Small Business Services Advisor

Overview

San Pablo Economic Development Corporation’s (San Pablo EDC) is a dynamic nonprofit whose mission is to develop, diversify and stabilize the local economy through the education and training of our workforce and businesses. San Pablo EDC is a member-based, professional services organization, which partners widely with other organizations to serve businesses and workforce in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

The Small Business Services Advisor (Advisor) plays a key role in the establishment, stabilization and growth of small businesses. The Advisor is a consummate relationship builder possessing effective outreach and engagement skills. He/she excels in data and story capture to help San Pablo EDC best illustrate its impact. Central to coordination of technical assistance, access to capital and services small businesses most need, the Advisor assists with the underwriting of grant/loan applications, project management of initiatives and webinars, and general delivery of services to small businesses. The Advisor brings creativity, strong project management, people and communication skills, as well as a passion for social, racial, and economic justice.

To be successful, the Advisor needs to be effective in understanding and engaging the San Pablo and greater Contra Costa County business community. The ideal candidate is someone who has great listening skills and excels at taking thoughtful notes; displays an entrepreneur-centric phone presence and email etiquette; demonstrates responsible time management skills; and has direct or lived experience on small business fundamentals and familiarity with business terminology. The successful candidate is deeply invested in the success and resilience of our most under-invested small business owners, and helping them be the local change makers in their communities that build wealth through quality job creation that allows for employee agency.

The Advisor is a full-time exempt, benefited position reporting to the Senior Business & Assets Coordinator with a generous benefits package. The Advisor has a critical role to fulfill as part of a productive, adaptable team that is continuously creating and improving programs, services and protocols to be most responsive in an ever-evolving environment.

Responsibilities

The Advisor will be responsible for the following.

Business Services

• Gather, curate and make available in a timely manner all content, messages and images for eblasts, flyer creation and social media posts, and work with the Senior Coordinator to ensure engaging accurate content is prepared for the PR & social media firm for business services, including events, campaigns, initiatives and technical assistance/biz education events/webinars
• Lead engagement of local small businesses in business services
• Assist with the creation of marketing collaterals and outreach for all services and major campaigns, e.g., Restaurant Week, Where’s Pablo?, Small Business of the Year and Build Back Stronger/CREATE
• Support coordination of multi-agency technical assistance (TA) on behalf of business members and the Senior Coordinator
• Assist  business clients with basic marketing services TA, including promotion via Instagram stories, Eblast spotlights, mini-videos, getting established on Google Places, taking control of social media, and design of ad share direct mailer.
• Keep business-related website content, including the calendar, up to date, with links to small business social media or websites
• Assist the Senior Business & Assets Coordinator by identifying ways to further engage program participants while improving participant’s experience quality, user retention, and satisfaction rates, and seek input from business members to identify greatest value sought and create programs that help deliver desired value
• Create social media toolkits, collaterals, and other digital assets outline resources for prospective clients, partners and funders to better understand EDC offerings
• Assist with the creation of content for San Pablo EDC-City of San Pablo collaborative El Portal quarterly newsletter
• Ensure all activities – emails, phone calls, meetings, service delivery, participation in programs, etc. – are captured in the Salesforce database; produce Salesforce data reports upon request
• Support the building of strong relationships between the business community, EDC, and partners
• Create fillable forms and manage changes to existing forms
• Work in tandem with the Controller and Senior Business Coordinator to issue invoices, receive payments and reconcile accounts for business services
• Assist the Senior Business & Assets Coordinator for all potential borrowers and referring partner organizations. This may include application review, assistance or referral to TA for businesses, verification of application completeness, and preliminary underwriting/analysis
• Assist with the due diligence of items from potential borrowers, run credit checks, and assist with ratio and financial analysis in the underwriting process
• Participate with borrower compliance with financial, reporting, and advising covenants, monitor borrower financial performance, and assist with analysis of potential borrowers
• Actively update lending applications Maintain electronic and hard copy files in audit-ready condition for all borrowers
• Help maintain reporting, risk rating analysis and other portfolio records as needed
• Help the EDC capture small business data and stories
• Grow industry and sector knowledge by attending events and developing strong working relationships with clients and partners