Business owners and those considering the creation of a start-up connected with organizations that can provide important resources during an Entrepreneurial Business Summit at Flickerwood Wine Cellars on Thursday.

Congressman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., was on hand for the summit, noting he hopes to see more of these occur in the future. He shared his experience as the son of a veteran who successfully opened his own business, noting that events like this summit may have really helped his father’s business streamline and expand.

“If you aren’t moving forward, you’re falling back,” Thompson said. “That is why we take the opportunity to do events like this. I hope to continue these and make resources accessible to the folks with great ideas and great businesses. I’m a big fan of the agencies represented here, I know they do a lot of wonderful work.”

Business owners settled in to listen to brief presentations on the resources available to them through various organizations, then had small-group meetings with each representative to find out more about resources relating to their specific needs.

Abbie Peters, the executive vice-president of Creative Commerce at the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, discussed programming and benefits of connection and networking for businesses, noting the Wilds Cooperative of PA has a network of 300 businesses that provide both goods and services. The focus of the co-op is helping area businesses take advantage of the two million acres of public land, eight forests and one national forest woven through our area, as well as having skies in our area that are nationally certified as some of the darkest in the U.S.

“We want to help businesses use resources as an opportunity and not hurt the assets, not ‘love them to death,’” Peters explained.

Director Cindy Nellis and Business Consultant Aleshia Marshall from Clarion University’s Small Business Development Center, which serves a 10-county region, discussed the various ways the center is connected and can help provide resources to business owners or those looking to start a business.

“We are part of a national program, the American Small Business Development Center, and we draw on the strength of the university, both in terms of resources and students,” Nellis said. “We offer no cost, one-on-one consulting for business owners to strengthen what you are doing or help make steps to start a business.

“We have training that stays the same each year, providing information to businesses about what you need, like Quickbooks or marketing, and we bring in new topics for what business owners address in the workplace every day.”

Nellis noted that, while the SBDC has been known as the “business plan organization,” the center can provide help at various stages of the life cycle of a business. The consultants for the center spend a lot of time traveling, connecting with business owners in their region and getting to know the needs of those in the area.

Loan Program Director Jennifer Hibbard, from the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and Development Commission, explained that the organization offers various programs. North Central serves the counties of Cameron, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, McKean and Potter.

“We assist businesses and provide business development for those who are starting/expanding or growing. We can help a business looking to grow internationally, and we have programs to help with financing for those hoping to start or expand a business,” Hibbard explained. “We do this in the hope of creating and saving jobs in the area.”

Another program North Central offers is focused on helping businesses navigate the Government Marketplace, whether at the federal, state or local level.

North Central’s Director of Information Systems Edward Matts was also present Thursday, letting business owners present know that North Central is also at work to deploy broadband service to areas where there is a lack of adequate coverage suitable to the needs of a business.

For more information on the Wilds Cooperative of PA, visit wildscopa.org.

To find out more information about Clarion University’s Small Business Development Center, visit www.clarion.edu/sbdc.

For further details on the various assistance offered by North Central, visit www.ncentral.com.