Gilroy
– A new program offered through Gavilan College hopes to provide
the kinds of nuts-and-bolts training that hundreds of mom-and-pop
shops in the area need to boost bottom lines and help them navigate
through thorny employee issues.
Gilroy – A new program offered through Gavilan College hopes to provide the kinds of nuts-and-bolts training that hundreds of mom-and-pop shops in the area need to boost bottom lines and help them navigate through thorny employee issues.
Dubbed the Professional Development Institute, the program tackles some of the most common – and most critical – aspects of running a small business and improving merchants’ profit pictures.
The spring offerings are: Six Styles of Situational Leadership; Power Seminar on Project Management; Human Resources Management; Strategies for Successful Customer Service; Results Oriented
Supervision.
Often owners of small businesses wear so many hats – chief executive, human resources director, vice president of project management – that it’s difficult to keep abreast of trends, legislation and new money-saving strategies, said Terry Newman, director of contract and community education at Gavilan, who conceived of the program.
In her contract education role, Newman is frequently out in the business community, including meeting with the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation and the area chambers of commerce.
“Small business people need human-resources training with issues of liability and compliance with HR,” Newman said. “Often times the small business owner is the HR person, and there’s a lot of liability that goes along with that. This training is truly needed.”
Several shopkeepers in downtown Gilroy were intrigued by the program, although many were two-person partnerships or literally mom and pop operations.
“I don’t think it’s ever too late to learn more about your business,” said Linda Ashford, who with her partner runs Ashford Heirlooms in Gilroy.
The many antique dealers downtown have formed a somewhat informal group that trades in ideas and trend-spotting specific to their industry. Other aspects of the Gavilan program, such as project management, could help organize retail displays – a critical way to attract customers into the antique shop, Ashford said.
Other shopkeepers though, such as Michael Brownfield, owner of the Vacuum Center of Gilroy, has relied on his own intrinsic sense of customer service for the past 28 years. As for human resources training, since it’s just he and his wife who run the shop, they’re more likely to work out personnel issues over the breakfast table.
The concept for the institute spun out of the college’s traditional Contract Education program, which provides highly specialized training to medium and large businesses. Newman will meet on site with businesses to assess their needs and craft a curriculum specific to that business. But along with that customized training and dedicated hours comes an equally customized price tag.
Newman declined to provide a range of costs for the contract-ed programs, saying there is no standard rate because they vary far too much depending on the level of customization, the areas addressed in the curriculum and the size of the businesses.
But she did say that costs are one of the key attractions of the Professional Development Institute. Instead of having her come into a business and holding an expensive, tailored seminar, individuals can take the PDI classes at a per-student cost ranging from $149 for customer service training to $275 for the more in-depth project management course.
“I developed the institute with the knowledge that there are small businesses that can’t afford to pay me to come out and train their staffs,” she said.
The other aspect of the program is the time savings it provides merchants, since the classes are held in Gilroy, small business owners don’t have to travel to San Jose or farther north for the same training, Newman said.
