Building business: Gallatin Development Corp. gets federal grant

When an entrepreneur visits the Gallatin Development Corp. with an idea for starting a new business, the nonprofit can help.

But the GDC doesn’t have a lot to offer companies that have been around for awhile and are looking to grow or expand into new markets.

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/09/15/news/grant.txt

That’s about to change.

A $989,000 grant from the federal Small Business Administration will give the GDC and the Missoula Community Development Corp. the resources necessary to make up for that lack of service.

"What this money will be used for is to take what we’re already doing through the Small Business Development Center to another level," said Mark Evans, GDC executive director.

Small Business Development Centers, also funded by the SBA, primarily focus on helping entrepreneurs develop business plans.

"What we haven’t been able to do through the SBDC is work with … existing businesses that are really poised to grow, but need assistance in some areas," Evans said.

Initially, some of the money will be used to hire new staff, said Evans and Rosalie Sheehy Cates, executive director of the Missoula Community Development Corp.

Then, rather than having one person who is expected to know the answers to every question in the world, the goal is to identify experts who could work on a referral basis, Cates said.

"I see us developing a network of professionals," Cates said. "We can bring in the people we already know can help them."

The grant grew out of discussions between Cates and former GDC director Alicia Bradshaw about whether their organizations were doing enough to foster business growth.

"Bozeman and Missoula are pretty similar communities, with a lot of business activity and interesting businesses growing in interesting ways," Cates said.

"Alicia and I had a lot of conversations about the potential of those businesses to really show the new way Montana’s economy might move," she said.

Now she and Evans want to use the grant to expand their services over the next three to five years and be a model for other SBDC offices in the state.

The details still have to be worked out, Evans said, but the idea is to be able to work with larger businesses on a longer term basis.

For example, he said, if a local manufacturer wanted to break into a new market like Southeast Asia, the SBDC might be able to work with it for six months or more to help make that happen.

"We will provide a much more in-depth and specialized type of assistance for a local company," Evans said, "that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford."