READER'S WRITE

The State of New Jersey needs to increase support for small businesses – the backbone of the State’s economy – as much as its neighboring States have increasingly supported their growing small businesses.

The non-profit New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) is calling on the Governor and State Legislature to boost its support of small businesses to the same levels as small businesses in New York, Pennsylvania and such southern states as Georgia and North Carolina.

Their Legislatures and Governors invest far more in small business assistance services through their Statewide Small Business Development Centers. While our State Legislature over the past two years has seen the need to increase funding even in fiscally hard times, other states are doing much more to make sure their small businesses succeed.

Pennsylvania invested $6.7 million in its small business program, while New York’s support was $2.5 million, compared with New Jersey’s $800,000 investment in small business. Georgia and North Carolina (with almost comparable population levels as New Jersey), whose business attraction policies are luring businesses to their states, also invest far greater State funding in their SBDC networks with Georgia investing more than $2 million and North Carolina more than $1.5 million.

What’s good for small business is good for the State of New Jersey. New Jersey’s small businesses account for more than half of the State’s economy. Last year, conservatively $10 million in sales tax revenues were returned to the State by small business clients served by NJSBDC.

The NJSBDC program does not cost the State of New Jersey. The program is cost-neutral. The $800,000 the State invests in small businesses is returned multiple-times over. For every $1 invested in the national Small Business Development Centers, $2.66 is returned to the taxpayer. That’s more than what most investors get on Wall Street – a more than 150 percent return on their investment!

New Jersey’s program actually pays for itself, generating more than it costs through job creation and retention, sales, income tax and other business tax revenues returned to the State Treasury from small business owners assisted by the NJSBDC network, and the “multiplier effect” of facilitated financing through loans and procurement contract opportunities – keeping that wealth in the State.

New Jersey’s program attracts $2.3 million in federal dollars from the Small Business Administration (SBA), allowing the $800,000 in State funding to be leveraged and assistance to small business is enhanced and expanded as a result of these financially beneficial programs.

More than 95 percent of all businesses in the State are small business. Investment in the NJSBDC program is crucial to the future economic and job growth of New Jersey.

Our network last year helped its clients tap $82 million worth of procurement contracts in the federal/state/corporate sector. In addition, the network facilitated other financing including loans and grants totaling more than $23 million dollars as well as helped retain and create 10,000 jobs for the citizens of New Jersey.

Of the more than 7,000 clients assisted by the Small Business Development Centers in every one of New Jersey’s 21 counties, 26 percent are African-American, 5 percent Asian American, 43 percent are women and 12 percent are Hispanic.

Danielle Humphreys immigrated to the United States from Brazil five years ago. She recognized an opportunity, to buy a language school in Long Branch in 2003, working four jobs to save enough to make the purchase. She renamed the business, YES! Language School. Humphreys enrolled in the Business Startup Workshop at Brookdale Community College in early 2004. She also sought Marketing and Business Planning counseling from the Monmouth/Ocean Small Business Development Center to help manage the tremendous growth the business is enjoying. Over the past two years, income grew 320%; instructor staff increased over 300%; and, she moved to a larger facility.

Her contributions to the community through the services she provides and the jobs she created were a product of the counseling and services provided by the Small Business Development Center.

It’s time for our state government to step up and invest in small business to strengthen our economy by increasing jobs and revenues, which is exactly what our State needs in trying to balance the State budget.

Brenda Hopper
State Director
New Jersey Small Business Development Centers

William Nunnally
Regional Director
Monmouth/Ocean Small Business Development Center

(Brenda Hopper is the state director of the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers with development centers and satellite offices at colleges and universities in all of the State’s 21 counties. William Nunnally is the regional director of the Monmouth/Ocean Small Business Development Center at Brookdale Community College serving Monmouth and Ocean Counties.)