Alumna Bozeman Spreading Word About Expansive TSBDC Services

When people think of the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, or TSBDC, Amelia Bozeman wants them to think less about the “small” and more about the “business development.”

The MTSU alumna was hired in January as director of the Murfreesboro/MTSU Service Center for the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, which is headquartered at MTSU within the Jennings A. Jones College of Business and consists of a network of 15 service centers that are connected to universities and community colleges throughout the state.

“Our name is a bit of a misnomer,” Bozeman says with a smile. “The ‘small’ in our name leads a lot of people to believe that we’re only here for the startups and the mom-and-pop shops that we all love so dearly, and we’re absolutely there for them. … But we also can help really large businesses and that’s a message that I want to get out there.”

The TSBDC’s service centers are staffed by consultants who provide no-cost virtual and in-person business consulting, training, and resources to help for-profit businesses of any size start, grow and sustain. Center staff can provide assistance in areas such as business planning, financial planning, marketing and sales strategies, social media and website analysis, government contracting and numerous other areas.

‘Take their dreams to the next level’

The Murfreesboro center is housed inside the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce located at 3050 Medical Center Parkway in Murfreesboro. Patrick Geho, management professor in the Jones College of Business, is the TSBDC’s state executive director and oversees the 15 service centers across the state.

“We’re here for all businesses, all sizes,” Bozeman said. “If you own a business or if you work in a business, chances are pretty good that we can do something to assist. … We are committed to helping business owners and prospective business owners take their dreams to the next level and make them a reality.”

The Murfreesboro TSBDC office covers a 14-county area in southern Middle Tennessee and can provide business owners and entrepreneurs with assistance at any stage in the life cycle of a business, from inception to exit.

The center conducts market research as well as competitive and financial analyses for clients at no cost to the client, Bozeman said.

“We utilize several licensed applications that will provide us the ability to conduct research for local business and industry, leveraging MTSU faculty when the client needs dictate. Our applications data provides deeper insights into demographics, firmographics, and lifestyle traits of businesses and consumers,” she said.

“We use our data to create a competitor report to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competition in your specific location or across the U.S. Our many small business clients can use our data to generate heat-map and target market information to help find the best place to open up shop,” she said.

Visit the Murfreesboro center’s website at https://tsbdc.org/center/murfreesboro/ to register for courses or request consulting services or call 615-898-2745 for an appointment (no walk-ins). Learn more about the Tennessee Small Business Development Center at https://tsbdc.org.