There has been a change in leadership in Southeast’s Small Business and Technology Development Center, an organization which provides assistance for entrepreneurs in 19 counties in the area.

In December, Jakob Pallesen, a Southeast graduate, signed on as the director of the organization planted at Southeast, with a facility located on 920 Broadway. The program is federally funded and part of national organization designed to help local businesses grow.

Before becoming the director, he was the center’s business consultant for two years.

He said the range of companies the center helps ranges broadly in regards to how advanced the enterprise is. Since 2017, Pallesen said they have had 51 new clients, given $2M in funding to clients, and created 35 jobs in client companies.

“Small business owners includes, from one side, the ones that have an idea all the way over to (those) that have been in business for five or 10 years but are still a small business in the sense they have less than 50 employees,” Pallesen said.

The assistance the center offers is largely free, Pallesen said. Among the center’s ways of assisting businesses and inspiring business growth were things like financial forecasting.

“The whole goal of what we do is take those who need that extra push, that extra little help,” he said.

During his time studying at Southeast, he became involved in extracurricular activities surrounding business.

“I was a business major, and I definitely knew from the very beginning that I just … had no interest in big business,” he said.

In theory, Pallesen said, big business was interesting, but he did not find it appealing in practice.

As he studied it, Pallesen said he became more interested in entrepreneurship.

“So it was that entrepreneurial mindset that resonated with me,” he said.

He continues to have side entrepreneurial projects, in the past working with associates in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to create an app.

Pallesen said he is motivated by knowing the creation of jobs depends on entrepreneurs, and this is what moves the nation forward.

“Every great company started as a small business,” Pallesen said.

Over the past few years, he said the center had worked with Southeast graduates as they worked to build businesses.

The organization also works with classes on campus, groups and events that promote innovative thinking, as well as working with high schools to promote business skills.

In addition to Pallesen as the director, the Small Business and Technology Development Center has a business consultant, a student worker and part-time worker.

The organization is not well-known Pallesen said. He said not all companies applying for assistance are accepted, but a number of them are.

To help promote business ideas, Pallesen said the center does Facebook Live interviews with local business leaders, and another broadcast would be coming next month, with the theme being “Alternative Financing Sources.”

Though the center does not have any specific changes, he said he will be testing new services with clients during the next 6 months.