It’s January! It’s the month for renewal, resolutions and fresh starts. Whether you’re looking for personal or professional changes, now’s the time to put plans to work. In Arlington Economic Development, training and support go hand and hand throughout the year, but this January, there’s more in store. I’m Susan Soroko, Director of Creative Economy at Arlington Economic Development in Arlington Virginia. The role of Economic Development is to retain and attract businesses where workers can live and thrive in a great community even when the work world is changing. We support (small) business through programs like BizLaunch and value the importance of placemaking and a sector devoted to creative economy and the arts. Today we’re going to talk about what it takes to transform a small business.
Alex Held is Small Business Manager at Arlington Economic Development. He is a solutions oriented thinker with six years of business development, sales and marketing, and consulting experience in dynamic organizations both nonprofit and for-profit, managing competing priorities in a goal driven setting. I am particularly skilled at uncovering clients’ needs and finding solutions to achieve their objectives.
Resources
Arlington Economic Development BizLaunch Division: https://www.arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com/Small-Business
BizLaunch Transformational Challenge and Pitch Fest event: https://www.arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com/News-Resources/Events/BizLaunch-Transformational-Challenge-and-PitchFest
Alex Held LinkedIn bio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-held-cpm-747b6615/
The Innovation Economy Website: https://www.innovationeconomy.show
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The Innovation Economy podcast is brought to you by Arlington Economic Development: https://www.arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com
The Innovation Economy is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company
Transcript
Note: This was AI-generated and only lightly edited
Susan Soroko: It’s January, it’s the month for renewal, resolutions and fresh starts. So whether you’re looking for personal or professional changes, now’s the time to put plans to work. In Arlington Economic Development, training and support go hand-in-hand throughout the year, but this January, there’s more in store. I’m Susan Soroko, Director of Creative Economy at Arlington Economic Development in Arlington, Virginia. The role of economic development is to retain and attract businesses where workers can live and thrive in a great community, even when the work world is changing. We support small businesses through programs like BizLaunch, and value the importance of placemaking and a sector devoted to creative economy and the arts. Today, we’re going to talk about what it takes to transform a small business. To help me discuss this, I’d like to welcome Alex Held, Small Business Manager for BizLaunch in Arlington Economic Development, or AED. Alex, welcome to the show.
Alex Held: Thank you, Susan. I’m excited to be here.
Susan Soroko: Full disclosure, Alex and I work together in BizLodge, but I don’t always get a chance to stop and hear what he’s up to. So let’s start with your background.
Alex Held: So yeah, I think, you know, what’s interesting is, you know, my background is very, um, kind of diverse, but you know, what drove me to small business and entrepreneurship in general is my father was an entrepreneur. My grandfather was an entrepreneur and my grateful grandfather was an entrepreneur. All had started and a lot of them were serial entrepreneurs. They started multiple businesses in their time. So, I guess you could say entrepreneurship and small business, it’s in my blood, so to say. And so when I went to college, I was like, there’s no other option but to major in business. And so that’s what I did and continue to work with small businesses and entrepreneurs today.
Susan Soroko: That’s really awesome. But what makes you most excited to work with small businesses? Because there’s a big mix of how businesses can operate, what their challenges are. Tell us a little bit more about what gets you excited.
Alex Held: Yeah, I think what makes me the most excited about small business is that they’re the lifeblood of the community. When you go and travel and you see other great cities in the world, in the United States, it’s really a lot of the small businesses that make those communities great. You know, I think of our vibrant urban corridors here in Arlington, you know, flush with many small businesses, restaurants, retailers, neighborhoods like Westover, the small businesses there really create a community. And that’s really what it is. And so when you’re working with small business and you’re supporting small business, you’re really supporting the community. And that’s what gets me excited. And also, when you think of small business in the United States, that’s the majority of firms in the United States are small businesses. And 94% of businesses here in Arlington are small businesses with less than 50 employees. And they employ a quarter of the population. So there’s a lot of good things that small businesses do for our community.
Susan Soroko: So according to the Small Business Administration, the SBA, around 20% of small businesses fail within their first year of operation and with this number rising to approximately 50% by the end of their fifth year and roughly 70% by their 10th year. What’s some good news here?
Alex Held: Right. Well, I think your risk can be mitigated by doing this one thing and that’s planning. Right. So there’s the good news is that, you know, planning is really creating calculated risk, you know, so there’s still a risk. And I, I think it’s, you know, no misnomer and anybody that started a business knows that starting a business is risky, right? Like most, um, businesses fail at the, by the five, by, by five years, you know, half of all, all firms that start this year by five years, they won’t be around. And so that’s a huge daunting statistic. But if you really do the planning, you can ensure that you’re not making mistakes in some other businesses, which is lacking a cash cushion or inadequate marketing or lack of enough customers. Those are some reasons why businesses fail and planning really helps mitigate that. You know, the other thing though, it’s an exciting time as well, because, you know, since 2021, there have been about 20 million businesses start in the United States. And so that’s a really huge number. And I think, you know, as the decade goes on, I think we’ll really see the fruits of those, those initiatives.
Susan Soroko: So you’ve seen some bit of a bump, uh, like since the pandemic, when, um, people were incentivized to work on their own and not have the. stick with the job that they were employed in. What about women and minorities starting businesses?
Alex Held: It’s off the charts. Yeah. Women in minority starting businesses off the charts. It had been rising for quite a long time already, but the pandemic really, um, sped that along. I think a lot of people, you know, were the fan. The pandemic was really a reflection point for a lot of people, you know, they, you know, kind of looked at their careers or looked at their life and was like, something needs to change. This isn’t working anymore. And so entrepreneurship became that necessary angle. But, you know, the other thing is, is that I think of women, you know, a lot of times women are the caretakers in their family and entrepreneurship provides them a way to have flexibility in their career and have control. And I think that’s very important to a lot of folks.
Susan Soroko: You know, our job in BizLaunch is to give entrepreneurs tools and a solid footing for success, but even though the failure rate can be really daunting, you’ve already talked a little bit about, you know, the things that businesses struggled with to make their necessary changes to their business model and how to mitigate risk and how to learn more about things like technology. But some of the things that are starting to really take root, particularly in BizLaunch, are some of the ways that small businesses can get ahead of the curve. So what can you tell us about some of these programs that BizLaunch offers?
Alex Held: Yeah. Well, the nice thing about Arlington County and specifically BizLaunch is we offer a number of programs and resources for free for businesses. Kind of our signature technical assistant grant program called Relaunch, that’s providing consulting hours to businesses to work on any kind of project, whether that be a social media calendar, a marketing campaign, logo design, even helping with financial planning and financial analysis, side analysis, which is really important when you talk businesses, legacy businesses that need to relocate due to changing land use patterns. So that’s our signature program and that’s free for businesses. We have a rolling application period on the 10th of every month and all you have to do is supply and apply and submit your business license and you’re good to go as long as you’re based in Arlington County. So that’s a great program, but we do a number of other different things. and biz launch. We highlight our hand makers who are made in Arlington program, which are selling handmade items or locally manufactured items here in Arlington. We market our business community. We just did a ribbon cutting yesterday for Crystal Boutique. They have been in Arlington for 55 years. So we brought out the key to the county and the giant scissors and we marketed them. But I also say our training and networking and business development events are priceless. We’re getting ready to do a huge training and pitch competition starting January 30th with the this launch transformational challenge it’s a four week cohort you’re gonna learn everything about business planning and marketing and how to develop a winning pitch. When are you gonna be able to pitch your business in front of a panel investors very much like shark tank with a grand cash prize. that we’re going to be giving away. So that’s really exciting. But even as you’re marketing or as you’re doing your business plan, our databases that we subsidize and pay for on behalf of residents and businesses in Arlington County, all you need is an Arlington Library card and you can access Statista, Open Grants, IBIS World, and a whole suite of other on-demand learning tools through the library. And BizLaunch subsidized a lot of that. Having resources, going back to your original point, Susan, of the high failure rate of businesses, the more businesses that take advantage of these resources, the more they’re likely to succeed and not become one of those statistics.
Susan Soroko: I wanted to just touch on something that you said about the new programs that we have, and LaTeX is one, because we do have a really robust tech sector here in Arlington, and people may have heard about a few big Tech companies that are here in arlington but you know what other industries are we talking about and how has let tech really begun a new trajectory of introducing. You know latina business women business founders to the tech sector.
Alex Held: Yeah. God, Arlington’s texting is so huge and it’s growing rapidly, you know, being, you know, we’re, we’re fortunate to be close to the federal government and kind of the birthplace of the internet, so to say, uh, you know, America, America online started here originally. Um, and we benefit from that infrastructure with all the data centers. But, you know, I think it’s, it’s really important to highlight the diversity of the tech sector. You know, I think, And that’s really what a lot of tech does, you know, highlighting Latino owned tech companies that are growing and driving in Arlington from all over the world. It’s really exciting. And it’s a great opportunity for businesses to build connections with each other because, you know, some of this entrepreneurship can be very isolating, right? you know you’re working on your business you know it’s kinda one-on-one you don’t get a bounce ideas off other work colleagues like you would in the office or if you’re working for the man. But events like programs like latak allow that facilitate those connections for people to share ideas maybe even collaborate but also share challenges and how they can work through that. And so I think LaTeX is a great event just to connect the Latino tech community to one another.
Susan Soroko: Yeah, it’s really exciting. You know, we do have a whole lot of examples of tech companies and tech startups, but what other industry areas are you hearing about? Because as people are stepping away from their nine to five kind of jobs and becoming their sole proprietors or starting their own businesses, What kinds of industry sectors? Are they just moving from their desk job to a consulting? Tell us a little bit more because I think that there’s a bigger variety out there.
Alex Held: Oh, yeah. We work with a wide swath of businesses from all industry sectors. You know, being in the DC area, tech is a common one. In fact, I just, I remember just meeting a tech company, a tech startup yesterday, um, and working with them on their business plan and, and helping them through the regulations. So yeah, it’s a huge sector, but you know, we work with a lot of consultants, you know, uh, event planners. We also work with a lot of fitness concepts, you You know, Arlington is the fittest city in the United States for like seven years running now or something like that. So there’s a lot of fitness companies starting. But, you know, we work with your traditional, you know, small business like your restaurants, food trucks. We see a lot of those. I see a lot of online retail. I’ve seen a lot of online retail over the years. And that’s very exciting from women’s clothing to art, all sorts of different online retail options. So those are some of the main ones that I can think of. But even medical, you know, medical is really important. Doctors, eye doctors, dentists, home health care, we see those as well too.
Susan Soroko: Well, I know you’ve counseled hundreds of small businesses in Arlington over the time that you’ve been in BizLaunch. So tell us a good story about a business and maybe a not so good story about a business that you worked with and what other businesses can learn from that. So maybe you have a standout in your pocket. I know you just mentioned about Crystal Boutique, but that’s one example. Tell us what you know.
Alex Held: Yeah, I think, well, I’ll give a good and a bad. How about that? I’ll give a good and a bad.
Susan Soroko: No names, no names. No names.
Alex Held: I remember meeting a company once for a one-on-one counseling, and he was really in a pickle. And what had happened was, is his brand name for his clothing product, who sold men’s clothing, manufactured and sold men’s clothing, his brand name was very similar to a competitor. And his competitor saw this at a trade show and took him to court for trademark infringement. And so it came to be that he had about $50,000 in inventory and he couldn’t sell it because he would be breaching his cease and desist letter. And so that was a real eyeopening experience for me and to really make sure businesses are really doing their planning because that’s a very expensive mistake to make and it’s hard to come out from that. On a good news though, we did have recently had a business that it’s a real estate company here in Arlington and the founder went through one of our training programs and I found out about a year later after she graduated from our training program that she’s now expanding and hiring. So that’s a really great success story, as well as, you know, Crystal Boutique opening in a non-traditional retail space in Arlington, which is also exciting. So there’s a lot of good and the bad, you know, as well as just businesses. It can be difficult, you know, and entrepreneurs need help.
Susan Soroko: So on top of all this one-on-one great counseling that BizLaunch offers for entrepreneurs who come to the county, You are the lead to put together and host the Transformational Challenge and Pitch Fest. This is the third one in recent years. And it’s in collaboration with SCORE, the Senior Corps of Retired Executives from the SBA. And it’s at the end of January. And it sounds like it’s pretty unique to Arlington and why. And it sounds like it’s a little deeper dive into what you need to do, maybe a little business therapy on the side. But is this really unique to Arlington? And why are we doing this?
Alex Held: Well, a couple reasons. I guess the why we’re doing this. The problem that we’re solving is small business and startups are having a really hard time. Businesses within their first five years, I’ll say that, have a really hard time accessing capital. And that’s a multitude of different reasons. And kind of in the counseling sessions, I would uncover that, you know, a lot of businesses were just, and startups were just needing a small amount of capital. You know, it wasn’t, you know, a significant sum like, you know, millions of dollars they needed. a few thousand, right, just to get going. And so I wanted to create a program where you learn by doing. And what the transformational challenge in PitchBest is, is really applied learning. We’re going to do a four-week cohort. That four-week cohort, you’re going to learn about business strategy, lean business model canvas to strategize right. You’re going to learn about using AI for your marketing and operations. You’re going to learn about the financial resources out there to get money for your business. But also, you’re going to need something that the bank is going to want to see, which is your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. And you’re going to learn how to develop projections if you’re starting out and don’t have revenue. revenue, which is one of the challenges that businesses have in accessing funding. And then finally, you’re going to learn and have the opportunity to develop a pitch, which is a little bit of a slide deck kind of business plan that you can say within five minutes, and you’re going to be able to pitch that in front of a panel of investors, very much like Shark Tank. And so our kind of grand cash prize is about $4,000 right now. And the registration fees, we do charge a registration fee for this, but that is all to fund the pitch prize. So everything will go back to the entrepreneurs that are participating in the training and the pitch. So it’s a really exciting program. Last year we had 38 businesses participate. We had 12 businesses participate in the pitch. The majority of those were women. The majority of those were minorities as well. So it was a really exciting opportunity and to be able to help businesses reach their goals is priceless. I remember one of the participants last year wrote a poem for us and recorded it very much like we’re recording this podcast and sent it to us. And in that poem, she called us the stewards of dreams. I get a little choked up just hearing that, you know, even just saying it out loud, you know, because it is so empowering and, you know, helping people reach their dreams, achieve their dreams. That, that’s impactful. That’s impactful work.
Susan Soroko: That’s, there’s a lot of inspiration and aspirational effort there. It’s, it’s really awesome. And I’m really excited to have this time to talk with you today, Alex, and hear more and let our listeners hear more about the things that BizLaunch does. We will have links to the programs in the show notes, both to BizLaunch for counseling and for the Transformational Challenge Program. So I want to thank you for taking the time this morning to talk a little bit more and let me know what you’re up to when I, even though I see you pretty regularly, but often in passing. So thank you for being here today.
Alex Held: Thank you, Susan. It was my pleasure.
