COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
PORT IN A PANDEMIC In the spring of 2020, when it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to cause major disruptions to everyday life, staffers at the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) shifted into high gear. “Small businesses were frantic—particularly those in restaurants and hospitality,” says Allen Kronick, senior business advisor for the Western Massachusetts Regional Office, one of the nine business centers that make up the statewide MSBDC network. “Information was very hard to come by, answers were not there, federal and state programs were very complicated to access. We were able to help clients feel a little better and get some information.” The MSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, and a consortium of institutions of higher education led by the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. The six regional business advisory centers, the Mass Export Center, Procurement Center, and Technology/SBIR programs offer in-depth one-on-one advising and training across the state.
26 STATE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
“We were people that small business owners—many of them mom-andpop companies—could talk to, and we could intervene to help them out,” Kronick says. At the same time, the MSBDC worked on the front lines to help Massachusetts companies that found their moment for success in the pandemic, including the Future Air Filters system, a product line started by the father-and-son team of James and Matthew Patterson. James Patterson’s HVAC business, Orchard Valley Heating and Cooling, is based in Southampton, Mass. When he learned about the devastating COVID-19 outbreak that took at least 76 residents’ lives at the nearby Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in early 2020, he began looking for solutions. He realized that a technology he was very familiar with, bipolar ionization, could be a great tool—it destroys viruses, bacteria, allergens, odors, and molds that are airborne and on surfaces by sending charged particles out into a room to purify the air. He had been using the technology inside the duct work of allergy-sensitive homeowners and businesses with high foot traffic for the past decade.
