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by Claudio E. Cabrera
Rayvell Lopez knows how to paint. What he didn’t know was how to start a business, but he found some help.
“Before starting my painting company, I didn’t know where to go to find all the information I needed to open my business,” said Lopez, a Washington Heights resident.
“Lucky for me, a friend told me about the Small Business Solutions Center on Fort Washington [Avenue] and they helped make my business a reality.”
Helping turn ideas into businesses, like the Jevell Painting Corp., is the business of the SBS Center in Washington Heights.
The center on W. 176th Street and Wadsworth Avenue opened last October and has already helped a range of businesses – everyone from local residents with business services to companies as big as a Bravo Supermarket.
“Earlier this year, we assisted in launching Bravo’s third location in the area. We helped them in the recruitment of employees predominantly from our neighborhoods,” said Shamsudeen Mustafa, the director of NYC Business Solutions Upper Manhattan Centers. “We are also currently working with Staples on [Broadway and] 183rd Street to recruit local candidates for their back to school season.”
In their short time in our area, the SBS Center has helped 27 small businesses acquire financing. They have also provided prospective entrepreneurs with weekly bi-lingual workshops and pro-bono legal services.
"To be able to land free legal advice and receive counseling on everything from accounting to business structure, really helped speed along the process of opening my business," said Lopez.
The call for a Small Business Solutions Center in the area was one that fell upon deaf ears for many years. Many local entrepreneurs complained about the long trips to Harlem and Lower Manhattan to receive business counseling. Others bemoaned the lack of representatives who spoke Spanish.
“The communities of Washington Heights and Inwood are substantial Spanish speaking communities and we didn’t have enough representatives in our other centers to bridge the language barrier,” said Mustafa. “It was always a goal of this city to open one here and now we have one."
In March, the center began offering workshops in Spanish. Close to 20 entrepreneurs attend them weekly. The center also has two full-time account managers who are bilingual finance experts.
For Lopez, the launch of his business didn't start off with the usual slow period most businesses are accustomed to.
"They helped me with marketing materials and gave me other promotional ideas which helped me hit the ground running," said Lopez. "I'm a month in and must say, I'm doing much better than I expected."
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