UW-Whitewater: Business outreach centers win grants for UW-Whitewater

Contact: Ronald “Bud” Gayhart

262-472-1689

gayhartr@uww.edu

WHITEWATER — Two outreach centers at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater have won $204,462 in federal grants to continue their work helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and inventors.

The grants from the U.S. Small Business Administration will support ongoing operations of the Small Business Development Center and the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center.

The funding reflects a vote of confidence in the work of the centers, said Ronald “Bud” Gayhart, director of the Center for Innovation and Business Development, the umbrella organization for the other two centers in the College of Business and Economics.

“The Small Business Administration sees this as a process for economic development,” Gayhart said. “We certainly touch a lot of businesses.”

Lois Smith, interim dean of the College of Business and Economics, said the centers are sources of expertise and assistance for the region and exemplify how the university can serve as a resource for the community.

“In times of regional high unemployment, the centers provide services when our business partners need them most,” Smith said.

The Small Business Development Center at UW-Whitewater (http://sbdc.uww.edu) offers assistance with marketing, strategic planning, resources and other issues to help small businesses and entrepreneurs. It serves about 100 business clients each year in Dodge, Jefferson, Rock, Walworth and Waukesha counties.

The Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (http://wisc.uww.edu) helps businesses and independent inventors assess new products. With a database of more than 1,000 industry experts in various fields, the center helps clients evaluate market opportunities, patent issues, potential competition and other factors, Gayhart said.

It serves state, national and international clients, conducting about 200 confidential market research studies each year, he said.

“Nobody does what WISC does anywhere in the state of Wisconsin,” and its nonprofit model is rarely duplicated even in other states, he said.

Federal funding also helps the centers employ 20 to 25 UW-Whitewater students each semester. They learn about small-business issues and how to conduct market research, building skills beyond what they learn in the classroom, Gayhart said.

Both centers boast plenty of success stories.

Roy Magsamen of Fort Atkinson, for example, consulted the Small Business Development Center on how to turn his engine repair workshop into a full-time business. He enrolled in Business Plan Boot Camp and learned his idea would not be profitable.

But when a related opportunity arose, he returned to the campus center, updated his plan and made it work. Now he runs RM Small Engine Repair, selling and servicing lawn mowers, snowblowers and other equipment.

Gayhart likes to say the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center handles products “from stem cells to golf gadgets,” which sums up its versatility. The center has looked at such inventions as a unique gardening tool, a portable toilet and a honey-based energy bar, plus plenty of industrial products.

Soft plastic fishing lures invented by Ben Hobbins, a UW-Whitewater alumnus, were assessed by the center last year before being declared one of the Top 10 inventions of the year by Popular Science magazine.