On the Job with the Center for Small Business

The Bulletin spoke with Dennis Tootelian, director of the Center for Small Business.  In the fall, Dennis is starting his 35th year as the Center’s director.

What do people think you do?
Our Center has been operating since 1969, so many people already know about us and what we do. Generally, they know we offer management consulting services. However, a few believe we provide interns who serve as skilled labor rather than consultants. We get a lot of calls from businesses who want to hire our students.

What do you really do? 
We offer technical management assistance to small businesses in all areas of management other than taxation, law, and loan packaging. Companies in the greater Sacramento area call and ask for our services, mostly in developing business plans, marketing plans, and how to get started in business. Several faculty members in the College of Business Administration assign these requests for help to teams of their students as part of the course assignments. The student teams meet with the company, and then develop recommendations which they present to the company at the end of the semester. Our services are free, and we can work with a company for one or more semesters.

Describe your office?   
We have a regular faculty office in Tahoe Hall and I typically have two student coordinators who assist me in receiving requests for assistance. Since the students go out to the companies’ places of business, we do not need to have an office for “walk-in” traffic. 

What surprises people? 
Three things surprise most people. First, is the fact that we have been doing this since 1969. Our center really was at the forefront of small business assistance programs nationwide. Second, our center is one of the largest in the United States. We typically work with about 100 to 120 companies each year, and have 30 to 50 on a waiting list.  Third, companies are surprised by the quality of our students’ work.

What’s your biggest challenge?
We have two big challenges.  First, we must financially support ourselves.  So, money is always an issue. Fortunately, we have received great support from the banking/financial community. Union Bank, Bank of America, Bank of the West, Resource Capital and U.S. Bank have been major supporters along with SMUD. The second challenge is to increase our capacity to assist small firms. We have a waiting list for assistance, and I would like to have more faculty participate in the program so that more students can get this experience and we can assist more companies.

What do you get asked the most?
The most common question I am asked are what are the problems facing small business. The main problems of small business are generating sales and managing costs. Many small business owners get started because they have an idea. The problem is they typically ask their friends and family their opinion of the idea. Naturally, these friends and family want to be supportive, so they sometimes provide a more generous assessment than they should. Soon, these business owners find that there is no market for what they are selling or the market is already saturated. Also, small business owners often do not control their costs as well as they should.  They spend too much on fixtures and equipment, purchase too much inventory, and/or think they can go on a buying frenzy and “write it off on the business.”