SBA Announces Nevada Small Business Award Winners

April 6, 2007; 01:38 AM
The Nevada district office of the U. S. Small Business Administration has selected its small business award honorees for 2007. They will be recognized at an awards luncheon to be held at the Rio Hotel (Amazon A & D Ballroom) in Las Vegas on Thursday, May 3, 2007, promptly at 11:30 a.m.

Tammy Mathews, owner of Puppy Enterprises Dog Salon & Bakery and Small Town Dog Vacation Villas in Las Vegas, has been named SBA's Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Nevada. Ms. Mathews has been invited to attend SBA's National Small Business Week Expo in Washington, D. C. on April 23-24 to compete for national honors. The two-day celebration will honor the small business accomplishments of individuals and business owners nationwide at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Others being honored at the awards luncheon in Las Vegas include:

-- Women in Business Champion of the Year: Mary Beth Hartleb, Owner, PRISM Human Resource Consulting Services, LLC;

-- Financial Services Champion of the Year: Paul Workman, Executive Vice President, Business Bank of Nevada;

-- Small Business Journalist of the Year: Hernando Amaya, Associate Editor, El Tiempo;

-- Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: Debra Sillik, Executive Director, American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Nevada;

-- Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year: George E. Salton, Director of Business Operations, 99th Contracting Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base;

-- Home-Based Business Champion of the Year: Gina Robinson-Billups, Founder and CEO, Moms in Business Network;

-- SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Jordan Wirsz, CEO, Diamond Bay Investments;

-- Small Business Exporter of the Year: Panch R. Prasad, CEO, U.S. International Trading Corporation;

-- Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business of the Year: Gil Family, Owners, Casa Don Juan Mexican Restaurant;

-- Microenterprise Initiative Business Person of the Year: Linda F. Branch, Owner, CSMC Consultants, LLC.

The nominees are judged by an independent panel of small business leaders on a variety of criteria, including staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales, current and past financial reports,

innovativeness of product or service, response to adversity and evidence of contributions to community-oriented projects.

Tammy Mathews, Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Nevada, is the owner of Puppy Enterprises Dog Salon & Bakery and Small Town Dog Vacation Villas. Her firms provide a French-style salon, bakery and boutique for dogs. Additionally, Small Town Dog Vacation Villas allows your dog to go on vacation the same as you. The villa is complete with a front yard, white- picket fence and a colorful doghouse. A $50,000 SBA loan helped build the two successful businesses into a combined customer base of over 1,000 clients, 20 employees and projected gross sales of nearly $1,000,000. Puppy Enterprises has been featured in over a dozen newspaper articles; six television stories with celebrities and their dogs; and is now under consideration by a Hollywood production company as a location for an upcoming reality series. Mathews' company has raised over $1,000 in aid and sent it to the animal shelters in New Orleans to rescue abandoned pets. "Since dogs are my community, my community service should benefit them," said Mathews, who has concentrated her community involvement in trying to help shelter dogs find new homes. These events were extremely successful and resulted in hundreds of sheltered dogs getting brand new homes.

"All of our award recipients this year have a bona fide entrepreneurial spirit that is indicative of a flourishing business community in Nevada," said John Scott, SBA's district director. "We look forward to recognizing their achievements at the special Small Business Week luncheon in May."

For reservations to join SBA and business leaders for the Southern Nevada awards luncheon in Las Vegas on May 3, call Greenspun Media Group at 702-990-8179 or e-mail: iblvrsvp@gmgvegas.com. Reservations must be received by April 27, 2007. The cost to attend this event is $38 per person, or table(s) of 10 at $350.

For more information about all of the SBA's programs for small businesses, call the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800 U ASK SBA or TDD 704-344-6640, or visit the SBA's extensive Web site at http://www.sba.gov/.

Nevada District Office, U.S. Small Business Administration, 400 South Fourth St., Suite 250, Las Vegas, NV 89101.