The Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) launched the Small Businesses Need Us initiative earlier this year in an effort to assist small businesses who are battling to stay alive due to COVID-19.
The program matches business professionals and experts with small business owners who are struggling to keep their businesses alive. The goal is to provide the life support that the businesses need to survive, and ultimately, to thrive despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I strongly believe in the IFEL mission to help small businesses succeed,” noted KPMG Mergers & Acquisitions Corporate Development Integration Specialist, Zoe Bogan, a corporate volunteer partner for IFEL. “KPMG has the resources to assist, and now is the time to turn those resources into efforts and actions to help save small businesses who need help.”
According to a recent national survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, roughly 21% of small business owners reported they will have to close their doors if current economic conditions do not improve over the next few months.
“With small businesses still struggling and no reprieve in sight, we are doubling down on our capacity-building support for small businesses throughout the United States,” said IFEL CEO Jill Johnson. “We are especially focused on businesses that are in the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. We have increased the number of business professionals and experts that we engage as volunteers to be able to support thousands of small businesses across the country.
“Our volunteer resources go beyond mentoring or just coming up with a plan. We are providing the life support that businesses need until they can breathe again on their own.”
Business owners are encouraged to apply to get help at www.weareifel.org/recoveryassistance.
The Small Businesses Need Us initiative matches experienced volunteers with small business owners based on a needs assessment. The volunteers are organized into cross-functional teams ready to render hands-on, capacity-building assistance to the small business owners. All work is done remotely via phone and video conferencing.
Small Businesses Need Us volunteers have a broad range of expertise including accounting, human resources, public relations, marketing and social media, operations, sales strategy, business planning, and more, and hail from a broad spectrum of industries. They bring decades of experience to the table and are united in the goal to leverage their depth of knowledge to move small businesses forward.
Small Businesses Need Us Corporate Volunteer Partners include KPMG, SCORE NJ, Porzio Bromberg & Newman, P.C., Gibbons P.C., Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, and Ellevate. To learn more about volunteering, visit SmallBusinessesNeedUs.org #SBNU
Additional information on Small Businesses Need Us, including other programs offered by Newark-based IFEL, is located at the following programmatic websites:
Small Businesses Need Us – www.smallbusinessesneedus.org (Assistance For All Businesses)
Women of Color Connecting – www.woccon.org (Success Circles Capacity-Building Program For Black Female Entrepreneurs)
The Making of Black Angels – www.makingblackangels.com (Increasing Investing Opportunities & Entrepreneurial Access To Capital)
