Published September 2004

Chamber offers business counseling

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

The Everett Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business Center is offering free professional help and counseling for new business owners, people thinking about starting a business or a business person wanting to grow a successful business.

In partnership with the Northwest Women’s Business Center and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council’s federal procurement program, the assistance service goes well beyond providing stacks of research literature and a list of targeted Web sites.

Although those resources can be helpful, too, this service provides one-on-one, live counseling, along with access to a variety of loan programs and help in finding government buyers for company products. Even those who aren’t chamber members, and those who aren’t business women, can get the help they need.

“Our agreement with the women’s business center allows it to offer individual advice and financial help to businesses that qualify,” said Chamber President Louise Stanton-Masten, who calls the program “a huge resource.”

She praises it as a great new tool to help businesses in the area. Although the advice is free, businesses get much more professional help than the price might suggest.

The counselor, Tiffany McVeety, used to charge $150 an hour when she had her own consulting business. Now, as director of the Northwest Women’s Business Center, she’ll be at the Everett chamber the second Tuesday of each month to pass out free advice. She also has been an investment banker and has a master’s degree in business administration.

She’ll help people put together detailed financial plans to start a new business, as well as determining if an enterprise is viable. If a business qualifies for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan, she’ll help arrange it. She also will help business owners solve operating problems or map out expansions.

Of all the businesses that get SBA loans, 54 percent of them fail, according to government statistics, but out of all those that combine an SBA loan with financial counseling, 80 percent still are in business five years later, McVeety said.

Later this year, an adviser from the Senior Corps of Retired Executives also will begin free business consulting services at the chamber offices.

As part of future Business Center services, Stanton-Masten also hopes to begin using chamber members with business experience to provide mentoring services to business people who have questions or need help. Along with the new consulting services, the chamber has added a library of business research information in its Everett Events Center headquarters.

Beyond those programs, the chamber’s Business Center is adding scheduled visits by John Tamble, program manager for the Snohomish County EDC’s Procurement Technical Assistance Center program, a guide for local businesses to connect with federal purchasing programs for a variety of goods and services.

“It’s a fabulous program. So far this year in Washington state, we’ve connected businesses with $69 million in government contracts. This year, we’re shooting for more than $100 million in contracts, including around $15 million in Snohomish County,” Tamble said.

He will be at the chamber offices on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month to confer with local businesses about government contracting.

“We’re particularly pleased to be able to offer these consulting services and opportunities for contracts and financing through these new programs,” Stanton-Masten said.

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