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The SBA Community is “Open for Business”
Dan Crawford
Post date: 05/23/2011 - 17:24

You may have noticed some changes around this blog and SBA.gov recently.  As part of our ongoing redesign, we recently launched the SBA Community—a social networking site and online meeting place for small business owners like you.  If you haven’t joined the SBA Community and started participating yet, I hope you will soon.  Here’s why:

  • The SBA Community is home to more than a dozen discussion boards that put the collective knowledge of over 20,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs at your fingertips.

  • SBA is going to use the Community to be more participatory, collaborative, and transparent.  It’s a way for us to improve our customer service and make the agency more open overall, and we want to hear from you.

You may have also noticed that our official blog has a new name.  We're now calling our blog “Open for Business.”  The new identity means that, in addition to posts from SBA Administrator Karen Mills and Deputy Administrator Marie Johns, we'll have a variety of updates on SBA programs and events, as well as guest posts from SBA officials throughout the agency.

Thanks for visiting Open for Business and the SBA Community, and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

LIVE from Small Business Week: SCORE Chapter of the Year
Dan Crawford
Post date: 05/20/2011 - 12:08

Each year, SCORE helps give thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow their businesses and create jobs.  This year’s SCORE Chapter of the Year is the East Central Iowa SCORE, who we just honored at the Entrepreneurial Development and Lender Awards breakfast here at National Small Business Week.  The number of clients the East Central Iowa SCORE chapter served increased an incredible 93% in 2010.  I talked with Chapter Chair Greg Tomsic.  Here’s what he had to say:

Can you describe the area you work in?Greg Tomsic and Dick Weeks recieving their award at Small Business Week

Our SCORE chapter covers 2700 square miles in Iowa.  There are over 15,000 small businesses in the area.

How does it feel to be the SCORE chapter of the year?

It’s a tremendous honor.  We were selected by our peers, 13,000 former executives who are now SCORE volunteers.

What sets the East Central Iowa SCORE chapter apart?

This year, we tried to reach more of the public than ever.  In 44 years of the East Central Iowa SCORE, we’ve never reached more people than we did last year.

What advice do you have for small business owners?

Visit SCORE.  You have nothing to lose, and the price is right—it’s free.  SCORE is populated by people who have been there, done that, and done it well.  You’re getting advice from the executives who have made this country what it is.

What advice do you have for other SCORE volunteers?

My advice is to try as hard as possible to reach as many people as possible.  But they don’t need my advice.  They all do a good job.

LIVE from Small Business Week: Seth Goldman from Honest Tea
Dan Crawford
Post date: 05/19/2011 - 14:09

The forums at National Small Business Week are a great way for small business owners to learn new tips and tricks from entrepreneurs who have “been there and done that.”  We just sat in on the forum on Strategies for High-Growth, High-Impact Firms.  Afterwards, we stood in line to talk with Seth Goldman, the President and CEO of Honest Tea, which he co-founded out of his home in 1998.  Honest Tea is a successful green company, combining an environmentally-friendly approach with a popular product.  We only had time for two quick questions:

 

Speakers at the National Small Business Week High-Growth, High-Impact Forum

What advice do you have to small business owners out there?

Make sure you believe in what you’re doing.  I know it sounds simplistic, but it helps drive you, it helps motivate you, and it helps motivate your employees as well.

 

This forum was on high-growth, high-impact businesses.  What does high-growth, high-impact mean to you?

For us, high-growth is sales.  And our sales is our impact, because we have a “mission in a bottle.”  Every bottle we sell advances our mission.

LIVE from Small Business Week: National Subcontractor of the Year
Dan Crawford
Post date: 05/19/2011 - 10:29

The Procurement Awards Breakfast just finished here at Small Business Week.  We caught Pat Khamken of J&P Industries at National Small Business Weekup with Pat Khamken of J&P Khamken Industries, who just won the National Subcontractor of the Year award.  Pat and his brother Jack arrived in the U.S. as refugees from Laos at the end of the Vietnam War.  Their company is enrolled in SBA's 8(a) program, and since 2000 they've grown to 45 employees.  Here's what Pat had to say:

 

How do feel about winning this award?  Did you have any idea you were going to win?

I'm very excited about winning.  I had no idea.

 

What does your business do?

We manufacture missile containers for Raytheon and [work with other major defense] contractors.  We also make gun parts for the military.

 

What else are you doing during Small Business Week?

We have been talking and networking with other small business owners, and letting them know that we are ready to grow.  Our goal is to take [what started in 2000 as a] two man business and turn it into $100 million company.

 

What's your advice for other subcontractors out there?

Never give up.  That's the advice SBA gave to us.  It took us five years before we got in.  Knock the doors down, if you can't do it with both hands, get somebody else to help.