By As one of the largest municipal agencies anywhere, it might seem the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California would have a whole cadre of small businesses, contractors and manufacturers beating down its door clamoring for contract opportunities. After all, the agency which delivers water to 18 million people in a 5,200 square mile area has more than $300 million dollars in construction contracts at any one time and buys a whopping $140 million worth of products every year. With that much commerce in motion and hundreds of projects underway, MWD is constantly looking for contractors and small businesses. Problem is, the agency’s gauntlet of paperwork, approvals and government lingo has made it difficult, if not impossible, for a small business owner to breach. It hasn’t helped that the MWD has had no formal avenue in which to tell would-be clients about what they offer. “There was no outreach. How do these businesses even know we exist?” said John Arena, business outreach program manager for the MWD. It was his department that the MWD created six years ago when officials with the downtown-based agency realized it needed a cohesive plan to attract contractors. Today, Arena talks at dozens of events each month in an effort to educate small businesses about business opportunities with the MWD and offers training classes on procurement and professional training. The Regional Business Outreach Program is credited with adding millions of dollars back into the local economy through contracts with small businesses. “It’s an economic engine program so small business get a piece of the pie,” he said. “We’re about talking investing back in the community.” Family Business Center His latest stop will be Feb. 15 at a morning conference hosted by the Family Business Center at California State University, Northridge. The center, headed by director David Russell and chairman Barry Gump, was created in 2000 to assist family-owned businesses in the area. The group hosts regular events to share secrets of the trade with other family business owners. The latest series, which finishes in May, focuses on such hot-button topics as family charters, employee dishonesty and succession planning. The idea for the event came from Family Business Center board member Pam Branner, who runs the Northridge telecommunications hardware company HB Distributors. She had been introduced to Arena at an event a few years ago and was stunned that she had never realized the MWD was such a lucrative client. “We didn’t know they were a business that purchased directly,” she said. “So we had never done business with the water district.” Branner soon ended up inking a contract with the MWD to provide the agency with telecommunication devices. “I do thousands of dollars of business with them,” she said. “I want to do more.” Branner suggested the event when she realized other businesses owners were in the dark when it came to the MWD and other government agencies, which often seen unfriendly to small business people. “It is very much a maze of who buys and finding out who buys. It’s very overwhelming,” she said. Making contact She said that if Arena and others helped her cut through the bureaucracy, they can help others. “They really facilitate putting together the small businessperson and the person in their organization that will use that service,” she said. “They’re very good.” Arena said the key is helping small businesses like Branner’s wade through the system by making it easier to understand and grasp. That means events like the one at the Family Business Center and more pragmatic steps, like cutting the department’s 11 page application to two. “It makes good business sense,” he said. “What was lacking was a sense of opening the door of opportunity.” “Forum on Contracts with Government Agencies” is Feb. 15 at 7:30 a.m. at the University Club at CSUN, 18111 Nordhoff St. For more information, call the Family Business Center at (818) 677-2438 or visit csun.edu/fbc/. The Center is also hosting future discussions on tax and accounting (March 15); succession planning (April 19); and financing family businesses (May 17).
