
Dixon, IL. – Navigating the world around as a small business can be challenging. It can be a great help for small business owners to receive quality consulting at low or no cost that would help them reach bigger success through growth. This is what the Small Business Development Center at Sauk Valley Community College offers to small business owners.
Thanks to CARES Act the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) received a grant that allowed them to hire a part-time bilingual business advisor. Theresa Hooper-Campos will be taking this position of assisting minority and Latino/Hispanic business owners in areas of starting up and operating the business.
Theresa Hooper-Campos is from Bettendorf, Iowa. For the past 30 years and while residing in Sauk Valley, she has been involved in the community in the fields of business, social services, education, and others. As someone who is always looking to empower and inspire people around her, Ms. Hooper-Campos dedicated 20 years to teaching GED and ESL to adults. She is known in the community as a highly professional and dedicated person.
Theresa Hooper-Campos is a member of the Hispanic Business Leaders Committee with the Sauk Valley Area Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish Education and in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
As an employee of SBDC, she will focus on helping minority and Hispanic/Latino business owners to apply for financial resources to help them to weather the pandemic and survive after it. Her ability to communicate easily in both English and Spanish and her extensive ties to the Hispanic/Latino community will help her better serve her clients.
Aside from focusing on helping small businesses to make it through a pandemic, Ms. Hooper-Campos will also be an adviser to individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the area. She will be able to consult about starting up a business, perform research for business resources, market information that can be used in a business plan, and others. Theresa Hooper-Campos will be available to meet with any client who wishes to discuss their dreams, plans, concerns, and financial questions for a new or existing business. When needed this new employee of SBDC will also offer informative seminars and training in Spanish.
According to a statement from the SBDC, “The SBDC always attempts to be very responsive and helpful to the clients that they serve. One important area of assistance at this time may be in helping current businesses apply for grants and/or loans to be able to make it through these uncertain times of the pandemic, so she is currently becoming familiar with some of these resources and how the small businesses can access them. It is important to note the services offered are confidential and no cost to the clients.”
Theresa Hooper-Campos is joining a team of highly experienced and professional employees of SBDC at Sauk Valley Community Center who truly wish to help small businesses in the area. This will be the first time that SBDC hires a bilingual person to be part of the team.
“Theresa is a wonderful community resource and we are so excited she is joining our staff to help us better serve our minority clients,” Kim Ewoldsen, Director of the Center, said. “She will have an immediate impact on our community given the community relationships she has built over the last 30 years.”
The Small Business Development Center at Sauk Valley Community College hopes that Ms. Hooper-Campos’ ties to the Hispanic/Latino community will help the organization to better assist minority Hispanic/Latino small business owners at the Sauk Valley. Theresa Hooper-Campos, Bilingual Advisor of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Sauk Valley Community College can be reached at (779) 348-1238. The offices of SBDC are located at Sauk Valley Community College at 173 Illinois Route 2, Dixon, Illinois. The Main SBDC office phone number is (815) 835-6244. For more information about The Small Business Development Center please go to www.sauksbdc.com