Small Business - Big Opportunity^® in NY

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Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. NYSE Euronext (service mark). "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Finding Solutions to Small Business Challenges. New York, New York. Tuesday, July 17, 2012.

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JOAN WOODWARD: Hi. I'm Joan Woodward, president of the Travelers Institute. The Travelers Institute was proud to partner with the New York Stock Exchange in July 2012 to host another in our series of Small Business, Big Opportunity, a series dedicated to exploring and helping small business owners grow their business, create jobs, get access to capital, and reduce regulatory burdens on their business so they can foster and bring about more economic growth in society.

The New York Stock Exchange event was one in a long series that we've been doing around the country, and it's one of the largest insurers of small business in the country. We really do feel a responsibility and excited about helping small business owners thrive.

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A man stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. Text: Duncan Niederauer, CEO, NYSE Euronext. A video of Duncan handing a plaque to a man, while people applaud.

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DUNCAN NIEDERAUER: How do we understand and appreciate more than we do that small businesses are the backbone of the country, and yet Main Street businesses across the country are really struggling? They're starved for capital in many cases, they're starved for opportunities to grow.

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Text: Jay Fishman, Chairman and CEO of Travelers.

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JAY FISHMAN: So my father comes out of the service in 1945. And there are now four generations of fishermen's living in one two bedroom apartment in the Bronx and my father decides to start up a tiny, small printing business. I'm the beneficiary of the success that came from that business. It was enough, as I'm fun to quote, to pay the rent and to educate his kids.
We're the first generation in my family to go to college, and it was really all from the efforts of that tiny business.

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Jay speaks to people on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A group stands on the balcony of the exchange and applauds.

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I feel a personal interest in being engaged, of speaking up for the opportunity that exists, the opportunity for the less educated, the opportunity for the hard working and committed but not silver spoon group. We think that there is a responsibility that comes with success to be engaged in the public debate, to offer ideas and thoughts, to be forthcoming.

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Text: Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Karen speaks to a man on the floor of the stock exchange.

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KAREN MILLS: Two out of every three net new jobs are created by small business. So when we talk about these job creation engines, this is really at the core of the economy. For the moment, banks are primarily the funders of small businesses, and in 2008, at the end, they weren't lending.

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People sit on a panel and speak to each other and the audience. Text: Tokumbo Shobowale, Chief Business Operations Officer, City of New York.

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TOKUMBO SHOBOWALE: It's very hard people have a great idea, but it's hard to get out of the gate. And often if you trip coming out of the gate, it's hard to ever recover. And so getting that initial start is very, very important. And so the mayor recognized this as well and recently formed something called the New Business Acceleration Team, or NBAT, and their job is to really help on businesses get open.

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Text: Joan Woodward, President, The Travelers Institute.

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JOAN WOODWARD: You've been hugely successful. So how do you think about access to capital for small businesses?

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Text: Deirdre Quinn, Co-Founder and President, Layfayette 1 48 New York.

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DEIDRE QUINN: I think it started out exactly as a lot of people where you spend everything you're not supposed to, your 401(k), you don't draw a salary. You get it to where it starts to make money and you learn it's really hard to make and it's really easy to spend. And so I'm not a big believer in over borrowing.

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Text: Kate Mitchell, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Scale Venture Partners.

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KATE MITCHELL: Most important, who is your customer? That's a really important thing to define and think about. Think about why you as an individual, why your team, what experience, why here, and why now. So before you even get to putting a financial plan on paper, thinking through and articulating those things because that's the articulation of your vision, then you put together a really detailed financial roadmap for yourself.

What are the costs? What are my milestones for success? Ultimately, what's the cash flow? That's the mother's milk you need to get there, and what's your future profitability? And then break that down so that you're taking some measured milestones and risks.

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Joan Woodward.

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JOAN WOODWARD: So in that vein, I just had I guess one piece of advice is and everyone has in this room optimism and really a can do attitude that you can build this company, you're going to get the customers and they'll stay with you and the banks are going to trust you and just having that attitude of can do.

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Text: Travelers Institute. Travelers. NYSE Euronext (service mark). "Small Business - Big Opportunity". Finding Solutions to Small Business Challenges. New York, New York. Tuesday, July 17, 2012.