Have a great idea for starting your own business, but don’t know quite how to get started? Or, have you started a small business and find you’re running into challenges you hadn’t anticipated?

Starting and running a business requires ideas, energy, planning--and education. UWM’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) promotes economic growth in Wisconsin by helping current and future small business owners get their businesses going and keep them running efficiently. The center, located within UWM’s School of Continuing Education, offers resources, expertise and education.

The center serves all small businesses and entrepreneurs, but offers some special programs for minority entrepreneurs under its umbrella. For example, El Centro Empresarial works with community partners to offer bilingual training, technical assistance, access to resources and networking activities in the Latino community.

The SBDC’s Minority Entrepreneurship program helps minority business owners learn how to overcome challenges, access capital, analyze markets, form networks and get technical assistance.

Courses are designed to help current and potential business owners develop business plans, meet other business people in roundtables, and learn about legal, human resources, taxes and insurance issue specific to small businesses. Members of the SBDC team members are professionals who have either owned or operated businesses themselves. As needed, experts from areas such as export-import, human resources, intellectual property and other areas teach classes at the center.

The SBDC-Milwaukee is one of 14 SBDC offices in Wisconsin, operating through the UW Extension, UW campus centers and other specialty centers. The SBDC is a key part of Governor Doyle’s Wisconsin Entrepreneur’s Network (WEN. The local office serves entrepreneurs in Milwaukee, Ozaukee and Washington counties. The centers were created in 1979 to connect the UW-System’s expertise and resources with small businesses. The Milwaukee Center was one of the first of its type in the country.

Since 2000, the center has held more than 200 specialized courses, provided training to more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, counseled more than 1,000 clients and graduated more than 300 from the Entrepreneurial Certificate program.

For more information, check out the center’s website at www.sce-sbdc.uwm.edu or call 227-3240.