MAKING an IMPACT

By Karl Henkel | May 15, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Women-owned small businesses in Valley grow, diversify

WARREN

Lifelong Cortland native Dawn Ochman, like a lot of other small-business owners, had serious doubts as to whether her nearly two-decade- old, dump-truck contracting service could make it through the rough economic patch of 2008.

But instead of riding out the storm, Ochman, owner of Dawn Inc., decided it was time to diversify.

After seeking assistance from the Small Business Administration, DI qualified as an economically disadvantaged women-owned small business.

While it sounds like a degrading term, it allowed Ochman to receive assistance to better help her compete in the American economy, specifically when it comes to federal procurements.

Two years later, Ochman has rebounded as a general contracting company in Warren and has snatched up government projects that previously eluded her.

Notably, Ochman’s company recently installed the first high-speed deluge system — which protects a person against an otherwise deadly explosion — for the Air Force at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna.

It’s small businesses such as Ochman’s that President Barack Obama and the SBA will recognize as part of Small Business Week this week.

Small businesses have been a major sticking point with Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, who has said on many occasions that they are the key to the Mahoning Valley’s resurgence.

“The reason we’re economically relevant is because of our small businesses,” he said at an event last month. “It’s why we’ve remained solvent as a city.”

There are more than 27 million small businesses throughout the U.S., which together creates about two-thirds of all new jobs.

Nearly 8 million small businesses are owned by women entrepreneurs such as Ochman, according to recent report from the National Women’s Business Council and U.S. Census Bureau.

According to data from the Center for Women’s Business Research, women-owned companies have an economic impact of $3 trillion annually, which accounts for 23 million jobs.

In Ohio, one in every 10 businesses are women-owned, and in the Mahoning Valley, that number is one in every five.

Though the most-significant increases occurred in the lines of health care, social assistance, educational services, administration, retail trade and entertainment, there have also been gains in other areas — such as in Ochman’s case, contracting.

A primarily male-dominated line of work, Ochman said there have been some difficulties competing, but over time she has learned the tricks of the trade.

“I’ve learned over the years how to present myself,” Ochman said. “And you’re not going to appeal to everybody; it’s just finding the people you’re comfortable working with, just like any other line of work.”

Ochman was forced to diversify as a result of the poor economic climate, but some local small businesses, such as Shanthi Subramanyam’s, which started around the same time as Ochman’s, have slowly but surely built upon its original intention and are still growing to this day.

When Subramanyam started Empyra.com, a business-technology network website, in 1994, it had two employees.

Empyra has 18 employees today and has moved from its original home- office location to bustling 20 Federal Place in downtown Youngstown.

Subramanyam and Ochman, who are both enrolled in the E200 Emerging Leaders classes at Youngstown State University, which are geared to help small businesses prosper, said they think the small-business atmosphere in the Valley is growing.

“There’s a lot to be attained by sharing stories and experiences,” Subramanyam said. “We can do more by creating networking bases that already exist in places like Pittsburgh and Cleveland.”

Gil Goldberg, Cleveland district director for the SBA, said 40 percent of participants in E200 in Youngstown are women.

“It’s a real indication that women want to get ahead in their business,” he said.