The PORTAL building, new home to SBTDC. Photo by Chris Crews
Originally located in the Ben Craig Center at the University Research Park, the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) recently relocated to UNC Charlotte’s Partnership, Outreach and Technology to Accelerate Learning (PORTAL) building on Jan. 4.
“One of the features of PORTAL was being able to pull together all the business and technology outreach components of the university under one roof, meaning Office of Technology Transfer, Ventureprise and ourselves,” said Regional Director of SBTDC George McAllister. “So we’re all in one location and able to work with area companies as well as students and faculty.”
Working within the PORTAL building, SBTDC hopes to become more involved with students.
“Since we’ve moved, we have definitely been able to work more with students as well as faculty members,” McAllister said. “Being on campus makes it a lot more convenient for us to interact with the students as well as faculty.”
McAllister finds himself pleasantly surprised by the large number of students interested in the services they offer.
“We have a lot of students out there that are interested in starting their own businesses and surprisingly, to us, there are quite a few students who are already in business,” McAllister said. “They have businesses in which we are able to work with because we provide businesses counseling services free of charge to students as well as faculty and the general public.”
These counselors are prepared to help businesses with needs such as marketing, funding, managing employees and international trade.
As regional director, some of McAllister’s responsibilities include being involved in business community activities, supporting the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, marketing SBTDC services and working with the clients they currently have.
“We reach out to the business community, making sure the local businesses are aware of everything that UNC Charlotte has to offer,” McAllister said.
SBTDC will also add a technology commercialization counselor to their staff early this year.
“This counselor will help companies that have new inventions or technologies they want to commercialize or start producing and selling,” McAllister said.
McAllister also mentioned how SBTDC helps students get involved with companies offering internships.
“The MBA school offers a course where students can work and conduct a consulting study for our clients. So these students are actually assigned companies in this region that have issues, and these student teams come up with recommendations on how these companies can resolve their issues,” McAllister said. “We’re trying to not only make the business community aware of what the university is doing, but also look at ways we can bring students whether undergrad or graduate into the business community.”
According to McAllister, students involved in the MBA internship have a chance of finding employment.
“In some cases, the students get hired, they’ll do the coursework and owners say ‘Wow, you’ve done a great job,’ and sometimes they get hired.”
On average, SBTDC sees a little over 1,000 clients a year.
“We have clients who we work with a couple times, maybe only three, four, five hours and then we have clients that are with us for five, 10, 15 years,” McAllister said.
Now operating from within the PORTAL building, SBTDC will likely see an increase in numbers over the 2015 year.
For more information regarding SBTDC and their services, visit: http://www.sbtdc.org/