FIU to help local businesses grow with consulting services at no cost


The Florida Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC) has awarded FIU a grant to establish a program that will help local companies grow and create new jobs.

pinocenter

FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center in Brickell

The Florida SBDC at FIU, which will provide no-cost, one-on-one business consulting to local companies, will be a sister organization to FIU’s Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center, which offers a variety of workshops, seminars and networking events for entrepreneurs and business owners.

College of Business Dean David Klock and Amelia Rea Maguire, executive director of management development at the College of Business, will lead the initial strategy and talent development for the center. The College of Business is conducting a national search for an executive director who will oversee both the SBDC and Pino centers.

“This is a special opportunity that takes our commitment of entrepreneurship to the next level,” Dean Klock said. “The ability now to provide one-on-one consulting to our local companies builds on 10 years of promoting business growth through our Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center.”

The Florida SBDC Network, hosted by the University of West Florida, is a partnership of Florida’s top universities and colleges committed to growing the economies they serve. It is designed to deliver high-quality business and economic development assistance to existing and aspiring small businesses to promote growth, expansion, innovation, profitability, management improvement, employment and economic development. To accomplish this objective, and meet the specialized and complex needs of the increasingly diverse small business community, the network creates a broad-based system of assistance by linking resources of the federal, state and local governments with the resources and knowledge of institutions of higher education, regional and local economic development organizations and, where appropriate, the private sector.

“Florida International University is a recognized local and global leader in supporting entrepreneur and small business development,” said State Director for the Florida SBDC Network Michael Myhre. “Our new partnership with FIU, together with the resources of our other partners, will ensure the businesses in Miami-Dade County have access to the best resources possible to support their needs and success.”

The Florida SBDC at FIU will operate out of multiple offices throughout Miami-Dade County and will provide a team of experienced and certified professional business consultants with expertise in financial management, marketing, international expansion, the technology sector and more. The center will be operational in January 2014.

For more information about the Florida SBDC at FIU, visit business.fiu.edu/SBDC.

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