Marshall Lions Club learns about Small Business Development Center | News

The Marshall Lions Club welcomed Day Shelmire on Sept. 3. Shelmire is the Director of the UT Tyler-Longview Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

After earning an MBA from Southern Methodist University, Shelmire began his career at NASA Headquarters, where he worked on space commercialization and technology transfer programs. While at NASA, he licensed a promising Global Positioning Satellite (GPS)-based mapping technology to start his first company, Global Visions. Since that time, Shelmire has started successful businesses including Janie’s Cakes, a Tyler-based producer of gourmet pound cakes, which landed on Oprah’s favorites list. Most recently, he was the Director of Business Development for a Dallas-based investment banking firm and Vice President and Regional Sales Manager at Frost Bank. Shelmire was appointed Director of the UT Tyler-Longview SBDC in February 2019.

UT-Tyler-Longview SBDC was recognized as the 2024 SDBC of the Year by the Small Business Administration. To hear it from Shelmire, he is surrounded by some phenomenal people that handle day-to-day operations and make an award of this magnitude possible. Shelmire provided a special shoutout to Longview SBDC Business Advisor Virgel Connor. Connor has been an employee within the SBDC for the past 20 years, and SBDC Business Advisor Brandy Flanagan who is positioned in Marshall within the Synergy building in close proximity to Marshall Economic Development Corporation (MEDCO). Whenever a business makes a decision to move to Marshall, MEDCO connects the business to SBDC to provide assistance for their smooth transition.

According to Day, SBDC works diligently to provide, at no cost, business advising and consulting services to entrepreneurs and small business owners, in order to help local small business start, grow and thrive. With offices in Marshall, Longview, Jefferson and Henderson, the entire team truly provides superior support in Gregg, Harrison, Marion, Panola, Rusk and Upshur counties. In supporting local business start, grow and thrive, SBDC assists in providing:

• Financial projections
• Business plan development
• Analysis and marketing strategies
• Loan package development (support only, SDBD does not deliver loans or grants)
• Advertising and social media marketing campaigns
• Restructuring and analyzing current debt
• Business expansion, restructuring and turnaround strategies
• Market, demographic and industry research
• Government procurement, contracting and much more

UT Tyler-Longview SBDC is part of a network of over 1,000 SBDCs across the country and the organization is part of Small Business Administration’s national grant program. The special part of the organization — every county in the United States is served by an SBDC. Nationwide, SBDC’s are hosted and operated by local colleges and universities. And the SBDC supporting the six counties which includes Harrison is hosted by the University of Texas at Tyler. As with any organization, success is dependent upon the right people being in the right place and at the right time. In that, UT Tyler-Longview SBDC is staffed by seasoned entrepreneurs and business-minded people.

Since UT Tyler became the local SBDC host in October 2018, the organization has counseled 1,375 clients; supported 3,813 existing jobs; started 165 new businesses; created 911 new jobs; provided 11,489 counseling hours and directed $66,066,411 into small business creation across the six counties. The Small Business Administration provides loan guaranty for those wanting to start a small business and SBDC is the conduit that directs the entrepreneur to the right source of funding to take advantage of the guaranty.

With pride, Shelmire shared that SBDC has assisted business across all industries and some of their well-known clients across the six counties include: Bear Creek Smokehouse; Rueggenbach Brewing Co.; Joe Pine Coffee Co.; O&D Manufacturing; Kilgore Mercantile & Music; Jack’s Natural Food Store in Longview; ARPCO Valves & Controls; Pride Metals; and Jodac Office Outfitters. For Bear Creek Smokehouse, SBDC assisted in the recent opening of their High Horse restaurant in the Marshall Mercantile building. In Shelmire’s opinion, the Shoults family is a perfect example of great entrepreneurs. As the really good entrepreneurs know what they do not know and also know where to get answers when and if required. As a result, the local SBDC has been working with the Shoults family the past 20 years.

The UT Tyler-Longview SBDC brought a government procurement expert, Henry Vinson, to East Texas for a contracting workshop in July 2024 and he will be holding a follow-up workshop on September 27, 2024. Without a large military base in the middle of East Texas, this workshop is tailored to provide insight for any business seeking avenues to procure government contracts into the future. Currently, there are only 190 companies entered into the government contracting database across the six counties and through these workshops, Shelmire is hopeful to boost knowledge and registration. Also, SBDC brought a nationally recognized restaurant consultant, Chris Tripoli, to East Texas to consult with various restaurant clients such as The Ginocchio, Rueggenbach Brewery, High Horse and Jack’s Natural Foods.

To work with the UT Tyler-Longview SBDC, please visit their website www.longviewsbdc.com and click the business assessment survey (red button on home page). Upon completion of the assessment survey and submission, the client will receive a call back to schedule a meeting with a business advisor. For more information on UT Tyler-Longview SBDC, give their main office in Longview a call at (903) 757-5857 or at www.uttyler-longviewsbdc.com.

Those interested in learning more about Marshall Lions Club and/or becoming a Lion can attend a noon Tuesday meeting in the Panola Harrison Cooperative Building located at 410 E. Houston St. in Marshall or visit them at

— Donald Hocutt submitted this report on behalf of the Marshall Lions Club.