COC Small Business Head Steps Down to Join Signal

An interim director will take over as head of the Small Business Development Center at College of the Canyons until a permanent replacement is named early in the new year. Paul De La Cerda, who had been the director for two years, stepped down from the position Nov. 30 to take over as director of operations and marketing for The Signal newspaper in Santa Clarita. Commercial real estate broker Charlie Gil has been named as the interim director of the center that assists entrepreneurs with starting and growing small businesses in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Gil is a former chairman of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce board of directors and is active with the Valley Industrial Association. De La Cerda came on as director during a shaky time for the center. Long Beach City College had taken over in January 2006 as the lead agency for the Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties region and that meant building up a new infrastructure of partner organizations and getting the word out about the services provided. The goal set by De La Cerda was to make the center sustainable and be a premier place to give advice to small business owners. “We have certainly set the bar for the area,” De La Cerda said. The College of the Canyons center was recently recognized by the state’s chancellor office as one of the top 10 in the state, the only center in Southern California to make that ranking. The center has served about 5,000 businesses, business owners and entrepreneurs since opening, many of those after De Le Cerda became director in September 2006. De La Cerda will remain as an advisor to the center. “He has been a leader in the community,” said Vivian Shimoyama, a consultant to the regional SBDC network. “He is working to make sure the ties continue to be in place.” Shimoyama credited De La Cerda and his team on coming up with innovative programs to be supportive to businesspeople just starting out. For instance, an interest in peer mentoring led to the Mastermind program, a weekly group meeting that has grown to 100 members. The center also took part in a Young Entrepreneur program to reach out to young people about starting their own businesses and linking them with community leaders. A spirit of innovation is one of the qualities looked for in an SBDC director, as is the ability to run the center like a business, having worked with or being familiar with education institutions and knowledge of fulfilling government contracts, Shimoyama said. Those are traits possessed by De La Cerda, a San Fernando Valley native who started his first business while still in college and later worked for former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and Councilman Greig Smith. Once in as director, he pursued a grassroots effort to get the word out on what the center offered, relying on word of mouth because of a limited marketing budget for a large geographical area. The success stories that trickled throughout the three valleys created a reputation for a professionally-run place. Whether it was a chamber mixer, trade show or job fair, the College of the Canyons center was welcomed everywhere in the region it served and was always given a place at the table, De La Cerda said. The three valleys certainly are different when it comes to specific industries San Fernando with green tech; Santa Clarita with biomedical; and Antelope with aerospace. “The goals are the same in every valley and that is to be an advocate or be able to roll up our sleeves with the owners and find solutions for them to be sustainable, especially in this economy,” De La Cerda said. Officials from the lead SBDC center in Long Beach will conduct the search for a permanent director at College of the Canyons. That person is expected to be named by late January or early February.