COVID-19: IFEL Entrepreneurial Group Pushes Small Businesses Initiative

Institute For Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) has launched the Small Businesses Need Us initiative.

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In an effort to assist small businesses who are battling to stay alive due to COVID-19, the Institute For Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) has launched the Small Businesses Need Us initiative.

The program, launched in May of 2020, matches business professionals and experts with small business owners who are struggling to keep their businesses alive. The goal is to provide the life support that the businesses need to survive, and ultimately, to thrive despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I strongly believe in the IFEL mission to help small businesses succeed,” noted KPMG Mergers & Acquisitions Corporate Development Integration Specialist, Zoe Bogan, a corporate volunteer partner for IFEL. “KPMG has the resources to assist, and now is the time to turn those resources into efforts and actions to help save small businesses who need help.”

While the New York and New Jersey economies have been particularly hard hit and are teetering precariously between various stages of re-opening, small businesses in the region and nationally continue to face debilitating adversity with threats of possible shutdowns as the infection rate continues to spike again. According to a recent national survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses, roughly 21% of small business owners reported they will have to close their doors if current economic conditions do not improve over the next few months.

“With small businesses still struggling and no reprieve in sight, we are doubling down on our capacity-building support for small businesses throughout the United States. We are especially focused on businesses that are in the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. We have increase the number of business professionals and experts that we engage as volunteers to be able to support thousands of small businesses across the country, noted IFEL CEO Jill Johnson. “Our volunteer resources go beyond mentoring or just coming up with a plan. We are providing the life support that businesses need until they can breathe again on their own.”

Business owners are encouraged to apply to get help here.

The Small Businesses Need Us initiative matches experienced volunteers with small business owners based on a needs assessment. The volunteers are organized into cross-functional teams ready to render hands-on, capacity-building assistance to the small business owners. All work is done remotely via phone and video conferencing.

Small Businesses Need Us volunteers have a broad range of expertise including accounting, human resources, public relations, marketing and social media, operations, sales strategy, business planning, and more and hail from a broad spectrum of industries. They bring decades of experience to the table and are united in the goal to leverage their depth of knowledge to move small businesses forward.

Small Businesses Need Us Corporate Volunteer Partners include KPMG, SCORE NJ, Porzio Bromberg & Newman, P.C., Gibbons P.C., Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, and Ellevate. To learn more about volunteering, visit here.

Additional information on Small Businesses Need Us, including other programs offered by IFEL, is located at the following programmatic websites:

Small Businesses Need Us – www.smallbusinessesneedus.org (Assistance For All Businesses)

Women of Color Connecting – www.woccon.org (Success Circles Capacity-Building Program For Black Female Entrepreneurs)

The Making of Black Angels – www.makingblackangels.com (Increasing Investing Opportunities & Entrepreneurial Access To Capital)

Founded in 2002, the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL) is an independent, not‐for‐profit organization that supports economic development through entrepreneurship. We are experts in creating and implementing small business programming in support of larger economic development objectives. Our mission is to eradicate the systemic barriers that prevent entrepreneurs of color from being able to access the knowledge, networks, and capital required for business success.

Visit us at https://www.weareifel.org

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