Transcript- Episode 88: How A Few Minutes At The Small Business Development Center Can Alter The Future Of Your Business With Don Loewel The Director Of Pasadena City College SBDC Episode 88
Feb 28, 2023
00:00:00 Don
Find a way to make just an hour a month, a couple of
hours a quarter to work on your business, and come to see us and
let us help you. The SBDCs are here to help you work on your
business.
00:00:20 Christina
The workforce landscape is rapidly changing and
educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing
students before they enter the workforce to make our communities
and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education.
00:00:33 Christina
But we need to understand how to change and adjust so
that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even
get there. So, how do we begin to predict the future?
00:00:45 Salvatrice
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, Vice President of Economic
and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College, and host of
this podcast.
00:00:53 Christina
And I'm Christina Barsi, producer and co-host of this
podcast.
00:00:57 Salvatrice
And we are starting the conversation about the future
of work. We'll explore topics like how education can partner with
industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our
highest goals, more internships and PCC students in the
workforce.
00:01:11 Salvatrice
We at Pasadena City College, want to lead the charge
in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what
the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a
conversation that impacts all of us. You, the employers, the
policymakers, the educational institutions, and the community as a
whole.
00:01:31 Christina
We believe change happens when we work together, and
it all starts with having a conversation. I'm Christina Barsi.
00:01:38 Salvatrice
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the Future of
Work.
00:01:43 Christina
In this episode, we learn further how the SBDC
supports the SBA from Don Loewel, the Director of the Pasadena City
College Small Business Development Center, as they work together to
create services and resources for small businesses in the San
Gabriel Valley.
00:01:59 Christina
From workshops for restaurant owners to just game
planning your next move, the SBDC is here to help free of cost.
Here's Don.
00:02:11 Salvatrice
Hi, and welcome to PCC's Future of Work Podcast. I am
your host, Salvatrice Cummo, Executive Director of Economic and
Workforce Development for PCC. Here with me this morning is Mr.
Donald Loewel, our Director at PCC's Small Business Development
Center. Good morning.
00:02:28 Don
Good morning.
00:02:29 Salvatrice
I'm glad you could be here with us today. I know that
you are really at the pulse of what is happening to our community,
the workforce, and to have you present here is really truly a gift.
I understand that your time is very taxid, and thank you so much
for volunteering your time.
00:02:48 Salvatrice
Before we get started for our listeners out there,
just to kind of set the stage for this conversation, we get asked
all the time what is the difference between SBA and SBDC? For most,
they're just acronyms and it's super hard to distinguish which one
is which. Take a moment to kind of set the stage - what's the
difference between SBA and SBDC, and how are they interrelated?
00:03:14 Don
Sure. So, happy to be here again. Thank you for having
me. The SBDC (Small Business Development Center), we are a resource
partner for the SBA, and as such, we provide technical assistance
or one-on-one consulting for small business owners in the San
Gabriel Valley.
00:03:40 Don
So, as a resource partner, our job is to interact with
clients with small business owners face-to-face, either in
consulting sessions and or workshops to help them grow. So, it
includes several different areas: business planning, marketing,
website development, financial analysis. We have a myriad of
different advisors with different skill sets who are available at
no cost to small business owners in the Valley.
00:04:22 Don
And so, we are a, let's call it a subset of the SBA.
And other examples of resource partners like us would be the
Women's Business Center, the Veterans Business Center, and an
organization called SCORE. Some of which folks may have heard
of.
00:04:46 Don
So, the SBA is a federal administration, a federal
program, and we are resource partners that work in line with them
to interface with small business owners and to help them grow.
00:05:03 Salvatrice
Thank you. You're really the technical assistance, the
technical arm of the SBA in assisting businesses through a variety
of different phases of their development. So, you do have access to
experts in the field around an array of areas of expertise.
00:05:22 Salvatrice
Can you share a little bit about, just real quickly
about your team. What can one expect, what can a business expect
coming to the Small Business Development center, what's the genetic
makeup of your team?
00:05:36 Don
Sure. So, let me give you a little background on
process. So, as business owners engage us, we will reach out to
them and we'll do a few minutes of an intake process where we can
learn more about what they'd like to get help with, but also a
little bit of an understanding of their business so that we can
direct them accordingly.
00:06:08 Don
My team, I have a dozen professional consultants. They
all contract with us, and we have within our team of advisors, we
have some folks who are generalists who can assess the overall
needs of the business owner and help develop a plan moving forward
that may be in a business plan, that may be a marketing plan.
00:06:40 Don
And those generalists, once they've assessed that
client, will then determine if there are other needs that can be
met within the team, and other folks would be marketing
specialists. Within our marketing team, we have a couple folks who
are website developers. They can assess your website, they can
teach you about Google Analytics to make sure that you're
monitoring your success online.
00:07:16 Don
They can teach you about e-commerce. And then we also
have folks that would focus on social media, if that's a marketing
strategy. I also have a financial analyst who used to be a banker,
and then we have two attorneys on the team as well. One focuses on
organizational aspects, C-corp, S-corp, LLC. The other one is an IP
attorney and can provide feedback on that.
00:07:56 Don
The last thing I'll share is that we are one of nine
SBDCs throughout the LA network, and so if we don't have the
expertise, we will often refer clients to other locations.
University of Laverne has some advisors with great skill sets,
College of the Canyons, et cetera.
00:08:26 Don
So, we really do leverage it in addition to my team,
the strengths throughout the network to do our best to help small
business clients. The area that I'm trying to focus my team on with
clients is preparation. You can never be too prepared as a small
business owner, it is such a challenge to run a successful small
business that you need to be prepared as much as possible. You need
to be thinking about your business two quarters out, a year out,
three years out.
00:09:09 Don
Now, could anyone have been prepared for COVID-19? No,
of course not. But I do believe that what will come from this will
be business owners who are much more diligent about looking down
the road, not only for potential downturns or crises, but also
opportunities.
00:09:36 Don
And that's where an SBDC can really, really help.
Business owners are so busy, many times they do not think about
spending time, planning for the future, planning their growth,
planning for the good things, not just the downturns.
00:09:58 Salvatrice
And naturally, if businesses are prepared and really
thinking long-term, as you mentioned just a moment ago, that would
really prepare them for the new talent. The new talent that a
community college or any other institution is producing and getting
them ready for this new workforce coming through the pipeline.
00:10:20 Salvatrice
I really hope that our listeners take a moment to find
out what SPDCs are all about. Specifically, Pasadena given you
serve the San Gabriel Valley region, it's invaluable. It's
completely invaluable.
00:10:35 Salvatrice
This has been really great, Don. Really appreciate
your time. Anything else you wanna share with our listeners out
there? Takeaways, resources, advice, anything that you'd like to
say right now, please feel free to.
00:10:52 Don
Sure. And thank you again, Salvatrice, for having me
on this podcast. I guess what I'd really like to share with small
business owners is that we're here. You can email us at
sbdc@pasadena.edu. You may go to our website, pccsbdc.org, but find
a way to make just an hour a month, couple of hours a quarter to
work on your business and come to see us and let us help you. It's
a hundred percent no cost and with no catch, as we like to say.
00:11:42 Don
So, you spend the vast majority of your time working
in your business. The SBDCs are here to help you work on your
business, and we really encourage you to contact us.
00:11:55 Salvatrice
Thank you so much. Best of luck to you and your
operations. Keep doing what you're doing. The feedback is awesome.
And again, we have been talking to Director Don, Mr. Don Loewel
from Pasadena City College Small Business Development Center, and
catch you on the next episode.
00:12:14 Salvatrice
Thank you for listening to the Future of Work Podcast.
Make sure you subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you
can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us
by clicking on the website link below in the show notes to
collaborate, partner, or just chat about all things future of work.
We'd love to connect with you.
00:12:36 Salvatrice
All of us here at the future of work and Pasadena City
College wish you safety and wellness.