Column: SBDC gives life, or lifeline, to businesses
“Financial literacy would solve many problems,” says Arnaldo Sehwerert, who directs the mid-Hudson office of the Small Business Development Center.
The Kingston location is one of 24 in the state that has helped individuals aspiring to go into business or to expand their business operations. The center has satellite offices in Fishkill, New Windsor, Poughkeepsie, Loch Sheldrake, Stone Ridge, Margaretville and Monticello. Its state headquarters is in Albany.
The center is engaged in a long-term project to help a firm that makes an oxygen carrier, a highly complex undertaking. “Ambulances cannot carry blood and are limited in the plasma they can carry,” Sehwerert says. “The new carrier will give blood a shelf life at room temperature of more than five years. It is a revolution in how we treat wounded in battle. But, approval takes a long time. We have been working with the firm for 13 years.”
- Arnaldo Sehwerert. Photo courtesy New York Small Business Development Center
Sehwerert points to a company to which the center was able to give immediate assistance. “This manufacturing firm was denied a loan and had a huge contract to deliver goods. Our center develops relationships with lenders, and they often feel confident with our recommendations and see the businesses in a different light. In this case they did approve the loan. As a result, the company has had an enormous amount of sales.”
Home-based businesses also come under the center”™s protective wing, both those seeking to grow and those that plan to remain home-based. “Dell and Facebook started in college dorms, and Hewlett-Packard had its origins in a garage,” he says, encouraging fledgling businesses looking to grow.
Sehwerert says he is saddened when a company comes to the center too late for help. “One of our counselors came to me with that deer-in-headlights look and told me of a company that had been losing money for four out of five years of existence. They kept putting money into the business rather than taking steps to turn the situation around.”
The program to aid small businesses was started nationally during the Carter administration as a joint effort between federal and state governments. The New York operations are run in conjunction with the State University of New York and partly funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“Most of our counselors are former small-business owners,” Sehwerert says. Former bankers also lend their expertise as counselors. “We do not give accounting or legal advice, but make referrals,” he adds.
He finds the economy and the balance of imports/exports improving. “People abroad trust American products and find them safe,” he says.
A native of Cuba, he relocated to Venezuela and operated three businesses there “one as a head hunter, one as a management consultant and a third in software systems and information technology,” he says.
He and his wife decided to settle near where she was raised and now live in Woodstock. A musician, he plays drums, guitar and keyboard for recreation or can be found cruising on his motorcycle. “My wife and I love to travel. We have a convertible and in good weather drive around New York state. It is an amazing state. We are so lucky to be here,” he says. In traveling abroad, he finds Madrid his favorite destination.
Challenging Careers focuses on the exciting and unusual business lives of Hudson Valley residents. Comments or suggestions may be emailed to Catherine Portman-Laux at cplaux@optonline.net.