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Small Business Development Centers Understand the Need for Signage
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In 2003 the Nevada Small Business Development Center was invited to participate in the signage industry's symposium and convention in Las Vegas, NV. After meeting with key experts and gaining a heightened awareness of the importance of on premise signage for small businesses, the NSBDC realized a void in its own outreach efforts and took aggressive action to partner with these experts. Kozy Boren, of Signtronix, at that time released his 23-minute CD, Speech of the Streets, which was integrated into NSBDC training and counseling services.
"Signage was as intricate piece of small business that NSBDC staff members felt warranted more attention by our agency. After meeting with these experts and viewing Speech of the Streets, I became quite interested in how we could pass this knowledge and information on to our clients. Having such an overwhelming reaction to my newborn awareness of signage, I took time to shoot over 100 photos of some of our local retail signs in Reno, NV. I realized at that time why I, and others, never stopped by to shop – these signs were really, really, bad...
These photos were used in several training events and the subject of signage evolved into a mandatory piece of our 13-week entrepreneurial program's curriculum, NxLeveL. Seeing the reaction of our clients, I knew we were doing our job better by educating small businesses on the importance of their signs. Speech of the Streets, along with a new chapter on on-premise signage both became integrated into the NxLeveL curriculum in 2005 and is distributed to over 10,000 small business owners each year.
I have been with the NSBDC for 12 years and naturally have met many key experts in all matters of small business. The efforts of the signage industry experts in educating the trainers and counselors from many SBDCs across the country epitomize the success to our small business owners across the nation. I applaud people like Kozy Boren who has dedicated his professional life in becoming an industry expert and sharing it with countless small businesses of America."
Kathy Carrico
State Training Director
NxLeveL State Administrator
Nevada Small Business Development Center
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