The Economy

I've been reluctant to post on the status of the economy because everybody is doing it, but I have a few personal observations from my desk at the Innovation Center. It's always been said that when the economy takes a downturn, public services in small business development (such as the Innovation Center) will be in higher demand. This has definitely been the case over the last few months. December is typically a very slow month in small business counseling. Most people are more concerned with Christmas parties and shopping as opposed to starting or growing a small business. December 2008 was different than any I've seen before. Let me show you a breakdown by the number of new clients counseled:

As you can see, December counseling increased 100% from 2006 to 2008, and 65% from 2007 to 2008. Aside from December's increases, the Innovation Center's counseling services have been steadily increasing over the last few years.



2009 looks to be on the same upswing. January was rocky due to winter weather and I was out of the office quite a bit, but February is making up for it. I counseled 11 people last week alone.

So why the increases? I would like to think it's because the Innovation Center has developed a great reputation, therefore word of mouth referrals are spreading like the winter flu. However, the more humble side of me can point out several economic factors.

1. New year, new goals, new dreams, etc. - January is always busy
2. Some clients feel if their job is threatened, now is the time to be their own boss, assuming they have the credit and capital to make it on their own. Unemployment increases opportunities for entrepreneurship
3. Those in business feel the crunch, so they are proactively working on marketing and strategic planning

Regardless of the reasoning, we are happy to help anyone who wants to start a business or who wants to grow a business. Most of my clients are in business and looking for ways to identify customers, suppliers and competition. I am so excited about our most recent grant because we now have great resources for this kind of market research.