I f you have experienced the magnificence of Cira Green,the 1.25-acre park nine stories above the bustle of Phila-delphia’s booming University City that offers lush lawns,refreshing breezes, and stunning views of downtownoffice towers, you have witnessed what extraordinary

work the region’s small-business community can do.If only it could get more opportunities, advocates say.Many obstacles stand in the way, including

procurement processes by the city and majorprivate-sector employers that aren’t well-publi-cized and involve complex application proce-dures often beyond the capacity of resource-re-stricted small businesses. Those are among thefindings in a new report by the Sustainable Busi-ness Network of Greater Philadelphia, an advo-cacy group.

“We’re at least asking for a level playingfield,” said Melissa Muroff, an SBN board mem-ber and president of Roofmeadow, a 21-year-old,seven-member landscape architecture and engi-neering firm based in Mount Airy. Its most notable project isCira Green, owned and developed by Brandywine RealtyTrust. With an expertise in depth-limited environments,Roofmeadow was a subconsultant to Erdy McHenry Architec-ture on the $12 million project, the city’s first elevated park,

See SHARE on E18A recent yoga class at Cira Green. The space was created by Roofmeadow, a subconsultant toErdy McHenry Architecture on the $12 million project. DIANE MASTRULL / Staff

PHILLY DEALS | E3

It’s check-up timefor federalincome-tax

withholding.

FOOD | E4

Turning off thebad genes, turningon the good ones in

our food.

RETAIL | E4

Walmart’s sizemay not shield itfrom the sting of

rising prices.

Melissa Muroff, president of Roofmeadow, at Cira Green, a 1.25-acre park nine stories above University City. “We’re at least asking for a level playing field,” she says. TOM GRALISH / Staff

yStarting next Sunday,Scott Sturgis’ “Driver’s Seat”automotive column moves intothe Business section. Additionalfeatures and news can befound at philly.com/cars.

PERSONAL SAFETY

SMALL BUSINESS

A new report suggests how to give smaller concerns a shot.

P ennsylvania is one ofAmerica’s most popu-lous when it comes

to gun owners. Almost onein three Pennsylvaniansowns a firearm, or 31 per-cent. So where do theylearn how to shoot? (Legal-ly, that is.) I’m under-edu-cated on the gun-ownerside of our national de-bate. So, I persuaded myeditors to let me take a gun class,learn gun safety, and understandmore about gun culture.

On Aug. 4, I took a group classwith Ron Flowers, a retired Allen-town police officer and professionalweapons handling trainer based in

Broomall. He and his wife,Kathleen, operate CitizensDefense Training, teachingclasses all year long atranges around the state, in-cluding “Intro to Pistol andRevolver” (my class), forabsolute beginners like my-self, at the Ridge and Val-ley Gun Club in Coopers-burg, Pa.

First, the thrill. It’s forreal. I’m holding a firearm in myhands. It’s horrifying and exhila-rating at the same time. Later, I’llshoot “dry-fire” — essentially,blanks — and then real bullets.

“That’s the dopamine blast, ev-See GUN RANGES on E2

At a newcomer’s first firearms lesson, dopamine isn’t the only blast.

In Pa., gun ranges are big business

A Greater Share

Ron Flowers ofCitizensDefenseTraining inBroomallconducts asmall-gunfirearm trainingsession withJeanineBarnes,showing herhow to handlethe weapon.BRADLEY C. BOWER

ERIN ARVEDLUND"@erinarvedlund

To Our Readers

Family-OwnedBusiness Awards

yFor great views, fun,and a celebration offamilybusiness, attend theInquirer’s luncheon onThursday, Aug. 23, from11 a.m. to 2 p.m.,on the Moshulu.

yRead about amazingfamily-ownedbusinesses, Pages E5-16.

yFor information, go tophilly.com/familybizor contactJennifer Wolf atjwolf@philly.comor 215-854-5791.

DIANE MASTRULL"@dmastrull

E The Inquirer | SUNDAY, AUG. 19, 2018 | PHILLY.COM | B |

one that also includes a sophisticatedstorm water management system.

Philadelphia has 93,000 small-businessowners, responsible for creating about 54percent of all jobs, according to SBN. Yetfor all their impact, they are a group feel-ing at a considerable disadvantage.

“Many businesses involved in the re-search indicated that they did not havethe relationships they needed to success-fully know about and bid on project op-portunities,” states the 17-page SBN re-port, “Local Procurement: An Evaluationof Barriers and Solutions from the Busi-ness Perspective.” It contains nearly adozen recommendations based on inputfrom nearly 200 local independent busi-nesses, with a particular focus on wom-en, minority and/or disadvantaged-owned businesses.

“For the most part, we weren’t sur-prised,” Anna Shipp, executive directorof SBN, founded in 2001, said of the re-search findings. “For the most part, thisreally validated what we’ve heard anec-dotally.”

The report was funded by $50,000 fromthe William Penn and Surdna Founda-tions and builds off SBN’s 2011 call toaction, Taking Care of Business: Improv-ing Philadelphia’s Small-Business Cli-mate.

The goal of “Local Procurement” wasto identify barriers that locally ownedbusinesses face in accessing contract op-portunities with local government andmajor companies and ways to help over-come them, Shipp said, citing a “perfectstorm” of developments for its timing.

They included a 2014 report by the cityOffice of the Controller that found lessthan half of the more than $5 billion inannual purchases for goods and servicesby Philadelphia’s universities and hospi-tals was spent on local businesses. That,combined with “a lot of anecdotal storiesover the years from our members” aboutbarriers to work with the city and itsanchor institutions, along with a new cityadministration in January 2016, con-vinced SBN “it was the right time to dosomething more formal to engage ourbusinesses and put on paper what someof these challenges were,” Shipp said.

Overcoming them could be beneficialnot only to small businesses but to thegovernment entities and bigger business-es they want more chances to serve,Shipp said.

“We know there’s a lot of highly capa-ble, very brilliant businesses here in thecity and the region, and to know thatthey’re struggling to access these oppor-tunities means that there’s missed oppor-

tunities even for those anchors to con-nect with qualified local business,” shesaid.

According to the 2014 Controller’s Of-fice report, every $1 million spent by an-chor institutions with local vendors sup-ports 10 additional local jobs, and if thatspending increased by 25 percent, itwould mean $1 billion in additional localexpenditures each year, support an addi-tional 4,400 jobs, and increase annual taxrevenue for the city by about $14 million.

The SBN report acknowledges thatprogress has been made since then, suchas Mayor Kenney creating the Chief Ad-ministrative Office, tasked with moderniz-ing and improving the efficiency of cityservices. And in May 2017, Philadelphiavoters approved a ballot question thatgives small businesses a better shot atnonprofessional services contracts by al-lowing for such work to be awardedbased on “best value” rather than lowestprice. Pricing is often where small busi-nesses are at the greatest competitivedisadvantage.

Among SBN’s recommendations:yHelp businesses build stronger rela-

tionships with important procurementcontacts.

ySupport collaborations betweensmall businesses to enhance their abilityto successfully respond to requests forproposals (RFPs).

yIncrease local businesses’ awarenessof relevant RFPs.

yProvide overview training on the pro-curement processes followed by the cityand other major employers.

yCreate more opportunities for smallbusinesses to bid directly through small-er contracts or as subcontractors onprojects.

“At the end of the day, we want to be agood vendor partner,” said Christine De-renick-Lopez, Philadelphia’s chief admin-istrative officer. “The city needs servicesfrom folks out there. … The more compe-tition, the better pricing we’re going tohave.”

Derenick-Lopez said the SBN report“reaffirms” some of the changes her of-fice has been working on with the Officeof Economic Opportunity to improve theprocess for engaging the vendor commu-nity. That includes speeding up paymentsto businesses doing work for the city, andexecuting contracts faster.

Derenick-Lopez said her office in-tends to meet with chambers of com-merce and other business advocacygroups to help demystify city procure-ment processes. It is also working withindividual city departments to help en-sure predictability and transparencyaround RFPs, and to provide small busi-nesses with prebid opportunities to eval-uate projects and network with largercompanies for possible subcontractingopportunities.

Much like what Roofmeadow did onCira Green, a private job. Muroff said she

mostly avoids government work.“My sense has been that there are sort

of a handful of firms that do work for thecity and the lead firms are going to be bigfirms and unless you’re embedded withone of those handful of big firms already,it’s not likely even worth the time [torespond to an RFP.] You’re not likely towin,” Muroff said.

Marc Coleman’s Philadelphia-basedsoftware development company of 15 em-ployees, the Tactile Group, has managedto get some substantial city work. Lastyear, that included designing and develop-ing a website for Philadelphia’s pitch toland Amazon’s second headquarters.

“It’s tricky,” Coleman said of securingcity work. “You have to really knowwhere to look for the opportunities.”

Winning private work is even harder,he said.

“The kind of larger enterprise business-es we’d work with have their set vendorsthey work with all the time, or they arelowest priced,” Coleman said. “There’snothing I can do to win that work.”

Muroff emphasized she and SBN arenot advocating for pity work.

“My reaction isn’t we all deserve ahandout,” she said. “If the approachwe’re pitching isn’t more appealing, thenwe shouldn’t win.”

+dmastrull@phillynews.com^215-854-2466"@dmastrull

Continued from E1

Anna Shipp, SBN executive director, and Marc Coleman, whose Tactile Group worked on the Amazon HQ2 proposal. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff

Did you missthe signs inDid you missthe signs inthe market?the signs in

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E18 | THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER | SUNDAY, AUG. 19, 2018 B | PHILLY.COM