This week, as per our assignment, I interviewed two expert. The first expert is from the Baruch Small Business Development Center. His name is Leo Zhang. He is a BSBDC consultant. The second expert is the founder of Elicit consulting Company. her name is Nalini Saxena.

Let’s first talk about Leo Zhang. The interview went very well and very professional. However I felt that Leo didn’t really understood why I was calling. he had me confirmed two times that I am a current student and that I was attending class with Professor Romi Kher. I had a feeling that he thought I was spying on him or something similar. Leo also couldn’t answer a few technical questions, he did referred me to talk to his director regarding those two questions. The questions he did answer were of great information for my assignment. He did confirm assumptions I had with the BSBDC. The questions I have asked are the following :

• What is the main strategy to attract students/non students to come through the BSBDC Doors?
  Leo referred me to talk to his director as he didn’t know or maybe thought I was a spy or something similar.
• Do you partner with outside consulting company?
  The SBDC does partner with outside company but they are not consulting company. They are banks, and different federals bureau. Depending on the need of the client. An exhausted list can be find here:
  Web Resources for Small Businesses – New York SBDC (nyssbdc.org)
• Your services are free so why do you think  some businesses are seeking paid consulting  services and not yours?
  This question, in my opinion, helped me get a better idea of the SBDC. Leo answer was very direct, the reason is because for the free service they are are not specialized Consultants. The BSBDC ( and the SBDC overall) is here to give a general guidance+ to their clients. They push them to the right direction but it is up to the client to make it happen. The BSBDC  has limited amount of staff and cannot dedicated a staff fully to one client. After this question I felt that it was time to end the interview.

Now to the second interview with Nalini Saxena. For full disclosure, we have had Nalini as a guest speaker in another class this semester. When I emailed her regarding an interview, she answered positively right away. Because of the existing connection , it made it easier to conduct the interview. I explained very clearly the goal of this interview, she was fully on board. Here is a summary of the questions I asked:

• What is the main strategy to attract students/non students to come through your doors?
  Elicit strategy is based on referral from former and current customers, workshops where the founder can meet future customers as well as being guest speakers at colleges. Elicit doesn’t have a marketing strategy as the company didn’t need to. Because of the Pandemic, Nalini mentioned that she will eventually start advertising in social media such as LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Do you partner with outside consulting company?
  Elicit will only partner with a consulting company if the client needs expertise in an area Elicit is not  familiar with. i.e. Video Marketing Campaign.
• The SBDC services are free so why do you think  some businesses are seeking paid consulting  services?
  Nalini was not very familiar with the SBDC, She told me people come to her because she custom tailors every client to their needs, she works intensively with every single one of them. She has yet to meet anyone with the same level of work and dedication her company offers.
• How do you see  the future of small business in NYC once the pandemic is over and the city fully reopens?
  This was a complex questions to answer. It is in two part, the first part is the trends before the pandemic hit and the second part is what in her opinion will happen once the city reopens fully. Before the pandemic, in New York City and overall the economy as a whole, the trend for small businesses was in the order of a gig economy. More and more companies opened with intangible services that are mostly online. Those companies also made co-working spaces flourished as commercial rental spaces were becoming more expensive throughout the years and many companies were unable to afford those pricing. Now for the future, it is a big unknown , it will depends on many factors such as : How many people will come back to live in the city, How many tourists will be back, How many workers/businessmen-women  will flock back to Manhattan. As for commercial real estate store front and offices, If we go with the simple rule of supply and demand, We may see an increase of small mom and pop shops reopening in force in New York City. This will be due because of the amount of inventory available after the city reopens fully, many big company ( besides Google and Facebook) are cutting down on office and retail spaces.

During my interviews, I was very please to see that my assumptions on this industry is correct. There is no competitive advantage, the entry barriers are very low. it will be quite easy to open a consulting company. The hardest part will be, for my opinion, getting customers through the door. But the fact that one can work from home and rent a co-working space for meeting makes it easier to start. By having interviewing two expert in the same industry i was able to get a feel from different views of the industry. The SBDC is a state and federal office. The passion may not be there and the consultant may not be as excited as the customer. which works as an advantage for other private consulting company that are more passionate and will walk their clients through every single steps to help realize their dream of business ownerships.

I am please to say that after those interviews, my ideas has been fortified. I am a very passionate person and my personality will  fit in this industry. What I may do is maybe instead of opening a company as soon as I am done with school, I would intern ii=n different consulting companies to really understand the in and out. And who knows I may be able to partner with an existing small consulting company and create a new, bigger one.