AERN home > News > Press release, September 17, 2007, Dallas County
Press Release
UA Contacts
Annette Watters, AERN co-director, 205-348-6191, awatters@cba.ua.edu
Paavo Hanninen, AERN co-director, 205-348-7011, phaninen@cba.ua.edu
AERN, The University of Alabama, Box 870221, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0221
Selma Contact
Lauri Cothran, director, Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce, 334-875-7241, lauri@selmaalabama.com
September 17, 2007
Dallas County Receives New Tools to Help Local Business Startups, Expansions
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Residents in Dallas County are one of six Alabama counties to receive the latest business tools essential to starting a new business or expanding an existing one, thanks to a grant from the Alabama Small Business Development Consortium (ASBDC) to the Alabama Entrepreneurial Research Network (AERN).
Annette Watters, co-director of AERN, said, "AERN is indebted to the ASBDC for this significant contribution to business development in rural Alabama. The AERN staff looks forward to working with our partners as they bring the latest in business tools and practices to their service areas."
"The new equipment is state of the art," said Paavo Hanninen, also an AERN co-director. "It consists of a Dell computer with Intel processor, 17-inch panel display monitor, Windows XP operating system, Microsoft Office Professional software package and Business Plan Pro 2007 software package."
The system also comes with an 8 GHZ core, 2 gigabytes of random access memory, a 160-gigabyte hard drive storage, floppy drive, and virus protection software.
Hosts at the six AERN sites are leveraging the new equipment installation to increase exposure and number of users of the free service in their respective locations.
In Selma, the AERN site is at the Selma-Dallas County Area Chamber of Commerce, 912 Selma Avenue. Director Lauri Cothran said recent visitors to the AERN facility "have been very enthusiastic about the new tools. AERN is a wonderful program for those wanting to be small business owners."
One of the most popular new tools is the Business Plan Pro 2007 software package. It has detailed examples of business plans for hundreds of different types of businesses. Much more than a startup package, Business Plan Pro 2007 is a complete business package that can help improve or grow a business for years to come, according to Hanninen. Value of the new equipment if the local centers had to buy it, Hanninen said, would be about $6,000.
"A big advantage of the new business plan software," Cothran said, "is that your documents are in a format all banks recognize and expect when considering a business loan. And the user can get help in how to use the program right here in our office at the Chamber of Commerce."
In addition to the basic business plan software, Business Plan Pro comes with a legal guide, more than 500 sample plans, industry profiles and reference materials.
"This equipment, related software and onsite assistance gives business entrepreneurs in the Selma area the resources they need to research and prepare their business plans and to access resources at the University and on the Internet," Hanninen said.
Dallas County is one of the original AERN partners. Today there are 13 counties overall in the network. In addition to Dallas County, AERN sites in Greene, Marengo, Perry, Sumter and Wilcox counties have also received the new equipment over the past few months. Other counties in the network are Bibb, Choctaw, Fayette, Hale, Macon, Monroe and Pickens, all of which have received AERN equipment within the past three years.
Mr. William Campbell Jr. is state director of the ASBDC, whose grant funded the new equipment at the six sites. ASBDC provides resources and leadership to make Alabama’s small businesses more competitive. Working with the U.S. Small Business Administration and state colleges and universities, the organization provides assistance with business planning, financing, exporting and importing, government contract procurement and in other ways.
According to Campbell, the major factor in economic growth in Alabama over the past decade has been small business development.
AERN, an outreach arm of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the Small Business Development Center in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, will be seven years old in January 2008. In promoting entrepreneurship in rural Alabama, AERN forms partnerships with local chambers of commerce and other agencies to deliver business software, reference materials and training and expertise critical to starting and expanding a small business. AERN currently is also supported through grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission and The University of Alabama's Office of the Provost.