About Us - Our History

The Ohio Small Business Development Center at Ohio University provides free business consulting to small businesses - new and existing - in Athens, Hocking, Meigs, and Perry Counties. The Ohio SBDC has been hosted at Ohio University since 1988. This arrangement has allowed the Ohio SBDC to leverage the relationship with the university to gain access to resources that would otherwise not be available to the local entrepreneur.

Assistance is available in all areas of business operations and start-up. Each client works with a Certified Business Advisors (CBA) and may also work with a graduate student with special expertise or interest in the appropriate area.

Small Businesses...

Represent more than 99.7 percent of all employersEmploy more than half of all private sector employees.

Generate 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually.

Pay 44.5 percent of total U.S. private payroll.

Made up 97 percent of all identified exporters and produced 29 percent of the known export value in FY 2001.

Produce 13 to 14 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms.

Created three-quarters of U.S. net new jobs (2.5 million of the 3.4 million total) in 1999-2000.

Voinovich School, Building 20, The Ridges, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701 · 740–593-1797

The Small Business Development Center of Ohio (SBDC) program is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The SBDC program is also funded in part by the Ohio Department of Development. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact (name, address, and phone number of person who will make the arrangements).