Small Business Development Center

Two Sisters Upholstery and Fabrics, in Carlyle, Ill., an Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville client, was founded by two best friends, Tonya Drake and Amy St. John.  Drake and St. John have a strong passion for bringing new life into furniture, but even more so for stitching together their community with their storefront. Two Sisters sells quilting fabric and supplies and also provides furniture upholstery servic...

Cheri Mansfield, a dreamer and client of the Illinois SBDC for the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has opened her dream café in Carlyle. Oh So Sweet Bakery and Café has created a place for a community to come together and enjoy the sweeter things in life with high-quality baked goods and beverages.

Mansfield began working with the Illinois SBDC for the Metro East at SIUE in 2021 after hearing about the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the SBDC, throug...

Lindsey Wold, founder of Amygdala Co., client of the Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has won Justine Petersen’s 2022 Small Business of the Year Award.

Amygdala Co. is a local company that specializes in helping children who have negative unwanted externalizing behaviors, along with their families, by implementing parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT). Founded by Wold, this company focuses on positive an...

A Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville client and local entrepreneur, with a passion for serving her community and helping others, has been featured as the cover photo in the St. Louis Small Business Monthly (SBM) newsletter for the December 2022 edition.

The SBM features a website and monthly print and digital newsletter that provides local businesses around the St. Louis Metro area with resources and advice to help...

The Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for the Metro East at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has announced the winners of its 9^th Annual Metro East Startup Challenge (MESC). The 2022 business plan competition attracted more than 39 entrepreneurs to compete for a $25,000 prize package.   

Highland Emporium in Highland was awarded the first-place prize of $10,000. Highland Emporium, owned by Carol Eckhoff, is a retail store that provides a locale for m...

An award-winning BBQ sauce, innovative motorcycle parts and components, industrial paint and specialty markers, and touch screen purses that were designed as a way for women and girls alike to safely, securely and fashionably carry their phones are a few of the products from southern Illinois that could soon be in hot demand outside U.S. borders.

That’s because the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Illinois SBDC International Trade Center (ITC) has continued its customized...

The southern Illinois region has long needed a customized, action-oriented export training initiative to put local businesses on the international map. Now, five regional businesses have benefited from such an opportunity, EXPORT NOW.

Presented by the Illinois SBDC International Trade Center (ITC) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, in partnership with the Southwest Illinois Trade and Investment Council, LR International and the Illinois District Export Council, with financial support...

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing unprecedented disruption to the global economy, which is causing severe negative impacts to small and mid-sized businesses.

Through its federal partner, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) via the CARES Act COVID-19 supplemental funding, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network remains at the center of the national economic recovery effort, supporting small businesses, so they can survive, recover and position themselves for future growth....