Recession can be beaten, but not easily

On Tuesday, about 100 T.O. business owners attended a program presented by the city's economic development director, Gary Wartik, intended to help them survive the recession.

"The basis of our economy in Thousand Oaks remains strong— retail sales, car sales are holding up much better than the bulk of the country," Wartik said before the meeting.

Some local businesses are hiring, he said. "I'm very optimistic. We have hard data that shows housing sales are continuing to increase and we've maintained a vast majority of our job base."

Business owners arrived at city hall at 7:30 a.m. to attend the seminar, co-sponsored by the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce. Attendees were welcomed with fresh flowers, pastries, juice and hot coffee.

Five business experts comprised the panel: Lorenzo Flores, Small Business Administration; Stanley Goff, Service Corps Of Retired Executives (SCORE); Cheryl Moore, Workforce Investment Board; Bruce Stenslie, Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County; and Sue Pelman of the city library.

Before the speakers explained how the organizations they represent could be helpful to local businesses, Mayor Tom Glancy spoke. "The economy locally is flat, a disaster really," Glancy said.

City Manager Scott Mitnick had more encouraging words. "We are going to be okay," he said.

He assured everyone that the city was on a solid foundation even though some businesses were closing and the times were challenging.

"It's been kind of tough lately," Flores said, adding that a couple of SBA's preferred lenders had shut down, but promised "times will be good again."

"Rates are down, but financial institutions are not being aggressive," he said. The SBA is staying busy educating entrepreneurs on what they need to be doing in order to borrow money, he said.

He also noted a lack of grants.

"There's no free ticket. If you need to borrow money for business, you need to pay it back," Flores said.

Goff described SCORE, a business counseling service, as the best-kept secret in town.

SCORE has helped various people, including palm readers, website service providers, inventors and young mothers, Goff said.

SCORE also offers a two-hour panel discussion that includes information on managing cash flow, websites, marketing and negotiations with landlords, he said.

Moore said her organization was "tax dollars at work." The Workforce Investment Board has a satellite office at 1423 Thousand Oaks Blvd. to help administer federal Workforce Investment Act funds locally. The group provides oversight for work force development programs to benefit job seekers and businesses. Its goal is to build a strong work force, she said. The board can help businesses facing layoffs to lessen the impact or even prevent them, Moore said.

Pelman told entrepreneurs that the library offers resources internally and online. She listed informative books by title and said the reference desk has marketing books that tell what people are buying.