Starting a business can be a scary thing. Whether it’s following a passion or trying to escape a 9 to 5 job, the journey of becoming an entrepreneur can feel like heading into a lonely life of long days, hard work and figuring out how to start, run and grow a successful business without help from anyone.
But what if an organization of experts existed to help entrepreneurs on their journeys...for free?
Here in the region, we have just that. The Michigan Small Development Center (SBDC) offers expert assistance to people looking to start or grow their own businesses at no cost. We sat down with Patrick McElgunn, a Certified Business Consultant from the SBDC, to talk about what services it offers to entrepreneurs, his path to the SBDC and the small business environment in Midland and the Great Lakes Bay Region.
Q: Can you start off by telling me what the SBDC does?
A: Yeah, good question. The SBDC is the Small Business Development Center. At a macro level, we help people start, run and grow small businesses. For us specifically in Midland, our bread and butter is one-on-one consulting. If someone wakes up in the morning with a dream or a vision of something they want to do, but they have no idea how to open a business or run a business or what the next step is, we can walk them through that process. We help with business plans and financial projections, and we can help them get connected to resources within the Great Lakes Bay Region that might be beneficial.
We help an entrepreneur take an idea and move it into a business that is sustainable, helping them understand their business from front to back.
Then once they’re open, we have a lot of resources that will help them look at marketing, financials and general troubleshooting and support. I act as a Certified Business Consultant, so my goal is ultimately to sit down with the entrepreneur and run them through the gauntlet, so to speak.
And we also have specialty consultants. For example, our Growth Teams help companies who want to scale and grow. We help them take what they do and then put in processes and procedures that might help them make a jump.
Q: This seems like such a powerful resource, because a lot of people have ideas and want to make a living doing something they love, but they may not necessarily be starting out with the business skills necessary to survive.
A: Yeah, exactly. People don’t ever get into business because they just want to crunch numbers, fill out spreadsheets and go through the hiring process. So part of this is helping them understand how to fit those things in and put them behind the scenes of the actual activity that they want to perform as a business.
Q: If an entrepreneur is reading this and wants your help, how do they connect with you?
A: Probably the easiest thing is to for them to jump on our website, which is
www.SBDCmichigan.org. Right on the front page is a button they can hit to connect with us.
Q: What is your favorite part of your work with the SBDC?
A: If I had to pick one thing, my favorite part is helping someone get their first “win”, whatever that is. They got the loan, they opened their doors, they made their first sale. That makes whatever the grind and the messiness trying to make everything work totally worth it.
Q: Yeah, I can imagine it can be exciting for both you and the business owner to have proof that all the work was worth it.
A: Oh yeah, exactly. I like that a lot. As far as digging into the actual work, I love showing people things that expand their scope and how they think about their business. We expand their vision, and really open up what the business can be and how creative we can make something.
The critical role of my job as a consultant is to ask really good questions, then listen to understand and then ask more questions.
Q: I think it can be easy for someone who is running their business to put on the blinders because they’re trying to work hard and make everything happen. But a lot of times, what they need is for someone else to come in and say, “But what about this…?”
A: Yeah, it can be hard. You’re in the day to day grind, putting out the fires, trying to get everything done before the end of the day.
Q: Considering all the small business you come into contact with, are there similar things they struggle with? Where do they need help the most?
A: Good question. From a startup perspective, I would say it’s making time. People have work and school and family responsibilities, and figuring out how to start a business is the “extra” thing. So then the problem becomes how are you going to block intentional time to work on this? And how do you become consistent with that time? It doesn’t matter - it could be an hour a day, or an hour two or three times a week, but consistency is what matters.
Q: How did you end up at the SBDC?
A: By accident! Looking back and reflecting on it, you can see the path and how it’s led me here. And clearly, for me it’s God’s plan that I can see.
I grew up in Midland, swore I’d never come back, my wife and I got married...I came back! She got a job working at the hospital and I was just trying to find work. It was 2010 and nobody was hiring. I just had a general business management degree, so I started working part-time at Home Depot. During that time I was also coaching lacrosse at Midland High, CMU, and Northwood, so I opened up a lacrosse equipment store. We had a finished basement in our house for that. We bootstrapped it, and it was by appointment only. I did that for three years and then closing it when we started having a family and I felt like I had to make a decision one way or the other, so I started pursuing my MBA at Saginaw Valley.
Halfway through my MBA, a good friend sent me the role with the SBDC. It was a good fit because at that point, all my friends and family were sick of me talking about how the businesses that I thought could be great in Midland! So I applied and Christine Greve, our Regional Director really took the leap of faith with me because she was passionate about seeing the area grow and thrive.
Q: That is quite the path!
A: Yeah, and I think that one of the things I’ve learned is that no matter how good or how bad it is, the question should always be, “What can I learn from this?” and just continue to try and get better and move forward. You may not know what direction you’re going, but it’s just constantly looking for opportunities to keep moving forward.
People always ask the big, famous entrepreneurs, “How much of it was luck and how much of it was skill?” I’m a big believer in the idea that if you’re trying to learn as much as you can with the experiences that you’re in, you have a general idea of where you want to go, and you just try to get better and equip yourself, you then have the eyes and the intuition to see the opportunities as they come. You set yourself up to be able to take advantage of those opportunities when they arrive.
Q: Do you own any businesses yourself?
A: We have one actively going right now and that’s our health coaching business where we help support people by identifying what their health goals are and work towards those.
And then we have a second one we’ve been slowly working on for about three years, building it up.
Q: Can you give us any clues as to what that is?
A: Hah, not quite yet! But it’s coming soon. Keep an eye out for it. 2405 Abbot Street, it’s an old Chemical Bank branch that we bought and we’re in the process of renovating that right now. We’re looking at opening before the holiday season.
Q: What do you see happening right now in Midland and in the Great Lakes Bay Region on the small business front?
A: So many people now have a side hustle. They like their full-time job because it gives them a stable income, benefits, and they may not be ready or have a desire to jump all the way into working for themselves.
But they have a hobby, or a skill, or a passion for something they do on the side that gives them fulfillment and some extra cash. More and more people realize that something like this is an option, they can do it, and they can make it whatever they want. It’s a way to start out easy and get their feet wet. That mentality is growing more and more is really neat.
On a larger scale across the region, I think you see communities calling for and supporting small businesses. Everybody wants Trader Joes and things like that, but if a new small business pops up, if that business lets people know they exist, people WANT to support those businesses and try them out.
There are also a lot more organizations and investors looking to provide the structure to set up opportunities for small businesses. If you’re in Saginaw, you have the Saginaw Economic Development Corporation, and they work with entrepreneurs to provide an alternative source of lending and financing. You have Dow Chemical here in Midland donating money for the Center City corridor. The Midland Area Community Foundation has the Impact Investment Fund, which again is another alternative financing option for local businesses. This area has so many organizations and individuals who are investing back into the community now and that’s making a big difference because it’s lowering the significant barrier of money. People have options now.
We even have something coming up with through the Midland Chamber that we’re working on that’s going to be smaller scale, grassroots support. We’re still working out the details, but there’s some collaboration there with some other organizations and we’re hoping to have things finalized and officially announced and launched sometime before the end of the year.
Q: Anything you want to say to close this conversation out?
A: I would say it’s never too early to have a conversation, you can’t do it all and entrepreneurship doesn’t happen in a bubble or a silo. Talk to people and reach out for help. Focus on your strengths and build a good team around you...and keep an eye on that bank property because something’s coming in the fall!