{"id":46714,"date":"2022-07-25T09:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=46714"},"modified":"2022-08-11T18:25:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T23:25:05","slug":"tarletons-leaverton-addresses-congressional-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarletons-leaverton-addresses-congressional-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton’s Leaverton Addresses Congressional Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"7241\"
Congressman Roger Williams, left, and Director of the Small Business Development Center, show Tarleton spirit following Leaverton’s testimony in front of a congressional subcommittee last week.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monday, July 25, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Bill Leaverton, Director of the Small Business Development Center at Tarleton State University, addressed a U.S. congressional subcommittee last week on challenges faced by rural small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressman Roger Williams, a longtime supporter of Tarleton and small business, extended the invitation to learn more about rural small business in the 25th district of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe represent some of the most rural areas of the state, if not the nation,\u201d Leaverton told Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who chairs the House Committee on Small Business. \u201cThe SBDC\u2019s overall focus is to simply help our clients become successful as small business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The center is an outreach of the Northwest Texas Small Business Development Center. It provides counseling, technical assistance, training workshops and reference resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMr. Leaverton\u2019s understanding of the problems facing small businesses in Texas\u2019 rural communities was evident in his address to the small business committee,\u201d said Dr. Rupa Iyer, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Development at Tarleton. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to overestimate the value of his insights and experience to entrepreneurs seeking help from the SBDC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaverton, one of five witnesses in the hour-and-a-half session, pointed out the differences between rural and urban small business owners and their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first distinction is the rural environment requires face-to-face interaction,\u201d he said. \u201cThis type of interaction builds the most cornerstone foundation of small business in the rural setting, and that is trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many instances this in-person model derives from the lack of technology in non-urban regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn many rural areas they simply do not have access to internet service. This makes online participation in webinars and Zoom conferences impractical, at best,\u201d Leaverton said. \u201cFor example, I worked for seven months for a community in rural Texas to open a daycare center. It injected $260,000 into the economy, created eight jobs and, more importantly, put rural parents back onto the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI communicated with those people almost exclusively face to face or via telephone. They couldn\u2019t do Zoom conferences because they had no access to the internet. Unfortunately, this is a problem that is rampant in small communities in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beset by labor issues, rising costs and supply chain shortages, micro businesses in rural settings need help, and Leaverton sees the government offering long-term, streamlined programs and direct access to capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecently I was able to obtain a $300,000 rural development grant from the USDA,\u201d he told the committee. \u201cThis allowed the Stephenville Economic Development Foundation to create a revolving loan that will create access to capital and jobs for our rural communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe SBA is a successful organization, but the need to keep finding ways to strengthen our collaboration is essential for rural business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Leaverton, Director of the Small Business Development Center at Tarleton State University, addressed a U.S. congressional subcommittee Wednesday on challenges faced by rural small businesses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,423],"tags":[447],"class_list":["post-46714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","tag-dr-sam-pack-college-of-business"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2022\/08\/7240-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Dr. Sam Pack College of Business<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Dr. Sam Pack College of Business<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 25, 2022","modified":"Updated on August 11, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 25, 2022 9:51 am","modified":"Updated on August 11, 2022 6:25 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Two men in suits smiling and gesturing with their hands in an office setting.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}