History

The Small Business Development Center opened at the Lone Star College System, then known as the North Harris Montgomery Community College District, in November 1985. The center was the first opened by the University of Houston in the Gulf Coast region. As the first community college in the state of Texas to become an SBDC service center, Lone Star College System became a testing ground for the SBDC Network that now exists throughout the Gulf Coast region, with centers providing consulting and training services in 32 southeast Texas counties.  

Originally the SBDC was based at Lone Star College-Kingwood, with consulting provided on a circuit rider basis at several area Chambers of Commerce which served as satellite centers. In 1991, in keeping with the college district’s transition to a multi-college district with comprehensive, community-based colleges, the SBDC set out to establish centers at each college. Offices were opened at Lone Star College-North Harris in 1992, and  Lone Star College-Tomball and Lone Star College-Montgomery in 1993.

The SBDC met with its first client in January of 1986. Since that time over 6,000 clients have received business consulting at the Lone Star College System SBDC. Also during that period the center held 648 business training programs with nearly 8800 attendees, bringing the total number of people who have received assistance through the SBDC to over 15,000.