FEATURED ARTICLE

Deborah and William Osgood, the founders of the Knowledge Institute and BUZGate, at their office in Exeter. Michael McCord photo

When Kate Schwartz started her physical therapy business in Exeter in 1994 it was a different era when it came to finding sources of assistance for budding entrepreneurs. The Internet was just beginning to emerge and Web-based data banks either did not exist or were inaccessible.

"I spent a lot of time and money," Schwartz said about her efforts to learn more about business fundamentals such as marketing. "So many things I learned the hard way."

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is no easier today but what has changed is the sheer volume of free information and assistance available. One of the most complete and innovative resources for entrepreneurs in the Seacoast region and across the country is BUZGate, a leading resource portal for start-up, small- and medium-sized businesses that has been developed and nurtured since 1999 by the Exeter-based Knowledge Institute.

BUZGate — which stands for Business Utility Zone Gateway — is the pride and joy of the husband-and-wife team of William and Deborah Osgood, who founded it as a philanthropic gift to entrepreneurs. The pair has a wide range of experience in the business world as consultants, executives, academic researchers, and strong advocates of utilizing the power of knowledge in the small-business sector.

"Our goal is for users to find important answers to their questions in three clicks or less," said Deborah, the vice president and chief knowledge officer at the Knowledge Institute.

What users are clicking to and entering is nothing less than a modern resource book with connection to what Osgood calls "real people" in, believe it or not, some 20,000 public assistance programs designed to help foster business development across the country — including local programs such as the Women's Business Center, MicroCredit-NH, SCORE, the N.H. Small Business Development Center and the state Small Business Administration.

Since BUZGate took off in 2002, more than one million users have accessed its Web site. The BUZGate concept was originally conceived by William Osgood, who created a small-business resource directory for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the 1970s and revived the concept for BUZGate.

"Entrepreneurship is New Hampshire's secret weapon," he said. "The more we can foster it, the better off we are."

The problem for entrepreneurs, Deborah Osgood explained, wasn't that there weren't programs or information about programs out there — the issue was that it wasn't centralized and almost impossible to find amid what Osgood called an often bewildering labyrinth of acronym-heavy agencies and programs.

BUZGate has simplified the process dramatically by offering entrepreneurs access to free assistance with quick self-guided mouse clicks to solutions ranging from work force developments to trade associations to debt restructuring and loans, and employee background checks to government regulations.

"Many people think that the most valuable resource for an entrepreneur is money," Osgood said. "It's not. It's time and what BUZGate does is help them be efficient and put them in contact with real people."

The Osgoods know firsthand the importance of utilizing all available assistance and funding programs. In the mid-1980s, they were a management/ownership team that took over a struggling manufacturing company in Haverill, Mass. She discovered and used federal small-business grants to help pay the salaries of her 23 employees during a tough transitional phase. Eventually, Deborah Osgood said, the company, Snell Acoustics, had a major turnaround and grew to more than 75 employees and was sold in 1995.

Though it seems like a no-brainer today, Osgood said that many organizations and programs were initially hesitant to get involved with BUZGate for the simple reason that "it wasn't invented here." That is no longer the case. The site is now paid for by corporate underwriters who sponsor various solutions pages and other organizations have made it a point to get involved.

"The BUZGate Web site is a must visit for any new or existing business. It is a remarkable one-stop site for free business help and business solutions," said Witmer Jones, the district director of the Small Business Administration in Concord. "This office recommends that all businessmen and women should visit this site."

Deborah Osgood describes the BUZGate site as "all go and no show," very functional and no glitz for a site that can be utilized easily with a dial-up connection.

Kate Schwartz appreciates that functionality. She became aware of the site in the past few years (in the small-world department, William Osgood was one of her physical therapy patients) and has used it.

"It's all right there and the time savings alone is a lot," Schwartz said. She used it most recently to help decide how and if she could afford to give her employees some type of retirement benefit. She looked carefully into 401(k) programs but eventually decided her best option was a simple individual retirement program.

Deborah Osgood said stories of usage from entrepreneurs like Schwartz is why the Osgoods put so much time and effort (and a large initial investment) into BUZGate.

"I love it, helping people build their own businesses," she said.

BUZGate is also part of a larger public and private push to help returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and to help more women entrepreneurs get the assistance available to them.

As an example of how the Internet and World Wide Web has transformed the depth and breadth of small business assistance, BUZGate recently launched an e-mentoring program. It's proving popular and helpful and it allows Osgood to work with a small business owner in Salem while also helping mentor a young female entrepreneur in Baghdad.

"If we use technology as an enabler, it gives us a bigger brain," said William Osgood.