Ask an Expert: Ohio Small Business Development Center

Ask an Expert: Ohio Small Business Development Center is back at the Main Library on Wednesday, October 21, from 9 AM to 12 PM. It's a drop-in session, so you don't need an appointment—you just show up and sit down with a Certified SBDC Business Advisor for free, confidential advice on your small business.

That's the core of it, but it helps to know what the Ohio SBDC actually does. It's a front-line, immediate-response program built to help small businesses grow, create jobs, and get access to capital. The advisors work with entrepreneurs and owners on the practical stuff: business planning, financing, marketing, and more. If you're still in the planning stages or you've been running things for years and hit a wall, this is where you go to get a professional second set of eyes on your numbers or your strategy.

One thing worth mentioning is that these services are available in Spanish, including materials and support to help work through language barriers. If you're more comfortable talking through your business in Spanish, you can do that here. Beyond these one-on-one sessions, the SBDC also runs workshops and seminars and provides funding assistance, so if you walk away from your meeting needing more than a quick answer, there are other ways to keep working with them.

The session is hosted at the Columbus Metropolitan Library's Business & Nonprofit Resource Center, which is a dedicated workspace for small businesses and nonprofits. It connects you to specialized librarians, business and nonprofit research databases, and a co-working area with Windows and Mac computers equipped with Adobe Creative Cloud. There's also a reservable private meeting room if you need a quiet spot to work. These drop-in sessions happen on the third Wednesday of each month, so if this one doesn't work for you, you can catch the next one. This one runs from 9 AM to 12 PM on Wednesday, October 21, at the Main Library, 96 South Grant Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215.