Small Business Development

Small Business Development Centers are located in every state, generally as a part of a university or college. They offer management assistance, training, and counseling. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) provides counseling and free advice, as well as workshops on how to start a business. SCORE will be listed in your local phone book, or your library can tell you how to contact them. 

Steel, W. 2002. Small Business Development Services Kenya Voucher Program. Seminar presented at the World Bank, Washington, DC. Presentation to Pro-poor Market Development Seminar, Series Social Capital Thematic Group by William F. Steel, Senior Adviser, Private Sector, Africa Region, World Bank, May 14, 2002. 

Association is a preeminent trade organization that caters to industrial scale manufacturers. SOCMA has nearly 275 members across several industries that include small specialty suppliers to large multinational corporations. The organization serves to promote innovative, yet safe and environmentally responsible chemical production methodologies. Recently, SOCMA formed a new coalition for start-ups and small businesses developing and manufacturing nanoscale materials. 

Department of Trade (Small Businesses Development Unit) 1-19 Victoria Street, London... 

Laser-based profilometry systems have also been applied for nondestructive testing and measurement of both smooth-bore and rifled gun tubes. Working through Small Business Innovation Research program, the U.S. Army has developed laser-based profilometry systems for the inspection of the 120mm cannon used on the MI-Al Abrams main battle tank. Systems have also been built to measure the erosion of 25 mm and 155 mm rifled gun tubes. 

Many small businesses have proeesses that are not unique, sueh as refrigerated warehouses or eold storage loekers or water treatment faeil-ities. Wliere employer assoeiations have a number of members with sueh faeilities, a generie PHA, evolved from a eheeklist or what-if questions, eould be developed and eflfeetively used by employers to refieet their partieular proeess this would simplify eomplianee for them. 

The Japan Small Business Corp. has developed a waste plastics reprocessing system to convert plastics in domestic waste into fuel oil. The system uses an oil... 

Given the scope and impact of formulated products, tools are needed to help chemical choosers - whether product developers or purchasers - to identify chemicals with desirable characteristics from the hazard perspective and to determine how the use of a particular chemical will affect the overall hazard profile or greenness of a product. We focus in particular on pubhcly available tools and resources that can support small businesses who may not have extensive environmental health and safety resources but who seek to green their chemical products and inventories. 

So my message to the chemical industry broadly and in particular to the segment of small businesses is to not let the PMN requirements limit your creative spirit in the development and commercialization of new chemicals. The Office of Toxic Substances in EPA stands ready to assist you at no cost in filling out the forms and distinguishing clearly what is minimally essential for risk assessment purposes from what is optional. We have trained consultants in the northeastern and mid-west sections of the country ready to travel to your location and advise you in a confidential way on PMNs. Our staff in Washington can be immensely helpful and you should feel free to discuss your specific situation with them. And, to top it off, we have one recently-retired experienced chemcial industry man concentrating his entire effort to assist the small business man in any TSCA-related matter. His name is Dr. Bob Toomey give him a call on the Industry Assistance Office toll-free line. 

Simplified notification rules are a must and this is a high priority item. I mentioned earlier our efforts to develop helpful exemptions to PMN requirements under section 5(h)4 of the Act and several proposals are being readied for publication and comment. And this action is important for EPA to provide direct assistance to small business concerns in preparing PMNs. 

This can be done without great expense to manufacturers. And, finally, a well-organized and continuing joint industry-EPA program to help small business understand TSCA and ease the reporting burden would go a long way to encourage the development of new chemical products by the chemical industry. 

SECA is made of fuel cell developers, small businesses, universities and national laboratories. It is administered by the Energy Department... 

The present contract calls for reimbursement of all allowable expenses, excluding contractor costs disallowed by the federal acquisition regulations, such as business development costs. A small base fee was negotiated as profit. The disallowed expenses must be covered by the base fee. The contractor receives a base fee during execution of the contract, and only in the most unusual circumstances is any part of this fee denied. An additional 3 percent of the contract value is set aside as an incentive fee that can be earned by superior performance. The federal acquisition regulations that govern procurement and acquisition procedures undertaken with federal funds are applicable to both materiel and contract services for closure of JACADS... 

Midsize and small hne-chemical companies were also impacted by the slump in demand for new pharmaceutical fine chemicals. By and large, they fared better than did the large companies, which have a number of disadvantages. (For instance, a business development manager, who moved from a big to a small hne-chemical company, stated that At my previous employer, it took me three trips to the USA and one to Italy just to determine, which step should be produced at which site. )... 

An interesting variety of the organization scheme is the combination of the positions of head of business development and R D in one and the same person. It eliminates the above mentioned friction. This structure is particularly suitable for small to midsize fine-chemical companies, where the total number of researches and business development managers does not exceed 10. The ideal candidate for this position is a scientist with several years of experience in industrial R D and pilot plant production, plus a commercial flair. 

The Bayh-Dole Act, or the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act, gives universities, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations the intellectual ownership of property, including new drugs, that they discover and develop with government funding. 

I agree that the precautionary principle should be given a central position in guiding legislation for the protection of man and the environment, but in a more restricted sense than it is now used in Sweden to tackle widespread chemophobia. Not only does the Swedish interpretation of the PP open the sluices for capricious regulatory action, it also introduces a factor of arbitrariness that disrupts the functioning of a free market, inevitably inhibits sound technical development, and shifts too much responsibility for technical decisions to citizens and small businesses that are not trained to make them. 

Most water treatment companies around the world are small businesses and not international in their outlook or operations, but this does not matter, as the world has come to them. And cooling water treatment products originally developed in, say, Germany, the United States, or Japan for use in South America, Southeast Asia, or the Middle East are now available from wholesale stockists in, for example, Miami, Singapore, and Rotterdam. 

The Small Business Administration has several ways to help you get started. A toll-free call to their answer desk—800-827-5722—gets information on how to develop a business plan, where to get training, and how to obtain financing, including Small Business Administration loans. They will send you a start-up kit containing a list of over 50 publications, planning guides, and other helpful information. 

Martin Austin founded TransformRx GmbH in January 2005 in response to observing the imbalance of information between companies and the investor community. Since then the company has been involved in advising funds and companies large and small on investment, merger, acquisition and business development issues. More information on the type and scope of these assignments can be found on the TransformRx website www.transformrx. com. 

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