>> So my name is Moises Cisneros, and
I am a business advisor for the City
of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica College.
And they have an agency that's a public-private
partnership between the federal government,
the city, and the college and it's the Santa
Monica Small Business Development Center.
I actually have a retainer with them.
I'm actually a consultant and I've been
retained by them now for two years plus.
And as part of the business advice that I
provide, I focus on international trade advice
for startup companies, as well as for companies
that are experiencing exponential growth,
and so they're going to make growing pains.
So we provide them a way to navigate all
those different situations that a lot
of CEOs really don't want to deal with.
These are things that -- they know
their product, they know their service,
but all these other things -- the back-office
operations, the dealing with the legal aspects,
or dealing with human resources --
all those areas, that's where we
come in and we provide that service.
We get companies from all types of
different industries visiting us.
So, for example, one of our clients
is a young lady who had this idea
to develop a certain type of yoga mat.
She was very disheartened by the designs that
were out there at this point, and she said,
"You know, I want to bring
some color and splash,"
and she created a company called Affirmat.
And they're affirmations emblazoned
or imprinted onto the yoga mats.
And we helped her to source the company
overseas that would produce these.
We helped them to figure out what
the duties would be, the tariffs,
understand the transportation
and shipping process,
how to choose the appropriate
customs broker to pass U.S. customs.
And then, once here, we helped them with their
marketing and distribution of that product.
Before all of this, we also helped her
with her projected financials
and her business plan strategy.
We're really like a real partner.
We're a real partner, and the beauty about it,
what I really love, is that when we're good,
when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing
and we're successful, the client comes back
to us and they are ecstatic
about what we provided
for them, and they're very appreciative.
I think that's the biggest paycheck: that
we're really helping others to succeed
and achieve a level that
they expect for themselves.