A Day in The Life as a Marketing Consultant

My Experience with RPBA – Anabely Cabada

The Covid-19 Pandemic has adversely affected businesses but especially those owned by minorities. I am thankful to work in a non-profit organization focused on helping local small businesses succeed. My name is Anabely Cabada. I am a Marketer, and I am currently working as a Marketing consultant for the Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Rogers Park Business Alliance (RPBA). This non-profit organization was established in 1993 and is located at 1448 W. Morse Ave Chicago, IL. RPBA's mission is to strengthen business and build community by developing and implementing innovative ways to assist local companies, increase commerce, offer cultural/recreational activities and sustainable practices for all residents and visitors in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic, many small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures have been gravely impacted by the situation that has disabled them to operate appropriately and even forced some to shut down. That is why as a result of the CARES Act, the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Rogers Park Business Alliance launched a new program called the Business Accessibility Toolkit (BAT). This program provides access to legal, marketing, financial, and technological resources in multiple languages to businesses in the North Side of Chicago.

I am part of BAT's team of consultants focused on the marketing area. My job is to help Hispanic businesses at risk of collapse, building and enhancing their online presence. For the past two months, I have been working with four Hispanic companies, a Candy Store, a Mexican restaurant, a Beauty Salon, and a Tailor Shop. I am assisting them in creating and executing marketing plans to attract and retain clients by taking advantage of digital tools and other helpful resources.

My day in a life as a marketing consultant is handling virtual and in-person meetings with clients to analyze, plan and execute online marketing tactics. Each week, I share my schedule with my clients to select one or two days to meet them. Once in the meeting, we work together to create a short-term plan to follow during the week or month. This plan includes building and redesigning their branding, reviewing their website for improvements, creating content for their social media sites like designing infographics, editing videos, taking photos of their local business/products, conducting interviews with local influencers, etc.

Along with meeting with clients, I also meet with my supervisor and BAT's consultants to analyze the program's progress, time tracking, establish goals, and suggest ideas for the program management process.

I am very thankful for having the opportunity to work in a non-profit organization that is acting as a champion of small-business owners. Being a marketing consultant at RPBA is so rewarding. Besides learning, improving, and gaining experience with new marketing skills, I am helping entrepreneurs get through the pandemic. Throughout my work at RPBA I have learned how vulnerable businesses are, especially those owned by minority and underserved communities. As an immigrant in this country, I understand the hardships that the non-English speaking community has, like the language barrier that blocks access to resources available. It is great to break down these barriers by providing the services in their native language.

Additionally, working with companies affected by the pandemic has allowed me to realize that most minority small businesses also have a technological disadvantage. Nowadays, more than ever, organizations that want to survive must admit the tremendous power of digital tools. When the governmental order required non-essential businesses to suspend their operations due to Covid-19, many of these small companies lacked a presence on the internet since they did not have a platform to continue offering their products and services online.

Every single industry was affected by this global contingency. However, the uncertainty allowed them to re-shape the operations by implementing technologies and finding new creative solutions to a pandemic and post-pandemic new market. Thanks to non-profit organizations like SBDC and RPBA that provide technological resources that are amazingly supporting under-resourced businesses by ensuring equity and helping better navigate the current complicated landscape.

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