The Biz Foundry’s Jeff Brown says, “All of our problems are capacity”
One of the biggest needs for the Upper Cumberland's entrepreneurship center is "financial education."
For Jeff Brown and the team at The Biz Foundry in Cookeville, success after a decade or so in business has only created more demand for its services.
“All of our problems are capacity,” says the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Upper Cumberland region’s entrepreneur center. “After 10 or 11 years, referrals are through the roof.”
One of the biggest needs is what Brown refers to as financial education. While local entrepreneurs might have a great idea, they frequently do not understand the basics of cost accounting or how to read a profit and loss statement. The Biz Foundry team also encounters entrepreneurs who don’t have any idea about the due diligence process, whether it is to raise investment capital from a group such as the local Upper Cumberland Investment Alliance (UCIA) or apply for a bank loan.
“We need to do a lot more financial workshops to help our clients be financially ready to access capital,” Brown says.
To do so, he wants to expand the Capital Navigator program if the resources can be identified and secured.
“Working with the local TSBDC (Tennessee Small Business Development Center), we have identified 41 different loan programs, and no one-stop bank of knowledge about them. Hence, our Capital Navigator, ” Brown adds.
The Biz Foundry will expand for a third time to space across the street from its main office in Cookeville. The revenue-generating space adds an additional 2,000 square feet and should be ready in the May-June timeframe.
In addition to the Cookeville facility, Brown says the entrepreneur center also operates a satellite location in McMinnville. A third location in nearby Sparta was shutdown due to its proximity to Cookeville.
Many of the previously mentioned referrals come through the Business Resource Collective, a three-organization team focused on business development. In addition to The Biz Foundry, the other members at the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, housed at the Upper Cumberland Development District, and the Center for Rural Innovation at Tennessee Tech University.
The three organizations are joining forces to host a regional “Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference” in mid-May at the new Putnam County Conference Center.
Looking forward, Brown says simply, “We have a good handle on what we should be doing, and its execution and efficiency.”
Now, it’s just a matter of finding the resources to add capacity.
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