Economic Vitality Committee Agenda and Packet 2021 10 22

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SUBJECT: ENGAGING SERVICES FOR BUSINESS SUPPORT WITH THE BOULDER SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER DATE: OCTOBER 22, 2021 PAGE 2 OF 3 business retention and expansion and new business attraction. These are important services which build more resilient businesses and enhance our communities as places that businesses want to start and grow in. By partnering, Louisville and Lafayette could offer businesses professional technical assistance and subject matter experts in programming, while limiting costs and creating administrative efficiencies. Louisville and Lafayette reached out to the Executive Director of the Boulder SBDC to gauge the organization's interest in and ability to provide services to the cities. The Boulder SBDC is one of 15 SBDC Centers statewide and has been serving Boulder County businesses since 1994. The SBDC is a non-profit economic development entity that provides business consulting, workshops, and resource connections. Over 20 years, the SBDC has worked with over 5,000 businesses in Boulder County. Although Louisville and Lafayette businesses are currently eligible to receive services from the SBDC, staff believes these opportunities are not sufficient for the existing need. The biggest barrier is that a business must know that the SBDC is an available service to them and initiate the outreach. Traditionally, they would have also needed to travel to Boulder to receive service. The SBDC is now doing much of its work virtually, and businesses in both communities participated in some of the many webinars they have developed and offered throughout the pandemic. Over time, both the City of Boulder and the City of Longmont have engaged unique and direct services from the Boulder SBDC tailored to fill service gaps in their own economic development programming. These arrangements allow the cities to have the SBDC develop training and workshops unique to the needs of their businesses. In addition, the SBDC provides targeted marketing and more in -person operations within those communities, so that businesses do not need to leave the town in which they do business to receive these services and benefits. Discussions with the SBDC about the targeted businesses, consulting needs, desired programming, and framework of support the cities sought continued over the summer. Included as Attachment #1 is a draft proposal from the Boulder SBDC that reflects staff's recommendations for small business support. The Boulder SBDC Director, Sharon King, and the SBDC Consultant that would provide "lead" services to our communities, Dan King, have also met with Louisville and Lafayette city management and economic development staff. The proposal has been designed in a way that it could be translated into a formal agreement for services should the project be supported. The main components of the proposed services to Louisville and Lafayette businesses from the Boulder SBDC include: • Dedicate a minimum of 300 hours per year of consulting to Louisville businesses, focusing on small businesses and entrepreneurs. Rather than simply serving the businesses that happen to approach them for services, the SBDC would be proactively reaching out to businesses to provide this greater level of consulting assistance. Agenda Packet P. 18