‘ROSIE’ OUTLOOK
MY TECH ACADEMY
Los Angeles business
owner aims to bridge
BY DEBRA GELBART
the digital divide
I N 2020, ROSIE MILLIGAN, PH.D. was already a jaw-droppingly busy person. As CEO of Professional Business Management & Consulting Services, owner of a book publishing company, a seasoned senior estate planner, business coach and published author of 26 books, with a doctorate in business administration, she might have run out of bandwidth for anything else. But that wasn’t how things worked out. “During the COVID-19 pandemic,” she says, “people flooded my office with calls seeking help with applications for unemployment benefits and SBA loans. My staff spent 50% of their time helping those in need of guidance. When we offered to assist them remotely, we discovered many of them didn’t have a computer or internet service. Those who had computer and internet services were often lacking computer skills.” Milligan says she witnessed “countless missed opportunities for business owners during challenging times like the pandemic. Many businesses were unable to access vital Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and grants due to a lack of basic computer and internet skills. They could not upload or download information needed to process their applications.” Not only were some business owners not technologically savvy, Milligan also discovered
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IN YOUR CORNER ISSUE 17 | 2024
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