Through an iterative process, Pathfinder Marketing Services and the
Strategic Planning Committee of the Missouri Small Business Development
Centers arrived at a series of questionnaires that would provide an
assessment of program needs of Missouri small businesses. Each survey
was designed to determine those areas in which the members of a particular
industry would most likely support programs provided by the Small Business
Development Centers around the state. The questionnaires were constructed
and responses coded in such a way as to allow for both individual industry
and composite analysis.
On April 23, 1998, Pathfinder Marketing Services, Inc. mailed 13,481
questionnaires to five categories of small businesses in the State of
Missouri. This total was comprised of 2,687 businesses who were current
or previous Clients of the Small Business Development Centers in 1997
and 10,794 small businesses were not shown on the Client list of the
Small Business Development Centers. The five categories or industries
that were examined were: Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Retailers, Service
Firms, and Construction Companies. For the Client groups, the entire
population was sampled. For Non-Client groups, the sample was proportionately
drawn in a random manner. That is, for example, if statewide Manufacturers
represented 14 percent of the small businesses, then 14 percent of the
sample of Non-Client businesses would be randomly selected from the
state's small Manufacturers. In addition to the industry breakdown,
the Non- Client sample was also proportionately selected by SBDC region.
The purpose of this report is to summarize the results of this survey
and to organize the findings in a way which best supports the strategic
planning efforts of the Missouri Small Business Development Centers.
Specifically, across all industries, the results will be analyzed to
determine if program interest varies by whether the business is a Client
of the Small Business Development Centers, by whether the respondent
perceived the SBDC programs to be of value, and by the region of the
state in which the small business is located.
needs assessment | process/intro
| methodology
