On the far south side of the LAC campus past Veterans stadium, is the Small Business Development Center. Though a building used for school administrative purposes it often holds workshops, counseling, and resources for not only students but also small business owners looking for assistance in starting up their business.
The SBDC is often confused with it’s very similar sounding parent entity, the Small Business Administration, although both are in the field of supporting small business owners, they operate at different levels and serve different purposes.
While the SBA is at the federal level in Washington D.C., they operate primarily through an education that they call the “three ‘C’s”:“Contracting, Capital, and Counseling,” while the SBDC primarily focuses on the counseling aspect.
Considered a “Technical Research Partner”, the SBDC receives grant funding from the SBA to run their facilities and programs.
While there are roughly 1,000 Development Centers across the country, the one located right in LBCC’s backyard is one of eight centers in the Los Angeles, Santa Barbra and Ventura counties.
Resources are not exclusive to LBCC students as they are open to anyone who may already own a small business or is looking to start their own.
Dan Rosenfeld, a Business Client Supervisor, gave a quick breakdown of what one might do if they’re interested in starting their own business, “A typical path for somebody who has a business idea; for example, ‘I want to sell clothes.’ or ‘I wanna do retail.’ … They’ll call and we’ll typically advise that they take our basic workshop series,” said Rosenfeld.
Their basic workshop series is made up of two lectures. The first, covering the basics of starting a small business covering topics such as licencing, insurance, credit, taxes and more.
Presented by Karie Armstrong, one of SBDC’s business consultants, Armstrong speaks with many small business owners regarding the fundamentals of what it means to be an entrepreneur and how they should run their business by finding one’s “genius”.
Someone’s “genius” is a specific trait about a person that they particularly excel at, whether it be organizational skills or working well with people.
For example, one of the workshop’s attendees, Karina Manuela, is a fitness coach and dance instructor, her genius was motivating her clients.
Both practical and philosophical questions were asked by business owners on one’s vision, why they picked this route as opposed to another and, “How much is this going to cost me?”
After completing the workshops, clients can continue to meet with the SBDC’s advisors to help them develop a specific business plan.
Despite the building’s location on the very edge of campus, Rosenfeld believes that it hasn’t been an issue in regards to gathering clientele.
“Typically what happens is somebody saw something on television and they’ll do a web search and then they’ll call and we’ll talk to them … It’s more about building the buzz than about where we’re located.”
“It’s not going to be easy but we have the resources and expertise here to help you,” Rosenfeld said.
The next two upcoming SBDC workshops are on October 15th, at 6:00 p.m. for “Starting a Small Business” and October 22nd, at 6:00 p.m. for “Creating an Effective Business Plan”.
Sign-ups and more information are available at https://longbeachsbdc.org/