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The Republican Center serves as friend for small businesses SPRINGFIELD - Dianne Fuller Doherty has a front-row seat in the theater of challenges for small business. As regional director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network, she, along with her staff of four professionals, has contact with upwards of 900 companies a year in the four counties of Western Massachusetts, 600 to 700 of which are in the Pioneer Valley. Pioneer Valley clients include Apex Healthcare Services Inc., Springfield; Bidwell ID Inc., in the Florence section of Northampton; Boyden & Perron Inc., Amherst; Gravity Switch, Northampton; Lhasa Cafe, Northampton; Shelburne Falls Wine Merchant, Shelburne Falls; Suki Inc., Northfield; and Toner Plastics, Agawam. The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center's mission is to provide counseling, training and capital access, which contributes to the entrepreneurial growth of small businesses throughout Massachusetts. Roughly 20 percent of the companies are in Berkshire County, 40 percent in Hampden County and 20 percent each in Hampshire and Franklin counties. The bulk of the MSBDC's counseling in Western Massachusetts is done at the Scibelli Enterprise Center at Springfield Technical Community College, where the Western Massachusetts regional office is based. Counselors also meet clients in Northampton, Greenfield and Amherst. There also is an office in Pittsfield. The organization's statewide office is at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. About 40 percent of the companies are start-ups, while the rest are companies seeking to expand or to introduce new products. "The big issues we deal with are start-ups, marketing and finance," Doherty said. "We do one-on-one counseling with them and help the businesses develop a business plan or marketing strategy, or get their numbers together so they can go to a bank for financing." She said most of the companies helped by the MSBDC have annual sales of $1 million to $5 million and one to 10 employees. Half of the agency's funding comes from the U.S. Small Business Administration, 25 percent from the state and other sponsors, and 25 percent from UMass-Amherst and other consortium members, which include Boston College, Clark University, Salem State College, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and University of Massachusetts-Boston. It provides counseling for free and training for a fee. The lead institution is the Eugene M. Isenberg School of Management at UMass in Amherst. In the fiscal year ended last Sept. 30, the MSBDC counseled 4,079 clients, providing 25,242 hours of counseling. Its 170 training programs accommodated more than 4,500 attendees. Women accounted for 44 percent of the clients, minorities for 19 percent. "The many, many demands that are placed on an entrepreneur is a common thread among the companies that come to us," Doherty said. "There are so many issues involved to run a business, and we try to keep them focused on the future and not get bogged down with minutia." The amount of time a company spends consulting with MSBDC varies widely. "Some clients are with us for 12 years, some for 12 weeks," Doherty said. "They pretty much reflect the industries we have in the region," she said. "Some are in manufacturing, but most are in the service industry."
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