Hernando Chamber spotlights SBDC support for small businesses

Small-business owners in Brooksville got a practical pitch, not a ceremonial one, when the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce gathered for its monthly breakfast at Southern Hills Plantation Club. Held at 4200 Summit View Dr. on the final Wednesday of May 2026, the event landed during Small Business Appreciation Month and put America’s SBDC at USF in front of local operators looking for help with growth, hiring and financing.

The morning’s featured speaker, Carl Hadden, leads America’s SBDC at USF’s 10-county west-central Florida region and oversees a staff of 20. That region serves about 5,000 businesses a year with confidential no-cost consulting, training, market research and information, a reminder that the organization’s work reaches far beyond a handshake and a brochure.

For Hernando County owners, the SBDC’s value is in the details: business plans, access to capital, marketing, regulatory compliance and international trade. America’s SBDC traces its roots to a 1976 pilot program and now includes nearly 1,000 centers nationwide. Florida SBDC materials describe the state network as the largest provider of assistance for small businesses in Florida, while national reporting cited by the U.S. Small Business Administration says SBDCs serve about one million small business owners and entrepreneurs each year.

Hadden’s background fits the kind of hands-on advising the chamber was highlighting. He earned an associate’s degree in business administration from Polk State College, a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Webber International University and an MBA from the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida, along with a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship. He also graduated from Leadership Lake Wales Class 13 in 2009.

One example of that practical approach was his work connecting McGee Auto Service and Tires with Polk County School District staff so mechanics could get additional training and become ASE certified. That kind of workforce pipeline matters in a county where employers often struggle to find trained help and then keep it.

The chamber’s own footprint helps explain why the breakfast drew attention from Spring Hill and surrounding areas. The Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce says its offices in Hernando and Pasco counties are positioned to serve those communities, and its breakfast meetings at Southern Hills have become a place where business owners can hear directly about resources instead of waiting for problems to become crises. In a county built on small firms, the difference between a generic pitch and a usable referral can shape whether a shop simply survives or actually expands.