Illinois Small Business Development Center
Providing Guidance for Business Growth
Planning to start or expand your business? You've come to the right place.
The Illinois Small-Business Development Center is a three-way grant-funded program that provides business resources for McHenry County businesses that employ up to 500 people. Services include:
- free one-on-one business counseling
- a host of seminars where you can network with other small-business owners
- assistance obtaining funding
Free One-on-One Counseling
Our consulting services are free to all clients, start-up entrepreneurs, owners and managers of businesses. We've helped businesses in our area attract customers, improve their operations, increase sales, and obtain financing. We can review your business plan before you talk to your banker to help you prepare. Use our research and contacts to strengthen your plan, improve your operations or develop your marketing and e-business strategies. Plus, we catalog and track all federal, state and local government business assistance programs. We offer counseling and seminars/workshops on these and other topics:
- Business planning, personnel and other business management issues
- Marketing and advertising
- Finance and accounting, regulation and taxation
- Production and operations, office automation and computer training
- Business data analysis, technology and other issues necessary to promote business growth
- Operational, project and strategic planning techniques
The Procurement Technical Assistance Center
Need help bidding on federal, state or local government contracts? Our Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) helps businesses find government markets and offers help in making bids on contracts. PTAC also provides tips on how to administer government contracts once your business has them. This service is in collaboration with Rock Valley College and College of Lake County.
Export/International and E-Commerce Assistance
The ISBDC and other MCC programs provide full- and/or low-cost assistance for businesses interested in exploring or enhancing their export/international or e-commerce business.
Seminar and Workshop Series
Sign up for classes like "Starting a Business in Illinois" or "Preparing for the Bank." Or attend any of our large-group seminars to meet your fellow small-business owners and stay abreast of the changing tools to advance your business. We offer in-depth assistance with an ongoing series of classes ranging from mastering social media marketing to crafting your business plan to winning government contracts. Our classes are designed to be tactical, so you'll leave with ideas you can implement for your business immediately.
Search our schedule online by entering today's date as the Starting On Date and December 31, 2012 as the Ending By Date. Then select Continuing Education from the drop down menu under Course Levels. You may enter a keyword to refine your search results. Click Submit.
Funding Assistance
We offer assistance on qualifying for local, state, and federal loan, grant and other business assistance programs. We have up-to-date information on funding programs both public and private. We also track grant availability and qualification and we maintain personal contact with authorized individuals at the state and federal levels.
These are just some of the resources are available to you through the Illinois Small Business Development Center at McHenry County College.
The Illinois Small Business Development Center has been developed through a partnership between the U.S. Small Business Administration, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and McHenry County College under a cooperative agreement.
