Outstanding entrepreneurs embrace new technology

The State Small Business Persons of the Year for 2000 are a diverse group, but one thing they all have in common is technological savvy, according to a tally of questionnaires the winners submitted to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Of the 53 businesses owned by the state winners, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam:

100 percent use personal computers.

92 percent use e-mail.

69 percent have laptops.

88 percent use fax machines.

55 percent use pagers.

96 percent use modems giving them access to the Internet.

92 percent use cellular phones.

According to the SBA, these business owners produce and provide a vast array of products and services including: pasta, building materials, fiber-optic lighting, furniture, cross-cultural videos, environmental consulting, commercial printing, confections, clinical drug research, balsam products, restaurants, information technology, sheet metal products, digital printing services and Internet access.

The winners also represent a broad cross section of Americans:

35 percent are owned by women.

30 percent are owned by minorities.

57 percent are family owned and operated.

13 percent are veterans.

46 percent are in either manufacturing or retail.

While not a criterion for nomination, 67 percent of the winners received financial or management assistance from the SBA.

As a group, the companies' average sales for last year were $7.6 million, and they employ an average of 150 people. And while they are still considered small businesses, on average they had a much smaller work force at start up three employees and average first year sales of $457,000.

In total, the winners' sales for the most recent fiscal year amounted to more than $330 million. They have a total employment of more than 7,000.

According to the SBA, these entrepreneurs have led the nation in the business expansions in the past five years.