As a young child and recent immigrant to America, Maria Contreras-Sweet recalled her grandmother counseling her that although she’d come from a family of migrant workers, in America, she could aspire to work in an office. One day, she might even be a secretary.
"I’m delighted that the good lord heard her prayers and he allowed me to hold office and made me a cabinet secretary," she said to chuckles among her audience at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge.
Thursday’s event was one of several nationwide held to celebrate National Small Business Week, which wraps up today in Washington, D.C.
Contreras-Sweet, the new administrator of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), took the opportunity to praise American small businesses and encouraged them to seek out resources and mentorship from their local SBA offices.
"National Small Business Week is a time when we celebrate the risk takers who make the wheels of our economy turn. America’s 28 million small businesses create nearly two out of three new jobs in our economy," she said. "You can’t have a conversation about creating jobs and economic growth without talking about the entrepreneurs who are the lifeblood of our economy."
Prior to her appointment at the SBA, Contreras-Sweet served as secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency in California, and she founded a venture capital firm and a commercial bank primarily focused on providing capital and counseling to small- and mid-sized businesses.
Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact, delivered the keynote speech at Thursday’s event.
"Small is powerful," Goodman said. "What’s really cool is when a small business succeeds, their community succeeds. For every dollar we as consumers spend at a small business, almost 70 cents stays in the community."
"You are natural marketers," Goodman told her audience before discussing how small businesses could better use social media to market their companies.
Entrepreneurs also sat in on a panel on high tech and innovative businesses, where they heard from Carl Dietrich, whose company Terrafugia is trying to bring a flying car to market for the masses, and participated in breakout sessions about online marketing strategies, avoiding costly business mistakes and finding capital.
"We need to shop small, buy small," Contreras-Sweet said. "When you’re supporting local jobs and local opportunities, you know that you’re supporting your neighbors."
Email: lalix@thewarrengroup.com
