By Terry James
NORMAL – A service of Illinois State University is closing at the end of the month because of continued budget problems in Springfield.
Elizabeth Binning is the director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University. 750 businesses have been helped over the past 11 years.
“We provide free of cost business consulting to small businesses within three counties – McLean, Dewitt, and Livingston Counties,” said Binning. “We are grant funded which means we are funded through the government so we’re not getting those funds. In addition they require that our host institution match those funds 50 percent. Illinois State said we can continue doing the match, but we can’t do that and pay for everything else.”
Binning said 70 percent of the businesses that requested help were already in business and reached out for help.
It’s estimated nearly 900 new jobs were created because of the center.
Terry James can be reached at terry@wjbc.com.
