SBDC Technology Services

Don Lincoln of Ushers Machine Tool is a 2008 success story. Click on the picture above to read more about this clients and other SBDC success stories.

The NYS SBDC can help you transform your ideas into products and services, whether you want to work on carburetors, computer chips, or capillaries.

Do you have an invention but are not sure how to bring it to the market place? The SBDC can help. Today, small businesses are responsible for a significant amount of innovation in regards to new products. More and more big companies are reducing their in-house R & D staffs and relying on outside small company sources, which creates great opportunities. If you are in the business of creating advanced products but have come up against a tough hurdle - technical or financial - talk it over with NYS Small Business Development Center's Technology Advisors.

The NYS SBDC provides the following services for small businesses working with technology:

• Provide counseling, training, research, and referrals to experts with industry expertise.
• Identify relevant sources of financing – including venture capital groups, angel investors and other alternative financing entities.
• Provide advice on the optimal business structure for your enterprise.
• Provide advice on issues relating to intellectual property, licensing, trademark and copyright.
• Provide advice about going public (IPO) or engaging in a merger, acquisition or leveraged buy-out.
• Review and make recommendations about business, strategic and marketing plans and term sheets.
• Review and provide advice about contracts and research agreements.
• Assist with applications for state and federal R&D funding, include SBIR and STTR opportunities.
• Identify appropriate partnerships with private, local and economic development organizations and state, federal, and university resources to ensure businesses have access to a full array of services.
• Identify target markets and assist firms in bringing new products to market.
• Provide advice about developing processes and design strategies for commercializing technologies.
• Locate resources to consult, advise, analyze or test ideas.

The NYS SBDC seeks out individuals with technical knowledge when hiring new staff and supports continuing education for existing staff in technology-related concepts to ensure the program can provide customized advisement to meet the needs of its clients. SBDC recognizes that companies implementing technology or working in a technology-based industry face a unique set of challenges, from obtaining capital necessary to fuel growth, to attracting and retaining skilled employees, to identifying new markets. The NYS SBDC has a network of service centers throughout New York State staffed with business professionals with the knowledge to address these issues.

SBIR/STTR Programs for Small Business

The NYS SBDC can help small businesses learn about opportunities in the SBIR/ STTR programs and help them prepare proposals for the programs.

The objectives of the SBIR/STTR programs are to stimulate technological innovation, to strengthen the role of small businesses in meeting Federal research and development needs, and to increase private sector commercialization of innovations developed through Federal research and development. All federal agencies with an extramural research budget of $100 million or more must set aside a percentage of their research dollars for awards to small businesses and individuals.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive three-phase award system which provides qualified small businesses with opportunities to propose innovative ideas that meet specific research and research and development needs of the Federal government. Ten agencies currently participate in the SBIR program that allows for-profit small businesses to submit competitive proposals.

The Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program is a sister program to the SBIR, with virtually the same structure and application process. The most significant difference between the two programs is that, while qualified non-profit research institutions or universities may cooperate in an SBIR project, they must collaborate on STTR projects. Five agencies currently participate in the STTR program.

As you would expect, each federal agency has their own rules for doing things, with different topics for bidding, different competition deadlines, different methods of preparing and accepting proposals, etc. Just because one agency does it one way, don't assume others will do it the same way.  

To learn more about the SBIR and STTR programs, go to http://www.sba.gov/sbir/indexsbir-sttr.html. Included in the helpful information on this site is a link to the SBIR Handbook for Proposal Preparation.