Nonprofit consulting firm helps downtown businesses bounce back

A small printing firm that creates exquisite photographic backdrops for special occasions like weddings and banquets, Digital Dirigible has faced hard times over the past couple of years. Whenever corporations and individuals reign in spending, "our kind of product is one of the first to go," said Jim Cotton, the company's co-founder.

Since September 11, 2001, the company located on Tribeca's Vestry Street has lost more than 30 clients -- some located in the World Trade Center, others that cut back in response to the general economic downturn. To stay afloat, the small firm was forced to cut its staff from four full-time employees supporting the business's two partners down to just one full-timer and four who work part-time.

But when even that wasn't enough, the company's principals knew they needed to think about their business in new ways. "We considered closing up when things got extremely slow," said Cotton. "How do you pay your rent with no new business coming in?"

Floor-to-ceiling tree backdrop by Digital Dirigible

Enter MBAs4NYC, a nonprofit consulting firm that matches business professionals who are willing to volunteer their time and expertise with Lower Manhattan small businesses that need advice. Created in August 2002 with a grant from the Empire State Development Corporation in conjunction with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program has helped close to 100 downtown businesses rebound in the aftermath of 9/11.

An MBAs4NYC representative called Digital Dirigible after hearing about the challenges they faced from Seedco, an organization to whom the printing firm turned for assistance in the weeks and months after the terrorist attack.

"They called and said they'd like to come by, that they thought they might be able to help," recalled Susanne Jansson, the company's other co-founder. Pleased to receive the call, Jansson and Cotton met with an MBAs4NYC representative and were soon assigned a group of volunteer MBAs to help assess their business and develop a plan for the future.

"What we did was first find out what the clients' concerns were," said David True, one of the three-member volunteer team. It was quickly clear that they were looking for a more reliable revenue stream, and that they needed tools to help them determine what that revenue stream could be.

Over the course of several meetings with Cotton and Jansson and without them, True and fellow volunteers Jayne Herrick and Patty Oey developed the "Digital Dirigible Product Assessment Tool," a framework for testing the viability of new business ideas.

Cotton and Jansson now will develop new products

"We've been working on this privately for about three years," said Jansson, "but I couldn't put down all the thoughts in one place. I couldn't see the forest for the trees."

"They have given us a tool we can use indefinitely," echoed Cotton. "It probably exists in a book or books somewhere, but their help was very useful to us."

New product line to include small printed pillows

Herrick, who worked alongside True in developing the framework, is optimistic. "I think it's going to help them think more clearly as they start making decisions about a new direction," she said. "And they know that we are available to continue to help them as they go through ideas."

For Priscilla Johnson of the executive search firm Johnson Enterprises, Inc., the situation was slightly different but the story the same. Johnson's small firm provides recruiting services to Fortune 500 companies. With financial institutions on Wall Street representing more than two-thirds of her clients, the firm saw at least at 70 to 75 percent fall off in business after 9/11, said Johnson. "We had to think about how we were going to rise from the dust."

Again, MBAs4NYC was there.

Johnson was surfing the internet for assistance programs for downtown small businesses when she came across a listing for the volunteer consulting organization. "I made the call almost immediately," she said, and soon enough, she too had been assigned a team of volunteers to provide much-needed free consulting services.

Two MBAs, Marian Banker and Mariella Spayde, soon came to meet with Johnson and her team to help develop a strategic marketing plan for getting business back on track. As had been the case with the team that worked with Digital Dirigible, Banker and Spayde met several times with Johnson and several times on their own to develop a framework that would guide the small firm toward recovery.

"The thing that so many businesses don't seem to have is structure," said Banker, who finds time to volunteer while running her own consulting firm. "There is a lot of disorganized, unfocused thinking -- so many fires, distractions, places to put your thinking -- and without some kind of plan that's been thought through, you're just never on a path to anywhere."

MBAs4NYC help Johnson Enterprises, Inc. rebrand

Johnson, who started the business 20 years ago sitting at a desk making cold calls, hadn't had a business plan for 10 years and had never had a marketing plan. "Having someone come in from the outside and help us pull it all together and have a tight product we could sell to our clients was something we would not have been able to do," she said. "We would not have had the time, the processes, or the expertise to make that happen on our own."

Why Do They Do It?

The benefits of the MBAs4NYC program for downtown small businesses may seem clear, but what about the volunteers? Why work for free after investing thousands and thousands of dollars in a B-school education?

The volunteers who participate in MBAs4NYC -- more than 180, working in teams of two or three -- have put in about 2,800 hours helping nearly 100 downtown small businesses. For almost all, the desire to help contribute to the revitalization of Lower Manhattan has been a central motivating factor.

Banker, happy for a way to help downtown

"The idea to do something to help New York appealed to me," echoed True, who worked with Digital Dirigible. "It met that desire to help people out."

But an opportunity to give back isn't all the program offers. True lost his job of the past 13 years at American Express as an indirect result of 9/11, and the program also gave him a way to meet new people and a structure and focus he needed. And it provided a welcome change from his regular work. "This was different -- it was taking a small firm with big questions," he said, instead of working on a tiny question within a big firm. "Part of me thinks it would be fun to run my own company," he confessed, and this helped him imagine that.

For Herrick, who worked with True on Digital Dirigible and works as an independent consultant when not volunteering, the time she's devoted to the program has benefited her own business. "It just continues to strengthen my business and consulting skills," she said.

Could it be? A real win-win situation.