ECONOMY
than 50 five-star Google reviews. Before
last year I wouldn’t have known how
important that would be!”
ASSISTANCE INVALUABLE
Matt Black, owner of a Benjamin
Franklin Plumbing franchise that covers
Port St. Lucie and Jupiter, has had
mixed results because of the pandemic.
He also worked closely with Bernard
before buying the company in March.
Black had been manager of the business
for 20 years, but wanted advice
on evaluating its financials before he
invested his savings into the business.
“It was priceless to have that knowledge
through SBDC,” he said. “They
were very willing to schedule multiple
consultants and provide a variety of
financial scenarios. I was very impressed
by the depth of analysis they
performed. Our business plan was
dissected, as was our balance sheet. We
saw where the company was at and
whether we could sustain it.”
And then, within weeks of signing a
lease, COVID came calling.
“It was pretty drastic at first,” Black
said. “Lots of calls were canceled,
maintenance agreements postponed or
canceled. We were getting only emergency
calls. But it picked up some by
the end of the year and it’s definitely
getting better.
“I can’t compare year over year
because I’m a new owner, but I think
we’re going in the right direction. The
assistance we received from the SBDC
and the Small Business Administration
was invaluable.”
The partnership between the city
and SBDC continues to evolve and
strengthen.
Going forward, the two parties are
refining their strategies. They want to
increase community engagement in
the navigator program classes, to hire a
capital access specialist at SBDC. They
plan to offer more classes for manufacturing
companies, to collaborate with
the City of Port St. Lucie’s business tax
supervisor on how to start a business.
Ahead is the creation of a detailed
action plan concentrating on retail and
hospitality, manufacturing, biotech
government contracting and homebased
business assistance. SBDC and
the city hope to recruit banks to educate
entrepreneurs in profit mastering sessions.
The overall goal is to build the
city’s business base.
There’s obviously a lot more work
30 Port St. Lucie Magazine
Matt Black owns a Benjamin Franklin Plumbing
franchise that covers Port St. Lucie and Jupiter.
When the pandemic struck, Black was assessing
whether he should purchase the franchise. He
used the services of SBDC experts to gauge the
future viability of the company. “It was priceless”
to have that sort of expertise at his fingertips, according
to Black, the business owner.
to be done before business conditions
return to pre-COVID levels. Yet this
cooperative SBDC bodes well for small
businesses in Port St. Lucie, a place that
values the vital contribution they make
to the city’s continued prosperity. E
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