National Small Business Week: How 3 award-winning CEOs led their small businesses to big wins

U.S. Presidents have called them integral to the national economy. Local leaders have called them a credit to their communities. At Vistage, we call these exceptional CEOs our fellow members.

When the winners of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 National Small Business Week Awards gathered this week in Washington D.C., three exemplary Vistage members stood among them: Austin Tsosie, Eric Williams, and Brian Goldman.

2024 National Small Business Week Award winners (left to right) Austin Tsosie, Eric Willams and Brian Goldman

“Our 2024 National Small Business Week Award winners exemplify excellence, innovation, and commitment,” said SBA Administer Isabel Casillas Guzman, in announcing this year’s winners.

We couldn’t agree more. Meet the 3 small business leaders who make a big impact locally, nationally and globally.

Austin Tsosie | Scottsdale, Arizona

CEO, Diné Development Corporation
2024 NSBW Winner, Arizona
Vistage Member Since 2017

“I don’t own this company. There are no stockholders,” says Austin Tsosie, CEO of the Diné Development Corporation (DDC).

No stockholders, but 400,000 stakeholders. The entire Navajo Nation looks to DDC, which was formed in 2004 as a for-profit holding company to help the Navajo Nation generate economic prosperity through several subsidiaries.

It is for them — and their future descendants — that Tsosie is focused on growing DDC. In 2016 Tsosie took the helm of an organization that was on the brink of collapse due to a government shutdown. At that point, DDC brought in $165,000 in dividends to the nation. This year, the thriving, diversified Arizona-based company is on target to see $175 million in revenue.

“When you represent an impoverished people, you have to rally your group to the cause,” he says. “That has set us apart. It’s inspired work.”

DDC provides dividends to support students, elevate Navajo businesses and assist Navajo veterans. The organization’s 5-year goal, which runs through 2025, is for those dividends to triple the total value of dividends paid over the first 15 years of operation, totaling $18 million.

Executing that goal requires growth. Since Tsosie took over leadership in 2021, DDC has grown from eight subsidiaries and 573 employees and expects to comprise 12 subsidiaries and 800 employees by next year. The company recently acquired a business intelligence software subsidiary that has expanded the solutions it can offer clients such as the U.S. Air Force. And they have done this all while staying true to their Navajo heritage.

A founding member of a Dallas Vistage group near his former home and headquarters, Tsosie credits his team, the SBA and his current and past Vistage groups for DDC’s growth and development.

“Vistage helped me realize that it’s all about people. Whether you’re the CEO of a bank or a manufacturing company, it all comes down to the people,” he says. “Not just people, but the whole person. I always tried to separate business from Austin. Vistage helped me clarify that growth and development, it’s about the whole person.”

Tsosie’s tips for successful growth

1. Lean on your strategic plan. No one can predict the next war, pandemic or interest-rate fluctuation. Focusing on your strategic plan should you get you through these things, and Vistage really helped clarify that for me.
2. Persevere. There were frustrating days, but it’s important to have patience. You might feel like you’re done but don’t give up.
3. Communicate. Remember people can’t read your mind, your tempo or vision.”

Eric Williams | Byron, Georgia

CEO, Unified Defense and Prince Service & Manufacturing
2024 NSBW Award Winner, Georgia
Vistage Member Since 2022

It’s the accent that gives him away. United Defense and Prince Service & Manufacturing CEO Eric Williams is a die-hard Georgian. Central Georgia to be exact. He is proud of the tenacity, intelligence and innovation of the middle of this state. He believes his company — and his neck of the woods — could become a preeminent workplace destination.

But his accent?

“I’m from Ohio,” Williams concedes.

It’s not the way he talks that makes Williams a credit to his region. It’s what he does. Under his leadership, Prince won the Greater Macon Chamber’s Workforce Development Champion of 2023. He focuses on buying from local resources and intentionally attracts a world-class regional workforce with pay and benefits not usually found in his industry.

Williams says winning the 2024 SBA Award is a testament to both the work of his team and the vigor, youth, and drive of his state and city,
“We have extremely hard workers in this state, which is showcased by this company and this city,” he says. “I can’t say enough about what this city provides its businesses. That’s what helps us rise above the rest.”

Williams started United Defense at the age of 22. Now at the ripe old age of 30, he has doubled his company in growth every year since inception and is on track to bring in $60 million in revenue in 2024.

One of Williams’ more recent challenges involved melding the disparate cultures of Unified Defense with the 65-year-old Prince Services & Manufacturing, which United Defense acquired in 2022.

Williams joined Vistage just months after the acquisition, and he credits his group with helping him navigate the aftermath of the purchase. He remembers vividly walking into his first group meeting chaired by Shaun Bradley (himself a 2001 SBA Award winner).

“The very first speaker was David Friedman, who wrote ‘Culture by Design,’” Williams recalls. “And then in the group, everything I needed to learn, that I was struggling with that week, the members I talked to were going through the same thing. It was like this meeting was designed specifically for me. I thought, ‘How have I made it this far without Vistage?’”

Williams’ sound advice for small business CEOs

1. Embrace imposter syndrome. Knowing that you don’t know everything is important. If I ever thought that I got here all by myself, if at some point I don’t feel like somewhat of an imposter, I may have lost my touch.
2. Practice blameless problem-solving. Both my parents were entrepreneurs, so I grew up seeing this in action. What I learned growing up helped make me who I am today.
3. Push hard. I try to remember that every day is a good day — some are just better than others. The tough days will be the “good ole days” someday.

Brian Goldman | Providence, Rhode Island

CEO, Big Blue Bug Solutions
2024 NSBW Award Winner, Rhode Island
Vistage Member Since 2023

Few family businesses have as much “buzz” as the three-generations-deep Big Blue Bug Solutions.

In the 1970s, when a new section of I-95 went up through town, Brian Goldman’s marketing genius father, Stephan, had the foresight to advertise the family pest control company by commissioning a 58-foot deep purple replica of a termite atop a building where millions of cars would eventually pass by.

The sun faded the purple paint to blue, and the Big Blue Bug became a regional icon. It has been featured in movies, TV shows and on T-shirts. In 2004, New England Pest Control, which had been founded by Brian Goldman’s grandfather in 1935, changed its name to its current alliterative handle. Six years later, Brian left a successful career in broadcast sports journalism to follow his passion for the family business.

Why? Turns out that pest control is as fun as that giant bug suggests.

“The industry’s hidden secret is not just its stability,” says Goldman. “True, it’s stable. Economy? Pandemic? Whatever. But what people don’t realize is how rewarding it is.”

Adds Goldman: “When there is a pest in your home, there is an intruder. So, when you take care of the problem, you become a hero. Every day our teams go home realizing that they’re protecting people’s homes and health. It is a rewarding and fun place to work because of that.”

Like everyone in a leadership position at the company (including his CFO brother, Scott, and their corporate attorney brother, Kevin), Brian started as a service specialist in the field (exactly what it sounds like) before working his way up to CEO in 2018. Since then, the company has opened branches throughout New England and was recently named a Best Place To Work by Providence Business News.

In the last five years, the Goldman brothers have doubled the company’s size to 100 employees and spread from Rhode Island and Massachusetts to “infest” Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine.

The SBA recognition highlights how the company has grown without sacrificing its culture.

“We strive to be an overall well-run, well-executed company. We’re involved in our community, and the way we take care of our employees and customers is next-level,” says Goldman. “The SBA award speaks to what we’re accomplishing as a team.”

Goldman’s hard-earned wisdom:

1. Know your numbers. We’ve always focused on our employee and customer experiences. But the other side of that is knowing our numbers to make sure we can afford to do everything we want to do. It’s easy in a family business to do whatever you can for employees and customers, but there needs to be a balance.
2. Slow down. We tried to grow too quickly geographically. We jumped in with both feet and definitely had a couple of tough years. Had we been more methodical in our growth, it would have saved a few headaches.
3. Join a group. I can’t recommend Vistage enough. To have a group of peers to be a sounding board is invaluable. They have been a very steady presence that has really helped.

Related Resources 

Vistage celebrates National Small Business Week

National Small Business Week: Must-read stories of 2024

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