SMALL BUSINESS ADVISORS

The EDPNC’s Small Business Advisors provide small business owners, startups, and entrepreneurs with free assistance and one-on-one phone counseling regarding regulatory and licensing requirements, financial resources, training, and more. The advisors, who serve both English and Spanish-speaking clients, can also assist businesses with finding additional information they need from other state and local resources. In 2023, the SBA team assisted businesses in all 100 counties, earning a 98% satisfaction rating from clients. 

In addition to the one-on-one support advisors offer to clients, the team partnered with state and federal agencies for a series of webinars. The Small Business Advisors joined the IRS, the North Carolina Department of Revenue, and the North Carolina Secretary of State for the “Doing Business in North Carolina Joint Agency Webinar Series.” This series was presented two times each quarter with the first session titled Planning to Start a Business and the second Starting a Business in North Carolina.  

The Small Business Advisors also attended statewide networking events to connect with entrepreneurs face to face and present the
ins and outs of starting a business in the state. In August, the advisors attended BLK BIZ SUMMIT, a one-day event focusing on the
development of Black entrepreneurs, and delivered the team’s “How to Start a Business” presentation. It was hosted by the Durham Tech Small Business Center and Give it to the People.

Highlight – Chapters Bookstop  

Like many Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic provided Dawnn Sandes with ample time to think about the future, and it was in 2021 that she had the idea for a mobile bookstore. Sandes is an avid reader and could not get the concept out of her mind, so in 2022 she found a retired 1989 school bus and renovated it herself. In June 2023, Chapters Bookstop hit the road in Asheville, visiting schools, breweries, coffee shops, and local festivals and markets. Chapters has everything an average bookstore has, just on a smaller scale, including children’s books, fiction, nonfiction, and everything in between. 

“The EDPNC’s Small Business Advisors were very helpful and great to work with. The team let me know what I had done correctly in setting up my business and what I still had to do, like register for my state tax ID and navigate city and county requirements,” said Sandes. “I was lost trying to decipher those regulations and the Small Business Advisors walked me through each one, providing me with the information I needed for each step of the process.”