Small Business Roundtable: The Business of Doing Small Business

Being a small business owner means being responsible for making decisions across a wide variety of fields with many having long lasting consequences. Everything from how I should legally structure my business, what insurance do I need to protect myself, how do I recruit and retain staff in this environment, what human resource policies do I need to have to meet federal and state guidelines while remaining competitive. This impressive panel of WE CAN volunteers will answer any questions you may have when it comes to the business of operating a small business.

Pamela Andersen, Moderator

Pamela Andersen is the Director of Business & Credit Programs at Community Development Partnership. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University and worked in the field for twelve years before relocating to Cape Cod to raise her family. She spent 9 years as the owner and manager of the Inn at the Oaks, a bed and breakfast in Eastham. Pam lives in Eastham with her husband, Don, and their two children. She can be found taking walks in the early morning darkness armed with a flashlight.  She volunteers as a Girls Scout Troop leader.

Pam brings a wealth of technical expertise to her role as Director of Business & Credit Programs as well as first-hand experience on the needs of local business owners.  She coordinates planning, administration and implementation of CDP business initiatives and lending programs including local fishing initiatives. By working directly with individual businesses through the loan and leasing application process, Pam ensures that businesses successfully enter CDP programming.

Colleen Ormsby, Panelist

A self-proclaimed “Insurance Geek,” Colleen Ormsby began her career at a Cape Cod Insurance Agency in 1987 and soon figured out that she could really have a lot of fun with insurance!

After remaining with that agency for nearly twenty years, Colleen was offered the opportunity to move the Company side of the insurance industry and leapt at the change. During her tenure there, she developed an understanding of various types of insurance risk, how insurance can be used to transfer the risk to another party, and how the insurance consumer can take steps to mitigate and absorb risk as a tool in their overall financial strategy.

Colleen realized that working directly with consumers to build an insurance program based on an understanding of exposures, identification of gaps in coverage, and a commonsense approach to premium allocation is really where it’s at!  That realization brought her back to the Agency side of the business in 2015 when she joined the team at Safe Harbor Insurance Agency to offer insurance solutions to a select market of personal and commercial clients.

After three years at Safe Harbor, Colleen teamed with Donna Barr to purchase the agency and has now fulfilled a long-time dream of being an agency owner.

Cindy Nuzzolo, Panelist

Attorney Cindy Nuzzolo was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts in 2002, and she is also admitted to the Massachusetts United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. She earned her LLM in Taxation at Boston University Law School in 2002 and graduated from University of New Hampshire Law School (formerly known as Franklin Pierce Law) in 2001 earning both Juris Doctor and Master of Intellectual Property degrees. She graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern University in 1996 where she earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice. Attorney Nuzzolo has worked in the Boston area handling contractual and other transactional business legal matters in private practice; at a large investment company in New York where she provided complex personal, business and investment planning, and tax planning; in private practice at Carter DeYoung, and finally transitioned to her own practice at Nuzzolo Law.

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Attorney Nuzzolo brings her years of experience and knowledge of financial, tax, and business matters to transactional planning for both personal and business matters.  Her knowledge and experience assist her to preserve her client’s legal rights regarding estate, trust, guardianship/conservatorship, and business litigation matters in and out of court and she strives to resolve disputes in a manner that best serves her clients. Her approach is personal, sensitive, practical, creative and collaborative.

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When not spending time with her family, Attorney Nuzzolo gives back to her community by providing volunteer legal consultations for WE CAN.  Attorney Nuzzolo is a member of the Estate Planning Council of Cape Cod and the Barnstable County Bar Association.

​ Monalisa Smith, Panelist​

Monalisa Smith is the Founder and President of Mothers for Justice and Equality, a non-profit grassroots organization in Roxbury that aims to eliminate youth violence in Boston neighborhoods by bringing together families and communities through education and engagement. 

Monalisa founded MJE in 2010 following the loss of her nephew to local violence. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Budgeting, Coaching, Youth Development, and Banking In 2014, Monalisa published her first book, titled “Reflection to My Sisters” and in 2015 published “Kindred Souls, the Journey of two beautiful Sisters”. 

Monalisa is a Dorchester native who has used her corporate background as Director of Community Investment for Citizens Bank, Massachusetts, to help drive this movement. She is also a local civic leader who was recognized in Boston Magazine Power of Ideas, as an idealist- one of 75 bold thinkers that are shaping our city (and world). Monalisa earned her B.A. in Business Administration and Management from Simmons College.