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US agency trains 17 Valley businesses
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Joe Crogan Jr., owner of Crogan Supply, a plumbing business in Poland, is one participant in the E200 Emerging Leaders class. It is a 13-week, 100-hour class devoted to helping small businesses prosper.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Gil Goldberg, Small Business Administration business director, announced Tuesday the list of area businesses participating in the E200 Emerging Leaders initiative, which will help businesses build for the future.
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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Mayor Jay Williams said Tuesday that the E200 Emerging Leaders initiative is important to the city, which he said is heavily influenced by small businesses.
By Karl Henkel
YOUNGSTOWN
For Joe Crogan Jr., the learning never ends. Crogan and his company, Crogan Supply, 5821 Poland-Struthers Road in Poland, have had success as one of the Valley’s oldest plumbing companies.
After all, Crogan Supply has been around for 104 years.
But even weathering a depression, and more recently a recession, wasn’t enough to stop Crogan from jumping at the opportunity to join the E200 Emerging Leaders program.
E200, through the U.S. Small Business Administration, aims to identify businesses that show a high potential for growth. These companies had to meet requirements, such as being three or more years old with sales between $400,000 and $10 million.
The program, put on with a $40,000 SBA grant, with help from Youngstown and Youngstown State University, will take Crogan Supply and 17 other local businesses (and 200 total nationwide) through a 13-class, 100-hour training program that kicked off Tuesday afternoon.
Mayor Jay Williams said the program is important to the city, which he said is heavily influenced by small businesses.
“The reason we’re economically relevant is because of our small businesses,” he said. “It’s why we’ve remained solvent as a city.”
Crogan said he learned about E200 through an email, and immediately threw his name into the hat.
“It seemed like the potential was all positive,” he said. “There was no downside.”
Youngstown’s class filled up quickly, said SBA District Director Gil Goldberg, who said nationally, the program sold out at about a 75-percent clip.
The program will focus on teaching businesses new ways to obtain capital and government contracting, but Crogan said he planned on attending with an open mind, especially since he wants to eventually leave his business to his daughter Jessica Horan and nephew John Crogan, who both work at Crogan Supply.
“One never knows what one doesn’t know,” he said. “It’s about the potential to survive, and it’s about always evolving.”
Crogan may be one to want to stay ahead of any competition, but others, such as Canfield Computers, operated by George McDonnell, are hoping to diversify and grow their business.
McDonnell said when the company started, it was strictly residential, but he now wants to take on business contracts.