SBDC helps small businesses in Morgantown during pandemic

MORGANTOWN, Ky.- The Small Business Development Center in Bowling Green wants to help small businesses navigate the hardships of the pandemic. 

On Friday, they held a media day for Morgantown to uplift their local businesses, which support the majority of the small town’s economy.

“That’s what keeps small cities going. Because they’re the long-term businesses that invest more than just for a facility. They live there, they take pride in the community, they become part of the community and that builds,” said Morgantown’s Mayor Billy Phelps. 

The SBDC says this is especially important to keep small businesses alive during these tough times. 

“You know COVID’s hit them harder than the bigger corporations who were prepared financially to handle these challenges, and it’s just important to get them back up and going. I mean that’s how these smaller communities such as Morgantown really thrive,” said SBDC business coach Kevin Yates. 

The SBDC’s services are entirely free to small businesses and entrepreneurs, and range from marketing to e-commerce to business coaching. 

The center in Bowling Green recently opened this past summer, and the staff wants businesses in the 11 counties they serve in South Central Kentucky to know that they are here to help. 

Fifty percent of Kentuckians work in small business, according to the SBDC, and the center helps them to have a larger reach than they would have otherwise. 

“Anytime a business succeeds, we as a city succeed. And I also take it personally, if a business doesn’t succeed, I think what could we have done better to help them,” said Phelps.