This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on February 4, 2021. The Alexandria Small Business Development Center is entering its 25th year of supporting and strengthening the small businesses that are central to Alexandria’s economy and character. It’s perhaps a good time to… Read more »

This week’s post was written by Ray Sidney-Smith of W3 Consulting, social media consultant and facilitator of the monthly Roundtable for the Alexandria SBDC.  While 2020 was an unprecedented year for all of us, 2021 will continue to pose challenges with running your business from home, or some kind of hybrid. On January 19, 2021,… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on January 7, 2021. As we closed out 2020 there was unanimous consensus that it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year in almost every respect. As we toasted the incoming 2020, we had… Read more »

This week’s post was written by Ray Sidney-Smith of W3 Consulting, social media consultant and facilitator of the monthly Roundtable for the Alexandria SBDC.  As the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, started to circulate around the United States, Alexandria, Virginia small businesses began being impacted around March 14th when the City of Alexandria declared a local emergency…. Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on December 3, 2020. This has been a year when familiar terms took on new meaning and significance. Examples – “community spread,” “flattening the curve,” “nonessential businesses” and “pivot.” Let’s explore pivoting. Among the imperatives for… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on November 5, 2020. ‘Tis the season, but this year we’ll be doing things a bit differently. We’ve started losing daylight and the holiday season is compensating with decorations, lights and the occasional costume. We’ve just… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on October 1, 2020. While we wince at the scorched-earth chaos at the national level, there’s a contrasting sense of civility, collaboration and productivity in Northern Virginia and in our own community. The Northern Virginia Economic… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on September 3, 2020. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Pandemic necessity has become the mother of re-invention of Alexandria’s public landscape.  Nobody expected the pandemic’s ripple effects to linger so long. COVID-19 is… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on August 6, 2020. We endured the shock and awe at the initial pandemic declaration. Strange new habits of social distancing, shutdowns and face masks became patters we adopted in record time.  We then started to… Read more »

This post is written by Bill Reagan, Executive Director of the SBDC and first appeared in the Alexandria Times on July 2, 2020. We’re making our way through extraordinary times. The circumstances we’ve struggled with for months now have no precedent. Decision-makers at all levels have no off-the-shelf solutions to select from.  The critical choices… Read more »