A new online educational resource is now available to University of Houston-Victoria Small Business Development Center clients and the Crossroads community.

The U.S. Small Business Administration recently introduced the new online course “Young Entrepreneurs: An Essential Guide to Starting Your Own Business.”

Jean Smith

The course, which is available in Spanish and English, gives an overview of basic business principles and introduces entrepreneurs to resources available through the SBA and others. It is designed to help aspiring business owners with the essentials of starting a small business, including evaluating ideas, choosing financing options and registering a business.

“We want to remind area residents that we have the capability to provide training and advising in Spanish,” said Jean Smith, UHV SBDC training coordinator. “The SBA is providing these online courses. Some people are comfortable taking these online, and some prefer to do it face to face. The SBDC has the capability to offer both options, in addition to workshops and other training in both Spanish and English.”

Mark Martinez

This is not the first online course offered by the UHV SBDC, Smith said. The center has links to a variety of online training courses, many of which are offered in both English and Spanish, on its website. If one of the courses is not available in Spanish, Mark Martinez, a certified business advisor with the UHV SBDC, can offer personal assistance in Spanish.

“As part of the South Texas community, the SBDC is ready to provide services in English and Spanish, whichever language best serves our clients,” Martinez said. “These online courses are vital tools that add to our capabilities and supplement the training we offer through the center to help grow area small businesses.”

Joe Humphreys

The online courses are part of an outreach program that the UHV SBDC offers to its service area, UHV SBDC Director Joe Humphreys said. Instead of requiring clients to come to the center for training, the SBDC is able to go to a variety of locations including civic centers, churches and individual businesses to offer training.

“These online courses offer a great opportunity for people to receive training in a comfortable setting,” UHV SBDC Director Joe Humphreys said. “The center is dedicated to serving the needs of all small business owners both in person and online. We hope this course and others offered by the center will be used by many people in Victoria and the surrounding area.”

Farhang Niroomand

Humphreys pointed to one Victoria restaurant that recently took advantage of the center’s services by requesting and receiving onsite customer service training for its entire staff. In addition, the SBDC typically offers five to seven small business workshops every month in Victoria and the 10 surrounding counties.

“The resources and services offered by the UHV Small Business Development Center are valuable tools for our area’s economy,” said Farhang Niroomand, dean of the UHV School of Business Administration. “This newest online resource is a welcome expansion to the center, and I hope it will prove useful to interested entrepreneurs across the region.”

Clients can find the SBA Young Entrepreneurs course and other training courses online at go.usa.gov/mnFT and other training courses online at training.txsbdc.org. The courses are free, but users will need to create an online account to access the information. To learn more about other training opportunities, contact the UHV SBDC at 361-485-4485 or sbdc@uhv.edu.