Short Bio
Jackie Babicky-Peterson has spent many years as a CPA, business adviser and entrepreneur in Portland, Oregon. Over the last 30 years she has coached, taught and counseled hundreds of creative and DIY entrepreneurs to financial success. This work was done first through her CPA firm then through her consulting firm, Babicky Performance Partners, and now at the Small Business Development Center of Portland (Oregon) Community College.
Her grateful clients recently named her “One of the 100 most Powerful Women in the Northwest” because of the success she has had in helping entrepreneurs create thriving creative enterprises. She was recently honored by the Portland Business Alliance, the largest Portland business association for her long term work to help small businesses thrive. When she speaks about what makes a creative businesses successful, even the Portland City Council listens. She was asked by Portland’s Mayor to advise him on steps the City can take to support the small business engine of creative entrepreneurship in the coming recession. She led a team that has brought a small business Bill of Rights to City Council; a document that is seen as a model for other Cities and states.
Long Bio
Portland business leader, Jackie Babicky-Peterson has focused her entire career on small businesses: advising, teaching, training and advocating for entrepreneurs.
Jackie B, as she is known to the hundreds of clients she has mentored, is expanding her entrepreneurial advocacy with her soon to be published book, Better, Smarter, Richer! Ten Steps to Business Success for Creative Entrepreneurs: A Guide For Creative Entrepreneurs To Find Their Way To Financial Success.
“Why write such a book today in the economic downturn?” asks Jackie B, “Creative entrepreneurs usually have no idea how to turn what they love to do into a livelihood. Their businesses fail at an alarming rate. They cannot find the right formula for success. They work hard, but they cannot work enough hours or charge enough money per job to create a viable enterprise to earn a living. Eventually they simply give up, decide to call their work a beloved hobby and take an unsatisfying “day job” to support themselves. When they give up, no one wins. The entire economy loses their much-needed creative energy and vision. These creative entrepreneurs are the engine of innovation for our whole economy, but until Better, Smarter, Richer! there has been no specific guidance to help them succeed.“
Her advisory work:
Jackie B is a tireless advocate for small business in every facet of her life and her career. In 2003, Jackie became a founding member of the Small Business Advisory Council, a group created by Portland City Council to give feedback on the impact of proposed policies on small business. Jackie became chair of that group in 2006 and held that position for three years. Under her leadership and direction, the SBAC has become a pro-active, respected and powerful body which was successful in gaining unanimous passage of the Small Business Bill of Rights through City Council in November, 2007.
In 2001 Jackie joined the Small Business Development Center, an arm of Portland Community College. At the SBDC, Jackie is in charge of an entrepreneurial development and technical assistance program which combines classroom teaching with one-on-one individual counseling to businesses working to take their enterprises to the next level. In that role Jackie has become a local legend among entrepreneurs, counseling hundreds of small businesses, many of them creative enterprises, to growth, increased profitability and success.
Accounting Practice
First and foremost, Jackie is herself an entrepreneur. As a CPA, she started her first firm in 1976, working with small businesses. While Jackie B was practicing as a CPA, she served on many national committees for the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts. She was the first woman to chair the AICPA Management consulting services executive committee, the group charged with writing practice standards on management services engagements for the entire CPA profession.
Later Jackie B also served in several officer positions for the Oregon Society of CPAs. In the late 1980’s, as the importance of small business to the health of the Portland economy was just beginning to be realized, Jackie became the vice-chair for Small Business of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. She founded many small business committees, activities and programs which are the root of small business programs that continue in Portland today. In 1994 Jackie was elected the first woman chair of the board of the Portland Chamber of Commerce.
Later she sold her interest in the firm and began a consulting company, Babicky Performance Partners that continues in business today. She graduated from Willamette University with a degree in Economics, and holds a master’s in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.
To talk with Jackie regarding a presentation, consulting session or media appearance, click here.
