A freshly-painted and renovated building at the corner of Revere and Division streets houses a selection of brushes, paints, canvases, easels, miscellaneous art supplies and Paul Ludington’s dream.

Ludington opened Paul’s Art Supply Store at 1814 Division St. four weeks ago. And he credits Central Oregon Community College’s Business Development Center with helping turn his dream into reality.

”For a long time, I had the idea of opening an art supply store in Bend,” Ludington said, ”but I didn’t have any idea of how to start a small business.”

That problem kept his dream on the back burner, but the idea of starting an art supply store wouldn’t go away.

”The local arts and crafts stores don’t carry what I need to paint,” he said. ”I got tired of having to go to Eugene or Portland to get supplies.”

Ludington also thought there was an untapped market in Central Oregon that could support an art supply store.

”Bend is an arts community, and there are lots of hobbyists,” he said. ”And the beauty of this area draws a lot of professional artists who work here, and sell all over the world. I know what supplies they need, and the problems they have getting them.”

Ludington has extensive experience in commercial art and in managing golf courses, and for nearly 30 years, his dual passions merged.

Ludington got his start in art at age 17, working for a commercial art firm in Austin, Texas. He was accepted to study art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., but at the same time he was offered a job at Lago Vista Golf Course near Austin.

He took the golf course job, he said, ”and the rest is history.”

Ludington used his design and art experience in landscaping golf courses, and he used acrylics to make paintings of golf courses.

From 1990 to 1993, Ludington painted full time, then he was offered a job at Harbor Links Golf Course in Klamath Falls.

”Last year, I decided to go in the direction of my passion for art,” Ludington said. ”So I started looking into small businesses.”

Ludington saw a Bulletin advertisement about a free, one-hour class, sponsored by the business development center, which discussed starting a small business. Ludington attended the class, and calls it ”the best hour I’ve spent.

”It was a great process, and it made me aware of what I was getting into,” Ludington said. ”I signed up with the center and they started working with me.”

Beth Wickham, director of the business development center, said the center helped about 300 new small businesses get started during 2000. There are no charge or fees for the center’s services, she said.

”We’re not consultants,” Wickham said. ”We give people the tools they need to build a business.”

The center is funded by the state, Wickham said, and every community college in Oregon has a similar business center.

The centers have cadres of experts in a variety of related fields, she said, and they can help with specific problems.

”Coming up with the idea for a business is the easy part,” Wickham said. ”But people don’t know what to do with it.”

One of the biggest challenges in starting a new business is financing, she said. The center helps clients come up with a business plan, budget, sales projections, and how much money it will take to get the new business going. They can also make estimates on how much revenue the business can be expected to earn.

”We don’t say yes or no to an idea, but we are realistic,” Wickham said.

Ludington said formulating the business plan ”helped translate the idea into black-and-white on paper.”

”It focused me on my goal, and gave me a reasonable idea of what capital would be needed,” Ludington said. ”It wasn’t an easy road, but it is a good way to test your determination and the viability of the business.”

Sometimes, a person will abandon an idea after doing the business research, Wickham said. In other instances, she said, they may decide the projected revenue is enough to justify the business.

For Ludington, the business plan and budget proved his idea had potential.

His business counselor, Jim Wilcox, pointed Ludington to possible financiers. Ludington eventually got funding through the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.

”I would have gone on with the art supply store anyway, because basically, this is a labor of love,” Ludington said. ”But without the help and advice I got, I wouldn’t be in as good of shape right now. Business has been good so far, and I’ll be expanding as I go.”