Q&A
Council Member Vickie Paladino discusses small business support and entrepreneurship with panel members
1:58:25
·
4 min
Council Member Vickie Paladino engages in a discussion with panel members about small business support and entrepreneurship, focusing on her personal experiences and the challenges faced by young entrepreneurs. She expresses interest in learning more about the resources available to help new business owners get started.
- Paladino emphasizes the importance of human contact in business and her family's background in entrepreneurship
- Randy Peers explains the Small Business Resource Network and the Business Basics program offered through SBS
- The discussion highlights the need for practical business knowledge and support for new entrepreneurs
Vickie Paladino
1:58:25
I'm sorry.
1:58:26
I didn't get your name.
1:58:27
Meredith.
1:58:27
Meredith.
1:58:28
How are you, Meredith?
1:58:29
I liked what you had to say.
1:58:32
First of all, it's really nice to hear a human factor is playing in has a big part in this.
1:58:38
Everything is relied on these, which is great.
1:58:41
Serves this purpose, but there's a lot of, you know, we need human contact.
1:58:46
And going back to entrepreneurs going back to small business owners.
1:58:50
I was a small business owner for over 30 years.
1:58:54
My sister, Joanne, is still a business owner manufacturing.
1:58:58
And now she's grown.
1:58:59
She's here on the East Coast and on the West Coast.
1:59:02
We know a little bit about startups and how difficult it is.
1:59:06
My whole family basically is entrepreneurs except for 2 sisters.
1:59:10
But with that being said, I'm always open to how, especially I I talked about our younger people.
1:59:19
The ones 25 to 35 who have 0.
1:59:22
Dollars.
1:59:23
Good, excellent heads that work in a business sense, great ideas, and the fact that you want to inform the people in what tools you're able to give the people.
1:59:33
This is what's interesting to me the most is how do I get these people with these great ideas off the ground stop being afraid.
1:59:42
And, you know, a lot of them have nothing.
1:59:45
So I wanna hear more about what you do collectively or you're individuals here today.
1:59:52
Correct?
Oswald Feliz
1:59:52
Mhmm.
Vickie Paladino
1:59:53
So I do wanna I'll separate you accordingly.
1:59:56
I'm sorry.
1:59:57
Because I'm in Queens.
1:59:58
You're in Brooklyn.
1:59:59
We got the Queens Chamber Commerce.
2:00:01
Okay?
2:00:02
But you do a lot.
2:00:04
I'm interested in you, so you'll give me your con at the end of this, and we could have a private conversation.
2:00:10
Alright?
2:00:11
And you, I would like to talk to you as well.
2:00:13
I mean, this whole thing has been a a real for me, like I said in my family being a small business.
2:00:19
Now we have our younger people in my family and others.
2:00:23
Coming to me, what do I do?
2:00:25
So this this is a learning experience, and I'm I'm grateful to have it, but I need to know more.
2:00:31
So thank you.
Randy Peers
2:00:32
So so can I just so the the small business resource network is all 5 chambers?
2:00:36
We and we and we all work together.
2:00:38
Right.
2:00:38
So Tom and Lisa and I
Vickie Paladino
2:00:40
know Right.
Randy Peers
2:00:40
Jessica, we're all and Tom and I are tortured Nets fans.
2:00:43
So we also commiserate
Oswald Feliz
2:00:44
on a whole of those.
Vickie Paladino
2:00:45
Yeah.
2:00:45
Okay.
2:00:46
Good.
Randy Peers
2:00:47
And and think about a case management model Mhmm.
2:00:50
Where we have outreach and assessment teams that knock on doors and connect But on your very specific question about where do you point a new entrepreneur because it relates to SBS services.
2:01:01
So they run something called the business solution centers.
2:01:04
These are actually we owe a funded.
2:01:05
So it's actually part of the workforce funding on the federal side.
2:01:10
We happen we, the Brooklyn chamber, happen run the 1 in Brooklyn.
2:01:12
There's an amazing program, 8 session program called business basics.
Shekar Krishnan
2:01:17
Okay.
Randy Peers
2:01:17
We point every new entrepreneur to that program because it puts them through soup to nuts, everything you need to know about starting a business.
2:01:26
Because A lot of times a small business owner just doesn't doesn't know how to run a business.
2:01:30
They know how to bake cookies or they know how to do something really well, but they don't know the aspect of actually running the business.
2:01:36
So before they leap and before they take out that second mortgage of their on their home Mhmm.
2:01:41
Dump it into a business, we want them to have all the tools that they need.
2:01:44
And by the way, that program is virtual, as well as in person, and it's done in multiple languages.
2:01:50
So it's an SBS program.
2:01:51
It's through the business solution centers.
2:01:53
I I always say it's the 1st step for any new entrepreneur.
2:01:56
So there's a great resource out there that that a new entrepreneur can tap into.
Vickie Paladino
2:02:00
Yeah.
2:02:01
Because I related very much to when you said have the diploma.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
2:02:05
And then when
Vickie Paladino
2:02:06
you have the flood, and all of a sudden you decide you need to fight a flood.
2:02:09
Yep.
2:02:10
Now that's basically the mindset Yes.
2:02:12
Of the younger generation.
2:02:14
We have when going through our aches and pains, we started my husband started his business when he was twenty six years old.
2:02:22
He's now seventy.
2:02:23
So, you know, we we are outside the box thinkers.
2:02:28
A small business owners, entrepreneurs, We all we we we learn how to survive.
2:02:35
We learn how to because it's survival, thinking outside the box.
2:02:38
There's always a way to get through to the next step.
2:02:41
There's gotta be because you never say die, you never give up.
2:02:44
Right?
2:02:44
So I just want a springboard where people could go People don't often listen to their parents or their family members.
2:02:52
They much rather get it directly from another source.
2:02:56
And that's something that will definitely come in handy for all of us.
2:03:01
But this is something that I'm really I'm so happy I'm on this committee.
2:03:05
It's brand new to me, but business and small business is not.
2:03:10
So I'm really looking forward to a a very great year coming up, working on this committee.
2:03:15
Thank you so very much.
2:03:16
Yep.
2:03:17
Thank you to my chairman.
2:03:18
Thank you very much.