Photo courtesy of FIU College of Business via Creative Common’s flickr.
Adrian Suarez-Avila/ Staff Writer
Ana Carmen Sanchez appreciates the thought of a discount, but she adores the thought of anything free. “I’ll fly to anyone who says “free,” said the freshman biology major.
The University has recently received an $800,000 grant from the Florida Small Business Development Center Network, according to Jacqueline Sousa, special consultant to the dean of the College of Business. With this grant, the University will be able to provide the community with one-on-one consulting services to local businesses, free of charge.
The College of Business will match 50 percent of the grant, providing $400,000 for the program, according to Sousa.
The Florida SBDC is part of a national network of centers that helps provide funds to effectively develop successful small businesses in the state.
Consultants available and interested in helping the University meet this objective will work with Panthers, venturing out into the public to work with businesses in Miami-Dade County to help them grow.
The College of Business will have consultants located in Modesto A. Maidique Campus, FIU Downtown on Brickell and Biscayne Bay Campus, Sousa said.
“If a company needs help in regards to its cash flow management or any kind of financial problem, and doesn’t know how to do that, then a consultant from the SBDC at FIU can help them,” said Sousa.
According to Sousa, the University’s SBDC will have eight consultants at present. Each having worked either on their own or with another organization, the consultants will have expertise in different business areas.
“This just shows that FIU is committed to providing quality resources,” said Antoine Jacques, a sophomore sociology major. “It’s clear that the school will only trust experienced professionals with handling this type of responsibility.”
The new SBDC will operate as a sister organization to the University’s already existing Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center, which hosts workshops, seminars, and other events in order to help businesses prosper both in Florida and abroad. As sister organizations, they will be able to assist one another to provide resources to local businesses.
The College of Business will try to inform local businesses and companies as much as possible about the consulting services that are going to be available to them, Sousa said.
“The consultants reach a variety of clients because they go out into the community and make it known that this service is available to them,” said Sousa.“But the College of Business wants to make sure that it goes out to the community itself and informs companies about this opportunity.”
The College of Business is currently conducting a nationwide search for an executive director to overlook the University’s SBDC’s operations. In the meantime, Sousa said that David Klock, dean of the College of Business, and Amelia Maguire, executive director of management development of the College of Business, are taking charge of SBDC’s strategic direction and talent development.
Panthers interested in getting involved may have chance to so.
“We will love to have students intern with the program,” said Maguire. “We don’t have everything pinned down yet, but we believe it’ll be a great opportunity for students to be exposed to this.”
The SBDC will be commencing its operations in January 2014, despite the fact that not all of the required personnel may be hired by that point.
“We’re pretty confident that we will be helping companies locally by then,” said Sousa.
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