The Small Business Center Network of the NC Community College System is celebrating 40 years of providing support and assistance to small businesses and start-ups across North Carolina. Small Business Centers are located at each of the state’s 58 community colleges, providing confidential business counseling, seminars and resource and referral information to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Created in 1984 when the North Carolina General Assembly funded eight SBCs, the Small Business Center Network had expanded to include at least one SBC at each community college by 1995. Each year, the centers assist in starting an average of 650 businesses and help create and retain more than 3,000 jobs. Today, with more than 60 sites, the Small Business Center Network is known as the most expansive state-funded technical small business assistance program in the United States with locations within a 30-minute drive of almost every North Carolinian.