Lone Star College Small Business Development Center to be dissolved this summer

The Lone Star College Small Business Development Center will dissolve July 31, but the SBDC will continue to provide its services to businesses in need in the Montgomery County and North Houston area, according to Steve Lawrence, executive director for the Texas Gulf Coast Network.

“Despite the fact that we’re going to kind of go our separate paths, the SBDC services are all available and fully available to the small businesses, and they’ll continue to be so,” Lawrence said.

The Lone Star College SBDC helped business owners adapt to new online business models amid the COVID-19 pandemic and provided additional marketing services, said Kyle Scott, LSC Vice Chancellor of strategic priorities.

“You need a business plan, you need to figure out your target market, you need to know how to identify the lease space or rent space to go through those contracts; How do I get a loan from the bank?” Scott said. “And [Lone Star College’s SBDC] provides you with all of those services.”

Lone Star College has been partners with the SBDC for over 35 years and services 800-1,000 clients annually, Lawrence said. In the surrounding Houston area, there are 32 SBDCs that abide by an act of Congress known as the “Small Business Development Center Act," according to Lawrence. SBDC programs within Texas are partially equally funded by state and federal dollars.

After July 31, the University of Houston, Sam Houston State University and other nearby partners will split the Lone Star College SBDC services. Small businesses wanting to receive in-person training and assistance may do so starting Aug. 2, officials said.

“The Lone Star College team, the people who we’ve been working with for the last 35 years, as we get towards the end of July, they’ll transition their clients to [other SBDC’s],” he said.

Businesses interested in receiving SBDC’s services in the Texas Gulf Coast area can visit www.sbdc.uh.edu.