Arturo Contreras has a knack for helping small businesses prosper. As a junior consultant at California State University, Monterey Bay’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Contreras helps entrepreneurs create a blueprint for success.

A Gonzales native who transferred to CSUMB from Hartnell College in Salinas, he has worked at the SBDC in his hometown for a year. His clients include plumbers, salon owners and bookkeepers.

The work also lets him practice concepts he learned in courses: financial management, competitor analysis and marketing research.

“By helping a small number of businesses we are actually making a big difference,” he said.

After graduation in May, Contreras hopes to work at a local accounting firm and eventually be a certified public accountant with his own firm.