UTICA, N.Y. — Paul Arvantides is settling into his new role as director of the Mohawk Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC), having started in the top job on Nov. 9. The Mohawk Valley SBDC operates in the Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) thINCubator at 326 Broad St. in downtown Utica. MVCC’s thINCubator provides programming […]
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The Mohawk Valley SBDC operates in the Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) thINCubator at 326 Broad St. in downtown Utica. MVCC’s thINCubator provides programming to support local entrepreneurship efforts from interest to acceleration, per its website.
Arvantides is succeeding previous director Roxanne Mutchler, who retired after 11 years with the Mohawk Valley SBDC. In those years, Mutchler worked in capacities that included New York SBDC government-contracting coordinator and acting director.
As director, Arvantides will oversee the Mohawk Valley SBDC, which provides free one-on-one counseling and training to support local small-business enterprises.
Arvantides has been a business advisor with the Mohawk Valley SBDC since 2017. During that time, he has provided business-advisory services to a variety of small businesses and entrepreneurs working toward starting, managing, growing, or purchasing a business.
Before the SBDC, Arvantides was a business manager at Northwestern Mutual; served as VP and head of U.S. services at E4E Healthcare Services LLC in Towson, Maryland; and was the president and owner of Medical Coding Services, Inc. in Baldwinsville.
SBDC recent activity
The Mohawk Valley SBDC has been helping area small businesses deal with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a decline in revenue, the economic shutdown, and a lack of customers, says Arvantides, who spoke with CNYBJ on Nov. 16.
The office’s “primary” focus has been helping small businesses with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
It has been concentrating on “really helping business owners navigate the application process and the uses of those funds to help sustain their business and survive in what has been a very difficult time for small businesses,” says Arvantides.
The small-business clients that the Mohawk Valley SBDC has been working with since the spring are “trying to reinvent themselves a little bit,” he notes.
For example, clients have wondered how restaurants move to online ordering and takeout services or how do businesses sell online when they weren’t used to selling online in the past.
“They’re trying to hold on until we can get through this period and trying to come up with creative ways to do that,” says Arvantides.
As the pandemic has continued, the Mohawk Valley SBDC employees have been working remotely much of the time.
Before adjusting to this crisis, the SBDC met with clients face-to-face. But over the last several months, the SBDC has learned that working in a remote environment can be “efficient and productive” to both the organization and its clients.
“We can get on a Zoom meeting … and get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time without the client having to take so much time out or their day to drive to our center or to drive to one of our satellite offices and meet directly one-on-one with an advisor,” says Arvantides.
The Mohawk Valley SBDC currently has five employees, including Arvantides.
It moved to MVCC’s thINCubator in February 2019 from its previous location at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Marcy.
Arvantides calls it a “great collaboration” because thINCubator is a business-entrepreneurship startup space. Entrepreneurs can use a shared space so they don’t have to go out and secure office space right away. They can also take advantage of the services that can benefit a startup business.
“So, it’s been a great blend of services for young, fledgling businesses to have the SBDC and the thINCubator here together,” he says.
About SBDC
The New York Small Business Development Centers offer free business-advisory services. They’re a collaboration between the U.S. Small Business Administration, New York State, and colleges and universities. New York has 22 SBDCs. Many SBDCs are part of SUNY facilities, such as Mohawk Valley Community College or Onondaga Community College. SBDCs help both startups and existing businesses and provide one-on-one confidential business counseling to any small business that needs the service.