Marshall and DeKalb counties. Provides qualified blind individuals with job training and employment opportunities through the management and operation of small businesses.

Service area: Chambers, Lee, Macon and Russell counties. Provides qualified blind individuals with job training and employment opportunities through the management and operation of small businesses.

AERN is a program to enhance business development throughout rural Alabama. Assistance comes in the form of access to computers and peripheral equipment, strong training emphasis via materials, workshops and seminars and online resources.

AERN is a program to enhance business development throughout rural Alabama. Assistance comes in the form of access to computers and peripheral equipment, strong training emphasis via materials, workshops and seminars and online resources.

Have an idea for a product or business but don’t know where to start? Are you needing to validate your idea to reduce risk before taking the next big step? Create, Communicate, and Commercialize your meaningfully unique ideas through systematic innovation process assistance from the Auburn Technical Assistance Center (ATAC).

ATAC can help coach you through a process to determine how likely your idea is to succeed and what could prevent the idea from moving forward. As an arm of the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business at Auburn University and an Economic Development Administration University Center, ATAC provides idea creation, business start-up technical assistance, and consultation for entrepreneurs and existing small businesses.

ATAC provides hands-on mentoring, coaching, and facilitating to identify and refine your product/service offering, customers/markets, and improve business processes. ATAC assists individuals and businesses in developing and implementing a Learning Plan to move through rapid cycles of learning to define the customer and their problems, develop your value proposition, and a product or service that meets those needs. ATAC will guide you through a fail-fast/fail-cheap cycle to dissolve the start-up risk with small steps so as discover early “death threats” to your business idea/strategy.

Key Assistance Programs

• Product, Service, and Business Model Innovation
• Business Plan Development/Review
• Market Feasibility and Customer Survey Research
• Website Development and Optimization
• Marketing Strategy
• Product Design/Branding
• Creation of Pro Forma Financial Statements

The Small Business Development Center at Auburn University specializes in one-on-one business counseling and training for small businesses. Programs of assistance are developed in response to small business needs, and are designed to help grown the state’s economy. The Center offers free consulting services to current and prospective small business owners in the area. The Center is prepared to help nearly any type of small company or would-be entrepreneur.