SBDC helps Burien entrepreneur strengthen community connections

In 2024, B-Town Blog readers logged an average of nearly 90,000 sessions a month with more than 125,000 page views, making Burien’s hyperlocal website by far the most popular source for news and information in the area.

The B-Town Blog, founded in 2007, is the flagship property of South King Media, which also owns seven other news sites that deliver breaking news, community features, crime, politics and event calendars for the cities of White Center, Des Moines, SeaTac, Normandy Park, Kent, Auburn, and Tukwila. Altogether, South King Media websites average more than 150,000 sessions per month.

When South King Media founder Scott Schaefer started the B-Town Blog nearly 20 years ago, there was no tried-and-true business model for online news sites to follow, and there still isn’t today. In 2020, research out of the University of North Carolina found that in the previous three years, more than 80 community-scale digital news sites started across the country, but an equal number failed.

Schaefer attributes at least part of his success to his early work with the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC). In 2009, when Schaefer started thinking the B-Town Blog could be more than a part-time passion project between more lucrative gigs as an Emmy Award-winning television writer, he reached out to the Washington SBDC for technical assistance.

The Washington SBDC is a network of more than 40 business advisors working with entrepreneurs in just about any industry and at any stage of business development, from startup to succession planning, including buying or selling a business. SBDC advising is provided at no-cost to the client, is confidential and is always tailored to the client’s own goals and objectives.

To his great good fortune, he says, the SBDC advisor serving entrepreneurs in Burien and South King County at that time was Zev Seigl, one of the original co-founders of Starbucks back in 1971.

“What I liked most about him was his direct approach,” Schaefer said. “I’d bring in my business plan and financial statements, and Siegl would mark them up with a red pen and make matter-of-fact suggestions. His practical guidance and positive attitude really helped.”

Siegl’s assistance helped him keep overhead down, increase revenue and build a sustainable business model that has allowed South King Media to continue to grow while remaining true to its mission of community journalism.

As business owners, Schaefer and his wife and business partner Theresa Schaefer have supported Burien and other South King County communities in multiple ways, not just through their hyperlocal news sites, but through their support of local nonprofits and community events.

“We’ve helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, including promoting fundraisers for local Rotary clubs, schools, food banks, churches and other nonprofits,” Schaefer said.

Siegl left the Washington SBDC in 2013, but Schaefer has continued to reach out to other SBDC advisors for assistance when the need arises.

The SBDC center at Highline College is directed by Siegl’s former colleague, Rich Shockley, and under Shockley’s guidance it has grown to include three SBDC business advisors working side-by-side with StartZone, a Highline College initiative that focuses on helping emerging entrepreneurs find success as small business owners.

“A good mentor enables a good entrepreneur to succeed,” Seigl said, and that is the mission of the Washington SBDC. While not every SBDC business advisor is a former small business owner, most are. Those without experience as an owner typically have extensive experience in banking, finance and business administration.

“My partnership with Siegl and the SBDC exemplifies the profound impact mentorship can have on entrepreneurial success,” Schaefer said.

Nearly 20 years later, his business is still going strong and adding to the quality of life in communities across South King County, in part because of the early assistance he got from the Washington SBDC and his SBDC advisors at Highline College.

SBDC services are provided through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Washington State University, which is the statewide host of the program. By statute, at least half the funding for SBDC services must come from state and local funding partners, and the other half is from the SBA. In Washington, those non-federal funding partners include WSU and other institutions of higher education, the Washington State Department of Commerce, economic development agencies and city and county governments.

For more information about the Washington SBDC, go to https://wsbdc.org. For more information about the SBDC at Highline College, go to https://sbdc.highline.edu.