NBDC Receives National Recognition

NBDC has added several federal programs to its service base. Such programs include a Technical Assistance Center to aid small businesses in obtaining federal contracts. Another program is the Manufacturing Extension Partnership that has two aspects: first funding is provided to the Nebraska Food Processing Center located on the east campus of UNL. The NBDC takes care of the other kinds of Nebraska manufacturing business which total about 2,000. The NBDC provides both business management assistance and process engineering assistance. That program has offices in Omaha and Lincoln and one person works in Norfolk.

These training centers now offer a wide range of training services. Much of today's emphasis is on programs associated with the World Wide Web. Programming, however, has not been neglected, nor has the important function of computer security. NBDC provides prospective enrollees with descriptive catalogs of training program availability.

The NBDC has other business-related programs. One is the prestigious Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center for Nebraska, Iowas, Kansas, and Missouri. This program assists manufacturers and processors to develop ways to reduce pollution arising from their production processes. There are eight regional Pollution Prevention centers in the country funded by the SBA. In 2001, the NBDC was named to be the national coordinator for all regional centers. Prior to this time, the programs were administered by the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana.

One gap faced by persons desiring to become small business owners lays in the area of business finance. To meet this need, UNO organized and sponsors a venture capital club, The Nebraska Venture Group. Interaction within the group has led to further efforts to develop private sector resources in Nebraska.

The NBDC has expanded its publication program to include the NBDC Report, and the nationally recognized Nebraska Business Tax Calendar. Professor Frank Forbes authored Legal Aspects of Doing Business in Nebraska. NBDC continues to develop other publications to meet the needs of Nebraska small business owners.

As 2001 closes, the NBDC will complete its first year of operating a training project for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This project focuses on safety programs for grain elevators to reduce their compliance problems and to improve safety in the operation of grain elevators.

The NBDC annually serves about 2,000 Nebraska small businesses. Of these about 300 are in-depth cases that may require business plans or loan applications. About 120 loan packages are prepared annually. During 2000, about $37 million in loans were approved for Nebraska small businesses.

Early in the operation of NBDC, training programs were offered to businesses to help them improve the quality of their operations. Training centers provide both expertise of instruction and convenience of location the participants. The first training center (need year) was located in the Peter Kiewit Conference Center in downtown Omaha.

Its early certificate programs focused on such needed employee skills as word processing, how to select computer software, PC graphics, PC accounting, and similar courses. A highly competent staff is given as the reason for the lasting success of the NBDC. All of its business consultants have a masters degree or the equivalent. One consultant for international business is a graduate of the Thunderbird School. All consultants receive additional training on an on-going basis. The high quality of the NBDC has resulted in many kinds of commendations resulting from the efforts of CBA professors and their students.