Our expert staff of experienced small business consultants is available in each of our 11 regions covering all 83 counties in Michigan. Every consultant is certified in small business counseling and has years of success working with small businesses. Our small business team is dedicated to assisting our clients with one-on-one counseling sessions, training and market research assistance.

Counsel

Many times an entrepreneur and small business owner needs to ask questions to an business consultant. As an SBTDC client you will receive one-on-one meetings with experienced consultants to assist small business owners with:

• Developing growth strategies
• Preparing a business plan
• Determining cash flow issues
• Defining marketing initiatives
• Developing sales strategies

 

Business Education

The best place to start building business success is with education. Training is available through the MI-SBTDC Venture Start Series.

• Starting a Business
• Writing A Business Plan
• Marketing Your Business
• Financial Management
• Business Legal Issues

Other advanced training programs, workshops, and seminars are offered throughout the state.
For more information and for a list of training session in your area, click here.

 

Market Research / SEO Online Marketing

The goal of Information Based Planning (Market Research) is to provide industry, competitive, demographic, financial, and website analysis information that is useful in planning and making business decisions that will drive economic growth.

Research Tools:  The underlying success for business of all sizes is information.  The SBTDC has access to a variety of resources which can provide crucial information regarding small business including:

• Characteristics of industries
• Marketplace
• Competition
• Foreign trade
• Customer demographics

These tools assist with competitive assessments, sales development, demographic analysis, website marketing, and benchmarking to industry financials.

New This Year:  In response to the needs of our clients, the SBTDC Research Team has developed a customized SEO Online Marketing Report.  Each report offers an in-depth analysis of a client’s website, providing demographics on the visitors, tips for improving the design and keywords to drive traffic to the site and increase sales.

Research Provided:  The SBTDC Research Team completed the following number of requests.   To date this year, 32% of requests are for industry information, 23% are for financial data, 15% are for GIS mapping and 12% for Demographics.

696 requests (1-1-2012 through 5-31-2012); 1,806 requests (2011); 1,626 requests (2010)

 

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