National Small Business Week 2017 – Arlington, TX

Hello, I'm Linda McMahon. Welcome to National Small Business Week and thank you for joining us in celebration of the true engines of our economy, the nation's 28 million small businesses. As administrator of the U.S. small Business Administration, I'm honored to be their advocate. National Small Business Week honors the innovators who take a risk on an idea, invest in their communities, and create jobs. Their skills and creativity not only support their own families, they make our neighborhoods vibrant places to live and work, and fuel our nation's economic strength. Many of you are entrepreneurs, and you probably don't ever take the time to congratulate yourself or give yourself a pat on the back. Who has the time? But you have earned our thanks and our praise. We as a nation want you to succeed because when your businesses thrive, our community thrives right along with it. Small businesses are responsible for two out of every three net new jobs in the US Each year. More than half of all Americans either work for or own a small business. As an entrepreneur myself, I feel a tremendous responsibility to each of them. Like all small business owners, I know what it's like to take a risk on an idea, manage cash flow, navigate regulations and tax laws, and create jobs. My husband and I built our business from scratch. We started out sharing a desk. I remember the early days when every month I had to decide whether I should continue the lease of the typewriter or if I could finally afford to buy it. Yes, that $12 a month really made a difference in our budget. This week, we honor the entrepreneurs who make tough decisions like that every day. Sacrificing short term perks for long term gain. Investing in their futures, turning their vision into reality. We celebrate those who challenge the status quo. The risk takers and innovators who look for new ways of creating, creating products or serving their communities. We salute the courage and persistence of those who don't always get the attention or appreciation they deserve. As I think back on my own journey as a small business owner, I wonder how much easier things might have been if we'd been aware of the many valuable services SBA provides. My hope is that as more people learn about the services SBA provides, we can continue to revitalize the spirit of entrepreneurship in our country. And more people will have the confidence, skills and resources they need to succeed as small business owners. As they succeed, our economy and our nation succeed. And that's something all of us can celebrate.

Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, if I could get your attention. Ladies and gentlemen, if I could get your attention. Well, I guess for starters, sounds like everybody's having a good time, so that's a good thing. So we welcome you all. Good morning. And we welcome you officially to the 2017 Spirit of America Salute to Small Business Awards Luncheon. We're delighted to have you all here, whether you've been here before or whether you're here for the very first time. A giant welcome to each and every one of you in the great city of Arlington, Texas. And I'm delighted to serve again as your master of ceremonies. My name is Scott Murray and it's so great to see so many longtime friends. And as a matter of fact, I met a couple of new ones today. So that's always a good thing as well. Well, this is a great event that we share today. Recognizes the true force behind the US Economy, the small business, and more importantly, the small business owner. And you all know who you might be. And we are here to pay tribute to the accomplishments of every small business throughout the great North Texas area. It's also fitting that we hold this annual event right here in Arlington, Texas. Welcome to the home of the Texas Rangers baseball club, the Dallas Cowboys NFL football team, the women's NBA team, the Dallas Wings, Six Flags Over Texas. And I mean the list goes on and on. Many world class organizations and venues and as a matter of fact, for whatever it's worth, when I came here from Washington D.C. at NBC in 1980, this is the city that I chose to be a part of. So I remember Arlington well. Whether the business is large or one of the more than 20,000 small businesses registered here in Arlington, Arlington offers opportunities and economic vitality for all businesses. And I think that's most important to keep in mind. Arlington also provides top notch education where students can go from literally pre K all the way through to a PhD. Arlington maintains an award winning park system and offers quality diverse neighborhoods where the housing dollar stretches even further. In September, Money magazine, part of Time Incorporated, officially named Arlington, Texas as the best big city in the entire South. Yes. So we welcome one and all today to Arlington, Texas, the American dream city. Small business is a powerful force in our country and we should all be most proud and certainly thankful for every small business and the economic power they collectively represent. So I'd like to share with you some facts right now to consider when you think of small businesses here in the good old US Of A. Every one of today's major US Corporations started as a small business, many stemming from neighborhood garages and for that matter, even basements underneath homes. And according to the U.S. census. 56.8 million businesses in the United States have less than 500 employees. That represents more than 2.3 billion in payroll dollars. Now listen to this. Did you know that it only takes five days to start a business here in the United States? As an example, if we were in Brazil, it would take 102 days to start that very same business. 16 million people work from home here in the United States. And that number will increase. Listen to this. By 64% over the next four years to more than 26 million people. Small businesses make up more than 99.7% of all employees. 99.7%. And more than 543,000 small businesses start up each month. Every single month. That's over half a million every single month. Those statistics really elevate the importance of the free enterprise system. And we are all most blessed to be in a country that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit. A country where we have the freedom to start our dreams and see them through to fruition. Now, for all of those entrepreneurs and businesses in the audience that had the courage to make an investment in their vision and certainly their ideas, we thank you all for your many contributions in growing our local economy. And right now, I'm going to ask that you all put down your forks for just a sec because I'd like to ask you all to please stand to show our respect and appreciation to all who have served in our military and to this great country that we all call home and certainly has provided us tremendous opportunities. And I'll ask that you all join me in the reciting of our national anthem. I pledge allegiance. Thank you all. Be seated, please. Ladies and gentlemen, today's awards luncheon is hosted by Several fine organizations, U.S. small Business Administration and the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. So I think we would be remiss if we didn't thank them up front for the dedication and hard work they put forth in making the Spirit of America salute a reality. Let's thank them all. And also joining the SBA and the Chamber to deliver this event. We have the US Postal Service and the North Texas Small Business Development Center. We thank them as well for partnering in this annual event. We are most proud to say that this event would not be possible without the support of all of our sponsors. And our most loyal sponsor is our presenting sponsor, the North Texas association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. Many of you probably have heard it referred to as Entegle has been the presenting sponsor for this salute to small business for many, many years now. And we certainly thank them. And what I'D like to do right now is to invite Jim Kaler to step up to the podium to deliver a message about Integral. Jim is the board chair and a senior officer with Gulf Coast Bank. So let's put our hands together and welcome him to the podium.

Good afternoon.

Welcome. I look around the room, and I'm trying to see if there's any empty seats, and sure enough, it's completely full, which is really, really great. I'd like to thank all of y' all for being here. I asked for a teleprompter also. There was a snap snafu. I didn't get it, so I'm just going to have to wing my speech. Sorry, but no. Again, I'd like to thank everybody for being here. Integral has been an active role in this conference. Excuse me. In this luncheon. For several years now. And for those of you that don't know who Integral is, we are an association of lenders throughout the Dallas, Fort Worth, and North Texas area. We focus primarily on government guaranteed lending, and we've been around since 2006 in formal fashion, several years before that. Very informal. But our primary focus is to help small businesses find lenders and also to help lenders learn more about SBA programs, especially for those banks that do not do SBA lending on a regular basis. We have quarterly meetings. We have special training sessions. We also help host regional conferences. So we do quite a few things.

We.

We also do several other things when it comes to charitable endeavors. Our annual golf tournament is held every October, and this is going to be our 10th year. And every year, we've given consistently between 10,000 and $15,000. Ken, have we surpassed 100,000 yet, or is this year that we're going to. Okay, so this year we're anticipating surpassing $100,000 donated to cancer research. We also do the Salvation army angel tree, and we also do a scholarship fund. So if anybody has anybody who needs a kid who needs $1,000 for college, please go to our website and take a look. But, you know, we're all about the charity as well, but we're primarily focused on helping lenders. So, again, thank you guys for being here. We appreciate it. Hope you have a great lunch. And I hear we have a very, very good speaker for us this afternoon. Thank you.

Thank you, Jim, Very, very much. Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin our luncheon service, I'd like to ask Chaplain Rich Stoglund to please step to the podium. Chaplain Stogland currently serves as the executive director of the Redemption Bridge here in Arlington. And prior to the Redemption Bridge, he retired from the military back in 2013 as the regimentals chaplain of the 14th Marine Marines, where he attained the rank of Commander. Chaplain Stoglin will share with us our invocation. Great to have you on board and thank you for your service as well.

Thank you. Let us pray. Divine parent, here on this carpeted deck, we assemble this morning, calling your name with the audacity to declare this small patch of soil sacred. Further, we ask God as you embrace us with the arms of eternal difference making that we would stand together on the island whose purpose purpose is to remind us all hope is our strongest weapon. Thereby quoting the prophet Jeremiah when he reminded his society then in our culture now we sorrow not for those who have no hope, because to know God is to do justice. Teach us God, as we collectively celebrate the 2017 salute of North Texas Small Business. Together we deliver for you that darkness cannot put out light. Only light can put out darkness. But the light must be right and directed to make the transformation from darkness to light sustainable indeed. The question of who will go and speak the truth to those who need to listen the most and then act with the purpose for the many requires the tenacious echo of the prophet Isaiah. When he says, who will go for us? Then someone answered, hear my Lord, send me. Help us all, God, to remember that ultimate reality. Bless this food we are receiving. And may the hands who serve us know they matter. And lest we forget those who are in harm's way a long way from home, we pray also God, for those who act as responsible guardians of our local communities, even when the duties they perform on a daily basis is not always acknowledged or appreciated. And so we pray for those who streak across the turbulent skies, move underneath the forceful waters, march on the hot, sandy deserts, or survive in the dense jungles of the world. Be with them, God. Be with their families as they look through the windows of anticipation of their loved ones safe return home. Help them and us to remember no matter what hope is our strongest weapon. This is our prayer to God be the glory. Amen.

Thank you, Chaplain, very, very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a working lunch, so please continue to enjoy your lunch. This event has grown over the years in the number of award recipients, the quality of the content, and by our impressive list of speakers. As such, we must continue with our program while lunch is being served. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to make sure I've got your attention. When I said working lunch, that was not a talking lunch. That was a working lunch. I'm about to introduce to you, somebody that is very important that we show our respect to. So I want to make sure I get everybody's attention before we move on and introduce her. She's from the United States Postal Service. Mary Anderson has been in the transportation, logistics and marketing business for more than 25 years now and she has held various executive management positions in sales, domestic and international transportation and certainly logistics as well. Well, and the work has included overseeing the rollout of new products and services and traveling the world to promote them and managing worldwide sales forces. She actually joined the postal service about 10 years ago. Currently the Director of Small Business and works with 27.5 million small businesses and oversees employee engagement programs for 600,000 employees and multi billion dollar small businesses. Revenue generation from the Postal Service. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a nice warm welcome. As they say, give it up for our good friend Mary Anderson, Director of small Business, United States Postal Service.

Thank you Scott. That was so nice. Well, good afternoon. Did you have the opportunity today to stop by one of our powerful sessions this morning? We provided great information and presented information about how to grow your business with advertising with our great postal team. Great job team. I think you're out there somewhere. Great job. While Texas is growing and Arlington is growing by leaps and bounds, Arlington is always named one of the best places to start a business, work and live. Arlington, Texas has been named so many times that I might just change my Arlington, Virginia address to Arlington, Texas. It is truly an honor to be among such wonderful businesses and powerful business owners. Thank you Arlington Chamber, Small Business Administration and presenting sponsors and exhibitors for allowing the Postal Service to be part of such a powerful small business program. And to say a few words, did you know the Postal Service has changed more in the past 10 years than we have in over 200 years? What would Ben Franklin say about today's Postal Service? The Postal Service is continually innovating, trying new things and adding value to the mail every day for our customers. Did you know that we deliver more packages and letters in a day than FedEx and UPS deliver in a year? And each day more and more businesses are calling on the Postal Service to help their company grow to the next level and be dominant in their industry. As the Director of Small Business, we are focused each and every day to grow the 27 million small businesses in America. Whether it be cost effective advertising that has a defined ROI to world class delivery around the world, the Postal Service has a solution for you and your small business. Within the next year you will see more about how the Postal Service is helping new businesses in the community. Whether it be a dedicated small business website which we launched on Sunday for National Small Business Week to a dedicated customer care solution and loyalty program for small business. We want to be the small business partner of choice for all of their advertising, shipping and mailing needs. There is also a very important human element to what we do each and every day. Yes, we pick up and deliver. I'm always amazed each day when a letter carrier saves a life or helps find a missing child. The Postal Service is not just the engine of commerce. To quote Ben Franklin. We are part of the fabric of each and every community in the United States. Many towns obtained their identity hundreds of years ago when the Postal Service post office was erected in their town. Often in many remote areas. We are the lifeline for the community delivering life saving medicine and supplies. We take pride in being there through dark of night or most challenging conditions for our customers. At the Postal Service we are 640,000 employees that are postal proud. With our 640,000 employees, we also have great partners and vendors that we work closely with each day day. I wanted to give a very big thank you to Amplified Mail that was here today. They are one of our most valued partners at the Postal Service. Amplified Mail can help you advertise your business in unique and eye catching ways to help you stand out from the competition and inquire new customers. Thank you Amplified Mail for being a great partner. Please stop by our booth right outside the door after lunch to fill out a brief fun survey. And to all that fill out the survey, we have a very nice surprise for you. Thank you again for allowing the Postal Service to be part of the program today. To be part of your business and part of your community we truly value as a customer. Thank you.

Thank you Mary, very very much. At this time, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you, as they say, a gentleman that really needs no introduction. He's the president and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and we welcome him as he recognizes some of our very special guests, introduces our sponsors and honors the Arlington Sponsors Small Businesses of the Year. This gentleman to My right, the CEO himself, Mr. Michael Jacobson.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Scott. All right, I'm going to channel our mayor for a second and say it's a great day to be in Arlington, isn't it? The Arlington Chamber of Commerce is so honored to be a partner with the SBA to host the this annual event. Together we celebrate the bedrock of our economy, our small businesses. As of 2017. This represents our largest loop to small business and our 13 year partnership. I know we all in this room recognize the growing strength and impact of our small businesses. We hope you had an opportunity to visit the many tabletop exhibits and attend one of the informative seminars. We would not be able to accomplish all of this without the support of our sponsors without our tabletop exhibitors. And I will tell you again there will be an opportunity at the end to visit our exhibitors. I would now like to recognize our sponsors and I would ask you to please hold applause until we have acknowledged all the all of them. Our presenting sponsor is the North Texas association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. Our co sponsor is Baylor Orthopedic and Spine Hospital. Our gold sponsors the Greater Dallas Postal Consumer Council, the State of Texas Office of Small Business Assistance, JP Morgan Chase. Our silver sponsors the Jim Ross Law Group, StrayCon Services Group, Sutton Frost and Carey True North Insurance and Financial Strategies. The University of Texas at Arlington College of Business. Our bronze sponsors, Axion, the City of Arlington, Frost Bank, PSK Stripe, Azone, tcu, Neely School of Business, the Worthington National Bank. Our Chamber's Veteran Owned Business of the Year sponsor is Encore Electric Delivery. Our photography and printing, Southern Flare Photography, Digital corporate companies. We also thank, as I mentioned, the 28 exhibit table sponsors which many of you have already visited and I said you please visit them at the end of the ceremony as well. They are listed on the screen and in your program. Let's give all of them a round of applause. We thank our elected officials and special guests for attending today. They too recognize the importance of small business to our economy. From the US Small Business Administration, she'll be joining us later in the program. We have the SBA administrator, Linda McMahon. We also have Herb Austin up here. He's our District Director from the State of Texas representing the governor, not that he needs to represent anybody but himself, is the Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, Andrus Alcantar from Tarrant County. From Tarrant county. Excuse me. From the North Texas sbdc, we have Mark Langford, the Executive Director. From Tarrant county, we have Commissioner Andy Nguyen, Judge Mary Tom Kernutt. From the City of Arlington, we have Mayor Jeff Williams. Mayor, we have, we have our City Council, Sherry CAPEHART, Michael Glasby, Dr. Victoria Ferrar Myers, Charlie Parker, Katherine Wildman, Lana Wolf. Let's give them all a round of applause. From the Arlington Institute Independent School District, we have our President, Jamie Sullins. We have Kristen Hudson and Dr. Aaron Reich. Let's give them a round of Applause. The Arlington Chamber is honored to present our 2017 Small Businesses of the Year. I am so proud of our recipients this year. They are truly incredible people and impactful businesses or organizations who are committed to achieving amazing results for their businesses and for their community. They are truly role models for all of us, inspiring us to the shared purpose of business and community excellence. We thank them for their contributions. When I call the business, we would like them to kindly step up and we'll invite them here on the stage. They'll receive the award. We'll take a photo. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and get started. Our first and we have two for profit winners this year. The competition was so tight, the businesses were so good, we actually ended up in a deadlock tie with two businesses. They're both so spectacular, we're excited to recognize them. I'm going to go ahead and ask Stripe a zone so David Sargent and the Sargent family to come on up. Founded in 1950, Stripeozone is one of the nation's premier pavement marking companies. In 2016, Stripe Ozone was recognized as a top contractor in their industry, having exceeded sales of $50 million. The company. Yeah, we'll applaud that. I know that still, that still meets the definition of a small business, right? But 50 million is awesome. The company is deeply involved in the community, in community endeavors. David is on our Chamber board. His son David and I are in Rotary together. They're involved with Arlington Library, Boys and Girls Club, AISD Education Foundation, Crossroads Christian Church, Women in Philanthropy, Salvation army and too many other entities to mention. Congratulations David and family. Our next for profit recipient is Sutton Froston Carey. John Sutton, Managing Partner. Come on down, John Sutton, Frost and Cary provides tax and assurance and consulting services to various industries. Sutton, Frost and Cary has more than 45 employees, including eight partners and 23 CPAs contributing to their record growth of 26% in revenue. Having served the Metroplex for more than 45 years, Sutton, Frost and Cary has received numerous awards, awards and recognition for their expertise. SFC and the staffers are involved in the chamber and our young professionals organization, Rotary, United Way, YMCA Leadership Arlington, the UTA Accounting Alumni Association, Dental Health for Arlington and again many others. Congratulations, John. We now will represent our. We will recognize our nonprofit, the Arlington ISD Education Foundation. Brian White's the executive director. We have members of the board here today as well if you want to come down front. The Arlington Independent School District Education foundation serves the students, teachers and staff of the AISD in Arlington and adjacent communities within the school district by fulfilling extraordinary education needs and initiatives not financed by the district or state funding. Through collaborative efforts, the foundation has shown growth in volunteer support, fundraising initiatives, grants distributed for classroom instruction, diversity, and increasing support to the economically disadvantaged children. Hopefully the stage is sturdy. Henry's nervous back there. I know. All right, we congratulate y'.

All.

Thank you very much. Let me get the. Congratulations. You can tell by the people on the stage how great this nonprofit is and we're so proud to recognize them. We will now recognize our veteran owned small business of the year, the Jim Ross Law Group. Jim Ross, founder and principal attorney. Jim, come on down. The Jim Ross Law Group is a general practice litigation law firm based in Arlington. Jim has had an amazing career. Jim is a veteran, having served his country in the US Marine Corps. He also served in law enforcement as a Texas police officer. His law firm has posted significant growth of 26% in new client legal matters and has received numerous awards and accolades for his profession. Jim and members of his staff are active in the Arlington Police foundation, which I'm proud to serve on that board with him, the Chamber of Commerce, Special Olympics, Salvation army, the Public Library, Theater, Arlington Junior League, and again, many, many others. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Jim. We have one more award. This one was new last year and I know Scott Murray is just getting ready to take a bite, but we're going to ask him to come up and we're going to ask him to come up because we had named this next award after him. He was the first recipient. It's now called the Scott Murray Excellence in Media Award. Annually, we award it to a local media individual who has provided years of outstanding service to our local community. This year's recipient is fellowship reader. Fay, in addition to being active in the chamber, has written countless stories on Arlington, I should say active throughout our community. She has written countless stories on Arlington, the people our organizations, the issues we face. As a columnist for the Citizen Journal and the Star Telegram, she has touched the lives of so very many people through her social eyes. We asked Scott Murray as he has to join us on stage, to honor Fay Reader for Excellence influence in media.

Faye.

All right, are we ready for our next speaker? Great. We are ready for our next speaker. We are honored this year to have the administrator of the Small Business Administration with us. This is the first Arlington, Texas, and we thank Linda McMahon very much for visiting our great city. Linda McMahon serves as the 25th administrator of the U.S. small Business Administration. As a member of President Trump's cabinet, she advocates on behalf of the 28 million small businesses in America. An entrepreneur and business leader herself, Administrator McMahon is a CO founder and former chief executive officer of the Women's Leadership Live, llc, a company that educates women to launch and expand their own businesses, advance their careers toward executive roles, and pursuing opportunities for leadership in public service. Administrator McMahon is also a co founder and former chief executive officer of the wwe, based in Stanford, Connecticut. She helped grow the WWE from a small regional operation because we said all big businesses start as small businesses to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees and offices worldwide. Here in Arlington, we all know the WWE well, because it was just about a year ago that we had WrestleMania right here at the AT&T Center. With that, we welcome the SBA Administrator, Linda McMahon. And I'm going to present you with a little gift from Arlington. I'll come over that while come to you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right.

We're proud to give her, by the way, her very own Texas Ranger jersey with number one. All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for joining us.

Well, that's very cool.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's really a pleasure to be here in Texas and to see all of you. And it's especially great that I'm touring many cities during National Small Business Week. It's an honor to be back here in Arlington. As we just recently noted, just about a year ago, WWE was here over at ATT Stadium. I saw that coming in again, and I think the attendance record for WWE was set as well as for the stadium at 101,700. It's hard to believe that when my husband and I first started, we were sharing a desk. Now I share the story about Arlington and WrestleMania because we are like so many entrepreneurs, my husband and I started with an idea. We took some risk, we had some stumbles along the way, and ultimately created something out of nothing. We developed a company we are so proud of. Today, the staff can no longer share a desk anymore. Today, WWE has more than 800 employees and offices around the world. It's even traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Exchange.

So, as entrepreneur, I have truly lived the American dream. As the head of the U.S. small Business Administration, I am working to help more small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs have that same opportunity to succeed. We at sba, in collaboration with our lending and resource partners, are working to make sure and to help people start, scale, and succeed in business. Small businesses, as we all know, are the backbone of our economy, creating two out of every three jobs. Half of Our entire workforce either works for a small business or owns a small business. It is what is going to help our nation succeed. We're so excited to be traveling across America for National Small Business Week. I started in Washington last Sunday and Monday, Monday night, went to New York, was in New York on Tuesday, Wednesday went to Indianapolis, flew in here last night. Happy to be here all day today and then leave tonight and head to Fresno and then back home Friday night. So it's been a great week of touching base with our district offices, being able to have roundtable discussions with many of our small business owners. And I'm just so happy to be sharing all of this with you today with our special award winners. I'm proud to be here today to recognize the terrific work done by the SBA's Dallas Fort Worth District Office. It serves 72 counties in North Central and East Texas, more than a third of the state's entire population. And the district is showing tremendous growth in small business development. It has 880,000 small businesses, and that's a 40% increase since 2008. About a quarter of the small businesses in the district are minority owned and 39% are owned by women. The SBA is focused on supporting small businesses in our communities at every stage, whether they are launching, expanding, or getting through a tough time. As many of you know, we call this three C's and a D. That's capital access, counseling, contracting, and the D stands for disaster assistance. I know that many of you have received help from one or more of these areas, and I hope more people learn about what SBA offers right here in your own communities. SBA offers businesses access to capital through our lending partners, many of them your own community banks. The SBA offers opportunities in government contracting. Currently, there are 93, 8 certified firms in the Dallas Fort Worth 8 portfolio, which are made up of professional services, construction manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers, non professional services. And there are 73 hub zones in the district. That's a lot to cover. And Herb Austin and his group are doing a magnificent job in doing that. He's not paying any attention to me whatsoever.

Hi, Herb.

How you doing? I was thanking you for the wonderful job that you're doing here in this district. Her Boston ladies and gentlemen, stand up. Her. Thank you. The SBA offers counseling and mentoring that's especially critical when businesses are starting or looking to scale. The Dallas Fort Worth district office has 1515 small business development centers and 11 satellite offices. And it was recently awarded a Veterans Business outreach center. The DFW district office also has three score chapters located in Dallas, Fort Worth and Tyler and with 25 satellite offices. And finally, the SBA offers assistance with economic recovery when a disaster strikes. In fact, our National Office of Disaster Assistance Processing is located right here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And I look forward this afternoon to touring that facility and learning more about the important work that the men and women there are doing. I think we have about 500 people there in that office. If memory serves me correctly, National Small Business Week recognizes all the work of our SBA team, our resource partners, and you, our entrepreneurs. You're the innovators who take the risk on an idea, invest in your communities, and create jobs. We all know government doesn't create any jobs. You are the ones who create the jobs. Your skills and creativity not only support your own families, but they support and create jobs for communities or all around the world, if you really think about it. We congratulate you on your awards. History shows you are in good company. Many household names were previous National Small Business Week award winners. Now think about this. Ben and Jerry's, Callaway, Goff, Chobani, Dogfish Head, Stonyfield Farm, Pacifica and Toms of Maine. Today, we applaud you both for your achievements and for what you have yet to achieve. I am so optimistic about the future of small business in America. And we at SBA hope the recognition you have earned by being here today will serve as a springboard to even greater success for your own futures. So let me ask you to do this. Be an ambassador. Share your experience as an entrepreneur and an honoree on social media with Small BusinessWeek. But not only that, talk to your neighbors, talk to other business people that you know and share with them your experiences so that we can spread the word more about SBA and the many services it provides. What I have found, when I've been asked, you know, what is my vision for my legacy of sba? I've said I would really like to make sure that SBA is reaching as many people as it possibly can. And I don't think enough people know about sba. I'm all about marketing it new with fresh promotion so that others can understand the absolutely wonderful organization with not only access to capital, but even more importantly, being able to operate and access our resource partners through score, through Entrepreneurial Development Centers, through our Women Business Centers, and also just we've been awarded just recently, right? A new Veterans Outreach center. Is that right, Austin? Thank you, Herb. Austin, I just see if you were paying attention this time, Herb. So these resource centers are there for you, we want you to come to them, let them help you. If you're starting scaling, if you want to know about government contracting, whatever it is we can help you do, so please avail yourself of all that we can offer. And we, and we want to make sure that you understand, because this is my pledge. I, along with sba, am your advocates. We want to see all of you continue to succeed. When I want to say, how do I measure my success at the end of my tenure as administrator, it's going to be how many new jobs have we created? How many businesses have we helped? So that's going to be my yardstick. I'm looking forward to all of you helping with that, and I want to thank you all for having me here with you today.

Well, have you had fun so far? What's the best part about Texas? I'm asking you, what's been the highlight so far?

I've been to Texas many times, and every time I come, whenever I go back home, I say I love the people of Texas. They're so warm and they're so inviting and they're so accommodating and they're so helpful and they're so cheerful. And I just love being among you all the time.

Now, where is the first time we're going to see you wearing the outfit, the jersey, the Rangers?

Well, I had to try it on first. If it looks good, it could be a little bit later. Not so good.

Right? Well, please know on behalf.

It's all about how it looks, you know, I understand.

Please know on behalf of everybody in this room, and for that matter, everybody in the great state of Texas, we're delighted to welcome you back to the Lone Star State anytime. You're delightful, and we can't thank you enough for being here. And please say hello to the president for us and come see us anytime.

Thank you very, very much.

Thank you so very much. What I'm going to do right now is invite Mark Langford, the executive director of the North Texas Small Business Development center, to the stage to present the US Small Business Champions of the Year for North Texas. We want all of the friends, business associates, and certainly family members to know that we have a professional photographer taking photos of today's ceremony. So that's always a good thing. And those photos will be available. Listen up. Arlingtontx.com Again, that's arlingtontx.com all you've got to do is simply download it at your leisure, and we ask that you not storm the podium to capture photos. Also, out of respect for all of our award recipients, we kindly request that you please come to the stage when your name is called, pause for a moment, get your photo, and then return to your seat. And at the end of the program, we encourage you to return to the stage for any group photos that you would like to be a part of. Art, it's all yours, my friend. Take it away.

Thank you, Scott. And I want to thank the Arlington Chamber again for another outstanding event. Henry, thank you again for coordinating all this. Great job. And thank you, Madam Administrator, for your vision and your support of the SBDC Network. We really appreciate it. It's great to have you here. One of the Madam Administrator's first events was for SBDC Day, and she went Facebook Live and help promote that event. And we. We trended there for a while, and that was a great deal to your support. So thank you. It was outstanding.

We had an incredibly large live audience. 25,000 tuned in, and we were up over 360 some thousand by the end of the next hour. So it was great, great profile for sba, great exposure.

And I think we all who work for SBA, whether it's through SBDC or SCORE, the VBoCS or the Women Business Centers, get tired of hearing we are the world's best kept secret. So we are anticipating big changes in those new ways of marketing. It's an honor today to present to you today's award winners who continue to inspire us so very well with all their incredible acts, not only growing their business, but serving their community. I would first like to recognize all the boots on the ground for sba. If all of our SBDC and SCORE resource partners who are here could stand up, including special guest Al Salgado, the Executive Director of the Southwest Texas Border sbdc, and Marc Hayes, the Vice Chancellor of Dallas County Community College. If y' all could please stand up. Thank you. We await your orders and we will execute them when you tell us what to do. SBDC folks, we're ready, so just let us know. Our first award goes to the SBDC of the Year, Tim Wilson, the Director of the Northeast SBDC. Tim surpassed all SBA goals for 2015-16 in a region that is primarily rural with over $7 million in loan activity. He's been a great leader in our network and partnered with SBA on several, several events in his area. We would also like to recognize his Host, College President, Dr. Brad Johnson, and Vice President for Workforce Development, Dr. Kevin Rose, who are in attendance, along with his staff, Beverly, Darrell and Lori. If y' all could all please Stand. Him. Our next award is for the SCORE Chapter of the Year and that goes to the president of the Dallas Score Chapter 22, Terry Toomey. In 2016, the Dallas Chapter Score serviced over 4,000 clients and the chapter grew 38% in total services. They have 60 mentors and partner with 16 area chambers. Congratulations, Terry. Our next award is for the Financial Services Champion of the Year. And the winner is Millie Garcia of Accion. Outside of her regular business duties of being an outstanding outstanding community partner and senior loan officer for Accion, Millie has offered free training to small business owners on topics ranging from small business lending to how to complete personal and business financial statements. Congratulations, Millie. Our next award is for the Minority Business Champion of the Year and the winner is Zarin Gracie from the City of Dallas. In addition to his day to day work as the executive over the City of Dallas Inclusion program, Zarin serves as Vice chair of the North Central Regional Certification Agency. He is a board member of the Dallas Black Chamber and is a former board member of the Regional Black Chamber. Congratulations, Darren. Our next award is for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year and this year's winner is Nicole Kirk of Dear Heart Designs. Dear Heart Designs is a handcrafted inspirational jewelry business. Nicole markets primarily through social media and 85 to 90% of her sales are generated either from her website or social media. In the past two years she has gone from 400 followers on Instagram to over 13,000 followers this year. She projects a 600 increase since the business started three years ago. She's also hiring three additional employees with more hiring on the way. She's also the proud mother of two kids. She's a busy woman. Congratulations, Nicole. Our next award is for the entrepreneurial Success of the Year. And the winner is Prabhu Patel of Prolim Global Corporation. Prolim has been successfully delivering software products and services to Fortune 500 companies and state government agencies for the last 11 years. They were ranked number 133 of Inc. S 500 fastest growing private companies. They remember the Dallas 100 from the SMU Coxco School of Business and they've grown from 125 employees to 389 in three years and sales have tripled. Congratulations, Prabhu. Our next winner for the Women in Business Champion of the Year is Roiland Reid of Consumer Market Insights. While not running her award winning and women and minority owned marketing research and process improvement company, Roiland volunteers significant time to women's business issues on a local, national and international level. She was on the board of Directors for the Women's Business Enterprise national council in 2016. She is currently on the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the Women's Business Council of the Southwest, and she also serves on the International Economic and Empowerment of Women Advisory Council. This organization educates women and business owners from Afghanistan and Rwanda through its Peace Through Business program. Through that program, she mentored four Rwandan business women who every year for three years would spend a week in her home learning about small business. Very well deserved. Our next award is the Small Business Exporter of the Year. Kassan Massey of Amalas Inc. Is the winner. Congratulations. Amalas is an exporter of baby products, cosmetics and automotive parts to buyers in the Middle East. The company was founded in 1986. A significant challenge of any small business export quarter is cash flow. With the help of Megan nguyen Tran of BB&T, he was able to establish a $1.5 million SBA export working Capital Line of Credit which has allowed the company to increase sales substantially. Our 8A graduate of the Year is Reggie Kemp of Kipp and Sons General Services Services. Kemp and Sons General Services specializes in providing superior quality janitural services. As a result of being in the 8 program, contracts have grown from 250,000 to over $22 million. The company is a long term client of the SBDC and values their relationships with SBDC and sba. They're a two time winner of the Harvard Business School Inner City Award and they've also started the Kemp Leadership Academy to introduce at risk and underprivileged youth to entrepreneurship and leadership in the community. And our next award is a State of Texas winner. The State of Texas Small Business Person of the Year is Deborah Paris of Straycon Services Group llc. Debbie Paris is the President and Manager of Straycon Services Group. The company provides program management, training, system solutions, engineering, logistics, foreign military sales and other technical service solutions to the Department of Defense, Defense and other government agencies. She's a graduate of SBA's Emerging Leaders Program and credits the program for helping her develop a plan that helped grow StrayCon from eight employees in 2010 to over 100 today. In 2016, revenue increased by 7 million to 14 million and is currently projected at 18 to 20 million for this year. She started the company in 2008 on a credit card. I'll now turn it over to Herb and Bob. Oh nope, not Bob.

Thank you. SBA's government contracting also has some a.

Few awards each year.

One is our Prime Contractor of the Year and our Region 6 Prime Contractor. The this year is QMF Steel and Cheryl Lester, if you'd like to come to the stand. Each year we ask all of our federal agencies to put in a nomination for their prime contractor of the year. And Region 6 QMF Steel was our winner. But I also want to mention that they went on to compete for our national title and they are also our national prime contractor of the year. Received that last week. They're a distributor of steel and other.

Alloys located in Campbell, Texas.

Okay, thank you. Let's have another round of applause for all our winners today.

Thanks to you all. Very, very, very impressive. Makes you want to get out there and do something really cool, doesn't it? That's very impressive. I couldn't believe some of those stories. Well, again, congratulations to you all. You know, you stop and think about it, it really doesn't matter what business resource ranking you read. Texas is either number one or certainly in the top five as the best state to start a business. And everyone in this room realizes the benefits of doing business here in our home, the great state of Texas. Today we have a special guest from the state of Texas to say a few words with us as we head down the home stretch. Andres Alcantar works to implement customized services to meet the needs of Texas vast array of industries and advance the development of strong and competitive workforce. He promotes the expansion of industry based partnerships that center on best practices to help workers and businesses alike achieve success. He encourages strategies that prepare students for post secondary success at work or for that matter in the classroom, focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. That's right, STEM STEM initiatives as a key component of future workforce competitiveness. So let's put our hands together and welcome the chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, Andres Alcantara. Welcome.

Well, good afternoon everyone. Always great to be here in Arlington. I'm so proud of all the dynamism here, the wonderful activity, the chamber working together with the mayor, working together with other local officials, going outside the boundaries that are jurisdictional in nature and making sure that the regional economy, economy is strong. Making sure that in Texas, our great state, we take advantage of all the opportunities that are afforded to us by our strong economy, great regulatory climate, low taxes, a belief in making sure that if we stay out of the way, business can go out there and get it done. And time and again you've done it. We're really proud of our record of accomplishments. We often talk about the story of Texas, its dynamism, the great record of job creation. When we do that, we're definitely talking about you. You're the ones that wake up every morning, take that risk, make the investment and create jobs in our communities all around the state. And so, on behalf of the governor of our great state, Governor Greg Abbott, I congratulate all of you for all that you do to make our economies grow, for building a stronger community. And to the winners today, I salute you and applaud your risk taking and your accomplishment. Congratulations. I am pleased. I am pleased to present this proclamation to Michael Jacobson and to Administrator McMahon on behalf of the state of Texas, the office of the Governor. Small businesses power our economy. More than half of all Americans either own or work for a small business. And they create about two of every three jobs in the United States each year, according to the US Small Business Administration. As we just heard, everyday entrepreneurs across this great nation work to grow small businesses career 21st century jobs drive innovation and increase our global competitiveness. Texas, with our long legacy of entrepreneurs and adventurers taking great risks to chart their own path, continue to provide fertile ground for small businesses. Men and women who dare to dream blaze new trails of success overcoming great challenges to help shape our state's future. In Texas, we have created an environment where businesses of all sizes can thrive. Repeatedly recognized as the best state in the nation for business, we embrace policies like low taxes and reasonable regulations that reduce burdens and unleash the potential of small business owners. According to the latest data from SBA, Texas is home to more than 2.4 small business 2.4 million small businesses which account for 98% of all the state's employers and put more than 4.4 million Texans to work. Texas recognizes the big impact that small businesses make on our communities. They are vital to our prosperity and well being. At this time, I encourage all Texans to support small businesses throughout the Lone Star State in recognition of the crucial role they play in our lives. Their success is Texas success. Therefore, I, Craig Abbott, Governor of Texas, do you hereby proclaim April 30th through May 6th, 2017 to be small Business Week. Congratulation.

See now you've got a jersey, you've got a proclamation and if you come back next year, we'll give you a brand new car. Because we're the great state of Texas and we do things bigger and better, right? Thanks to you all. Thank you, Chairman. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I trust you all had a chance to see some of the incredible displays outside today. As you walked in, you had an opportunity to see some of the exhibit tables and what have you. And many of you, I think, were given the Opportunity to place your little ticket in a little bowl. And I think we've taken the bowl and put them all together. So we don't have a new car, but we do have a nice television set that's just here behind us.

Me.

So we're going to keep picking names or numbers tickets until we get a winner. So. And as you leave today, please visit with the representatives of those exhibit tables and remember, they're here to assist you and all small businesses. All right. Do we have a winner? Oh, the name's right here on the back, so I don't even have to read a number. She spelled my name wrong. Okay. Who's Beverly? Any Beverly's here is your last name Austin? Congratulations. You don't have to come up and get it because I don't think there's any way you're going to be able to kick this off the stage. Okay. As soon as we finish up, I do want a couple of housekeeping chores. Want to make sure that we get all the Arlington recipients, all the Arlington winners today to please come to the stage because we'd like to get one collective picture of you all. So if you. You can do that. In the meantime, as we look out, we simply say thanks to all of you. You're the people that are the locomotive, the engine, the driving force behind this incredible city that we all call home, whether it's in north Texas, in Arlington, or one of the surrounding areas. And you make things happen with your small businesses and your entrepreneurship. So a giant thank you on behalf of all of us. Thanks to you all, and we look forward to seeing you next year. Have a great summer, everybody. Thank you.

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I'm coming from D.C. originally, Florida. Do one quick photo.

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