My Experience
I had two main projects for the summer. The first was to build an excel tool that could be used by the business counselors (the business counselors are set up in centers around the five boroughs to help small business owners start, run, and grow their businesses) to help aspiring restaurateurs understand the costs associated with opening and running a business. The second project included reviewing and vetting import/export resources and coordinating with the marketing department for an initiative through a partnership with the Export-Import Bank of The United States.
Completing the restaurant cost estimator tool and rolling it out to the business counselors in the centers across NYC was the highlight of my summer experience. The tool I created included 25 customizable inputs so that the counselors could sit down with an aspiring restaurateur and quickly work through a wide-range of scenarios. The inputs included options related to location, size, restaurant type, etc. After the counselor/client made the selections, the tool would provide an estimate of start-up costs, working capital, and financial statement projections. In some cases, the results would deter a potential restaurateur from opening a restaurant, which was not necessarily a bad thing given the failure rate of restaurants. Shortly after rolling out the tool, I got a call from a business counselor telling me how great the tool was and how it was going to save him so much time with clients going forward. This phone call was a real highlight of my summer experience.
I feel like I used the skills I learned the first year of business school more so than a number of other MBA interns this summer, even those in much more mainstream positions. I spent a large part of my summer doing Excel modeling and financial projections. As part of the restaurant cost estimator tool, I created monthly and yearly income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow projections. I even referred to my accounting notes on more than one occasion!
In addition to my two main projects this summer, I had the opportunity to go to a number of local conferences relevant to the Department including: the NYC Bank Advisory Council meeting, the Building New York’s Innovation Pipeline conference at the Levin Institute, and the Small Business - Big Opportunity luncheon at NYSE. Although networking is a less tangible skillset than financial modeling, I believe my first year at CBS prepared me well in this area so I could maximize my experience at these events and meet a number of interesting people.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was getting data for the restaurant cost estimator tool and testing out to see if the projections actually made sense in the wide range of scenarios. Building the model was easy enough, but making sure that the outputs were useful and had a reasonable level of accuracy was significantly more challenging. I referred to industry experts such as successful restaurateurs, business counselors, and accountants familiar with the restaurant industry. Additionally, it was difficult to balance the level of customization with the need for simplicity. For every added level of customization, the tool would be more cumbersome to use. After repeated rounds of testing, I felt comfortable with the both the outputs and the level of customization.
Overall, I was very happy with my experience over the summer. I feel like I contributed to the organization using what I learned in school, while also further developing my skillset. I learned about the structure of the NYC Department of Small Business Services as well as the overall structure of the city government. I have worked in the for-profit space and volunteered in the nonprofit space prior to school but never worked for the government. Even though I don’t necessarily think that working for city government is the right fit for me going forward, I feel like it was a great learning experience for me over the summer. Not only did I enjoy my specific projects, I learned a lot from the various panels and networking events that I was encouraged to attend.
