Warren Businesswoman Receives SBA Recognition
WARREN, Ohio -- Last year at this time, Dawn Inc. had nine employees.
Today, that employment figure has grown to 26, and the general contractor is looking to finish 2013 with $5 million in sales.
"With any luck, we'll hit $10 million next year," reports Dawn Ochman, company president. The woman-owned business is a general contracting and construction management company that's carved out a niche in securing work from the federal government.
The company's growth and measured success led the U.S. Small Business Administration's Cleveland District to honor Ochman as a runner-up for its Woman in Business Champion Award for 2013.
"We're looking to double our business each year," Ochman said.
Gil Goldberg, director of SBA's Cleveland District, presented the award to Ochman at the company's offices in the Chase Bank building downtown Wednesday afternoon.
"Since 2009, we've moved into the primary contractor role, mostly with federal projects," Ochman said. These projects include work at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township. The company recently opened a satellite office in Albuquerque, N.M., in order to perform work at Kirtland Air Force Base and with the Army Corps of Engineers.
The company is currently working on projects at the U.S. Air Reserve Station in Pittsburgh, she reports.
Carolyn Milkovich, a contract specialist with the 910th Airlift Wing at the Vienna air base, nominated Ochman for the 2013 Women in Business Champion Award because she was impressed with how the company constructed a retaining wall and other projects at the installation.
"She sets an example for people like me," Milkovich said of Ochman. "They just have a passion for what they do."
Although Ochman's company didn't win the Champion Award -- a very competitive contest that includes women-owned businesses from the Great Lakes Midwest region, covering states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio -- the Cleveland district felt her submission warranted special recognition, Goldberg told guests.
"We thought it was so competitive that Dawn Inc. should get recognized here," Goldberg noted. "She's done it by example and done very well."
Goldberg said that construction companies aren't typically associated with women, but Ochman's business has excelled in an industry that is largely dominated by men. "She's done it in a non-traditional business, and set the example for women in business across northern Ohio," he remarked.
The 20-year-old company was hit by the Great Recession and the construction drought, Ochman said, but it was able to diversify after the SBA awarded Dawn Small Disadvantaged Business 8(a) certification in 2009. The company also holds HUBZone and Woman-Owned Small Business certifications from the SBA.
Dawn Inc.'s award comes during SBA's annual Small Business Week, which Goldberg said was designed in 1953 to recognize the contributions of small companies to the national economy.
Lending activity for the SBA is improving, Goldberg noted, and banks across the region are becoming more competitive and are more willing to process loans.
"We're going into our third record year of helping more than 1,400 small businesses obtaining access to capital," he said. "It probably works out to over $400 million each of the last three years."
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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