The harsh economy isn't keeping O.C.'s small-businessmen down

Consultants are having a busy season at the Orange County Small Business Development Center, as entrepreneurs stream in for training programs and one-on-one sessions.

Dana Parsons

January 6, 2009

It wouldn't have surprised me if Leila Mozaffari and her staff were spending their workdays in stone silence, amusing themselves by watching the hands on the clock inch forward. And when that got old, perhaps twiddling their thumbs or making paper airplanes.

Anything to while away what I imagined might well be long, lonely hours without any clients.

How dare I underestimate the pluck of the American entrepreneur. Or, in some cases, the survival instinct.

Whichever applies, this is not the fallow season at the Orange County Small Business Development Center, which Mozaffari directs from the offices of the Rancho Santiago Community College District in Santa Ana.

"Usually, tough economic times increases our volume of work," Mozaffari said Monday afternoon. "People are more open to advice, more conservative in investing their life savings without doing more homework and vetting their ideas a little more."

In other words, she says, seeking business expertise translates to fewer sleepless nights for people starting up a business or looking for ways to make an existing one better.

Yep, people are still starting businesses these days.

What is it about people's spirit, I ask, that would make them do such a thing in a slumping economy?

"I like to call it passionate resolve," she says. "Passionate means they love doing whatever it is, and resolve means they can endure the ups and downs. It isn't just that they love doing it, it's that they have discipline that goes along with the desire."

She talked about one small business that did home appraisals but suddenly last year had no clientele. No phones ringing, no appointments, no nothing. But the company shifted gears to providing appraisals for homeowners wanting to get their property taxes reassessed.

The center operates under the auspices of the Community College District and is overseen by the Small Business Administration. It also has other business sponsors and, besides consulting in one-on-one sessions, offers training programs.

That's the meat and potatoes of what the center does, but it's the psyches of the clients that interest me these days. Surely, these small-business owners must be going crazy.

It's true, Mozaffari says, that they tend to be "glass-half-full people" but quickly adds that it'd be inaccurate to describe them as impervious to certain realities.

"These are human beings," she says. "If you've been around for 35 years and have to let go employees that you've had that long or get out of your lease and move into something small or become home-based, I don't want to paint a picture that they're not human. But the differentiator is that they have weathered difficult years before. This is not the first downturn they've seen, so they know they can thrive."

I presumed that business consulting was all business. All about making a plan, targeting your potential customer base, crunching the numbers, figuring out how to advertise.

Turns out the consulting sessions are more than that. And with the uncertainty of today's market and the downturn that's already occurred, small-business owners or start-up entrepreneurs sometimes need more than the ABCs.

Sometimes, Mozaffari suggests, listening to the story of a suffering business requires more of the consultant than a business degree.

"These people put everything on the line," she says. "Some have mortgaged their private residences, so our hearts go out to these people. We have a lot of compassion for them."

Occasionally, her staff (which includes seven consultants) will assemble and brainstorm situations to make sure they've thought of all possible options for a business in trouble.

So, does a tough economy make the consulting business more fun?

"I'd characterize it this way: These are more challenging times for us," Mozaffari says, "because we have to remain positive and allow our clients to let off some steam but then to refocus on the positive and what they can do. People come in feeling a little victimized by the economy. You can't not empathize, but you also can't wallow. It's that delicate balance."

I'm not sure I'd describe reporters as glass-half-full people, so I ask Mozaffari what it's like to be around those optimists, even when things are kind of shaky. It's got to be uplifting, right?

"It just renews my belief in how resilient the United States and its people are," she says. "It's just an amazing thing to watch. There's always that optimism."

dana.parsons@latimes.com