The Small Business Development Center at Mississippi State University has been providing small businesses with the tools to be successful since the 1980's.
Director of the SBDC in the College of Business at MSU Chip Templeton said the MSU center is a part of a national organization, America's Small Business Development Center.
"If you have 10 businesses starting today, in five years, only five will be around," Templeton said. "A few years later only two will be around. If we can give you the tools, hopefully you can make fewer mistakes and this will improve."
According to Templeton, only about 17 percent of businesses started with help from SBDC go out of business.
The MSU SBDC serves Choctaw, Clay, Kemper, Lauderdale, Lowndes, Montgomery, Monroe, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Webster counties.
The MSU SBDC offers the Small Business Series Workshops monthly in Starkville and Meridian, which includes three workshops: "Starting a Business — First Steps,""How to Develop Your Business Plan" and "Cash Flow Projections for Your Business Plan."
"All the workshops are two-hour sessions," Templeton said. "We do a power point presentation with hand outs and question and answer."
Because the Meridian Naval Air Station and the Columbus Air Force base fall in the region served by MSU SBDC, Templeton said the center also offers Boots to Business two-day, quarterly workshops.
"Military folks who are about to transition out of the military, or they have a family member, or they are a veteran, they can come and spend a two-day class that is held every two months," Templeton said.
Templeton said the class covers the same information offered in the Small Business Series Workshops, but it is presented in the different format.
The MSU SBDC also offers confidential, one-on-one counseling.
Templeton said the workshops aren't required before counseling, but they are strongly recommended.
The workshops and counseling are both free, and help new entrepreneurs with their business plans, cash flow projections and market data research, along with many other topics.
In the 2017 fiscal year, the MSU SBCD served 159 clients, 50 of which were longterm clients of five or more years. The capitol infusion was $8.5 million. MSU SBDC hosted 36 workshops and events, which saw 160 attendees. During the fiscal year, 19 businesses were started, 136 jobs were created and 203 jobs were retained.
Templeton said the MSU SBCD puts an emphasis on helping women, minorities and veterans start their own businesses.
In the fiscal year 2017, 54 percent of the new clients were women, representing 74.3 percent of the capitol infusion. Of total clients for counseling for the fiscal year, 45.9 percent were minorities, and 46.3 percent of the new clients for counseling were minorities. Also during the fiscal year, 11.3 percent of the total clients for counseling were veterans, with 44.5 percent of those being disabled veterans, 38.9 percent being reservists or National Guard and 11.2 percent active duty. The new clients for counseling were 12.9 percent veterans, with 33.4 percent of those being disabled veterans, 50 percent reservists and National Guard and 8.4 percent active duty.
In the 2017 fiscal year, the MSU SBDC saw 19 new business starts, with seven in retail trade, two in administration/support/ waste management, two in healthcare and social assistance, two in arts, entertainment and recreation, three in accommodation and food services and one in other services.