FLORIDA SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER AT IRSC
Jerry Parrish, Ph.D., chief economist at Florida Chamber Foundation, speaks during a panel discussion on the state of small business in Florida. The panel
included Ken Lawson, executive director of Florida Department of Economic Opportunity; Jamal Sowell, president and CEO of Enterprise Florida; Michelle Dennard,
Financial Freedom, Veterans Florida and
media sponsors Florida Trend, and the
Jacksonville, South Florida, Tampa Bay and
Orlando Business Journals.
For information about the 2020 Small
Business Leadership Conference, please
visit SBLConference.com.
ABOUT THE FLORIDA
SBDC NETWORK
For more than forty years, the Florida
SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider
of business assistance (Fl. Stat. 288.001)
has nourished a statewide partnership
between higher education and economic
development to provide existing and aspiring
small- and medium-sized business
owners with management and knowledge
resources that enable overall growth,
increased profitability, and economic prosperity
for Florida’s economy.
Since 2011, Florida SBDCs have provided
624,331 hours of professional business
consulting to 58,975 client businesses,
resulting in 281,831 jobs impacted; $36.7
billion in sales generated; $2.7 billion
in government contracts acquired; $1.6
billion in capital accessed; and 4,520 new
businesses started.
The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered
at the University of West Florida, is
nationally accredited by the Association of
SBDCs and is a 2016 recipient of the President’s
E Award for Export Service. Florida
SBDC services are extended to the public
on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language
assistance services are available for individuals
with limited English proficiency.
For more information, please visit
www.FloridaSBDC.org.
Ryo Zsun, culture maestro of Zappos.com, spoke to attendees about how Zappos built a company culture
that became the driving force behind their “WOW” customer service.
ABOUT THE JIM MORAN
INSTITUTE
The Jim Moran Institute for Global
Entrepreneurship cultivates, trains and
inspires entrepreneurial leaders through
world-class executive education, applied
training, public recognition and leadingedge
research.
Jim Moran was an automotive pioneer
and an entrepreneur at heart, who at the
age of seven, sold soda pop at sandlot
baseball diamonds in Chicago. With a career
that spanned more than six decades,
he built an amazing chronicle of achievements
42 TCBusiness.com
in the automobile industry.
His vision for Jim Moran Institute was
to provide opportunities that would help
others become more successful business
owners. A 1995 contribution from Jim
and Jan Moran and JM Family Enterprises
established the Jim Moran Institute for
Global Entrepreneurship in the Florida
State University College of Business. Since
2011, further enhancements to the Jim
Moran Institute and its outreach have
been made possible by Jan Moran and The
Jim Moran Foundation.
For more information, visit jmi.fsu.edu v
president and CEO at CareerSource Florida; and Michael W. Myhre, CEO, Florida SBDC Network.
/SBLConference.com
/www.FloridaSBDC.org
/Zappos.com
/TCBusiness.com
/jmi.fsu.edu
