Tips for Small Business Owners - Panel Discussion of Women Owners

Union Bank recently hosted the third installment in its Road to Recovery for Women-Owned Businesses series of panel discussions.

The latest event, held in the Silicon Valley Area, was hosted by Union Bank Business Banking and Small Business Banking Head Todd Hollander and moderated by Claudine Wong, Anchor and Reporter at KTVU FOX 2. The panel featured Gabriela Sapp, Northern Region Director for California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce; Allie Lopez, Program Manager, Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center; Laura Schoolcraft, Director of Operations and Business Development for Fraiche Catering; and Omar Salah, Head of Small Business Banking for Union Bank.

The panel members provided tips for small business owners during the event. Among topics they discussed were:

• The importance of being better prepared for the next disruption as the need to pivot could come at any time
• The value of working with local chambers of commerce who can help connect business owners with peers
• The importance of having your finances and paperwork in order in case you ever need to seek financial assistance
• How vital digital marketing is for small businesses, that it’s no longer enough to just have a website but that you must also use social media and Yelp effectively
• Needing to take care of yourself and develop the right mindset to help navigate through tough times

In addition to the tips for small business owners, some of the resources that panel members talked about included:

Vietnamese Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center: svsbdc.org

The Hispanic SBDC: https://www.sbdchc.org

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Silicon Valley: http://hccsv.com/index.html

The Renaissance Entrepreneur Center, which offers workshops in English and Spanish: https://www.rencenter.org/calendar/

To find your local SBDC go to https://americassbdc.org

The Small Business Administration’s Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contracting Program: https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-assistance-programs/women-owned-small-business-federal-contracting-program

For grants, the targeted EIDL Advance and Supplemental Targeted Advance from the Small Business Administration: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/eidl/targeted-eidl-advance-supplemental-targeted-advance

A replay video of the discussion is available here.

Written by Erik Battenberg