University of La Verne SBDC Small Biz Blog

General Driveshaft Service, Inc. 133 W Maple Avenue Monrovia, CA 91016 Duane and Kristin Howland are the management team of General Driveshaft Service, Inc in Monrovia, California. The company builds and modifies driveshafts for rear-wheel-drive vehicles. The vehicles Duane works on range from large diesel trucks to high-performance race cars and even classic cars. Duane worked for the company for 23 years when the previous owner decided to retire and sell the business. “In 2016, we were trying to figure out if we were going to buy this business (General Driveshaft) or if Duane was going out on his own. We got to the point where we wanted to buy this business and we weren’t quite sure how to do that or how to negotiate with the previous owner. We really didn’t know where to start,” Kristin explained. The University of La Verne SBDC had just opened its doors and became the talk in certain circles on campus. Kristin became familiar with the center and reached out for consulting. There we...

  by Joshua Botello   A Notary Signing Agent or mobile notary is a profitable business that almost anyone can start. Just because it’s easy to start, doesn’t mean it's easy to run. Mobile notaries seem to be popping up everywhere because it's so easy to start but hard to stand out and grow the business. In this video, I'll tell you what you need to know about starting up a notary business to see if it is right for you. Business Concept If you want to be a Notary, you first need to figure out what services you want to offer. Will you be offering signature verification only or will you expand to include Live Scan or other services? Your next step will be determining who your customers are, such as real estate loan brokers, lawyers, school districts, health care, or other professionals. Finally, you want to determine your type of business mobile or office. Many Notaries are mobile and able to charge for travel but you will need to make that decision based on your clientele. Co...

By Joshua Botello 2020 was all about virtual meetings and Zoom was the one to use. It was easy and free. But is it a good choice for your small business? In this video, I will cover what you need to know to get started with Zoom and its features to see if it’s right for your business. So let’s get started. Who is Zoom For? Zoom is primarily for small and medium business owners who are looking to set up virtual meetings and want easy-to-use software. Zoom is also an easy way to give webinars and stream online to Facebook, YouTube, and other third-party platforms. Zoom is not great for tech-savvy business owners or full-time content creators who want more quality in their streams or live webinars.  Demo Let's take a look at how to get started and what we can do with Zoom. Just head to Zoom.us and sign up for a free account with your email address and a password. Once you can set up your account you can download the zoom client on your Windows or Mac and log into your account. From y...

by Joshua Botello Dr. Shawn Smith and Dr. Brian Nyamwange are the Co-founders of Symba Center, a non-profit free clinic that provides care for people who do not have insurance. As a graduate of Loma Linda University, Shawn saw firsthand the disparities of Loma Linda and neighboring San Bernardino. “Dr. ‘Bowtie’ Brian and I were healthcare professional students asking ourselves, 'how can we address the health needs in this community?” When Shawn started working at Western University of Health Sciences he found some resources that may be able to help get his idea off the ground. “I immediately went to our Innovation Center at WesternU and they were pretty excited about it,” Shawn recounted. The innovation center focused on technology and commercial applications instead of philanthropic ventures. The staff said “There is a small business development center locally at the University of La Verne. We’ve heard a lot about the great work they are doing and I can put you into contact with...

by Joshua Botello Scaling your small business is less about the “right time” or the “stars aligning” and more about building your business systems and growing. How do you know when you should scale your business or if you can? In this article, I’ll cover 5 aspects of your business that you as an owner should evaluate to know when or how to scale your business.  GOALS If you are looking to grow or even scale your business you need to have a plan. If you created a plan when you started your business, there are some basic milestones you probably set for yourself. If you are an existing business, these might be your goals for the next 1-5 years. This strategic plan should be referred to and updated often and must have the appropriate goals and milestones to reach for growth. As a business owner if you don’t meet those milestones you are not ready to scale your business. Financials Your business’ financials are a strong indicator to measure growth and when to scale. While this is tru...

By Joshua Botello Is your business ready to compete in the market? In this video, you’ll learn how to conduct your competitive research. If you are just starting your business plan or you've been at this game for a while, you need to know who your competition is. Many business owners fail to do this research and then wonder why they aren’t winning new customers or growing. In this video, I'll give you a 3 step process to competitive research where you’ll: Identify your competitors Gather intelligence Finally, put it into a form you will be able to use to grow your business. So let's get started. Step 1: Identify Competitors As you start on your journey of competitive research you first need to identify your competitors. What? You don't have any competitors? Wrong. You do have competitors whether you know them or not. Now it’s time to find them. Use Google If you never thought about your competitors before now it is time to find them, but how? When doing this research yo...

JigsawTek www.JigsawTek.com   Richard Hanson is the owner of JigsawTek in La Verne, California. JigsawTek is an IT management and services company for small businesses with a background in IT services for corporate players like Northrop Grumman. Richard’s background was software development working on projects between New York and Orange County California. In 2013, JigsawTek Needed to change it’s focus towards managed services targeting small businesses. “We recognized we needed to do a business plan and started putting it together. There were certain areas that we just didn't know how to deal with,” Richard explained.  At a business planning seminar, Richard was informed by the speaker that SBDC’s have mentors and you really should pick up a mentor to help “define and move forward with your business..The University of La Verne has an SBDC right on campus. You should talk to them and get a mentor and that's when we met Malcolm Geffen.” JigsawTek’s chief challenge was that Rich...

By Sophia Nyborg-Andersen Why Email Marketing? Email marketing has been around for many years and while it seems so outdated, in reality, it is a successful method for business. When digital marketing comes to mind we tend to think of social media, but with algorithms and mixed up timelines, your post promoting your business may not be seen by your most probable consumer. When you have someone’s email or in this case an email list, you as a business owner can come directly in contact with potential buyers. When sending out emails you can engage with your subscribers by viewing what they are clicking on, what calls to action they make, and with a click of a button, you can reach innumerable subscribers. Utilizing an email marketing platform enables you to track your engagement, open rates, and track the progress of your campaigns. Another great reason is to measure your return on investment (ROI) because, as a business owner, your time and money is valuable and it is important to know ...

by Joshua Botello So you are looking to start your own business but aren't sure how big the market is, then look no further. There is a deceptively easy way to validate that business concept.  The Total Addressable Market or TAM is a helpful figure to evaluate your business idea. TAM is actually really easy to calculate: Total Addressable Market Value in $ = # of Customers x Price of your Product.  Like said, it's really easy to calculate but there are different ways to approach it. There are two main ways to arrive at this number: Top-down or bottom-up approach .  Top-down Approach Let's start with the top-down approach. Many businesses opt for this approach because it's really easy. In certain cases, this calculation does work and is used for business plans. Let’s show you an example. Say you want to start up your own specialty soap e-commerce business. This chart came from one of our research tools that the University of La Verne SBDC uses called IBISWorld ...

Riverside Game Lab www.riversidegamelab.com Alexander Teran is the Co-Owner of Riverside Game Lab, is an arcade, bar, restaurant, and virtual reality entertainment location that offers 100 arcade games and 6 virtual reality stations. Alexander had entrepreneurial aspirations at an early age and has always wanted his own business. The idea came when spending time with friends playing video games, “one of my friends was like ‘you know we could turn this into a business.’ I said ‘that’s crazy, I wonder if anyone else has.’ I looked it up and lo and behold people have been doing it with Dave and Busters setting the standard in the 80’s,” said Alexander. “We’re an experience where video games and arcade nostalgia meets food and alcohol,” Alexander explained the concept of business.  Top Left: August and Alex; Top Right: Arcade Machine; Bottom Right: Riverside Game Lab Interior; Bottom Right: Virtual Reality Station As most first time business owners Alexander quickly discovered three ch...