By David Taylor
Managing Editor
Before hanging out the open for business sign, Herb Hildebrand wants owners to know that they have services from the Small Business Development Center that can position them for success—and it’s free.
Hildebrand and one of his staff members, Rob Carlson, presented a program for the North Channel Area Chamber of Commerce last Friday businesses to use their staff to help guide their business in a myriad of ways.
They boast five offices within their district in east Harris County down to Brazoria County beginning with an office in the Pearland Chamber, Clear Lake Chamber office, another in the Economic Alliance building in Deer Park, one at the San Jacinto College North campus, and another in Generation Park.
Collectively, Hildebrand says his team has more than 100 years of experience working in all kinds of different industries.
“We provide our services free of charge and everything is confidential,” he said. “At a minimum, we are a great sounding board for anything that might be troubling you or that you might want to address business wise.”
Hildebrand said they could help with new business start ups, work through finding a franchise, or even help securing the working capital to finance the new business.
“We can help you write a business plan, do marketing and research, we have the tools to conduct demographic studies for you, and specialists to help you create websites, social media, or whatever is needed to market your product or service,” he said.
Hildebrand and Carlson both said they could help businesses, whether new or existing, to navigate human resources and accounting issues.
Carlson took the chamber members through a sample opening of a new business and some of the pitfalls and necessities.
“One of the key startup events is we have to talk about money and that includes the five C’s of credit,” he said.
Those are Character, which involves credit behavior based on indicators like credit report and score and payments history; Capacity, which is the ability to pay the lender back; Capital is the money the owner plans to invest in the business; Collateral is the assets the owner pledges to secure the loan; and Conditions is the market analysis of the trends of their particular industry. Most banks use Equifax or a FICO score to make their decisions.
“You get one free annual credit report,” Carlson said. “Look it over and be able to explain what you’re doing to correct it if there’s something on the report that might be considered negative.”
Having a business plan is also critical for securing support.
“It doesn’t have to be something to give to the bank, but it gives them some faith that it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.
Carlson also told chamber members about the benefits of Data Axel or Reference USA.
“It’s a goldmine of data where you can retrieve both business, consumer, even lifestyle data. It’s available with your library card in the city of Houston or Harris County,” he said. The search can be done by zip code so that it drills down to the areas the business will service.
“We can also request information through the National Information Clearinghouse, who can do commissioned research for us. That can be for business license permits and regulations down to trade show lists,” he said.
He also suggested a newer search with GIS or geographical information systems. GIS is more than cartography, but can provide background information, current and historical about the property. A search could tell an owner how many people, for example, live at a particular address, and can draw in information on their shopping habits, estimated household income, how many children live there, and many more trends.
“I like that it also includes drive time analysis,” Carlson said.
The SBDC team’s success rests in results. Just in the last four years, they’ve assisted in 103 business starts that created about 1,100 jobs locally that created about $75 million for the economy.
“Our SBA in this area is number one in the nation,” Carlson said.
During the pandemic, they were able to help their clients obtain COVID relief funding both in PPP and loans.
They do provide Spanish-speaking services since theirs is one of the largest Hispanic districts.
For more information or questions, contact them at 281-485-5214.