First State Manufacturing Featured in ‘Small Business Owners Speak’

Everyone has a story, and now the U.S. Small Business Administration is giving entrepreneurs a new online platform to share their story and showcase their successful and thriving businesses.

Today, SBA launched “Small Business Owners Speak,” an interactive platform featuring videos from entrepreneurs from across the country that have started or grown a business with the help of the SBA. Delaware small business First State Manufacturing, which submitted the video during National Small Business Week, is featured on the new platform at www.sba.gov/stories.

“I have the great privilege of meeting small business owners from across the country as I travel every week. But now, thanks to ‘Small Business Owners Speak,’ you can hear their stories, too,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills. “This page will highlight the voices of successful small business owners who have started or grown a business thanks to help from the Small Business Administration.”

“I’m proud to say that Delaware’s Small Business Persons of the Year award winners, Eli and Cheryl Valenzuela and Ashley Wolf, exemplify the American dream of success,” said SBA District Director Tony Leta. “All across the country, American businesses like First State Manufacturing are doing amazing things to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world. It’s wonderful to see them being recognized by SBA.”

The Valenzuelas and Wolfe are owners of First State Manufacturing, Inc., which began in 1998 in a Milford, Delaware garage. From that humble beginning, the company has become a thriving business employing more than 40 technicians working in a new 66,000 sq. ft. facility funded by a Small Business Administration 504 loan. Today, a large part of the company’s business lies in creating unique, customized upholstery solutions for aircraft applications including the U.S. military’s V-22 Osprey and C-5 Galaxy aircraft.

Currently, the page features videos that were submitted during SBA’s 2012 National Small Business Week video contest. But, to help reach out to more small business owners, SBA has opened “Small Business Owners Speak” to other entrepreneurs interested in submitting a video to be featured at www.sba.gov/stories. More information about the video submission process can be found on the same page.

The page features a map of the United States that allows users to click on videos by state or by using the drop-down menu and searching for videos by topic, such as capital, counseling, federal contracting or disaster loans.

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