I’m all for the SBA helping small businesses who cannot afford, for whatever reasons, to hire business coaches, consultants, mentors or strategists to help them grow their businesses. However, I deplore it when my tax dollars are used in a way where they become my competition or anyone’s competition!

Such is the way of a program that is funded by our tax dollars that is run in a variety of places through the SBA. Such is the case in Poulsbo, and other cities/towns around Washington and across the county. One of the organizations that is funded through our tax dollars — the NW Women’s Business Center — is run from Seattle. When they provided low-income women and men free business consulting to help them with business planning or marketing, I was all for it. I even taught for a similar program in Seattle. However, from a current mention in the Poulsbo Chamber newsletter, it seems that it doesn’t matter if the companies are low income or not.

This is taken from the Poulsbo Chamber ezine blurb:

“The Poulsbo Chamber is providing free professional business assistance and resources to help members create and/or expand business plans, marketing strategies, short and long-term financial planning, and loan procurement assistance. Staffed by professional consultants from the NW Women’s Business Center, the Chamber will offer this assistance monthly…”

It’s just wrong. Plain and simple.

Maria Marsala
Poulsbo