Mission
We champion entrepreneurial success through business counseling and educational programs developed at the local, regional and statewide level to support Wisconsin small business creation and growth.

Vision
We help build great Wisconsin companies.

SBDC Profile
Wisconsin’s SBDC network consists of twelve service centers and four specialty centers, all located on four-year University of Wisconsin campuses. The significant educational and research resources offered through this strong university system provide the SBDC network with an array of expertise from faculty, staff and students.

Typically, centers serve over 1,500 counseling clients annually, about 20 percent of whom are long-term (over 5 hours of contact time) clients, and train more than 8,000 existing and aspiring entrepreneurs through a wide variety of educational classes and programs. In 2009, eight PeerSpectives peer learning groups exist across the state, targeted to high impact businesses. Facilitated by the centers, these groups meet at least monthly and follow the Edward Lowe curriculum. The specialty center programs serve a statewide client base and consist of:

Wisconsin Business AnswerLine (WIBAL) answers over 2,500 calls annually from nascent and existing business across the state. WIBAL also maintains the On-Line Counselor, which is an electronic library of educational tools available to the SBDC statewide network.

Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (WISC) helps clients make wise marketing decisions and develop new products, performing more than 250 market feasibility assessments each year.

Center for Innovation and Development (CID) develops and models prototypes.

Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation (CATI) focuses on technology transfer, primarily connecting “unused” technology from larger companies to entrepreneurs who can then start or expand business.

As host institution for the Wisconsin SBDC network, the University of Wisconsin-Extension (UW-EX) plays a strong role in economic development across the state. UW-EX’s role is to translate the research of the University of Wisconsin into practical applications for the citizens of the state, and the SBDC program is an effective outreach component in this mission. The SBDC Lead Center is housed in the UW-EX Division of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (DEED). This division’s primary activity is to support entrepreneurship and foster collaboration between the various university, state, regional and local public economic development groups.

The Wisconsin SBDC addresses the goals of its other primary stakeholder and funder, the SBA, through its continuing focus on high impact businesses, innovation, and long-term counseling. According to the most recent Program Announcement, outside of one-to-one counseling, supporting technology transfer and company R&D is a target function for SBDCs.  The SBDC’s partnership with the University of Wisconsin and the roles of its specialty programs support this goal.