Mr. Ken M. Clark This is Me

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1. 1. www.eastrockawaychamber.com

   www.eastrockawaychamber.com/ke - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/2/2008   Last Visited: 4/2/2008

   Congratulations to Ken Clark - The New President!
   ...
   Ken Clark on becoming the new president of the East Rockaway Chamber of Commerce.
   
   Ed Sieban - Mayor (left), Ken Clark - Chamber President (right)

2. 2. www.eastrockawaychamber.com

   www.eastrockawaychamber.com/bo - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/2/2008   Last Visited: 4/2/2008

   Ken Clark
   
   East Rockaway Paint & Hardware

3. 3. SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- Help for the little guy

   www.signonsandiego.com/news/bu - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/4/2006   Last Visited: 7/7/2006

   Small-business guru Ken Clark talks with Patti Finnegan, a co-owner of Niederfrank's Ice Cream in National City.
   ...
   There to help those who are truly committed - and willing to listen - is Ken Clark.
   
   From a paper-cluttered office in a corner of Southwestern College, Clark is a muse, a refuge, a reality check for the brave - and sometimes foolish - souls who open coffee shops, day care centers and manufacturing plants in areas where banks are hesitant to lend and investment capital is scarce.
   
   Clark has run the Small Business Development & International Trade Center since its inception 17 years ago at the Chula Vista-based community college. The program, which gets most of its nearly $1 million annual budget from state and federal grants, will, within the next 30 days, serve client No. 10,000.
   
   Ken Clark
   ...
   In a typical year, the center will facilitate between $8 million and $10 million in loans, mostly through the U.S. Small Business Administration, Clark said. He said the center has shepherded as many as 178 loans in one year.
   ...
   "I think (Clark) knows as many bankers as anybody in town," said Paul Polowski, the business development officer for National City-based Neighborhood National Bank.
   ...
   Clark is vital, say Polowski and others, because he gives his clients a chance and he gives lenders a sense of comfort that the people he sends will come with the basics needed to secure a loan.
   
   "I help them strategize to get the most out of everything," Clark said of his clients.
   ...
   But its primary mission - and the reason Clark has stayed for nearly two decades - is to help those would-be entrepreneurs in the most difficult circumstances.
   
   "I've had people come in here who declared bankruptcy over $6,000 because no one told them not to," said the 52-year-old Southern California native. "We've also helped people who are illiterate."
   
   A large man with a gravelly, cigarette-scarred voice, Clark is not warm and fuzzy.
   ...
   > Clark is also for real. He carries bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from San Diego State University and worked in the 1970s as an economist for the Regional Chamber of Commerce as well as for the San Diego Unified School District.
   
   It was clear early on that Clark had a talent for networking - a crucial skill for the small businessman, said Marney Cox, who has known Clark since studying at San Diego State and is now chief economist for the San Diego Association of Governments.
   
   Always more straight talker than smooth talker, Clark earned his stripes in the business community through his willingness to do grunt work like carrying the chamber's banner - literally - and stringing it up throughout downtown San Diego. He was there when Horton Plaza opened and when the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. was formed.
   
   It wasn't long before Clark was bitten by the business bug. He realized quickly that it was the startup phase of a business he loved most because energy is high and big decisions are made.
   
   In 1981, Clark started San Diego County's first chain of one-hour photo stores. Beginning with one store in El Cajon, "The Original" 60 Minute Photo chain grew to eight stores and 75 employees throughout the county by 1987.
   
   Feeling that the time was right, Clark and his investors sold the business that year to Fox Photo, which eventually became Wolf Camera. The sale didn't net Clark enough to retire on, but it was enough to make his early 30s real fun.
   
   "At 32 I had no problem taking six-month vacations whenever I wanted," he said. "And I had a nice bachelor pad in Point Loma."
   
   Several of Clark's extended vacations included stints following the rock band the Grateful Dead. But he acknowledged that his wealth allowed him to be a "yuppie traveler" who slept in hotels at tour stops rather than in the makeshift campsites frequented by more authentic Deadheads.
   
   Eventually, Clark began looking for other entrepreneurial opportunities. He was particularly interested Mexico and had designs on starting a cross-border manufacturing business.
   
   So in 1989 when he heard about the opening at the new small business center that focused on international trade, his curiosity was piqued. The salary was about $60,000 less than he could make elsewhere, but he figured he would spend a couple years getting connected south of the border and then go make another pile of money.
   
   Those plans started to fade, however, as he came in contact with people like Gale Walker.
   
   "Where is my grant?" asked the 36-year-old welfare mother when she marched into Clark's office one afternoon in the fall of 1992 with her two T-shirt clad young boys in tow.
   
   "Normally I kick people making demands like that out and tell them they've been watching too much TV," Clark said.
   ...
   Clark started by helping her get a grant for $25,000 from the City of San Diego. Over the next several years, he helped her secure a $200,000 Small Business Administration loan to expand her center, which she named Children of the Rainbow.
   
   In 1999, Clark nominated Walker for the Welfare to Work Entrepreneur of the Year, locally and nationally.
   ...
   "Ken and I have a very unique relationship," Walker said.
   ...
   Clark doesn't have a long-term contract with the small business center - he says he's worked under 17 consecutive one-year contracts - and he may yet go out on his own again. Or maybe not.
   
   He lives in a townhouse adjacent to the college - three-tenths of a mile from his office and his passion.
   
   "I like to watch people grow," he says. "It's real satisfying."