There’s help for small business owners and people thinking about starting a business in the Mat-Su. The Mat-Su Small Business Development Center provides free, confidential, one-on-one assistance to help businesses get started, overcome challenges, and plan for the future.
Kristi McDonnell is Director of the Mat-Su Center. She explained how the organization works and the services it provides on Valley Edition last week.
The Small Business Development Center, or SBDC, is a nonprofit. The US Small Business Administration, the State of Alaska, and the Mat-Su Borough fund it. The Mat-Su SBDC serves the entire borough, from Skwentna and Trapper Creek to Glacier View. Most clients come from Palmer and Wasilla.
The Center works with businesses at every stage. Someone developing an initial business idea and owners who are considering expansion, selling their business, or even closing their doors are both welcome.
Common challenges for small businesses include licensing, sales taxes, permitting, planning, and managing cash flow. The center also helps business owners with marketing, market research, finding resources, and preparing financial projections and loan applications.
McDonnell says financing and capital needs, along with buying or selling businesses and developing business plans, account for almost 70 percent of the Center’s work.
The Mat-Su Center helped 41 businesses become established last year.
Business owners don’t pay for individual advising services. The assistance is free and confidential. Some workshops may have a small fee. The SBDC does not provide legal or tax advice. It connects business owners with the appropriate professionals.
The Mat-Su Center has two business advisors, McDonnell and Eve Horne. They bring different backgrounds and strengths to the job. This includes experience in business management, construction, technology, and marketing.
Getting started with the SBDC is simple. Business owners register through AKSBDC.org. They complete a short survey on the kind of assistance they need. The Center connects them with an advisor. Meetings can take place in person or through video conferencing. This makes the service accessible to businesses throughout the borough.
McDonnell says the Center tries to contact new applicants within three business days, although January through mid-April is busy.
Several opportunities are coming up for local business owners. The Mat-Su Center will hold open hours on Thursday November 12, from noon to 3 p.m. The focus will be marketing. Another open hours session is scheduled for December 10. Its focus is year-end preparation and planning for the coming year. A workshop in January will address the Wasilla sales tax.
The Center is preparing four short videos covering the basics of doing business in the Mat-Su. The videos are developed in cooperation with the Borough; the cities of Palmer, Wasilla, and Houston; and the Mat-Su Borough Fire and Life Safety Division.
McDonnell says keeping business owners informed about changing local regulations, licensing requirements, and taxes is an important part of the Center mission.
Her message to local business owners is simple: You don’t have to have everything figured out before asking for help. The SBDC wants to help- whether you’re just considering a business idea or have been operating for years and trying to decide what’s next.
For more information, to register for free business advising, or to learn about upcoming workshops, visit AKSBDC.org. The Center also shares information through its monthly newsletter, Facebook, and Instagram.
McDonnell says the goal is to help Mat-Su businesses succeed by making the challenges of running a small business a little easier to navigate.
Mike Chmielewski summarized this article with the help of AI from an interview with Kristi McDonnell on Valley Edition last week. Yours truly, Lee Henrikson produced it. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
The full interview with McDonnell is on bigcabbageradio.org. Go to podcasts, then Valley Edition.
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That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Monday, November 2, 2026.
Image: Kristi McDonnell from AKSBDC.org.