On April 30, Cassius Butts, regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), honored the Kennesaw State University Small Business Development Center (KSU SBDC) during the Small Business Week awards luncheon. The event was hosted by the Georgia Quality Lenders Circle (GLQC) in Atlanta.
Drew Tonsmeire, area director of the KSU SBDC, was present during the luncheon along with his team of business consultants, Andy Fried and Antonio Barrios to accept the award and to thank the lenders, partners and small business owners present at the event. The Kennesaw State SBDC was awarded the “2014 Regional Small Business Development Center Excellence in Innovation Award.” The region consists of the eight Southeastern States.
The Kennesaw State SBDC is part of the nationally respected University of Georgia SBDC and is responsible for innovations such as a mobile app for loan analysis, online class instruction and many more innovative and captivating programs that assist small business owners. For five years, it led all Georgia SBDC offices in capital formation of over $56 million. A recent survey of Kennesaw State SBDC’s clients revealed that sales for 2012 grew by over 18% from the previous year while experiencing a 14% job growth, because of the services offered by the SBDC.
“The SBDC was established to meet the specialized needs of small business owners and I am proud of our unique partnership which promotes the development and growth of small businesses,” said Cassius Butts. “The SBDC team creates jobs by providing small businesses with in-depth counseling and assistance to help them increase their sales. The SBDC Network is one of our most productive federal management and technical assistance programs for small businesses. I applaud Kennesaw State SBDC.”
The SBA Georgia District Office honored ten Small Business Week winners during the awards ceremony. For more information on these awards, please contact mark.gibson@sba.gov. For more information on SBA’s National Small Business Week, please visit click here.
