Thursday, March 4, 2010

Helping Small Businesses Grow

Starting as a small home-based machine shop, First Manufacturing originally opened in Rocklin, California and relocated in 2003 to South Dakota. Kevin and Emily Berg, both engineers, first contacted the Sioux Falls SBDC office in November 2006. As a small business, they had questions about hiring employees, marketing and growing their sales. This relationship soon expanded into obtaining financing to support
this growth. In 2008 the SBDC assisted the Bergs in leveraging their own investment dollars to obtain financing through a local lender and the APEX loan program of the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development. With these monies, the Bergs were able to purchase additional equipment and the former grocery store building in Humboldt to further grow and have room to manage the contracts they were landing.

Taking advantage of historically low interest rates, First Manufacturing again contacted the SBDC in 2009 to assist in putting together a plan to refinance as well as obtain some additional working capital to support ongoing expansion. This was done through an SBA loan provided by John Roers of Reliabank. The more advantageous loan terms allowed the Bergs to obtain the working capital necessary for the business while minimizing the impact on the monthly cash flow.

Since 2006 First Manufacturing has tripled in size, providing CNC milling,CAD/CAM work, turning, inspection and assembly. First is experienced in a wide variety of materials including aluminum, steel,stainless steel, plastics and composite materials.

Emily says of working with the SBDC: “We contacted the SBDC in early 2008 to discuss how to create a business plan and to determine different financing options available to small businesses. As the details of our project emerged, we worked with Mark Slade to create financial projections for a major capital expansion involving equipment and a new building in 2008. We contacted him again to update projections in order to refinance and add working capital in late 2009. The process was extremely thorough, and the information provided gave valuable insight as to the capabilities of our business, different options available, and challenges ahead.”

*South Dakota Small Business Development Center
By Mark Slade, Regional Director
Sioux Falls SBDC

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