New SBDC chief looks to deliver hands-on support

DEVELOPING STORY: Mark A. Stewart, the new state director of the R.I. Small Business Development Center at URI, speaks with executive assistant Patti Correia. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
DEVELOPING STORY: Mark A. Stewart, the new state director of the R.I. Small Business Development Center at URI, speaks with executive assistant Patti Correia. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

The R.I. Small Business Development Center is getting back into motion after six months of restructuring as a result of its move from Johnson & Wales University to the University of Rhode Island.
New SBDC State Director Mark A. Stewart is at the helm at the URI campus in South Kingstown. Three regional directors and an administrative assistant have been hired, and three more hires are expected soon, including a bilingual business counselor, said Stewart, who began on June 23 and who has more than 20 years of experience in business management.
The potential for growth of small businesses in Rhode Island appealed to Stewart, whose previous position was director of the Small Business Center at Halifax Community College in Weldon, N.C., for four years.
“Rhode Island is a different culture and environment. In North Carolina, I serviced two large counties with high dropout rates, high unemployment, a high crime rate and a high illiteracy rate,” said Stewart. “There was very low opportunity for economic development, so I had to come up with strategies designed for that region.”
Stewart brings with him a universal perspective that he found encourages the growth of small business.
“You still have the core mission – dealing with people who have goals, who have ambitions, who have dreams,” said Stewart. “My goal in Rhode Island is to assist people with their goals and ambitions and dreams, and when their businesses thrive, it’s good for the state.”
One clear difference from his previous region is that Rhode Island has a substantial Latino population. That’s why Stewart is hiring a bilingual business counselor to be based in the new location of the SBDC Providence regional office at the R.I. Commerce Corporation. “Providence has the largest population of Spanish speakers, so the bilingual counselor will be based there,” said Stewart. “I’m hiring two other business counselors. One will focus on networking with minority groups and the other will be a floater, working across the state.”
New hires and locations are part of a major restructuring of the SBDC that comes with its new host, URI, which won the contract from the U.S. Small Business Administration, effective Jan. 1, 2014.
The SBDC had been hosted since 2006 by Johnson & Wales, which didn’t reapply for the SBA contract.
With the change, came the move from the SBDC’s main office at the JWU campus in downtown Providence to new headquarters at the URI main campus in South Kingstown.
The northern regional office is located at the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce in Lincoln, led by Regional Director Douglas Jobling, who held the same position with the previous SBDC structure.
Jobling has been with SBDC for 31 years and was the state director for 15 years when it was first launched at Bryant University in 1983.
“The new model is for more intensive work between the center director and the clients,” said Jobling. “The center director will work very closely with the business and make recommendations.”
The new hosting by URI also comes with a change in the SBDC business model.
“The different approach is that previously SBDC hired consultants to do the business advising,” said Stewart. “Now instead of consultants, the SBDC will do the business advising hands-on,” with staff
“The mission is to provide extreme customer service at the highest level. When you have a consultancy model you lose the intimacy of the relationship with the client,” said Stewart. “My goal is to have us understand the client’s needs, goals and mission, and then educate them as to business planning and help them execute their plan through startup, functioning and follow-up.” The contract for the state SBDC is awarded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and goes through the Rhode Island district of the SBA.
“The new structure was approved by the SBA and we’re very pleased with it,” said SBA Rhode Island District Director Mark S. Hayward. “The new model is more consistent with what SBDCs do around the nation.”
URI is preparing its application for the second year of hosting the SBDC, said Jim Petell, the university’s associate vice president for intellectual property and economic development. He oversees the center and served as its interim director from Jan. 1 until Stewart moved into the director’s position.
“We are looking forward to providing a broad suite of expertise to small businesses,” said Petell.
SBDC’s new regional director for its Providence center, Joshua Daly, is looking forward to providing those services in his home state, after many years of work in New Orleans, the most recent with the SBDC there. Daly grew up in South Kingstown and began his new position, based at CommerceRI, on July 7.
“In New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, I saw small-business owners, neighborhood groups, churches and ordinary people coming together to revitalize the community.
“Coming back to Rhode Island and knowing how the economy is and how it’s affected my family and friends, I’m honored to be part of the team that’s doing something to make it better,” said Daly. “I’ll be working in the trenches with small-business owners and that’s exciting.” •

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