Growth Acceleration Services

Growth services offer you results-driven benefits

Accelerate the growth of your business with no-cost services designed to provide substantial business consulting to qualified businesses.

Our certified business consultants are available to assist your business in a variety of areas, through in-depth consulting sessions. Growth Acceleration Services enables business owners to:

• Find new market opportunities
• Uncover hidden profits
• Create sustainable growth

How It Works

Upon verification of eligibility and initial consultation, a dedicated consultant will:

• Conduct an in-depth business assessment and on-site visit
• Develop sustainable growth strategies, including:
  • shoring up financial practices
  • accessing capital
  • determining market diversification tactics
  • developing strategic business plans
• Prepare a Business Health Assessment Report
• Consult confidentially as necessary to implement recommendations

Qualifications

To be eligible for this no-cost service, qualified small businesses must:

• Have a goal for growth
• Be in business for at least 3 years
• Have 5 or more full-time employees
• Have at least $500,000 in sales
• Be willing to submit related financial, marketing and operations documents

Apply Now

Frequently Asked Questions

Consultant

• Pat Gordon

  

  Florida SBDC at USF

  Specialty: Growth Acceleration

  As a growth acceleration specialist with the FSBDC at USF, Pat Gordon is focused on assisting existing businesses to find new opportunities, uncover hidden profits and create sustainable growth. For more than 20 years, she led an IT consulting and staffing firm which grew from $750k in annual revenues to more than $40 million in yearly sales during her tenure. The company branched out from the Miami area and ultimately earned the status of primary and preferred supplier to several major clients in the oil and gas industry in Houston and across the border in Canada. Gordon has her bachelor’s in communications from the University of Buffalo and her master’s in business administration. from Canisius College. As an entrepreneur, she owns a seasonal fishing lodge near the Adirondack Mountains of New York and has a small used car dealership in Florida. She is also a part-time adjunct instructor of economics, business and operations management.

• Bill Burnham

  Florida SBDC at USF, Tampa

  Specialty: Accounting, Finance, Business Planning, Growth Acceleration

  Bill Burnham is a lifelong resident of the Tampa Bay area. He is a graduate of the University of South Florida where he majored in accounting. He obtained his master’s degree in business administration from The Florida Institute of Technology. Burnham has 25 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, nearly 20 of those years in management positions. During that time he managed more than 200 employees and spent time in accounting, finance, manufacturing, production control and strategic planning. He managed government contract budgets in excess of $50 million dollars and operating budgets of more than $25 million dollars. He prepared analysis for potential acquisitions, proposals for government contracts and conducted company-wide training programs on several different topics. Complementing his large company background, Burnham also has 15 years of experience as a small business owner in industries as diverse as dry cleaning and home health care. In addition to those endeavors he has also worked as a business broker and business valuator performing valuations and selling business throughout the state of Florida. He has hands on knowledge in business planning, budgeting, forecasting, profit and loss management, cash management, business sales, business valuation and franchise operations. Burnham is also a Certified LIvePlan Expert Advisor.

• Joe Pfeiffer

  

  Florida SBDC at USF, Tampa

  Specialty: Growth Acceleration

  Joe Pfeiffer has more than 30 years of experience helping businesses of various types and sizes nationwide identify and resolve business problems that maximize efficiency, profitability, customer satisfaction and the market value of the business. He currently assists Florida SBDC at USF Growth Acceleration clients with operations evaluation and plans. Pfeiffer had a 22 year career at UPS with management positions in operations, training and industrial engineering at the district office and in the corporate office as air IE ground handling operations, international marketing, and pan-euro acquisitions IE project manager. Each of these roles managed projects involving $100M to $500M. He has held senior management positions working for various mid-sized companies. For the past 15 Pfeiffer has been focused on using his experience as a designer of training programs, facilitator and presenter of a variety of workshops and innovation sessions, business coach, business analyst and management consultant to assist businesses of all sizes and industries. His education includes earning a bachelor of science in business from Indiana University, an MBA from Butler University and a certificate in entrepreneurship from Clayton State University.

• Dr. Jim Taylor

  

  Florida SBDC at USF, Tampa

  Specialty: Growth Acceleration

  Dr. Jim Taylor has more than 25 years of experience in financial services, consulting, banking, investment management, venture capital, start-ups, and has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs in the Tampa Bay Region over the past five years. He assists Florida SBDC at USF Growth Acceleration clients with finance and marketing plans. Dr. Taylor is currently an adjunct professor in the masters of entrepreneurship and applied technologies program at University of South Florida’s Muma College of Business. He has also served as an adjunct professor of finance in the MBA Graduate School of Seton Hill University, and an adjunct professor for Eckerd College. Dr. Taylor is also President of Oakford Park Capital, Inc, a Florida Registered Investment Advisor. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor of science in management and economics and holds an MBA in finance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He was also the recipient of a scholarship to Carnegie-Mellon’s Graduate School of Business, Entrepreneurial Management Program. Dr. Taylor is currently enrolled in the Graduate Cybersecurity Certificate Program at the University of South Florida. He also holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction LCACHE from the University of South Florida. He has been a regular member of the Chartered Financial Analyst – CFA Institute since 1994 and is a member of the Tampa Bay CFA Society. He currently holds a FINRA Series 65 Investment Advisor Representative License.