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America’s 30 million small businesses are the cornerstones of our communities. When a Main Street business succeeds, not only do hard-earned dollars get reinvested back into our neighborhoods, we also see robust job creation and innovation. 

But we all know that launching a small business is no task for the faint of heart. When it comes to turning a great idea into a thriving business, unfortunately, many entrepreneurs face a series of challenges.  

To break down these barriers, the SBA fosters a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem - one that offers free or low-cost counseling and training to entrepreneurs across the country. Whether it is helping to create a business plan, navigate the procurement process, market a new product, or identify trade opportunities, the SBA, through its resource partners, offers a wide range of services to help small businesses succeed. 

The SBA relies on four main partners to deliver these services – Small Business Development Centers, or SBDCs; Women’s Business Centers, or WBCs; SCORE; and Veterans Business Outreach Centers, or VBOCs. Today, we are fortunate to be joined by their leaders. 

Entrepreneurial development initiatives are proven to be a great return on investment. Studies have shown that aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners who receive counseling and training are able to increase sales and create more jobs.  They are even proven to be more viable in the long-term with those receiving 3 or more hours of counseling having higher 1-year survival rates.

Every year, SBA’s resources partners assist more than one million entrepreneurs, creating roughly 80,000 jobs.  And, for every dollar invested between 2012 and 2017, SBDCs returned $5 in revenues to federal and state governments. 

But, behind these numbers are very real experiences of hardworking entrepreneurs. Let me share with you the story of DogSpot, a woman-owned small business in Brooklyn, New York.  

Chelsea Brownridge was reluctant to take her high- energy terrier for a walk when she ran errands in Brooklyn. Realizing that other dog owners must face similar challenges, Chelsea got to work on developing a state-of-the-art doghouse for pet owners to safely and comfortably house their pets while shopping.  

For advice and assistance, Chelsea turned to the Brooklyn Small Business Development Center, which helped her secure $3.2 million in capital and hire 10 employees. Now, she is preparing to expand DogSpot to more cities nationwide. 

At today’s hearing, I hope to hear similar success stories. However, I am also eager to learn more about what must be improved.  

While I commend each one of you for collectively serving over a million entrepreneurs per year, there are still more than 28 million small businesses that aren’t utilizing these services. Today, I would like to learn what more can be done to raise awareness for SBA counseling and training programs to ensure we are reaching as many entrepreneurs as possible. I also have concerns over the Administration’s past proposals to significantly reduce funding for these programs. Fortunately, there was a bicameral, bi-partisan push this year to restore the proposed cuts. Providing robust levels of funding for these programs is essential to their success.    

Having said that, we must also ensure that taxpayer resources are being used wisely and to maximum effect. That is why this Committee has long pushed for clearer metrics and accountability. I would also like to hear our panelists thoughts on ways we can better measure the results of these valuable counseling and training programs. 

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and we should provide our entrepreneurs with the critical resources that they need to succeed. I am eager to hear ideas today on how we can improve SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs and better serve America’s innovators.