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2016 | Doing Business in Connecticut 67 By Steve Lubetkin "I 'm a victim of an exit strategy," jokes Emily Carter, director of Connecticut's Small Business Develop- ment Center. Carter comes from a small-business family, and when the family got out of the small business, it didn't mean small business le her soul. Her grandfather had a small florist business, and her father went as far as to sell the house and the family cars to come up with enough money to start his own small business, a Pier One franchise with several stores in multiple states. "My dad actually started our business by liquidat- ing all of our assets," she said. "We moved into a smaller home, got rid of the cars and got 'beater' cars, and he scraped together enough equity that would secure a Small Business Administration loan to start our first location. We had a very successful family-run business that my brother, my mom and dad and I ran for many years." When the family sold the business, Emily started thinking about what her next chapter would be. "I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go, so I thought that maybe being of service to small companies would be a great opportunity to stay closely connected to entrepreneurship, but in a different role," she recalled. Entrepreneurship calls While completing her MBA, she started working part-time at the Illinois Office of Economic and Regional Development at the Southern Illinois University Carbon- dale, and then moved into full-time roles, eventually becoming director of entrepre- neurship and business development, supervising programs across the state. She then got the opportunity to come to Connecticut and launch the SBDC here. "I just can't stay away from entrepreneurship," she said. "I think it's the backbone of the economy, it's what drives us to live the American dream, and I can't imagine myself not being directly affiliated with it in any career. is was kind of like starting my own business except with a mission to serve small businesses across the state of Connecticut." As state director, her day is "a hybrid of a lot of different things," Carter said. She spends much of her time communicating and coordinating with 13 field advisors around the state, and a portion of her time is spent managing the federal and state funding the SBDC takes in. "Delightfully, it involves talking to entrepreneurs, and being able to stay in touch with what people are asking for on the other end of the line," she explained. "I don't want to become removed from the business owner's voice. I attend events and talk to business owners around Connecticut about how things are going. I always make a point when I go into a restaurant or a store, to let people know what we do." In particular, the SBDC finds small business owners oen overwhelmed by the kinds of financing options available to them, and Carter sees her role as helping them navigate through that sea of choices. "It's difficult and sometimes frustrating for companies to try to identify the right capital at the right time," she said. "Our team is strongly committed — not only to helping advise clients about putting together loan packages — but helping them iden- tify the right type of capital that suits their business needs." ❑ the regional rollout of the system as a "Re- gional Growth Partner." Connecticut is the first state piloting the regional-growth-part- ners-approach to help encourage local busi- nesses to participate in the online exchange. "IBM was moving in the direction of saying that, although it's a cloud-based plat- form, there's a dimension of finding suppliers and engaging them productively in an actual geographic place," Bruhl said. "ey were exploring an evolution of something they had viewed as primarily a technology play. We were gaining knowledge in the small business space. We had the credibility of having already working for years with larger FAMILY TIES Speaking Up for the Little Guy FILE PHOTO PROFILE Emily Carter, State Director, CT SBDC Continued on page 68 > Christopher P. Bruhl, President & CEO of the Business Council of Fairfield County. PHOTO/COURTESY ' The board still felt that the growth potential of employment was not going to be driven by large employers, it would be driven by others. ' — Christopher p. Bruhl, president & Ceo, Business CounCil of fairfield County