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Business Resource Centers: Entrepreneurial Development
Utah’s State Legislature provided for the establishment of Business Resource Centers (BRC) through the Utah Business Resource Centers Act. BRC’s are established by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) in partnership with state public institutions of higher education. They provide private sector businesses with one-stop technical assistance, as well as, access to statewide resources and programs. Each center accommodates the local character of the communities they serve with partners from federal, state, local, and public or private business service providers.
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The goal of a BRC is to assist Utah companies with services that will allow new and existing businesses to grow. There are numerous business service providers funded at the federal, state and local levels, and they are very valuable and helpful to businesses across the state, however, not all businesses are aware of their existence or how to access the assistance. BRC’s provide coordination of these services from business support, education, tracking of clients, access to sources of funding, training, technical expertise, talent, to networking for new and existing businesses. Each BRC services a self-defined local area, but have the ability to reach across the entire State to ensure needs of client businesses are met.
Each of the Business Resource Centers are partnered with various service providers at the local level to enable the BRC to efficiently and effectively help Utah businesses to grow. Some of the local partners include:
• Small Business Development Center • Procurement Technical Assistance Center- government contracting assistance • Manufacturing Extension Partnership • USTAR Outreach Center • Custom Fit-job training incentives • Early Run Ventures-focus on starting & growing businesses • Stimulating the Expansion of Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) • SCORE-business mentoring • Grow Utah Ventures-early stage venture capital consulting • Local college business resources • Chambers of Commerce • Local economic development organizations, and other local area service providers.
Currently, there are three BRC’s in the State; in Davis County, in Utah County, and in Iron County in southern Utah. Four other independent resource centers are located in Cache, Salt Lake, and Washington Counties.
Utah Code Ann. § 63M-1-2704. Utah Business Resource Centers Act
GOED generated a Request For Proposal (RFP) and nine submissions were received from institutions across the State desiring to participate in the Business Resource Centers (BRC) Program. After an evaluation process GOED was able to partner with three institutions: Southern Utah University in Cedar City; Utah Valley University in Orem; and, Davis Applied Technology College in Kaysville. Contracts were signed with each institution in FY2009. Over 1,200 people have sought assistance at one of the three BRCs in the first six months of operation. Each center and GOED are collecting metrics. GOED established the BRC Advisory Board in accordance with the BRC Act and the board has met quarterly.
