NATCHEZ &045; A new director is settling into the Copiah-Lincoln Small Business Development Center offices at the Co-Lin Natchez campus.

Jeff Waller assumed the position on April 1, replacing Robert Russ, director for the past 17 years.

Russ was packing boxes on Friday, bidding farewell to a position he described as &uot;a happy business decision.&uot;

&uot;It really worked well for me,&uot; Russ said. &uot;Jeff used to head up the center at Southwest Community College in Summit. He knows the ropes.&uot;

Waller will serve an 11-county district in Southwest Mississippi as director of the Co-Lin center. He looks forward to getting to know the Natchez area better. He will be at the Co-Lin Natchez office four days each week &045; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Wednesdays, he will be at Southwest Community College.

&uot;I think I’ll bring an energy to the job,&uot; Waller said. &uot;I hope I can do something to help all the primary communities of the district.&uot;

As an entrepreneur himself, he has experience that helps him to counsel clients. &uot;I tell my clients I know a little bit about a lot of things,&uot; he said. &uot;I’ve counseled clients in just about every type of business you can think of.&uot;

Becoming an entrepreneur is not easy, Waller said. &uot;Within the first five years, 80 percent of new business starts fail.&uot;

Failure is from one of three reasons. &uot;The first is that they don’t plan. A business plan is the most valuable tool for structuring the business startup. Too often people think it’s a waste of time and don’t do it,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s like taking a vacation. You don’t just put the key in the car and say where I get is where I’m going. You don’t say what money I have in my pocket is what I’ll spend.&uot;

The second reason is failure to plan for enough money to fund the business. &uot;There usually are expenses that were not anticipated,&uot; he said. &uot;That’s when they might come in for a loan and find out they aren’t eligible. They might have been eligible when they were just starting out.&uot;

The third reason for failure is mismanagement. &uot;They don’t know how to manage money, employees, inventory. What we do is help people to understand the concepts of running the business. But we don’t manage the business.&uot;

Waller grew up in McComb and holds a degree in accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi. He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1972, became a pilot, rose to the rank of colonel and retired from the service in 1998.

&uot;I flew mostly C130 transports, he said. &uot;I flew all over the world and had the opportunity to know a lot of cultural diversity, a lot of opportunity meeting people, and that’s been good for me in the present job.&uot;

Waller took over as director of the small business center at Southwest Community College in 1999. State budget cuts in 2001 closed that center and three others. Co-Lin hired him to counsel at the Summit center beginning in August 2001.

He is concerned about the dwindling number of centers in the state. &uot;In 1999, there were 21 centers for business development. Today we have nine. Budget cuts and the financial status of the state are affecting all of us.&uot;

Services at the center are free. Occasionally there may be a charge for workshops or seminars or for recovering direct costs of items such as printing, postage or computer time.

The center also maintains an information resource center with manuals, statistical information and information about various kinds of loans.

Areas of counseling include startup assistance, business plan development, entrepreneurial education, analysis of financial records, market strategies, sales techniques, sales to the government, international trade and more.

The Center is in the Co-Lin academic building, 11 Co-Lin Circle. Waller is available by phone at 601-445-5254 or by e-mail at

Jeff.Waller@colin.edu

.