Small Business: Development Centers Meet Counseling Needs of Most Clients

GAO discussed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Small Business Development Center program (SBDC). GAO noted that: (1) most SBDC clients were satisfied with the assistance they received, would use services again, and would recommend SBDC to others; (2) SBDC offered clients a wide variety of services and some training; (3) most SBDC clients were white males with at least some college education and were in business or planned to be in the retail or service industries; (5) from fiscal year (FY) 1977 through FY 1990, federal program funding totalled about $298 million, and funding increased annually, from $360,000 for 9 centers in FY 1977, to $50 million for 56 centers in FY 1990; and (6) for FY 1986 through FY 1988, colleges and universities represented about 58 percent of the nonfederal program funding total.