and understand it, it’s a very good way to tell what you’re company is like. It’s a good way to show what your weaknesses are, what your strengths are and what your opportunities are.” The center can also analyze financial information and has software that compares a business to another business of similar industry and size.

A portion of the help offered by the center is through low-cost training seminars. The seminars target start-up businesses, but several are offered for established businesses as well. The course content ranges from introductory businesses courses to customer service and are held monthly and quarterly. The BV-SBDC partners with as many entities as possible, such as the City of Bryan, Bryan ISD and Texas A&M University, in order to facilitate and streamline business interaction among it‘s clients and national, international, and government businesses. Pillans, services BV-SBDC clients in this area as the center’s government procurement consultant. He assists in developing proposals, meeting certification requirements, bidding, quotes, and research for businesses interested in selling to local, state and federal governments.

Pillans has been director of the BV-SBDC since 1998 and has 17 years of experience with small business ownership. In 1979, Pillans moved to Bryan and was involved in Miller Brewing. Pillans, along with a partner, expanded distribution to include Coors. They managed 25 employees and oversaw $8 to $9 million in sales. In 1998, the company was bought out, and Pillans began work for the BV-SBDC. He, along with two other consultants, one part-time and one fulltime, have a combined 75 years of experience.

“We’re really here to help,” Pillans said. “There’s no business too big or too small for us not not to be able to assist. And if someone comes to us, we’ll give them our very best effort and be able to help them learn and move their idea further down the line, or we’ll help them determine that this is not the time to move forward.”

The BV-SBDC center is one of 1,100 locations across the United States. Small business development centers began as a pilot program in 1977 by the United States Congress and in 1980 became law. All 58 state and regional offices are overseen and funded by the U.S. Small Business Association. Texas is divided into four regional operations, each with a host institution responsible for center location, funding distribution, and general operation supervision. The University of Houston is the BV-SBDC’s host institution and the Dallas Community College System, Texas Tech University and University of Texas -- San Antonio host the North Texas, Northwest Texas and South Texas Border SBDC’s. The BV-SBDC serves Brazos, Burleson, Milam and Robertson counties.

Beyond a center’s host institution, the SBA requires a local organization to match funding provided by the SBA. For the past 15 years, the Research Valley Partnership has filled this requirement for the BV-SBDC. Pillans said the partnership RVP is a logical combination because both organizations strive to meet a similar goal. “I really like our partnership with Research Valley,” Pillans said. “Our sole purpose of being here is to help small businesses create economic impact, and of course, that’s what the Research Valley Partnership does - create economic impact for the citizens of Brazos County. And the impact that we provide is through our clients, through job creation and the purchase of capital items.”

One of the primary roles the center plays for existing businesses is to provide experienced consultants with whom for business owners canto brainstorm and explore ideas with. Several of the center’s long-term clients return to the center when considering a strategic move for their business. Pillans said, “They come in and we just talk about their business. They bounce ideas off us, we give them our experience and recommendations, and they make a decision.” The majority of BV-SBDC clients uses the center for a single problem, such as a loan or marketing issue, but never visits the center again. Pillans said he would like see more businesses visit the center regularly because the center has services to offer for all stages of business development.

The BV-SBDC operates on a preventative philosophy of providing business owners with the education and services needed in order to make decisions that will provide long-term benefits and circumvent any foreseeable problems before the business suffers. However, some businesses visit the center as a last resort and at that point, Pillans said the center is not able to help much. He recommends visiting the center as one of the first steps when deciding on a business.

“Give us a call,” Pillans said. “If you’re in business and have a problem, we can try to help solve it. If you have an opportunity, we can help evaluate it. If you just need a general check-up, we can compare the business to others.”