IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
On March 5, the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship at Cal State San Bernardino is scheduled to open an Entrepreneurial Resources Center in Palm Desert.
The office at 37023 Cook St Suite 102, will be the third such facility opened by the center since November 2023, when it opened its first ERC in San Bernardino. Two months later, an ERC opened in Temecula.
All three offices are designed to be a “one-stop-shop” for anyone looking to start a business or grow the one they’re already operating, said Mike Stull, professor of entrepreneurship and director of the center for entrepreneurship.
Stull spoke with IE Business Daily about why it was important to establish a presence in the Coachella Valley, how the other two centers have performed so far and it’s plans for the future.
Question: Why set up an office in Palm Desert?
Answer: Several reasons. The Center for Entrepreneurship has had an office in Palm Desert, the Coachella Valley Women’s Business Center, since 2006. We also have academic programs at the Palm Desert campus.
Q: The city approached you, correct?
A: In 2023, the city of Palm Desert asks us if we would take over management of the Palm Desert iHub, which they created in 2021. After a little back and forth, we entered into a three-year contract to manage the iHub. We just completed the first year.
Q: What was your goal when you took it over?
A: To attract more resources, and to turn it into a niche program that would help tech businesses and start-ups. The idea was that Palm Desert was going to be the next Silicon Valley. That’s how we approached it.
Q: Is that going to happen?
A: I don’t know. We did decide that level of focus wasn’t going to work. Now, we’re trying to appeal to a broader audience. We worked on expanding our programming, and bringing in other organizations to work with us. The idea was to take the Palm Desert iHub and turn it into the Palm Desert Entrepreneurial Resource Center, which is what we’ve done.
Q: How are you going generate interest in the project?
A: We haven’t done the official announcement, or done a lot publicity, but we’re getting ready to do that. We have space for co-workers, and there’s a waiting list to rent that space. We also have space for affiliate partners.
Q: How difficult is it to set up?
A: It’s a lot of work, but in Palm Desert we were already set up. The city paid for the office, and it’s a great facility. We’re looking to expand our internal footprint.
Q: Why is it important to be in the Coachella Valley?
A: Because it’s a growing area with a lot of small businesses. One of the affiliates we have coming in is an AI center that just launched. It’s going to focus on small business and how they can use AI, so we will do some programming with them. They will have some office space in the center.
Q: How many affiliates do you have?
A: At least 14, and we reviewed three potential affiliates last week. That’s 14 affiliates in about one year, which is about what we expected.
Q: What characteristics are you looking for in an affiliate?
A: It has to be someone who’s not part of our organization. It can be a for-profit or a non-profit. Our mission is to promote and support entrepreneurship and small business, and we’re looking for people who provide services that we don’t, and who have a track record in their field. It can’t duplicate what we’re doing. It has to compliment what we’re doing.
Q: Can you talk about one of the potential affiliates you’re considering?
A: We’re negotiating with a business brokerage that wants to do a training program on how to sell your business and, on the flip side, how to buy a business if you’re looking to do that. We don’t do that kind of training.
Q: Are affiliates difficult to find?
A: Not really. We have some people on staff who are very good at finding the kind of businesses we’e looking for. The hardest part is avoiding duplicates. It doesn’t make sense to sign up a business that will do something we’re already doing. But the important thing is cost-per-client. If it’s $2,000 per client, that’s too much. Five hundred dollars or less is more what we’re looking for.
Q: Why do you need an ERC? Why is the School of Entrepreneurship, and the Center for Entrepreneurship, not enough?
A: It’s a way of creating a regional hub. We’re trying to focus on a resource center for entrepreneurs, and to put our name on it. We want it to be like a regional shopping mall with an anchor tenant. We’re the anchor, but you need to have some other shops if it’s going to be like a mall. It’s a regional resource center for entrepreneurs.
Q: How many businesses have you helped?
A: As of the end of 2024 we had helped about 3,000 businesses. I don’t have any numbers for this year.
Q: How important is it that you have a presence in the Coachella Valley.
A: It’s very important. Its a growing market, and there’s a need for services there. There are a lot of businesses that are starting to look at the Coachella Valley more seriously. In some ways its underserved. And we chose Palm Desert because you want something like this to be centrally located, and Palm Desert is about as central as you can get in the Coachella Valley. We want everyone working together, under one roof, and not working in silos.
Q: Are you looking at putting a resource center in another part of the Inland Empire, or is this as big as big as the program will get?
A: I can’t say it’s as big as it will be because I don’t know what the future will bring, But we’ve established a good footprint. It’s what we need now.
Q: You aren’t considering the High Desert?
A: We’ve done some work in the High Desert, but we never got the results we were looking for. I don’t know why. Maybe not a large enough population.
Q: How do you feel the Temecula and San Bernardino offices have performed so far?
A: It’s gone well. We have a lot of experience but we’ve still had a learning curve. We’re bringing a lot of entities under one roof, so you need systems and processes. It’s been a challenge internally, bringing together an organization with so many moving parts. In terms of getting it exactly where we want it we’re not quite there yet.
Q: Looking back, would you do anything differently?
A: We might do some things internally that would make things more efficient, but in terms services delivered, no, we wouldn’t do anything differently.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: By serving the requisite number of businesses, by helping people achieve milestones in their businesses, by helping businesses grow, by helping them get access to capital. We also have to be financially sound and have good relations with our affiliates.
Q: Where do you hope to be in three to five years?
A: The end game is that the programs stay healthy, and that they continue to deliver the goods and service they’re delivering now, and that we’re financially sustainable.
