FAQ

No – we have seen small business owners and advisors work effectively together by engaging deeply with one specific topic or resource in the toolkit, or by using the toolkit as inspiration for their work together. We recommend becoming familiar with the key areas the toolkit covers and the way information on the site is organized so that you are comfortable navigating through the website with the business owner that you work with. We also encourage you to bring additional resources into your work with the small business owner from your experience. Feel free to use what you think will be most helpful and please share them with us if you think other small businesses can benefit!

Business advisors are invaluable resources for small business owners as they tackle job quality challenges. Business advisors support businesses by working alongside them as trusted partners to address their business needs and aspirations through the Good Jobs, Good Business toolkit.

As an advisor working with a small business owner on the Good Jobs, Good Business toolkit, you’ll generally be expected to provide:

• Structured time with small business owners to engage with the toolkit. Most business owners expect you will spend 3-5 hours per month with them to:
• Develop a practical plan for using the toolkit to work on the business
• Support them in implementing the plan
• Meet and check-in on progress and next steps (in-person or over a phone or video call)
• Guidance, advice, and tactics to improve job quality based on your knowledge of the business, including its challenges, needs systems, and finances
• Share progress and feedback with any organizations with which you may be working¹
• As a bonus, feedback to our team at PCV on your experience using the toolkit, especially ways to improve it to ensure other small businesses and advisors benefit.

We ask that you commit 3-5 hours per month of your time. We estimate this is how long it will take to:

1. Support the borrower’s implementation of their selected focus area
2. Meet and check-in on progress and next steps (in-person or remote)
3. Share progress and feedback with PCV

In 2019, PCV has expanded its job quality work and the reach of the GJGB toolkit to a national partnership with JPMorgan Chase (JPMC). The partnership includes three CDFIs: Detroit Development Fund, Excelsior Growth Fund, and Working Solutions, and it began in summer 2019. The toolkit will be rolled out at up to 60 small businesses with a final report delivered in June 2021. As of right now, all CDFIs plan to use PCV’s quality jobs business advising network to support their small businesses’ implementation of the GJGB toolkit

PCV is one of six organizations to receive grant funding through Reimagine Retail, a project run by The Aspen Institute to explore ways to enhance job quality in retail.

Small business owners are strapped for time and resources – the toolkit provides small business owners with tools and resources that empower them improve the quality of the jobs they offer.

We wanted to show small business owners that providing good jobs is not only good for their employees but also good for their bottom line.

The toolkit was designed after a 2016 research conducted in partnership with Surdna Foundation on defining and measuring the creation of Quality Jobs. Click here to learn more.

The toolkit builds upon this research and was developed over the course of a year through:

• Convening and interviewing an Advisory Council of quality jobs experts with experience in HR, operations, retail, small business, and other areas
• Door-to-door interviews with small business owners, managers, and frontline employees
• Phone interviews with small business owners both within and outside of PCV’s loan fund
• Extensive field research

Please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here as a resource, and if we cannot answer the question, we will find someone who can.