The owner of a Tustin engineering firm will be honored as small-business owner of the year at a luncheon Thursday as part of Minority Enterprise Development Week.
Dhananjay Rawal started Enviro Compliance Solutions Inc. in his garage in 2001 after his employer filed for bankruptcy.
Dhananjay Rawal started Enviro Compliance Solutions Inc. in Tustin after his former employer filed for bankruptcy. He is the 2012 MED Week small business person of the year for the Santa Ana District of the Small Business Administration.
PHOTO COURTESY ENVIRO COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS INC.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We were expecting our second child and my wife couldn't believe I wasn't going to take a job with benefits, but I needed to do it on my own," Rawal said.
The company has grown from a one-person consulting firm to nine employees doing engineering, environmental consulting and construction nationwide. The MED Week award honors owners whose businesses have participated in the U.S. Small Business Administration's 8(a) program that assists socially and economically disadvantaged business owners.
Rawal said he didn't know anything about the program until a potential customer mentioned that Enviro Compliance Solutions could get more contracts if it were certified as an 8(a) company. "I got the certification and my first contract was $160,000," Rawal said. "Now we are doing $5 million to $6 million in projects a year."
He said his company has benefited from classes in such topics as accounting principles from an SBA representative.
Rawal came to the United States from Mumbai, India, in 1988. He attended UC Irvine and then finished his education at Cal State Fullerton while he worked full time.
Also at the MED Week luncheon, Kusuma Kavia, executive vice president of Combustion Associates Inc. in Corona, will be honored as the 8(a) graduate of the year, which recognizes companies that have outgrown the government assistance program.
Marie Johns, SBA's deputy administrator, said, "The 8(a) program is one of the most effective tools we have to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in underserved communities grow and succeed."
She said the SBA has recently launched an online series of programs to help companies that are not yet ready for the 8(a) program. The first 30-minute tutorial is an overview of the program. The second 40-minute tutorial is about winning federal contracts. Two more tutorials will be released by the end of the year. The tutorials can be accessed at sba.gov/gcclassroom.
Contact the writer: 714-796-7927 or jnorman@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/program-375520-rawal-sba.html
syracuse basketball chipper jones chipper jones dancing with the stars cast mickael pietrus heart transplant the international
No comments:
Post a Comment