Published: Monday, March 5, 2012 at 10:54 a.m. Last Modified: Monday, March 5, 2012 at 10:54 a.m.

Stacy Sevin never planned to get involved in small-business development.

But when the BP oil spill hit, the Chauvin resident found herself assisting various family seafood businesses navigate the disaster's impact.

My whole family is pretty much in the seafood industry. I was basically consulting for about a year to help them get through that time, said Chauvin, 28, who spent her childhood working on her grandparents' dock in Cocodrie.

Her parents, who own Bait House Seafood on Little Caillou Road, devised a business plan and calculated their spill-related losses with the help of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center at Nicholls State University.

The organization gets its money from state and federal grants, and provides free, confidential services and low-cost business classes and training. It was designed to help offset the effects of hurricanes, Sevin said, but happened to open up the day after the spill.

Everybody in this area was affected by this spill, either directly or indirectly, Sevin said. Services like private consulting, or even having a CPA do an assessment for you, are very expensive. The claims process required detailed monthly loss documentation, and many fishermen don't normally do their books monthly.

Having helped her family with claims and development plans after the spill, Sevin realized she had a knack for small-business development work. In August, she started working as a consultant for the center which had helped save her parents' business.

Andrew and Christine Blanchard, who own Indian Ridge Shrimp company in Chauvin, have worked with Sevin for two months.

Stacy's been a big inspiration to us with all her help and ideas, said Christine Blanchard. As far as our website, we didn't know how to post things so we would get hits on Google. We didn't know you could do a Facebook page for a business and use that to get your name out there. She's helping us with our business plan now. Everyone else charges a fortune for all this, and she does it for free.

Continued here:
Local turns personal experience into business venture