Claudia Shah. Courtesy photo.
CENTRAL COAST — The Small Business Development Center of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties (SBDC), which provides free one-on-one consulting to help strengthen the bottom lines of area companies, has recently added a bilingual advisor with experience helping Spanish-language businesses.
The new advisor, Claudia Shah, will help launch a Spanish-language program designed to strengthen the capacity of the SBDC to service Spanish-language businesses throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The SBDC is a program of the Economic Development Collaborative-Ventura County.
Shah has over 23 years’ experience working in different industries and internationally, from manufacturing to financial institutions, in both Colombia and in the United States. She currently works with the Lead Center SBDC in California servicing mainly the East LA area, providing consulting and outreach services, and sharing expertise in administrative, social media, marketing/sales and human resources.
“Claudia has extensive experience in general business which she shares with business owners working to develop a strategy for growth. She’s very talented at guiding a business owner through the process of establishing a plan, and developing actionable steps to translate the company strategy into a company culture,” said Ray Bowman, director of the SBDC of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. “Her fluency in Spanish, coupled with her years of servicing Spanish-language companies in East Los Angeles, will help us broaden our capacity to service a wider range of businesses.”
An alumna of Universidad EAFIT, Shah’s studies included business administration, human resources, finance, internal control and marketing. Prior to her current position, Shah was an HR consultant and spent over eight years in the role of human resources vice president for a credit union.
The SBDC is funded by the SBA and provides professional business assistance at no cost to businesses. Participating businesses are required to follow a well-defined scope of work and report their economic successes. These SBA milestones are defined as job creation, increase in sales, capital investment, jobs retained and business started.
EDC-VC is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a business-to-government liaison to assist businesses in Ventura County by offering programs that enhance the economic vitality of the region.
For more information about the Small Business Development Center, loan programs, manufacturing outreach and international trade program, or other services available to small businesses through EDC-VC, contact Bruce Stenslie at 805-384-1800 ext. 24 or bruce.stenslie@edc-vc.com. Or visit www.edc-vc.com.