Business to Business: Mentoring Small Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Growth
When Susan Doban started her career as an architect, she never dreamed she would become an entrepreneur. But in 1996, she started her own architectural firm in New York City to focus on educational, residential, and community development projects for an economically and environmentally sustainable world. Although Susan’s firm is award-winning, when she decided two years ago to expand, she was unsure of how to best position her business for sustainable growth. Looking to take this next step brought Susan to the Clinton Economic Opportunity Initiative’s (CEO) Entrepreneur Mentoring Program (EMP), a partnership with Inc. magazine.
CEO’s program matches emerging entrepreneurs in underserved communities with experienced mentors who can help them develop a better understanding of their business and industry; become better leaders; and make better decisions on the critical issues facing their company.
When she first began the program, Susan established a plan for broadening the scope of her business that included creating a collaborative design studio. "I wanted to diversify the client base of my firm and to increase the design focus of a lot of the projects," Susan said. "But I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a separate entity or part of my primary business."
Enter artist-turned-entrepreneur Lexy Funk, chief executive officer and founder of Brooklyn Industries. Brooklyn Industries began as a wholesale manufacturer of messenger bags made out of recycled billboard vinyl, and the business quickly turned into an up-and-coming clothing retailer selling trendy men’s and women’s lifestyle fashion. Under Lexy’s leadership, Brooklyn Industries has grown to include a successful e-commerce website, 11 stores in three states, and was recognized by Inc. magazine as America’s 30th fastest growing retailer from 2004-2007.
CEO matched Susan with Lexy as her mentor, knowing that her experience of effectively growing a local, sustainable business would prove valuable to Susan. Lexy says, "What was very surprising when I first met Susan was that it was a lot about how to bring her ideas down to scale, how to make them executable, which is something that has definitely been a critical factor in my business."
Together, Lexy and Susan developed branding, marketing, financial, and new business development strategies aimed at achieving Susan’s goal of expanding into the design field. Lexy helped Susan develop and launch Think Fabricate, Susan’s new design and fabrication studio in Brooklyn, which complements the firm’s architectural practice. As a result of their work together, Doban’s firm has created a new line of business that is generating higher revenues for her company through the production of new consumer goods. Susan says, "It’s been fabulous working with Lexy because she is creatively oriented and could understand the concept of what we wanted to do, but she is really financially astute in terms of analysis."
Since the launch of Think Fabricate, Susan has hired four new employees—an important achievement not just for Susan but also for CEO’s mentoring program, which strives to improve entire communities by fostering small businesses.
Helping local economies – as well as mentoring Susan – is part of the reason Lexy became involved with the Clinton Foundation. "If we look at the U.S. and how this country is going to come out of recession, it’s by focusing on small business because they are the ones hiring a majority of the people in the country," Lexy says. "So the investment the Clinton Foundation has in the small business component of the economy in aggregate is what really makes a difference."
PARTNERSHIP IN ACTION
Our interactive graphic demonstrates how CEO mentors have helped small business owners set goals, solve problems, and take action. Launch Graphic »
