Times Observer photo by Jeff Tome Local business owner Kate Fentersmacher, owner of Bough and Bend in Warren, discussed the issues facing a new business with WCCBI’s John Papalia, Gannon SBDC representative Shane Foster and a group of people through PA Engage on Friday.

Pennsylvania is working to retain and grow existing businesses through a program called PA Engage, which came to visit Warren on Friday.

The overall goal of PA Engage is to retain existing businesses in a community and to help them grow and expand by building strong relationships between the business owners and economic and workforce development partners.

In Warren, that looked like a parade of people wandering through downtown to talk to local business owners to find out what kind of help small businesses needed. The first stop was Bough and Bend Floral, an eight-month old business downtown started by Kate Fenstermacher.

“Kate is one of our success stories,” said John Papalia, vice president of the Warren County Chamber of Business and Industry. “She came to one of our business entrepreneur nights at Bent Run Brewing Company with a book outlining her business and here we are.”

Ms. Fentersmacher still has that book behind the counter.

“People don’t talk about the mental labor behind the scenes that has to happen when you own a small business.” Fentersmacher said. “The passion and the grind that go into starting a new business, and creating the balance between being human and being a business owner were harder than I expected.”

She described her biggest challenge as marketing, and hired someone to help jumpstart her marketing for the summer.

The group discussed problems and possible solutions for quite a while, with help from the Gannon Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and the Northwest Partnership for Regional Economic Performance. (PREP), before moving onto another business.

The group visited Gaughn’s Drug Store, which has been in business for over 105 years, to see what services the business could use, though the owners were unavailable.

“Gaughn’s is always giving back and supporting other local businesses.” said Savannah Casey, WCCBI director of operations.

The PA Engage group moved on to Plaidsky Advisors, a wealth management group downtown that is so new that the business is currently only found by looking for the orange dot on the window. Plaidsky offers financial management services for businesses, retirement and people that acquired their building last September. Issues that they brought up included making their building more noticeable. Randy Rossey, director of the City Codes and Planning Department, immediately noted that the city had recently obtained a grant to improve facades in the city, which matched business investment to improve the facades of downtown meetings.

It was in moments like this that the advantage of PA Engage was obvious. It was connecting business owners directly to the people who could offer resources and help. It was clear that business owners were already well acquainted with the staff of WCCBI and with Rossey, and had worked together in the past.

The group of professionals visiting local businesses in Warren through PA Engage included Jennifer Feehan, of Northwest PREP, who visits Warren regularly to give business advice scheduled through WCCBI, Shane Foster, of the Gannon SBDC, who offers business advice based in Crawford County, Randy Rossey, of City Codes and Planning, and staff from WCCBI, including Vice President John Papalia, Director of Operations Savannah Casey, Administrative Assistant Caroline Johnson, and Miranda Gourley, an intern from the Warren County Career Center Marketing class that is staying at WCCBI through the summer.