Join The Small Business Support Circle
Small businesses are the backbone of our country and the character of our communities. America’s small businesses account for almost half of our economy and employ almost 60 million people. Since the COVID pandemic began in March, it’s estimated over 100,000 small businesses have closed forever, and close to one million more are at risk.
Pacific Community Ventures is bringing together a rapidly growing coalition of companies and organizations invested in the success and resilience of small businesses across the United States. Members of the PCV Small Business Support Circle are helping to get millions of dollars of free advice into the hands of job-creating small business owners by leveraging and scaling PCV’s unique BusinessAdvising.org platform to provide small businesses the support they need to survive and thrive, pivot, and reopen safely. And more members are joining every day.
Founding Partners
Corporate Partners
Community Partners
Join Our Virtual Event
This is just the beginning. Companies and organizations interested in learning more or joining as a partner are welcome to join us on September 17th at 12:30pm PST (3:30pm EST) for a unique event launching the Small Business Support Circle. You’ll learn how to get involved and join, meet some of our small business owners, be treated to live music, and hear from the organizations in the Circle as we discuss the role of pro bono advising in advancing inclusive entrepreneurship.
How The Small Business Support Circle Creates Impact
Members of the PCV Small Business Support Circle are getting millions of dollars of free advice into the hands of job-creating small business owners by leveraging and scaling the unique BusinessAdvising.org pro bono advising platform to provide small businesses the support they need to survive and thrive, empowering workers, and the communities they serve nationwide.
They’re doing this by:
- Sponsoring small businesses owned by women, people of color, immigrants, and Indigenous peoples across the country through our network of referral partners
- Sponsoring their own communities of small business suppliers, clients, and community partners
- Giving their employees the opportunity to make a positive impact for small businesses across the country as volunteer pro bono advisors
We come from companies and organizations large and small, and by joining forces to invest in small business success we can keep our communities strong and healthy, keep our small businesses thriving, and pave the way for a recovery built on good jobs and expanded opportunities. Our corporate and foundation partners have access to capital and want to make the most impactful difference for small businesses, and our nationwide network of nonprofit and CDFI partners are working directly with the small business owners who need support and who make our communities whole. BusinessAdvising.org is the plug-and-play pro bono advising platform that brings all of this together.
Why Business Advising?
Many small business owners, particularly women and people of color, lack access to advisors and networks that could help their businesses thrive. This puts job-creating entrepreneurs at a disadvantage. Before COVID, 70% of small businesses with advisors were shown to survive at least 5 years—twice the rate of businesses without advisors. That need for expert advice has only been exacerbated by COVID, as many business owners need to pivot and adapt like never before.
Pacific Community Ventures is fighting the small business advice gap with our nationwide platform, BusinessAdvising.org. Through scalable tech paired with dedicated Client Experience Managers, PCV matches entrepreneurs with pro bono experts on any challenge they have, such as customer acquisition, improving financial management practices, or increasing their digital presence. Because they meet virtually, entrepreneurs are matched safely with the best possible advisor for them, regardless of location. This is a tremendous advantage to busy entrepreneurs, as well as those in underserved or rural areas.
Our average client receives 15 hours of free advising—worth more than $2,900 according to Taproot Foundation’s valuation of time donated by professionals. A multi-city pilot with a partner organization in 2018 showed that entrepreneurs who worked with PCV’s BusinessAdvising.org were twice as likely to create jobs, and had 14% higher average revenue growth than those that did not.