Facebook entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin did not expect their small idea to escalate into a global phenomenon with more than 400 million users on their website. However, what seemed like an overnight success was actually a fight to keep their idea alive.

The Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center (MISBTDC) and Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC) have recently received grants to enhance efforts to help small business and entrepreneurship in West Michigan and across the state.

A small business involves few employees, small market share and often relationship-based clients while an entrepreneur is someone who, hoping to create a successful business, can take an idea and form a business strategy around it.

Headquartered at GVSU, MISBTDC received a $1.6 million grant that will allow it to hire nine new finance and strategy specialists to work with the existing Manufacturing Assistant Team (MAT) and the Growth Group Team (G2), which offers no-cost counseling services to Michigan manufacturers, said Jennifer Deamud, MISBTDC associate state director.

“The new staff will help small manufacturers to diversify in new industries and to reduce their automotive reliance,” she said. “The specialists will double the work force of high-level assistance throughout the state and will focus on small businesses in the growth phase, in strategic alignment with the state of Michigan’s initiatives.”

Arn Boezaart, MAREC director, said with small business and entrepreneurships forming the backbone of our workforce, many people look at this business sector for possible job opportunities because manufacturing has had such great job loss.

MAREC received a $100,000 grant to advance new business developments and help entrepreneurs improve MAREC’s physical facility – five small businesses – strengthen it’s marketing and promotion, provide start-up capital to help the small companies and hire paid personnel who have the ability to counsel the small business owners in subjects such as marketing and promotion, finance and business strategies, Boezaart said.

Kyle Denning, a 2008 GVSU graduate who majored in international business and finance, now works for a small business called Viability, LLC, which focuses on providing sustainable energy through renewable resources. Denning said unless a person has a real passion for the small business industry, he does not recommend going into it because most fail.

“It is extraordinarily hard to make it work,” he said. “Remember that only one thing matters in any business, especially small: cash flow. Pay attention to it to the penny. So many people with great ideas, work ethic, etc. fail because they do not understand how to follow the true cash flows of the business.”

Denning said being an entrepreneur and running a small business is a huge and always present challenge.

“Don’t read the stories about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg and get excited thinking it was easy,” Denning said. “These guys had great a great work ethic, intelligence and personality, but just as important was the timing and luck side of it. Success is always another week, month or year away for all of us, but remember that you have to survive today to get there.”

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