SBDC held our 40th Anniversary Celebration on May 30, 2024 in the Great Hall at UNH Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. We were honored by the enthusiasm of the guests, clients, partners, and speakers.
For four decades, SBDC has provided business advising and education programs to all businesses that have come through our doors with 1-500 employees, from any location in the state and from many industries and all communities. We have proudly offered guidance and education to all of the Granite State’s business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs.
The celebration was emceed by Fred Kocher and the program included Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Maggie Hassan, Congressman Chris Pappas, University of New Hampshire President James W. Dean, and Amy Bassett, U.S. Small Business Administration NH District Director.
Sue McCoo, an SBDC client for 39 years, spoke at the anniversary celebration about the key role that her SBDC advisors played in helping her with four businesses over the past four decades. She represented the broad spectrum of small businesses from around the state that were in the event’s Client Showcase, who have worked with SBDC from 1-12 years: Desserts by Sarah (Sarah Wright), Fortin Gage (Amber Morgan), Granite House of Help LLC (Crispin Milele), Hilltop Consignment Gallery (Sue McCoo), Nearview (Stefan Claesson), Outdoor New England (Marty Parichand), Radmoto USA (Chas Sullivan), Sweeties Cupcakes (Jackie Kempf), and The White Apron, (Jay & Liz Curcio).
SBDC’s State Director Liz Gray spoke about how the SBDC teams of the past and present have dedicated themselves to helping small businesses. Our Team worked with 862 clients in 2019, and post-pandemic is advising twice as many clients - 1,721 in 2023. In addition, NH SBDC had a total annual economic impact on the State of New Hampshire of $242 MM in 2023.
Over the past 40 years, SBDC teams advised or trained 118,000 entrepreneurs, and helped them start more than 2,340 businesses. They took 21,300 SBDC eCourses, had $121.7 million in client sales growth, raised over $570 million in capital infusion, and helped create or save 17,675 jobs.
We look forward to the next phase of serving the businesses and economic development ecosystem of New Hampshire.
Thank you to our sponsors, who helped SBDC host such a great celebration: Bangor Savings Bank, NBT Bank, and Northwest Bank.
Check out the photos from the 40th Anniversary Celebration here.