SBDCs: Small Business Development Centers

What is an SBDC:

America loves entrepreneurs, so to help new entrepreneurs the Small Business Administration (SBA) sponsors the SBDC program, usually in partnership with a university, which provides free counseling and support to people thinking about starting a small business.  SBDCs support all entrepreneurs, not just government contractors, so they typically know less about govcon than the PTACs but they are great resources when you are just getting going.

What SBDCs can do for you:

SBDC are there to help you plan your business so:

• Help you write a business plan
• Help you refine your value proposition and explore different offerings
• Help you define your customer
• If your SBDC is in a govcon heavy market they can provide a lot of customer and partner access

What SBDCs won't do for you:

The SBDCs aren't going to do your work for you, and they aren't experts in your technical space so when you show up bring your rough draft and they will help you polish it.  

Finding your SBDC:

There are about a thousand SBDCs so we can't list them all here, but you can find a searchable database of them HERE