PENDLETON — When Emily and Josh McGraw decided to open The Studio Pendleton in 2022, the couple had a vision for what they wanted the business to be: an art supply store and gallery that offered classes for kids and adults and private functions like birthday parties and team-building events.

Their vision was clear, but the details of how to make that vision a reality were a little fuzzy.

That’s when they turned to the Small Business Development Center at Blue Mountain Community College.

“Cindy Henderson was our adviser, and she was great to help us knock through all the things that we needed to create our business plan,” Emily McGraw said. “I don’t have a business background or anything like that, so she’s been super helpful with that sort of stuff.”

The McGraws’ story is not an isolated one. Every year, entrepreneurs all over the state get help launching, managing and expanding their ventures from Oregon’s network of Small Business Development Centers, creating and sustaining jobs while boosting the state’s economy.

For new business owners like the McGraws, the assistance provided by the SBDCs (as the centers are known for short) can be a godsend.

“The business plan creation part was huge for us because it answered a lot of questions beforehand that we didn’t expect to run into,” Emily said. “But because we had our business plan and had that knowledge from the Small Business Development Center, we were kind of ahead of the curve when we ran into the questions that we did.”

Business support system

The Small Business Development Center network was created by a law signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 with the goal of supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship across the country.

There are nearly 1,000 SBDCs around the nation with more than 40 across Oregon, including two serving the northeastern corner of the state: one housed at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton and the other at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

Many of the centers are affiliated with universities or community colleges. All advising services are free, and efforts are made to keep the cost of classes and training sessions as affordable as possible. Funding for the program is provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration in partnership with states, local governments and the host institutions.

The Oregon SBDC network’s core services include free, confidential advising sessions from experienced mentors on a host of issues, from business planning to analyzing cash flow, accessing capital and hiring good employees, among other things. The centers also offer free or modestly priced training sessions on topics such as tax planning, computer skills, bookkeeping and human resources.

The network’s Capital Access Team can help small business owners find the investment they need to grow, and the Global Trade Center can help connect them with international markets for their goods.

In 2022, Oregon’s SBDC network served more than 5,200 clients, held 623 training events attended by a little over 6,000 people, and helped launch 198 startups, according to the most recent annual report for the state. Businesses supported by the network created 719 new jobs and retained another 869 while accounting for $83.1 million in capital formation.

The two Small Business Development Centers in Northeast Oregon recently published their annual reports for 2023.

Over the past year, the Blue Mountain SBDC assisted in the creation of seven new businesses. It also counseled 108 startups and 121 existing businesses. Eighteen new jobs were created and 357 were supported, the center reported.

The center’s client list included 148 female business owners, 46 minorities, 26 Hispanics and 22 military veterans. Small businesses working with the center saw a sales increase of $691,189 and a capital infusion of $441,115 in 2023.

Eastern Oregon University’s Small Business Development Center, meanwhile, helped launch one new business last year while providing advising services to 56 startups and 29 going concerns. Its 85 clients included 46 female-owned businesses, 17 with minority ownership, and six apiece with Hispanic or veteran owners.

Businesses advised by the Eastern Oregon SBDC created five new jobs and retained nine more, reported a sales increase of $590,000 and experienced $2.7 million in capital infusion, according to the center’s 2023 economic impact statement.

A major economic driver

What makes small business such a big deal? Because, experts say, small business is a key driver of the economy, especially when it comes to job creation.

According to the most recent data from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, the nation’s 33.2 million small businesses account for 62.7% of all new jobs created in the United States and 43.5% of gross domestic product.

Closer to home, the agency’s most recent profile for Oregon found that 99.4% of all businesses in the state fit the SBA definition of a small business (meaning fewer than 500 employees) and employed 893,405 workers, or 54.4% of all Oregon employees.

That’s a generous definition of “small business,” to be sure. But even really small firms play an outsized role in job creation, especially in rural areas such as Eastern Oregon, according to a September 2023 summary by Oregon Employment Department regional economist Tony Wendel.

Wendel’s analysis of economic data showed that roughly 93% of all private companies in Eastern Oregon (defined as Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur, Morrow, Union, Umatilla and Wallowa counties) have fewer than 20 employees.

While the bigger firms employ more total people — some 59% of the region’s 60,600 private sector jobs are with companies that have 50 or more employees — that still leaves a big chunk of Eastern Oregon’s labor pool (41%) working for the area’s smaller companies.

A foundation for success

Many Northeast Oregon entrepreneurs feel they were set up for success by training, coaching and tools provided by a Small Business Development Center. Having an adviser walking them through the process of writing a business plan, raising funds via loans or grants and promoting their new venture, they say, has been a key factor in getting their fledgling business off the ground.

Lee Chapman, owner of Blue Lotus Tattoo in Baker City, said the shop was her first foray into running a business.

“I was very new coming into this whole idea of starting my own small business,” she said.

The Blue Mountain SBDC helped arrange a grand opening and ribbon cutting for the startup.

“It was a really successful event,” Chapman said. “I feel like I had, probably, 50 people who showed up, which is way more than I expected.”

Chapman said her adviser, Jeff Nelson, helped her coordinate multiple social media platforms and provided training on marketing.

Nelson also helped Chapman improve her knowledge of Google Maps, Instagram and Meta to promote her tattoo parlor to potential customers. The SBDC supported her online presence and helped her manage her social media marketing in ways that avoid spreading her focus too thin.

“And then he’s also been really helpful at giving me information about possible grants,” Chapman added.

Deana Tarantino took over an existing business in the Baker County community of Haines in January.

Stagecoach Gifts offers a variety of goods from local crafters, builders, small-business owners and others. Tarantino rents the space from the building owner and has 15 vendors who sell their wares in her store.

Nelson has been helping her home in on the areas she is good at and getting her help where she needs it.

“He’s awesome,” Tarantino said. “He streamlines it exactly for your needs and sends you what you need to learn those things and gives you the links to everything and helps hook you up with business planning.”

In addition to helping her get her new business off on the right foot, Tarantino said, she’s counting on Nelson to guide her through the process of hiring her first employees as the operation grows over time.

“He’s like your right hand guy,” she added, “and it is really nice to have somebody that I can be like, ‘I don’t get this, what do I do?’ ”

An ongoing commitment

Like Chapman and Tarantino, McGraw said Small Business Development Center support was crucial in launching The Studio Pendleton. Not only did she and her husband get smart advice from the SBDC, but they also got smart tools, such as a software application called Live Plan to help flesh out a business plan and manage their fledgling enterprise.

“It’s a great program that integrates with a lot of things,” McGraw said. “It’ll integrate with your QuickBooks and everything, and it takes all the information that you’ve input and then creates your business plan into a professional-looking document. (It) creates charts, projected profit-and-loss statements and everything.”

And the assistance didn’t stop once the business opened its doors. According to McGraw, her SBDC adviser has continued to provide wise counsel on tax issues, accounting procedures and other areas where she needs help.

“It’s nice that it wasn’t just like, ‘OK, your business has started — see you later, you’re out of here,’” McGraw said. “And she still sends us emails checking in if she hasn’t heard from us in a while, just to make sure that we are still on a good trajectory and don’t have any questions.”

Get in touch

Eastern Oregon has two Small Business Development Centers available to assist small-business owners and would-be entrepreneurs:

Blue Mountain

Community College

Director: Eric DeLary

Phone: 541-278-5833

Email: Blue-mountain@oregonsbdc.orgOnline: oregonsbdc.org/center/blue-mountain-sbdc/

Eastern Oregon

University

Director: Greg Smith

Phone: 541-962-1532

Email: Eastern-oregon@oregonsbdc.orgOnline: oregonsbdc.org/center/Eastern-Oregon-SBDC/