Commissioner Dynishal Gross - Commissioner of NYC Department of Small Business Services

Commissioner Dynishal Gross - Commissioner of NYC Department of Small Business Services

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, This is Steve Dolsan and welcome to this
SIG's edition of CEOs. You should know I'm thrilled to
be joined by Commissioner Gross, the commissioner of the New
York City Department a Small Business Services Commissioner. Thanks for
being here today.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thanks for having me, Steve.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm excited to be able to jump into the conversation
and allow our listeners to learn a little bit more
about you and more about New York City Department of
Small Business Services.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Great. Well, I'm happy to be in conversation with you,
and I'm ready to lay it all out.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Let's do it. So why don't we start off talking
a little bit about yourself. I'd love for everyone to
learn a little bit about your background and what led
you to your current role.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Okay, so I've been in New Yorker for thirty years.
This year I moved here street out of undergrad. I
grew up in southern Maryland on a tobacco farm, so
it couldn't be more different life in New York City. Yeah,
I was a real barefoot country kid, but I moved
here right out of undergrad like many young people, you know,
with eagerness to learn about the city and learn what

(00:54):
I could accomplish here. And I have really had a
fabulous career in New York City nonprofit, then moving into
government with my first job in the New York City Council,
and finally transitioning to SBS in twenty sixteen. And I've
dug into that work, worked on in multiple program areas,

(01:14):
and had the privilege of being appointed commissioner last September.
Thanks so much. Yeah, so it's amazing. It's a real
privilege to lead work that I've been a fan of
and participated in for such a long time. But I
think small businesses are you know, they're so critical to
our city, economically important, critical to our job space, but

(01:35):
they're also part of the city's brand. Tourists come to
New York City to experience, you know, our fabulous bakeries,
to have a bacon, egg and cheese, to finally understand
what a bodega is, you know. And we want the
city to be a place where New Yorkers can achieve
their dreams of entrepreneurship and to be the best place
in the country really to operate grow a small business.

(01:58):
And that's what SBS works to deliver. So It's a fabulous, hopeful,
dynamic place to work and I feel really privileged to
lead it.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I love that. Well, congratulations again, that's very exciting and
a very well deserved So given your background, it sounds
like for many years obviously in New Yorker, but I
know you've also always really supported small businesses and advancing
equity in the city. Can you tell us really what
inspired you to take that role of commissioner and how
some of your past experiences have really shaped your perspective

(02:27):
in doing so.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Sure? Well, I think if you if you love work,
you need to be willing to step up when leadership
opportunities present it present themselves. So I have been part
of developing new programs at SBS of you know, dealing
with the contracting and budget, all of the administrative work
necessary to pull the levers to deliver it. And this

(02:51):
was an opportunity to lead the lead the work at
a point that, you know, the midway point of this
Adams administration. We had a fabulous first missioner under Kevin Kim.
He brought amazing energy and a real renewed focus on
outreach and partnership to the agency. I became part of
a leadership team under Commissioner Kim and so it was

(03:12):
great timing to step up and lead that work. I
think for the team it's wonderful for them to see
someone who's deeply steeped in the work of the agency
and knows them also well have the opportunity to lead
the work. It creates a sense of stability, which allows
forward progress in the programming that we deliver. So that's

(03:33):
why I decided to step up. It's been fabulous for me,
also challenging, like this media stuff. This is pretty hard
for me. I got, you know, it was a bureaucrat
just in the bowels of the agency for many years,
and now I feel like I've become a New Yorker again.
In many ways, I'm covering all five boroughs, commercial corridors, merchants, associations,

(03:56):
industry groups, and all of the partners in city government
that also support small businesses work to design their programming
to really maximize their success. So for me, it's fabulous.
I feel like, you know, for my first eight years
at SBS, I was a very satisfied bureaucrat, a working
mama robot, and now I'm seeing the city in a

(04:18):
new way and able to deliver for small businesses and
job seekers in new ways.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
I love that sounds that you're doing a fabulous job.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
So, I know you've led the creation of programs that
bring the city resources directly to small businesses. Can you
tell us a little bit about what your approach was
for programs like Love your Local and Chamber on the
Go and how you believe that impact will help really
small businesses throughout the city.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Sure. So those programs both began by listening listening to
community stakeholders. We heard a lot from elected officials from
community boards about legacy businesses that were struggling to adapt
to a changing real estate, state, environment, neighborhood conditions, sometimes

(05:03):
demographic conditions. For example, you've served a certain community for
your business's whole history. Now that community, you know, may
not be geographically concentrated in the neighborhood anymore. Or you
know you've dealt with a single building owner in a
least commercial property and now there's a sale pending or
sale that has happened. So it was about supporting business

(05:25):
owners and adapting to those changing conditions so that they
could continue to do what they do best and help
those businesses survive in New York City. So we began
by listening, and then we also considered our prior experience.
So before we launched Love Your Local, we had done
business education programs for legacy business owners and what was

(05:47):
reinforced in that experience is that small businesses, small business
owners don't just wear many hats. Sometimes they wear all
the hats in their business. They're the ones sweeping the
sidewalk when the doors open, there dealing with inventory control,
they're managing relationships with their suppliers, they're doing the lease negotiations.

(06:08):
And because they're so stretched wearing all of those hats
in their business, to take time out even for a
needed business education intervention was pretty challenging. So we added
a community engagement component for Love Your Local to have
New Yorkers actually nominate the legacy businesses that they wanted

(06:28):
to see continue and believe needed support. And then we
added a grant component, and that allowed us to attract
the attention of the business owners, motivate them to participate,
but also provided implementation funding for the changes we were
helping them develop. And then in addition to broad courses,

(06:49):
we did a deep consultative engagement, so we had consultants
go in to the business see how they were operating,
work with them one on one, so it wasn't a webinar,
it was really a deep consultative engagement. So all of
those features of the program were based on the input
that we were getting and also our experience in delivering

(07:10):
prior programs, and we've carried some of those things forward,
so we have much more of an investment in outreach
and partnership today than we did when I first joined SBS.
In addition, we continue to provide microgrants when we're asking
business owners to concentrate on something that may be challenging.
So right now we're offering a business preparedness program for

(07:32):
businesses and areas of the city that are prone to flooding,
either due to coastal flooding or infrastructure issues. We provide
microgrants for them to actually implement changes that are recommended
by a consultant who visits their business to assess their
risks and then advise them on how they can improve
their resilience. And this is so important because of the

(07:55):
experience of Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Ida. Even the pandemic
know that neighborhood businesses resiliency is important to community resiliency.
We need them to be available for New Yorkers when
those emergencies happen. So we continue to design programming to
bring those best practices forward and really support business owners

(08:17):
in engaging in things that may be challenging for them.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
I love that approach. I think one of the key
things you said was really listening to them right in
customized approaches for every business, because every business is different,
and I'm every business owners needs and what they they
they could really utilize you guys for is completely customized.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Right absolutely. I mean it's interesting because we interact with
businesses so much in New York City. I think everyone
feels like a sense of even like intimacy with their
favorite restaurant, their coffee shop, the laundromat they frequent, you know,
their childcare business in their neighborhood. But the struggles of
those business owners aren't really visible at the counter at

(08:58):
that point of interface. The things that they're challenged by
and they're thinking about, how to you know, address that
financial issue, how to you know, manage a licensed professional,
how to adapt to a regulatory change, and so they
don't reveal all of those things to their customers. That's
where we come in. You know, we really work to

(09:19):
understand for each industry, for each individual business owner those challenges.
We're a place where they can unburden themselves and get
free expert guidance provided by New Yorkers who are mission
driven to really help them succeed.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
That's awesome. What a great get a great resource for
business owners to immediately help them, but also to be
able to stay in New York for many more years
to come.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
That's what we want.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
That's awesome. So I know, obviously you've been a leader
within the Small Business Services prior to commissioner, but obviously
now the commissioner role even more of a leadership role.
So what do you see that it takes to have
effective leadership, always evolving and obviously being part of New York,
as we said, is one of the most diverse and
complex cities in the world. So what are some of

(10:04):
those fundamental things that you implement into your leadership to
do so well.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I think I've really invested in my own expertise as
a leader. I come from, you know, humble beginnings. I'm
first generation college student, came to New York straight out
of undergrad But after several years of working in education
and the nonprofit sector, I got a bachelor a master's
degree from Barout College in public administration. And that program

(10:34):
was really a way of transitioning from that work in
nonprofit to understand how I could work in government. And
in my first role there, I worked for the Atlanta
Housing Authority in public housing, you know, and affordable housing
is such a pressing issue. Learned a ton there and
realized I should dig a little deeper. That's when I
decided to apply to law school. And at Columbia Law,

(10:57):
I really accomplished many things for me. It gave me
confidence in myself as an intellectual, a thinker, a writer.
It helped me understand which arguments were strong and which
were flawed, and really not to be so precious about
my work, to be able to take feedback from folks
who were strong and really grow as a thinker and

(11:17):
a writer. It connected me to a network that I
continue to call on today of faculty and my fellow students,
and it gave me confidence. You know. By the time
I left Columbia, I was the graduation speaker for my class.
I never could have imagined that going in as an
older student who had worked for many years. So really
investing in yourself, growing your credentials opens doors, but really

(11:42):
building relationships and building your expertise is what allows you
to be effective once you're in the room, and that
has been a key for me.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's awesome, great advice. Another amazing accomplishment is NYC Best
and I know that has helped some own business to
save over forty two zero point five million dollars since
twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
What were some of the key strategies and decisions that
were able to make this level of impact and how
does your team build that trust and awareness with small
business owners to be able to utilize that service.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Thanks Steve. I love talking about our New York City
Business Express Services team that the program has two components. Okay,
so on one side, we're focused on compliance consultations. Your
small business owner who signed a lease on a commercial space.
We want you to get to your opening day as
quickly as possible and with as little cost as possible,

(12:36):
and so we are helping to like a sequence your
application for licenses and permits, really understand all of the
regulations to operate a small business or open a small
business in New York City, and we actually send compliance advisors,
who are generally former inspectors from the regulatory agencies, into

(12:58):
your business to do educational inspections before the regulatory agencies
come out, so that when FDNY comes to check out
your range hood or Department of Buildings comes to do
that final inspection before you know they will permit you
to move forward, that you are confident that you're going
to succeed. You're ahead of the game, and so we're

(13:19):
doing that work one on one. At the same time,
we are delivering business education in partnership with community organizations citywide,
so it could be a community board, economic development committee,
it might be a merchant organizing organization, or one of
our business improvement districts. We want them to deeply understand

(13:40):
both the rules and our services so that when a
business need arises, they know how to make that warm
referral and they're confident with the services they're going to get,
and then we closely track the impact of these services.
When a compliance advisor goes into a small business, they've
got a checklist of what the agency, the regulatory agency
will be low looking for and the forty two point

(14:02):
five million dollars in savings. That those are the specific
median fees that those businesses might have incurred if they'd
gotten that violation, just an aggregate, So we're really closely
tracking the impact and then of course working to market
the service increase awareness. We also offer a hotline that's

(14:23):
run by the same team, so we can get that
incoming constantly from small businesses. And we've also created the
My City Business Portal, which your listeners can find at
NYC dot gov slash business that takes all those rules
about business operation, licenses, permits and puts it on a
website that they can search, you know, whenever they've got

(14:45):
the time for this learning, whether that's you know, with
their morning coffee or late at night, and get those
answers if they can't contact us one on one or
no of a business serving organization. So we're really working
hard to make all of these resources broadly available to
New Yorkers on demand, and then to provide that deep

(15:05):
consultative service one on one when requested.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
That's awesome, what an awesome accomplishment, So farre great service
for small business owners to have.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Thanks so much. Yes, and we're still also working to
further reform city regulations to even save business owners more money.
We're really excited to be going back into a reform process.
That's an interagency project under City Hall leadership this year. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Let's keep going with the positive initiatives you guys, do
I know? Say two of the other ones are the
Small Business Month Expo as well as the Office of Nightlife.
Those are both strategies I know to really continue to
help strengthen New York City business owners. Can you expand
a little bit more on both of those?

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Sure? So we do. Our Office of Nightlife is an
example of a sectoral engagement. We know that business owners
have many common challenges and then some that are unique
depending on how they operate or the industry that they're in.
So some of those common challenges are, you know, regulatory support,
access to capital, you know, dealing with commercial leasing. But

(16:11):
then some of the unique things might be, you know,
for food service establishments, how do you get that a
letter grade in your window? Which is probably as important
to marketing yourself as your Google Maps profile. For nightlife businesses,
it's often issues of safety. How do you plan your
business plan security, manage the door and events to ensure

(16:33):
patron safety. It requires leea as liaising with the NYPD.
Nightlife businesses also, you know, they're beloved by New Yorkers.
They also help drive tourism. But sometimes the neighbors of
nightlife businesses may be concerned about noise or traffic or
other aspects. So we develop interventions that really help address

(16:56):
those unique challenges for operating businesses of different kinds. Our
Office of Nightlife, for example, has a program called Mend
where we have three to one one complaints about business operation, sound,
et cetera. We actually connect them with mediators from the
Office of Administrative excuse me, the Office of Administrative Tribunals

(17:17):
and Hearings, and those neighbors and those business owners can
sit down really here one another, so the business owner
can work to perhaps adapt their operations to avoid those
types of complaints. That's important for those businesses because they
operate with a liquor license often and they've got to
go through before the community board or the state liquor

(17:39):
authority to establish or maintain. Those community complaints can help
to can be a challenge in either establishing a liquor
license or maintaining it, and so NL provides that support
as well as many other resources that are targeted specifically
to that industry. And we do that for the nightlife industry,
the food and beverage industry, and in many ways in

(18:02):
our workforce system as well. We're working to have sector
specific interventions so we can train New Yorkers to fill
the hiring gaps the hiring needs of businesses in particular sectors.
That's awesome, thank you.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
So let's talk a little bit more about you personally.
So obviously newer to the role of commissioner. Yes, what
has been some of maybe the unexpected challenges that have
arose since you've been in a commissioner and how have
you navigated those challenges?

Speaker 2 (18:32):
To tell you the truth, this is one of the
hardest things. Yes, I you know, I didn't expect to
be a spokesperson in this way in the media, in
the press. It is a powerful way, though, to raise
awareness of our work. And so I push myself, You're
doing a fantastic job. Thank you you are. How have

(18:53):
I done it? So? City Hall provided some media training. Oh,
I was a student of that training and I rely
on my team and I never watched the videos. That
helps me a lot.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well. The training works, You're doing fantastic games. Very confident.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
I prepare as well as I can and then is key. Yeah,
I love that.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
What is some advice that you received early on in
your career, especially being a woman stepping up into a
leadership role, that has really resonated with you throughout all
your different roles within your career.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
It's hard to pinpoint one specific piece of advice, but
something I experienced was anytime I was stuck and emboldened
myself to ask for help, I got it. You know,
people rarely say no when you step forward with the
spirit of humility, willingness to learn and express a need.

(19:55):
That happened for me so many times. When I first
moved to New York City after undergrad at Cornell, I
had a degree, you know, I was first in my
family to have a bachelor's degree. That degree did not
prepare me to find a job in New York City,
and so I asked for informational interviews, and the informational

(20:15):
interviews led to connections, and those connections led to my
first job offer, and that job offer let me pay
my second month's rent in Park Slope. So every single
time I have stepped forward to ask for support. I
have found support, and I really encourage folks to you know,
it's like mister Rogers says, look for the helpers, and
don't you know feel like you have to know it

(20:37):
all or even that you know. The ability to progress
to leadership means knowing it all. It does not. It
requires looking for expertise, being humble, being willing to learn,
and doors have opened for me and I've really feel
grateful for that, but it informs how I continue to

(20:59):
lead my team and to progress one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
That's great advice. I think sometimes people look at asking
for help as a weakness. That's right, but no matter
where you are in your journey and your career or
new roles you're taking, I think it's one of the
most important things to do because we're not going to
all know everything, So that's asking for that help and
building that community of support is so important.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, what's the saying The man who knows something knows
that the man who knows something knows that he knows
nothing at all. I love that, right. So I'm confident
in what I have learned and what I can do,
but I know that it requires constant learning and it
requires a team approach. So yeah, asking for help. I
love that.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Being commissioner of SBS. What do you want to be
remembered for? What is the mark that you want to
make for the organization?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
So I came from SBS program delivery and we're doing
a lot of work to shore up our program delivery,
lots of exciting procurements, contracting and budget work. I think
the agency will deliver work, you know, based on the
changes that we're making for a decade or more. So
I look for, you know, expect great things, great outcomes

(22:13):
from the changes that we're making in our workforce system delivery,
in our business solutions system delivery. But I think, you know,
it's the team. We have an amazing team of about
three hundred staff, amazing leaders who are mission driven and
so passionate about our work. And we are working to
create a new pipeline into work at SBS to really

(22:37):
empower the leadership that we have in every team, from
our central teams to our business services team, our government
contracting teams, our workforce teams. We are prioritizing hiring and
leadership in those teams, even above building the executive office.
And so I want to leave an SBS that is

(22:57):
prepared internally to deliver continuity in this work and continual
improvement in this work in the years to come.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Awesome. I have no doubt that you will thank you.
So we covered a lot about SBS. Is there anything
that we might have missed that you want our listeners
to know.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
I'd love to talk about a new capital access project
that we're in the process of launching a year ago.
Last May, the Mayor announced a commitment of ten million
dollars to the New York City Future Fund. So every
day we work to connect small businesses to affordable loans
and or grants when they're available through our financing assistance program,

(23:36):
but every now and again, we're able to launch funds
of our own. In twenty twenty three, we established the
Opportunity Fund, which connected one thousand businesses citywide to eighty
five million dollars and affordable loans. And it's been amazing
to see the progress of those businesses since then. And
we learned a lot from delivering the Opportunity Fund, and
we want to put those learnings into practice with the

(23:59):
Future fun So the Future Fund, for the first time,
will employ a revenue based lending model. So businesses that
are newer to operation or may have seasonal or other
fluctuations in their income. We will actually be able to
tie their loan repayment to those revenues, and so it'll
be affordable for a larger set of businesses. And it's

(24:21):
also a way of supporting the new businesses that have
emerged since the pandemic, qualifying a larger set of those
businesses than could survive underwriting without a fund like this.
So we are in the process of exploring the first
loans in this program and we look forward to operating
the future Fund for the next decade. It's an evergreen

(24:42):
model and we hope to serve as many businesses as
we did in the Opportunity Fund citywide across the five boroughs.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
That's awesome for anyone tuning in that wants to learn
about one of the programs, one of the initiatives you
just spoke about, or really more just about sbs.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
What's their first step, I say, go to our My
City Business Portal NYC dot gov slash business. It's a
compilation of all of the insights from our team, all
of the details about starting, operating, and growing a business
in New York City. Also our other services to grow
through government contracting and the hiring services we provide for

(25:19):
small businesses and matching two jobs for New Yorkers, all
available on that website. We also have a hotline eight
eight eight SBS for NYC staff by real people. You
can call and talk to our team every day. They're
experts in our services and they can make the connections
that you need.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Awesome, Well, Commissioner, thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, for telling
us all about the amazing work that SBS is doing
for all New Yorkers. Really exciting stuff, and thank you
for all you do.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Thank you for this opportunity. It was a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Awesome. We're very excited to have you and look forward
to seeing what is next for you. Too.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Much appreciated, Steve.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Thank you everybody for tuning in. Please in next week
for next week's edition of CEOs You Should Know