From the Director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center

You may not know it to look at me, but I love to fish. As a child I would get up early and go fishing with my father and siblings. But I must admit that as an adult, I’m a lazy fisher, preferring to use a bobber rather than cast out continually. Instead, I prefer to sit back and wait, hoping that we can catch dinner (which I’ll have to clean and cook). Fishing teaches me patience, a virtue I am in short supply of. A frequent prayer of mine is "God give me patience and give it to me NOW."  I'm still waiting.

Unfortunately now I really need that patience as we wait for the Illinois State legislature to pass a state budget, which impacts all state funded programs including the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State. What we do know is that starting July 1, 2007, we must increase our cash match of any Small Business Administration/IL Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity funding from 50% cash to 75%. Although the university generously supports the Illinois SBDC at ISU, it has been necessary to raise funds from outside the university to help our small center along. Now we must seek additional community support and raise additional funds. We appreciate all the organizations that have supported us during our first two years and hope they will continue to grow with us in the future. Without your support, we would not be able to assist the over 230 clients of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at ISU.

Undaunted – well, maybe a little daunted – we have many new projects in the works. C7, the Circles of Seven Mentoring Program will kick off on Wednesday, July 25th at 5:30 PM at Central Station Café. A joint project between the Illinois Small Business Development Center at ISU and the Economic Development Council of Bloomington/Normal, C7 combines successful and seasoned entrepreneurs with small and medium-sized businesses in a confidential learning environment. Special thanks to those seasoned entrepreneurs in the community who have stepped up to be mentors to our entrepreneur protégés. By fostering an entrepreneurial culture in our community we can create more healthy businesses in the area.

Our training programs are designed to provide skills to entrepreneurs at all levels and we have a new training program scheduled for mid-August. QuickBooks beginner and advanced will teach you both how to set up QuickBooks appropriately for yourself as well as show the ins and outs of tricky transactions and report-generation. Its QuickBooks real quick – offered as two half day programs. As our article on "reviewing financial statements like a pro" states, we've seen a lot of ugly financial statements. Give yours a face lift (legally).  

As summer rolls along, always too fast, I hope you find time to slow down and enjoy your favorite pastimes.