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December 4, 2008

LSBDC at ULM completes successful fiscal year; exceeds expectations

At the conclusion of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center at ULM’s fiscal year Sept. 30, the results clearly indicated success. Final counts indicated that the center exceeded its goals in most instances by more that 125 percent and in training attendees by 229 percent.

There were 504 individuals who attended workshops - sometimes more than one - receiving 150 training hours in topics including: Starting and Financing Your Small Business, Sources of Funds, the SBA Community Express Loan Program, Louisiana Contractor Institute, Team Work, Managing Difficult Employees, Managing Customer Relations, Financial Management for Your Day Care Center, Quickbooks for Beginners, Advanced Quickbooks, Improving Your Business Cash Flow, Tax Issues for Contractors, State Tax, State Business Sales and Use Tax, Employment Taxes, Wage and Tax Reporting, Hudson Initiative-Doing Business with the State, and the SBA Patriot Express Loan Program on campus and in the 11 rural parishes served by the center.

Over 350 individuals received 3,068 hours of free one-on-one consulting assistance on various aspects of starting and managing their small businesses. Of those, 63.3 percent were white and 35 percent were black, 58.5 percent were male and 41.5 percent were female, eight percent had disabilities, and 15 percent were veterans.

Center workshops and consulting resulted in 59 business plans, 14 business start-ups, and 71 new jobs. Clients obtained 17 loans; total capital generated was $3.2 million. Sales increases among clients were $4.6 million for the year.

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