Indianapolis business owner LaMar Holliday, CEO of the Holliday Collaborative Agency, received the Rising Star award from the National Small Business Association (NSBA). The award recognizes “individuals relatively new to advocacy who are making an impressive impact” according to the NSBA’s official website.
Holliday sat down with the Indianapolis Recorder’s Editor-in-Chief Camike Jones to talk small business advocacy and what this award means to him.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Camike Jones: Can you talk about how you began your involvement with the NSBA and what was your motivation to get involved?
LaMar Holliday: Their mission of advocating for small businesses is the reason why I wanted to be a part of it. It really shed light on advocacy and ensuring that small businesses have the support that they need to kind of navigate laws and ordinances and regulation.
As a small business owner, you’re doing everything. Not only are you providing the services of your industry, but you’re also the marketing director and the chief financial officer. So, wherever we can get support, we take that. It’s an honor that I am able to use my expertise to help those small businesses in that endeavor.
Jones: What are some of the unique challenges that small businesses face?
Holliday: Most times small businesses are not up to date on what’s happening either at the local, state or federal level that impacts them. When we find out things that impact our day-to-day operations, now we have an added layer of duties and tasks to advocate for ourselves and unfortunately, we don’t have the staff or the capacity to advocate for ourselves. That’s why organizations like the NSBA are so crucial.
Across Indiana and other states, over 90% of businesses are small businesses. When people say that small businesses are the backbone of our economy, that is the absolute truth. We are the backbone of every economy – local, state and federal.
“We are the backbone of every economy — local, state and federal.”
Jones: How does the NSBA assist small businesses with growing and building partnerships to expand their capacity?
Holliday: When I was out in Washington, D.C. we were able to network with other businesses that are part of NSBA. Knowing that we can support one another with different opportunities is one way that small businesses can help sustain themselves.
Another way that NSBA has been really helping small businesses is helping them navigate the federal contracting process. It is not easy to navigate those spaces, and sometimes we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars in contracts that could be monumental for small businesses.
One of the things that NSBA has been advocating for is a better or streamlined process for small businesses to participate in that contracting process. These are opportunities that we’re always looking for to help scale and sustain.
That’s where the NSBA comes together as well as other small businesses come together and we go to Capitol Hill like we did and we advocate (with) our lawmakers to say ‘There’s got to be an easier process for us.’ We lobby for that. We advocate for that and it’s a beautiful thing to see.
Jones: What has been one of the highlights for you as far as helping other small business owners share the professional services they offer?
Holliday: When we talk about the local and state level, every minority business is encouraged to get certified, whether that’s through the city or through the state. Once we go through that process, the local and state agencies send out opportunities.
Unfortunately, many of those opportunities are centered around construction. What happens is that a lot of the professional services are left out of potential opportunities. We’re always being encouraged to partner with a main contractor who then sub-contracts out work.
But sometimes the small businesses want to be the main contractor. If the XBE is in public relations or in accounting, there are really no opportunities when a lot of the opportunities that are being sent to us are construction-based.
I reached out to the Office of Minority and Women Business Development and had a conversation with Director David Fredericks to say I would love to sponsor a professional services workshop where we bring in city agencies and state agencies that have professional services opportunities and share those opportunities with small businesses in that sector. We held that event back in February at Martin University.
We had city agencies and state agencies who were very intentional about professional service opportunities and how to network with those agencies. It was a networking event, so it opened doors to those professional services to give us the hope that there are opportunities out here for us.
As small business owners we need to be a little bit more intentional about building those relationships with the city and state officials to let them know that ‘we’re here and we’re ready to work.’
Jones: Do you have any tips on how to start building those professional relationships? How can small business owners get started?
Holliday: There are always networking opportunities across the city. The Office of Minority Women Business Development has an email list that you can join. They’re always sending out networking events throughout the year with the state through the Indiana Department of Administration.
Jones: How did it feel to be recognized on a national level for your advocacy work?
Holliday: It was an honor. It was a blessing. But, and I know this may sound cliche, I don’t do it for the awards. It is nice to be recognized and be honored in that way. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I work with small businesses, and we as an agency can make those connections that eventually make an impact in our community. That to me is the award.
But I am so appreciative to the National Small Business Association for the recognition and that they see what we do here at the Holliday Collaborative Agency to really help advocate for small businesses whether at the local, state or on a federal level. We’re doing our part to ensure that small businesses amplify their mission and their message.
For more information on the National Small Business Association, visit nsbaadvocate.org. To learn more about the Holliday Collaborative Agency, visit hollidaycollab.com.
