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The Governor’s Small Business Summit comes to Orange as part of efforts to help Texas small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs succeed by giving them the information they need to grow their businesses.

The Summit is part of a year-long effort to travel throughout Texas to help small businesses. The event features various sessions about building a business, financing and marketing, including the Keynote Speaker, Ty Gipson of The Gipson Group, on developing a ‘No Options’ mindset. 

Members of the local community and around the State of Texas offered advice and field questions from the audience on the various topics introduced. One such audience member was Shefali Jain, CEO of Tutorang, a Texas-based online tutoring company.

“These are all small businesses who have tested with different tools and are giving inputs on what’s working for them and what’s not,” Jain said. “I’m taking notes and I’m taking the pattern so that I can apply the same.”

Jain, like many of the other attendees, sought out to network and see what see could learn from other business owners.

“I came here today to learn how to structure my business, how to create an effective business plan and how to learn about marketing, advertising, funding, how to gain capital,” said Alicia Brown, CEO of Nine Digits tutoring.

Brown sought to create a business after leaving her teaching job, but continued to have a passion for education. She believed that her business was more than a way to make ends meet, but also to teach children in need. 

“I’ve been able to grease a lot of elbows with a lot of different people here, visit a lot of different entities where I’ve gotten a wealth of knowledge and so I’m just gonna stay the course,” Brown said.

The Governor’s Small Business Summit — Orange is hosted in partnership with the Orange County Economic Development Corporation, Lamar State College and Texas Workforce Commission.