Job description

La Cocina Food Business Coordinator

Job Description

La Cocina (“The Kitchen”) is a nonprofit, full-service, shared use commercial kitchen (2200 Sq. feet) and business incubator. The goal of La Cocina is to assist low-income entrepreneurs, primarily women, immigrants and people from communities of color, in becoming economically self-sufficient by providing: (1) a fully approved and equipped commercial kitchen they can use for the development and ongoing preparation of their business; (2) professional food industry technical assistance designed to improve their business operations, market penetration, profit, economic scale and sustainability; (3) access to new markets and (4) access to capital.  

GENERAL STATEMENT OF DUTIES:     

The Food Business Coordinator is a Full Time, exempt position. Hours are Monday through Friday with fairly frequent night and weekend requirements.   The Food Business Coordinator is responsible for working directly with La Cocina program participants on launching, growing and formalizing their businesses with a focus on marketing, finances and operations for small-scale food businesses. Your work should guarantee program participants have a clear and strategic marketing strategy, solid understanding of financial needs and digestible operational guidelines that allow them to grow their businesses. As part of this work, this position is responsible for developing, cultivating, maintaining and strengthening La Cocina’s industry-specific volunteer program to support this work.  This position reports directly to the Operations Director.   The Food Business Coordinator position may include management of additional interns and volunteers on an as-needed basis. Additionally, the position is expected to be part of the collaborative visioning for the organization and considerate of revenue generation both for La Cocina and participating businesses and to have an eye, always, on funds development. JOB DUTIES:  Curriculum Delivery and Program Implementation Specific duties include, but are not limited to:   Work collaboratively with program staff to effectively deliver small business curriculum work to up to 40 businesses/year with an eye towards growth and exit for those small businesses. Specifically, this role will be responsible for the delivery of marketing, operations, finance and sales curriculum for all participants. Design, manage and lead workshops in Marketing, Finances, Sales and Operations. Participate in application, screening and incubation period transitions with all program participants. Participate in the recruitment and outreach to program participants for the incubator program. Participate in orientations and field trips for program participants Constantly providing new trends and ideas to program participants to improve marketing plans. Program Participant Case Management Meet monthly with all program participants to execute on incubation plans and bring product to market and to scale. Coordinate volunteer technical assistance with program participants and professional industry experts. Work with program participants to execute on marketing plans, operations plans and sales/finance goals.   Industry Specific Volunteer Management   Recruit, cultivate and manage up to 100 active industry-specific volunteers. Reach out to incoming La Cocina volunteers when application is submitted Communicate with volunteers on a regular basis (Monthly Volunteer Newsletter) Update volunteer database on Salesforce based on the Volunteer Application Work closely with Events & Communications manager to effectively refer all General/Event Volunteers to him/her. Provide orientations for all Program Volunteers and work with program staff to effectively match volunteers with program participants. Communicate with participants and staff about volunteer needs on a regular basis Research and implement more effective La Cocina volunteer management and communications systems  

QUALIFICATIONS:  
·      High School diploma or GED required; 2-4 year college degree (or master’s!) in business management a plus. ·      2-4 years relevant work experience in  small businesses development. ·      Bi-lingual in Spanish. Other languages a plus. ·      Familiarity with food systems (culinary) and a general understanding of trends within the food industry ·      An ability to communicate personally and intimately with our program participants as well as an innate understanding or willingness to learn the San Francisco food scene. ·      Flexible and adaptable in order to maintain a competitive market position. ·      Familiarity with using software programs including MS Office (MS Word, Excel) and QuickBooks. Familiarity with Adobe Suite and basic design skills a plus. ·      Ability to operate a computer and office equipment. ·      Excellent communication skills both in written and verbal format (Spanish writing as well). ·      Excellent customer service skills. ·      Punctual, reliable, organized, and industrious.   The ideal candidate will have the following professional experience and personal qualities: Good people and conflict resolution skills. Job requires constant interaction with program participants. Patience, flexibility and a good sense of humor Culturally competent A passion for great food and a willingness to taste anything Ability to speak passionately and articulately about our mission Highly organized with excellent time and space management skills.        

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