How Small Business British Columbia supported small businesses during COVID-19
Customer Profile
Small Business BC (SBBC) helps British Columbia’s entrepreneurs grow successful and sustainable businesses through expert business advisors, educational services, easy-to-use free resources and engaging community events.
“There are over half a million small businesses driving 98 percent of our economy in British Columbia," said Joshua Ludgate, COO at Small Business British Columbia (SBBC), which was founded to bridge that gap. From starting a business, to building resiliency and long-term growth, SBBC helps British Columbia’s entrepreneurs grow successful and sustainable businesses through access to expert business advisors, educational and professional resources, and community events.
The effects of COVID-19 has prompted a shift for SBBC; “like most of the small businesses SBBC serves, the pandemic necessitated a quick pivot,” said Ludgate. Although SBBC has actively focused on evolving their products and services to equip entrepreneurs with the skills needed to thrive in our digital world, they had to "use and distribute resources in a different way to create the same connectivity," said Ludgate.
“Like most of the small businesses SBBC serves, the pandemic necessitated a quick pivot. We had to use and distribute resources in a different way to create the same connectivity." - Joshua Ludgate, COO at SBBC
The Challenge
SBBC knew that British Columbia’s small business would be one of the largest drivers of rebuilding provincial economies from the effects of the pandemic, and they also knew that they would need to adapt quickly to help support these businesses as much as possible. Furthermore, SBBC needed an adaptable system that could facilitate the growing complexity of their mission to provide a single source of truth in their data; as such, having a scalable solution was vital.
Security while participating in a government program was also extremely important. Specific requirements would need to be met when it came to the technology tools they could use, so SBBC would need to work with a provider who had already passed government assessment.
When provincial and Federal government partners asked SBBC to support a response to the challenges of COVID in our community, SBBC took the leap with no hesitation. They developed and deployed a program with the following objectives:
Cut through the confusion by acting as a trusted information gatekeeper to help keep the community up-to-date on the programs and supports available and confident as the situation moved quickly, getting core content to small businesses fast.
Create access to a grant program to help small businesses quickly access recovery funding.
Identify a community of service providers - who were also small businesses - who could be matched to provide needed expertise.
“We struggle with resource constraints, but not ambition or talent. The craft is trying to balance those two and find a way through it,” - Joshua Ludgate
The Solution
SBBC knew they needed an implementation partner, so they turned again to Belmar Consulting Group with whom they had done a previous project with. Together, the team deployed an occupational licensing system on Salesforce Service Cloud, hosted in the Salesforce Canadian data centre. It is an online, automated, secure, self-service platform that provides SBBC with the tools needed to connect small businesses to resources, subject matter experts, and more. The system needed to be set up and running in 30 days are less; the solutions implemented are as follows:
Identifying a need: When a business owner reaches out for help, they are invited to create a profile and apply for relief funding via the SBBC website. They're then guided through a series of questions, like their type of business and geographic region, in order for the application to be considered for approval.
Managing cases: Once an application is submitted and deemed eligible, Service Cloud captures that information and creates a record in the system. The record then notifies an advisor at SBBC with a curated list of service providers, in the applicant’s geographic region, that could help support their recovery process.
Scaling service delivery: Integrated reports and dashboards give the team the insight they need to optimize workflows and keep stakeholders informed in real-time. “It was a switchboard for managing and understanding where clients were at any given time," said Scott Billows, CEO at Belmar Consulting Group.
Creating connectivity: Automated check-ins acted as a dual-radio trigger to allow the applicant to confirm services had been received and to allow payment to the expert. The service provider would then upload their invoice into the system, which would perform the necessary checks and make the payment.
The Impact
Following their Salesforce implementation, SBBC can now scale to support BC small businesses of today and tomorrow. Read below for some of the positive impact after undergoing this project:
SBBC processed 19,000 payments to small businesses or small business service providers
engaged over 1,250 small business providers (think accountants and lawyers)
managed 45,000 phone calls from the community seeking information, guidance, and support
Overall, SBBC distributed over $20 million in grants to the small business providers and the Province of BC distributed several hundred million dollars back into the community overall. "We were able to facilitate the goal of the recovery grant program, which was getting professionals in the community to help businesses develop a plan to build back their business, hopefully better and even stronger than it was before COVID-19," said Ludgate.
