SYRACUSE — The owners of 20 participating companies in the 2019 Emerging Leaders class have completed the program. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on Oct. 29 honored the group at the annual graduation ceremony, which was held this year at Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management. “Our graduates have just spent months […]
SYRACUSE — The owners of 20 participating companies in the 2019 Emerging Leaders class have completed the program.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on Oct. 29 honored the group at the annual graduation ceremony, which was held this year at Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
“Our graduates have just spent months analyzing their business financials, identifying sales trends, leveraging resources, learning new management skills, and planning how to sustainably expand their business. I am positive that each graduate stands better prepared to face new challenges and opportunities for their small business,” Bernard J. Paprocki, SBA Syracuse district director, said at the graduation ceremony.
The Emerging Leaders initiative provides free entrepreneurship education and training for executives of small, poised-for-growth companies that are potential job creators. This intensive executive entrepreneurship series includes nearly 100 hours of classroom time. It also provides opportunities for small-business owners to work with experienced coaches and mentors, attend workshops, and develop connections with their peers, local leaders, and the financial community.
Ellen Goldberg, co-owner of CrossFit Syracuse, LLC, shared her experience at the ceremony as the class of 2019 speaker.
“I applied for the Emerging Leaders program with the focused goal of expanding our space this year. I was looking for a how-to guide on applied financial analysis and commercial loans. It felt like the course came at the perfect moment to help me solve a one-time problem. Over the course of this program, I learned so much that was relevant to my immediate situation, but I also picked up habits that have forever changed my entrepreneurial lifestyle. I began thinking of everything in terms of repeatable processes, systems that will serve me now, but also in every other challenge I face in the future of my business. Thank you to our teacher, John Liddy, for guiding us with humor and empathy, to the Syracuse SBA for hosting this invaluable program and supporting our dreams, and to my fellow classmates for all you have shared and taught me,” said Goldberg.
The SBA program is made possible through support from local cosponsors that include Blackstone LaunchPad; CenterState CEO; CNY TDO; City of Syracuse Office of Neighborhood and Business Development; Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship; MACNY; Onondaga County; Onondaga Small Business Development Center; SUNY ESF; Syracuse SCORE Chapter; the Downtown Committee of Syracuse Inc.; the Tech Garden; and the WISE Women’s Business Center.