New and existing small businesses in El Cajon will soon have a place to learn marketing and finance skills, network and even have their own office space inside the city’s Small Business Incubator.
“There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Murtada Kamaluldeen, director of the incubator. “There’s the carpets to do, and the walls need to be reconstructed. But we have a plan.”
Kamaluldeen, who’s known as M.K. by his American friends, said work on the building that’s home to the Chaldean Community Council and the incubator could begin later this month and be complete in 60 to 90 days.
When finished, the city-owned building at 405 E. Lexington Ave. will be an asset to many of El Cajon’s Chaldean residents and all small business owners in the city.
The incubator will be available for all El Cajon small business owners, not just Chaldeans, who are largely Christians from Iraq. The number of Chaldeans in El Cajon is estimated at around 15,000 to 20,000, or up to 19% of the city’s population.
The two-story business has an attractive ground-floor courtyard, and offices on the first floor provide space for the Chaldean Community Council’s programs and services, including rental assistance, citizenship applications and exams, and assistance with rent, employment and college admission.
The council also helps residents apply for CalWorks, CalFresh and medical insurance, and offers classes in computer literacy and English as a second language.
Kamaluldeen’s office is upstairs, down the hall from the Chaldean Radio and TV studio and a community room where classes are held.
Other areas show where the real work needs to be done. Once home of San Ysidro Health, the building still has a nursing station, built-in cabinets, a kitchen and various walls that crews will remove. A hallway floor is covered with pieces of broken ceiling tile, and half the carpet already has been torn out in one room.
The El Cajon City Council saw potential in the building when it became available last year, and in December it agreed to purchase it for $2.5 million with American Rescue Plan Act funds. Last month the council spend another $610,000 in ARPA funds for repairs to the roof, HVAC system and other areas.
In April, the County granted $500,000 to the Chaldean Community Council to launch the incubator and fund programs.
Kamaluldeen said residents soon will see how some of the money was spent. An upcoming edition of the magazine The Word, published every three months by the Chaldean Community Council, will contain articles in English for the first time, and a second TV studio will be built to expand the one that already produces nine hosted shows in Arabic.
“We are planning to have 12 spaces and three offices,” Kamaluldeen said about plans for the incubator. “And there’s a meeting room and mentorship room.”
Incubator members will get various levels of assistance, including advice from Grossmont College business professors.
“We believe that the focus for the incubator is not just on getting people with new ideas,” Kamaluldeen said. “We need to help other people who already have a business, but are struggling.”
Clients already in the program include two people in the construction field, one in fashion, and two in media and broadcasting.
Ann Jahola is the sixth member and founder of Motifa Behavioral Care and Health Service, which helps young people up to age 21 who have a developmental disability.
“I do in-home mainly, and I was looking for a space,” she said. “I went to the Chaldean Community Council to ask for an an office, and they did offer their gather space on Saturdays, when they don’t use it.”
On every other Saturday since October, Jahola has used the meeting room to hold various activities that focus on social skills and social interaction. Participants cook, play board games and do crafts and other activities, she said.
“Usually they also need help with communication,” Jahola said. “We also teach them how to self-regulate.”
Kamaluldeen himself has a business background, and a dramatic backstory.
“I was a businessman and actually I had a PR and media company back in Jordan and Dubai,” he said. “And before that, I was the vice president of the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce and Industry.”
The chamber in Baghdad was the largest NGO nonprofit in Iraq, but the organization’s work with Americans made it a target for terrorists. Under threat, Kamaludeen left Iraq for Jordan in 2007 with his parents, brothers, children and then-wife.
“We left everything,” he said. “We left our homes, our cars. They threatened everybody who worked with America or the government.”
Kamaludeen said he had an opportunity in 2008 to move to Silicon Valley, where he worked for startups and in the financial industry, and where he met his current wife. They were introduced to El Cajon while visiting friends, and they moved to the city in 2021.
