PennWest Clarion SBDC: Empowering entrepreneurs to build successful businesses

Clarion County | I-80 Frontier

The PennWest Clarion Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is located within the PennWest Clarion University campus, right in the I-80 Frontier landscape of the Pennsylvania Wilds and just a short drive from Cook Forest and the Ancients. With a mission to grow the economy of Western Pennsylvania, the PennWest Clarion SBDC provides entrepreneurs with the education, information, and tools necessary to build successful businesses.

The PennWest Clarion SBDC serves a 10-county region, eight of which are located within the western and central PA Wilds region. Those counties include Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean and Potter County.

Since its opening in 1980, the PennWest Clarion SBDC has consulted with thousands of local businesses. They provide one-on-one consulting services and educational programs to entrepreneurs seeking to grow their businesses. The SBDC offers a wide range of services including testing new business propositions, shaping business plans, investigating funding opportunities, and much more.

The SBDC also works with both public and private organizations to allow for cross-referral of clients and cooperative consultation services and training programs. This helps them better serve the varied needs of entrepreneurs by being able to provide a variety of consulting, research, and training services.

The PennWest Clarion Small Business Development Center has helped numerous entrepreneurs to expand their existing business or launch successful new business ventures. To learn more about the PennWest Clarion SBDC or to leave a review visit their Wilds Cooperative of PA profile here.

RECENT WCO MEMBER SPOTLIGHTS

• 
  Full Circle Bioconversion LLC: Turning food waste into a business
  As a child, the Pennsylvania woods were Aubrey Fornwalt’s playground and the stream was her pool. After a life change in 2016 led her back to her childhood home in Lycoming County, Fornwalt took a risk and bought some black soldier flies for a composting business, taking inspiration from the woods and insects she loved as a child. Two years later, it grew into what would become Full Circle Bioconversion, based in the city of Williamsport in the Pine Creek Valley and PA Grand Canyon landscape and I-80 Frontier landscape of the Pennsylvania Wilds region.
• 
  Blackbird Distillery: Making shine and making friends
  Not too many businesses can say they create their product completely from start to finish, but the folks at Blackbird Distillery can! Located in Brookville along the I-80 Frontier landscape and the Cook Forest and the Ancients landscape within the Pennsylvania Wilds, Blackbird Distillery is a one-of-a-kind place that takes pride in showing visitors the magic of how their product is made.
• 
  Judy Schrader: Creating small, but very mighty art
  Judy Schrader’s love for art began when she was just a child, and it soon grew into a lifetime of creation. Based in Warren County in the Allegheny National Forest and Surrounds landscape of the Pennsylvania Wilds, her art has ranged from boundless wilderness scenes to miniature details of the wonders of nature.