Karina Lakefront Maintenance: Finding Help and Achieving Success

FSBDC at UCF and Florida PTAC at UCF Assist Aquatic Environment Company with Growth

April 20, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or hthayer@ucf.edu

                 Jairo Batista, Consultant, FSBDC at UCF, 407.420.4853 or Jairo.Batista@ucf.edu

Orlando – Finding assistance, especially the right kind of assistance, can sometimes become challenging for a small business owner. There are numerous organizations offering help and resources, but some can be more effective than others. Ana Gabriela Roosen, co-owner and the business development leader at Karina Lake Front Maintenance and Renovation, was looking for help with growing her business and called on the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) for guidance.

Karina Lakefront Maintenance and Renovation manages aquatic environments. This includes conducting lakefront restorations, ongoing maintenance, and providing aqua scaping and erosion control services for residential, commercial, and government clients. Karina Lakefront also happens to be one of the very few companies doing this type of business while certified as an Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (ED/WOSB).

“What differentiates Karina Lakefront is our artisanal approach,” says Roosen. “We do our work by hand, promote native plantings, and use the least amount of chemicals and machinery as possible so as not to harm a lake’s ecology. We do all we can to improve the shoreline, the quality of the water and the overall environment.”

“We’re good at everything we do out in the field,” Roosen continued. “But when it comes to the marketing, the online world and social media and entering new markets, we needed some help and that’s why we came to the FSBDC. Before I found the FSBDC, I felt like I was reaching for help at places where I wasn’t getting results and I felt kind of lonely and alone. It’s hard to be an owner of a company without having that upper management guidance I was used to. After I had the FSBDC, it was like I had a guardian angel on my shoulder. Everything I needed; they were always there for me.”

Taking advantage of the FSBDC’s no-cost, expert consulting, as well as working with its government contracting affiliate, the Florida Procurement Technical Assistance Center at UCF (Florida PTAC at UCF), Roosen was able to find the support she was seeking. “Since the first meeting with my FSBDC consultant Jairo Batista, he’s been in communications with me. And he opened doors for me to many SBDC services: digital marketing counseling; SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tutoring; government contracting guidance and help with my capabilities statement for bidding; and support obtaining several Covid-19 disaster relief loans are some examples. You go there and ask them anything and they will have someone who can help you.”

Roosen and her company have enjoyed strong business results since she began working with the FSBDC. “We have seen financial increases of 15% due to how we are managing our social media based on suggestions from the FSBDC. We learned how to bid for government work and won a 3-year, $100,000 contract. And we were able to access those disaster relief loans,” says Roosen.

“If I had to use one word to describe the FSBDC, it would be ‘relief’ because that’s what they give small business owners: peace of mind and make them feel comfortable through the journey of owning a business,” concluded Roosen.

For more information about Karina Lakefront Maintenance & Restoration, please visit https://www.karinalakefront.com/.

— FSBDC —

About the FSBDC at UCF

Hosted by the University of Central Florida (UCF), and with its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF Office of Partnership & Innovation and the Florida SBDC Network.

The Florida SBDC at UCF provides aspiring and existing small businesses with no-cost consulting, low-cost training, and access to business data and research resources. In addition to its core service offering, the Florida SBDC at UCF also offers specialized services to qualifying companies, including capital access, market growth, government contracting, international trade, business continuation, cybersecurity, disaster planning and recovery, and more. The FSBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains 9 service centers across Central Florida.

In 2020, the FSBDC at UCF served more than 2,800 entrepreneurs in Central Florida with consulting services, resulting in more than 10,000 jobs created, retained or saved; $1.2 billion in sales growth; $92.4 million in capital formation; $92.7 million in government contract awards; and 86 new businesses started. For more information, please visit www.sbdcorlando.com.

About the Florida SBDC Network

For over forty years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy.

In 2020, Florida SBDCs provided 162,476 hours of professional business consulting to almost 23,900 client businesses, resulting in almost 38,000 jobs impacted; $4.4 billion in sales generated; $335 million in government contracts acquired; and $385.8 million in capital accessed.

A statewide network of over 40 offices, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a 2016 recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.

FSBDC at UCF | 3201 E. Colonial Drive | Orlando, FL 32801 | p 407.420.4850 | f 407.420.4862
sbdc@ucf.edu | www.sbdcorlando.com