Businesses can now sign up, on the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) site for their business advice program, to get advice from their new business advisor Justin Powers, who started giving advice through this program in recent weeks.
Kelly Bearden, Director at CSU Bakersfield, Small Business Development Center
said, “When the opportunity came up for Justin to join our group, advising small business owners, and those wanting to start a business, it was a great opportunity.”
Powers has the potential to reach more people in need because of his location.
Bearden said, “I’ve known Justin for the last several years, through several of his entrepreneurial projects. Bringing in someone of that talent, and that wherewithal to work and assist small businesses is the kind of people that we like to hire at the SBDC. The fact that he’s located in the KRV, he’s a community leader there, he’s well established; the fact that he’s local really provides one less canyon drive for anybody needing business advise.”
The CSUB, SBDC is hosted by Cal State Bakersfield though its office is not on campus. Bearden said, “Were not an on campus program. We’re off campus. We’re in the downtown area of Bakersfield. But we provide services to all of Kern County.”
Powers has greater access to other advisors that offer very specific talents, such as in funding, or intellectual property, or other things the public normally would have to leave the county to get access to.
Bearden said that Powers and the SBDC have been going back and forth, for a while, regarding Powers coming on board. And more recently Powers was able to free up time to devote to increasing awareness, to the public, to what the SBDC has available, paid through the public’s tax dollars. “Everything that we do, as far as the advising side of things, is free. We are part of the national franchise that is a resource partner of the US Small Business Administration. So they provide the primary funding for us. And we use that to contract with advisors and others.”
All of the SBDC’s training classes, with a very rare exception, are free of charge.
To access Power’s advice, go to the SBDC site at https://csubsbdc.com/csu-bakersfield-sbdc-central-california-sbdc.
Bearden said that it takes only a few minutes to attain the advisor, who best fits your needs. And most likely it would be Justin Powers.
Other than loan advice, the SBDC has an option to work on a business plan, and to do so with ones advisor.
There are also market research tools, out there, for small business owners to start, grow or transition ones business.
According to Bearden the SBDC intends to increase outreach to rural areas of the county, which was why they felt Powers, whom Bearden describes as a top notch, talented person was the right pick for the Kern Valley area. “It coincides with the SBA’s disaster program for the Borel Fire. So we’re engaged in that, and trying to help businesses and individuals that lost their residence during the fire,” he said.
