Small business owners know the drill. You need your team to perform, but your budget for grand initiatives is somewhere between tight and non-existent. You’ve heard plenty of management advice that sounds brilliant until you try to implement it with five employees and no dedicated HR department. The reality is simpler: you need tactics that work without breaking the bank or requiring a complete company overhaul.
That frustration with theoretical advice that doesn’t translate to real-world constraints is exactly what Jessper Maquindang aims to address in his upcoming SCORE Los Angeles workshop, ‘Stronger Teams, Stronger Business’. Rather than promising sweeping changes, he’s offering something more valuable: practical fixes that small businesses can actually use.
What Small Business Teams Face This Year
Employee turnover costs now range from 33% to 200% of an employee’s annual salary, according to recent HR budget research. For a small business, losing even one key team member can mean months of recruiting, training and lost productivity that directly hits the bottom line.
Small businesses in 2025 are grappling with workforce stress, remote team management issues and the constant challenge of keeping people engaged without the resources that larger companies take for granted. The traditional advice often assumes budgets for extensive training programmes or sophisticated HR systems that simply aren’t realistic for companies with fewer than 20 employees.
What works instead are the low-cost approaches that have shown real results. Research from 2024 shows that 72% of employees cite frequent recognition from managers as the factor that most impacts their engagement. Simple peer-to-peer recognition programmes and clear communication about roles and goals can boost engagement by 21% to 29% without requiring significant investment.
Practical Lessons, Not Theory
Maquindang’s workshop, scheduled for 26 June at 10.00am via SCORE Los Angeles, promises to cut through the typical management jargon. His three learning objectives are refreshingly straightforward: understand what makes high-performance teams tick and how they drive business growth; learn practical techniques to enhance team collaboration and communication specifically for small businesses; and identify effective strategies to boost engagement and morale in resource-constrained environments.
Enjoying this article?
Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a story. No spam, ever.
The appeal lies in what he’s not promising. There’s no mention of complex frameworks or expensive software solutions. Instead, the focus is on actionable tools that participants can use immediately, regardless of whether they’re running a scrappy startup or an established but lean operation.
SCORE Los Angeles workshops have built a reputation for practical, no-nonsense business advice. Attendees consistently report that the sessions are ’empowering and actionable’, led by experienced mentors who understand the difference between what sounds good in theory and what actually works when resources are limited.
Jessper Maquindang’s Credentials
Maquindang brings both academic credentials and hands-on experience to the workshop. He holds an Executive Master’s Degree in Leadership from the University of Southern California and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources. His approach seems more influenced by his experience as a 16-time marathon finisher than by formal business theory.
The discipline required for distance running – the focus on incremental progress, consistency over dramatic gestures and building resilience for the long haul – appears to inform his approach to team building. His speaking topics consistently emphasise perseverance, stepping outside comfort zones and using practical experiences to illustrate leadership principles.
As the owner of FamiLEAD Management Consulting, Maquindang has built his practice around helping leaders and managers build stronger teams. His frequent appearances on business podcasts, including Hacks & Hobbies and Unstoppable Mindset, position him as someone who understands the practical challenges facing business leaders rather than someone selling theoretical concepts.
The Marathon Mindset Applied to Teams
The parallel between marathon running and team management isn’t just metaphorical for Maquindang. Despite growing up with asthma, he completed the Pasadena 50K Ultra-Marathon in 2024, demonstrating the kind of commitment to long-term goals that he advocates for business leaders.
This endurance sports background appears to influence his consulting approach, emphasising steady progress over quick fixes and the importance of building systems that sustain performance over time rather than creating short-term improvements that fade when the initial enthusiasm wears off.
What Small Business Owners Can Expect
The workshop promises practical, ready-to-use tools rather than generic advice that requires significant adaptation. For small business owners, this means techniques that work whether you have three employees or 30, and approaches that don’t assume you have dedicated HR staff or substantial training budgets.
The focus on collaboration and communication techniques ‘specifically designed for small businesses and startups’ suggests an understanding that what works for large organisations often doesn’t scale down effectively. Small businesses need different approaches – ones that leverage the advantages of size and close working relationships rather than trying to replicate corporate structures.
Recent research confirms that effective small business managers improve engagement through clear expectations, personalised support and helping employees understand how their individual contributions align with company success. These are exactly the kinds of straightforward approaches that don’t require extensive resources but can deliver measurable results.
Registration and Details
The workshop takes place on 26 June 2025 at 10.00am PDT, hosted online through SCORE Los Angeles. The session is part of SCORE’s regular programme of low-cost training workshops designed to equip entrepreneurs and small business owners with essential knowledge.
SCORE Los Angeles provides these workshops as part of their mission to support small businesses through practical advice and resources. The national organisation assists over 300,000 entrepreneurs annually, with many participants reporting increased revenues and growth following their engagement with SCORE resources.
The Appeal of No-Nonsense Help
For small business owners tired of advice that assumes unlimited budgets and extensive support staff, Maquindang’s workshop represents a different approach. The promise is straightforward: practical tools that work in real-world constraints, delivered by someone who understands the difference between what sounds impressive and what actually helps teams perform better.
The focus on immediate applicability rather than long-term changes may be exactly what small business owners need. In a market where employee turnover costs are rising and team performance directly impacts the bottom line, having access to proven, low-cost approaches to improve collaboration and engagement could be the difference between struggling and succeeding.
Small business owners looking for street-level solutions rather than boardroom theory may find that this workshop delivers the practical help they’ve been seeking to make their teams work better without breaking their budgets.
Golden Handcuffs At Nvidia, Broadcom And AMD: How RSUs Are Changing Managers, Teams And HR Metrics
Rocketing RSU values at Nvidia and Broadcom boost retention but squeeze mobility. HR should rebalance pay-equity mixes, add acceleration and sustain engagement.
