Partnership Aims to Equip Small Businesses with Tools to Succeed

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A new partnership between the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Youngstown State University and the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County aims to connect area small businesses with the tools they need to succeed.

The SBDC and the library system recently partnered to launch the Discovering Business Opportunities Series, which will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Main Library.

The library was interested in doing more to assist existing businesses in the community and wanted to host more programs, so it sought to partner with the YSU-based SBDC, said Stuart Gibbs, business and nonprofit librarian. The two organizations developed a series of three workshops for existing businesses to help them expand and take advantage of the resources available through the library, such as industry databases and journals.

“The economic health and well-being of the county is extremely important to the library,” said Aimee Fifarek, PLYMC’s director and CEO. “If we can amplify and increase the earning potential of our residents and business owners, then we are all going to succeed.”  

The series begins Tuesday with a session on data-driven business decisions presented by Gibbs. The second session, “A Financial Model and Financing to Benefit Your Business,” is scheduled for Oct. 17 and will be presented by Steve Schillig, a contracted adviser with the YSU SBDC. A third session, focusing on international and contracting business opportunities, is scheduled for Oct. 28.

As a former banker who spent 30 years in commercial lending, Schillig said he “too often” saw potential borrowers come to see him unprepared, lacking cash flow projections. Such projects are a “critical part of operating a business” that allow business owners to make decisions based on some kind of plan.   

Among the tools that the YSU SBDC offers is Inquisit, an assessment tool developed at the center that counselors use to help identify specific issues within the business so they can be prioritized and goals can be worked on for the year ahead.

He also pointed to another unique component of the center. Each semester, the center hires a group of YSU student interns to come in and provide guidance for business owners.

“One of the first things they do is learn how to do market research and help those clients,” he said. That not only benefits the interns by exposing them to real-world business applications, but it also provides assistance to the business owners, who receive valuable information they either normally would have had to pay for or research themselves, he said.  

Another important resource the center offers is its nationally recognized financial model, also created by an SBDC adviser, the focus of the Oct. 17 program. Business owners don’t always “do a great job of planning and forecasting,” and the model “takes the pain out of it,” he said. The model helps business owners measure their results and provides them with information to help them determine when to make decisions regarding capital investment, business acquisitions and hiring.

“Small businesses need to be more focused on forecasting for the future, and that’s what this financial model is about,” he said. “We’re going to go through the financial model for those business owners, and we’re really going to show that the SBDC, along with the library, can be of value to small businesses in our community,” Schillig said.

“We know that an unprecedented number of businesses were started during and since the Covid pandemic,” Fifarek said. “We’re really doing our best not to reinvent the wheel and not to duplicate the services that Steve’s organization or other organizations provide, but really try to drill into how we can help support the economic development of Mahoning County with our special skill set in the library.”

A separate series geared at new ventures is planned for January, Schillig said. The same financial model will be used, but with some tweaks to account for the lack of historical information.

A resource fair is scheduled for Dec. 9, during which 20 community partners will discuss how they support small businesses, Gibbs said.

Connecting people with the information they need is the kind of collaboration that the library wants to do, Fifarek said.

“We’re highlighting resources not only that the library has that people may not know about, but community resources and organizations that they might not know about,” Fifarek said. “Whereas they might be unsure or intimidated, people are usually pretty comfortable coming into the library, so we can help everybody make that first connection as they’re taking the next step.”

Pictured at top: Stuart Gibbs and Aimee Fifarek.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.