Local Help for Local Businesses
According to the NYS Department of Labor, more than 1.6 million residents have filed for unemployment benefits since Gov Cuomo’s mid-March COVID-19 order for all non-essential retailers and businesses to close.
This reality has forced business owners to make tough decisions about a broad range of issues including employee and customer safety, changes in supply chains and remote technology capabilities—all the while working to keep their businesses operational and afloat.
While there is no self-help manual to guide business entrepreneurs through this crisis, a number of Western New Yorkers are turning to The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership(CEL), part of the University at Buffalo School of Management, for support.
For more than 30 years, CEL has provided individualized and interactive education in entrepreneurship through a variety of programs aimed at unlocking leadership potential, creating jobs and invigorating the greater Western New York economy and community.
That longterm purpose led CEL to immediately begin creating virtual programs and support for their entrepreneurs in less than 48 hours following the Governor’s business shut down order. Programming includes weekly Zoom meetings and one-on-one consulting sessions on financials and other COVID-related challenges. As well there are weekly webinars pn a variety of topics such as human resources, operations and overall business strategies.
Note Advisors Principal, Shawn Glogowski, is a graduate of the CEL Program. He notes the immediate response and support offered by the organization as crucial during this pandemic.
“It’s good to see CEL react with such immediacy in helping the Buffalo business community stay the course and meet the many challenges we are all facing. The vital information on programs and next step actions they are providing definitely help to build confidence among business owners in that the decisions they are making in these uncertain times will help them survive and eventually reopen.”
Established in 1987, the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in the University at Buffalo School of Management provides participants with individualized and interactive education in entrepreneurship. More than 1,400 CEL alumni employ more than 23,000 Western New Yorkers, and their businesses are worth more than $2.3 billion to the local economy.
For more information on the variety of programs offered through the CEL, how these programs are providing support for local small to medium-sized businesses and how you can apply for a specific program, visit http://mgt.buffalo.edu/cel.
Some information in this post was excerpted from an online Business First article written by Tom Ulbrich, an executive in residence for entrepreneurship at the University at Buffalo School of Management, and president/CEO of Goodwill of WNY.