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COLUMBIA, MO. -- Four-year-old Samuel Fender is pretty excited about his new leg braces because the braces are decorated with cars. 

Lynn Snyder is excited for a different reason.

"It's amazing when you can look at a child who hasn't walked and help them walk but it's also amazing to look in their parents' eyes and share that same joy with them,” Snyder said.

The owner of Snyder Brace creates orthotic leg and body braces for children.

Snyder opened up for business in June.

"I know orthotics but I didn't know business,” Snyder said. “I was terrified.”

Virgil Woolridge is a University of Missouri Extension Business Development specialist. Woolridge helped Snyder create a business plan to get a loan. The MU Extension business counselor helped transform Snyder's vision into a reality. 

"Most businesses challenge in making a profit, the profit margin that most businesses most small businesses is very very small so the only way you can overcome that is by doing good prior planning,” Woolridge said.

Workshops and counselors are available all over the state through the Missouri small business and technology development centers.

"Having somebody to lead me around the obstacles and hurdles that that were present, I think made the biggest difference," Snyder said.

Very few brace businesses in Missouri cater to children.

So Snyder's business is unique.  

She's doing what she loves by helping children like Samuel with cerebral palsy gain a little more freedom.

"He's always been happy, but now there's a different happiness within him, a deeper joy with being able to move without being in as much pain,” Samuel’s mom Shelly Fender said.