Five Questions: Rayanna Anderson

Q: What is the purpose of the SBDC?

A: We are here to create economic impact for southwest Missouri, and by that I mean new jobs, money for small businesses, including loans, increasing sales, helping new businesses get started, helping people purchase existing businesses, helping existing businesses grow in both revenue and sales. We’re an outreach program of the college of business administration for the university, so we’re educators in that sense, but we provide it through training and seminars, not through credit classes.

Q: In addition to one-on-one training, what seminar topics does the center cover?

A: My favorite one is the financial series about understanding financial statements. We find that small business owners typically know how to perform their services and make their products. They typically require additional help in the financial area. We also do a monthly class on writing a business plan. That’s designed for people who might not be in business yet, but a high percentage is people who are in business and need to expand or they never wrote a business plan.

Q: Southwest Missouri has been called the state’s economic engine. Why?

A: We’re not tied to one specific industry. We’ve had a lot of population growth. We have an outstanding and recognized work ethic in the area. We have great educational facilities, and we have strong support systems including great banks. We have a great chamber. All of those things create a great infrastructure for small business, and we’ve been recognized for that.

Q: Where could the region stand to improve?

A: I think anything we can do to help small business owners better understand operating a business is going to improve business performance, and that comes through education at some level. Anything we can do to help small business owners through the paperwork nightmare also helps, and there’s been a lot of effort in the legislature on that, because a lot of businesses are small enough that (the owners) are wearing so many hats.

Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to small-business owners?

A: The areas that we find the need exists is in understanding marketing. That includes advertising, but advertising is just a small part of marketing. There’s branding, understanding who your customer is and how to reach them, understanding the industry and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the whole industry, and seeing your business’ strengths and weaknesses. We talk about how to identify who your customer is. I love the answer that ‘everyone is my customer.’ In reality, everybody probably isn’t your customer. You have to identify who your potential customers really are and market to them.