When my husband, Pat Murray, and I moved to Chattanooga, we were planning to stay six months to a year–tops. We saw Chattanooga as a pretty place we wanted to explore and then move on.
We’re fast approaching the two-year anniversary of our arrival and we still haven’t started making plans to move on. The main reason for this change is the Chattanooga Business Development Center (BDC).
When we arrived in Chattanooga, Pat was a vintage electric guitar dealer who built guitars as a hobby but was hankering to make guitar building his day job. Living in an apartment for our temporary life here, he left his workshop behind and had nowhere to pursue guitar building in any form.
Discovering the BDC changed not only our life plans, but Pat’s business direction. The BDC is not the kind of place one typically thinks of as a “tourist trap,” but perhaps that’s exactly what it is–it catches tourists and converts them into community members.
Beside offering incredibly affordable space with amenities like office staff and advisers to support a budding new business, the BDC is a place where business owners support one another in their struggles and share information. It’s a one-building village of skilled people. From cell phone specialists to caterers, wood workers to bakers, importers to tomahawk makers, it’s all there.
By tapping into this resource, my husband was able to launch his new business, Coop Guitars (coopguitars.com), with more support and far less cost than he expected.
The fact that Chattanooga has the BDC is a testament to Chattanoogans looking to the future. According to Kathryn Foster, director of small business and entrepreneurship, it’s the largest small business incubator in Tennessee and the third largest in the United States. With over 70 businesses in house, the BDC creates over 350 jobs and brings millions of dollars into the local economy. I was impressed to learn that the BDC is about to graduate is 500th successful business– and am looking forward to Coop Guitars joining their ranks.
Reinventing Chattanooga as “Scenic City” brought us here. The opportunity to pursue a new business has kept us. We wanted to visit a beautiful place, but tapping into the BDC made us want to do more than just visit.
If you're looking for a place to start a new business, contact Kathryn Foster at kfoster@chattanoogachamber.com or 423-752-9406.