Indian Americans bag SBA award

Three Indian Americans are among 53 people being honoured as Small Business Persons of the Year in the US.

Three Indian Americans are among 53 people being honoured as Small Business Persons of the Year in the US.

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The award to Payal Tak, Mukesh Majmudar and Paresh Patel comes from the US Small Business Administration (SBA). They are among 53 winners of the award being presented at the two-day National Small Business Week celebrations in Washington from April 26-28.

Tak's Telesis Corporation in Washington is an IT services provider to the federal government and commercial industries. It specialises in turnkey help desk and call centre solutions, records management, document management, software development and systems integration. Tak's company has been helping US troops in Iraq where it has network providers and integrators.

In an interview with The Washington Post last year, Tak had said her company was "very employee centric". Tak started the company single-handedly but now has more than 345 employees.

She won a massive government contract totalling $150 million over five years for supporting the National Tracing Centre for the Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the Department of Justice. She said her company employed 60 percent female and 55 percent minorities.

He immigrated to the US from Gujarat with only $7 in his pocket, according to some reports. He initially worked as a computer scientist before entering the hotel trade through investments from family and friends in the early '90s. He employs approximately 125 people and owns a Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Days Inn, EconoLodge, and Holiday Inn Express.

Patel started Courtesy Vending and Virtual Home Model when he was just 17. Now 28, he is among the youngest to get the Small Business of the Year Award. Among his clients is the Portland Public School System where he secured a five-year contract to supply vending machines.

Through use of management software and optimising his delivery system and variety offered, Patel has doubled the size of his company since 2000.

Courtesy Vending operates vending machines throughout the Portland metro area. Over the last 13 years, Patel has dramatically increased the capacity and revenue of his company. He has an MBA and is nearly finished with his Ph.D.

All of them are being honoured at the National Small Business Week in Washington, with SBA Expo '05 showcasing Small Business Persons of the Year winners from each state, and featuring the announcement of the National Small Business of the Year.

There are an estimated 25 million small business owners in this country and Indian Americans, like many immigrants, make up an important part of this group. Small businesses traditionally start with help from SBA and get a share of federal contracts that help them establish themselves.

Small businesses employ more than half the country's private work force, create three of every four new jobs and generate a majority of American innovations, according to the SBA.

The SBA has helped more than 20 million Americans start, grow, and expand their businesses, and has made more than $211 billion in direct or guaranteed loans to entrepreneurs. The National Small Business Week was first observed in 1963, 10 years after the formation of the SBA.