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MEDIA PARTNER
Photo by Bill Fallon
FCBJ this week
February 3, 2014 | VOL. 50, No. 5
BY BILL FALLON
A
Bfallon@westfairinc.com
fter a July 16, 2003 workout, Easton resident Drew Pickering Jr. sought a rejuvenating drink only to end up covered in supplement powder. “The stuff was everywhere,” he said. “There had to be a better way.” That was Pickering’s Thomas Edison moment. That night he sketched out the basics in a notebook of what for him would become a 10-year sojourn to patent and bring to market his Scoop E-Z, now officially patent No. 7,441,676 — Device for Dispensing Media. For those with similar lightbulb moments, ads abound featuring companies that promise (sort of) to make your invention a success: You could invent the » Measured, page 6
Drew Pickering Jr. with his patented scoop in Easton.
Demand soars for Small Business Development Center BY JENNIFER BISSELL jbissell@westfairinc.com
a QUarTEr inTO THE FiSCaL yEar and already the newly relaunched Connecticut Small Business Development Center has 400 clients. Officials had hoped to serve 550 clients for the entire year. University of Connecticut officials agreed in January 2013 to take over as the SBDC host institution and have since rebuilt the center to
serve as a one-stop shop for business owners seeking advice, resources and capital. Now with several new offices and a trained staff in place, the center is operating at full speed and is contending with a high demand in the state for small business advising resources. Requests for appointments have tripled since August with more than 10 new client requests a day, said Emily Carter, Connecticut’s SBDC director since August.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Carter said. “We’re basically a startup that started from scratch. We’ve got a new team, marketing strategy, products in place and we’re getting the traction we need to become a premier SBDC.” An 18-year SBDC veteran, Carter moved from Illinois to assume her new position in Connecticut, bringing with her institutional knowledge. The state’s new program may be in its infancy, but Carter said she sees it » SBDC, page 6
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