Voinovich School Small Business Development Center Has Record 2024

Article Presented By Hometown-Motors, Inc.

(Athens) – Ohio University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), part of the George Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service, announced that 2024 was a record-breaking year for the program, which serves small businesses in a 13-county area in southeast Ohio. The SBDC continues to surpass impact goals provided by the Ohio Department of Development and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Highlights for 2024 include:

• More than $20 million in capital infusion, the largest amount to date and blowing past the initial goal of $9 million.

• One hundred and one new business starts, the most to date.

• Currently assisting more than 1,000 clients, the most to date.

“The economic impact our clients achieved with our assistance resulted in the best year in our program history,” said Lissa Jollick, regional manager for the OHIO SBDC. “It is so much fun to watch and hear about our clients’ successful projects.”

To cap off the historic year, at the Ohio SBDC statewide convention in November, the SBDC was recognized as a leader in client satisfaction and performance, receiving the Best Customer Satisfaction award for being the highest-rated center in the state with a combined net promotor score of 100% and a high overall customer satisfaction rating.

“It is extremely rare that an organization achieves a 100% net promotor score (NPS),” Jollick added. “The net promotor score is a metric based on a single question to our clients on the likelihood that they would promote our services to a friend or colleague. The OHIO SBDC team works hard and puts their all into helping our clients achieve their dreams of starting and growing businesses.”

The Small Business Development Center at the Voinovich School is funded by the Small Business Administration, Ohio Department of Development and Ohio University. This funding enables the SBDC to provide no-cost, confidential business assistance by Certified Business Advisors to for-profit businesses in a 13-county area in Southeast Ohio. In addition to hosting the SBDC, the Voinovich School provides businesses access to TechGrowth Ohio, an assistance program for technology-based companies, and Apex Accelerators, a program to assist businesses in securing government contracts.