Plant the Seeds

Plant the Seeds by Kirsten McGregor, Principal, Sagax Associates  

We’ve all heard that you need to plant the seeds, nurture the soil, and be patient to reap what you’ve sown. The thing is, waiting months and months for results can be hard.  Remaining consistent in supporting and nurturing those seeds and your garden can be difficult especially in the dormant autumn and winter seasons.  I have an “English Cottage” garden and it has taken years to mature and requires regular maintenance and protection from climbing weeds and hungry rabbits.  English Cottage gardens are unique in that there is always something in bloom throughout the Spring the Autumn with shrubs, bushes, trees, annuals, and perennials.

Why am I going on and on about my garden?  It occurred to me when a few colleagues said they couldn’t believe how busy I was the past few weeks with all the announcements I’ve had for Sagax.  Of course, I’m a mom and a small business owner- so I’m always busy.  But the announcements that have been made over the past few weeks were due to actions and efforts I made in July and August of this year.

I had a great contract with the US Economic Development Administration supporting the US Virgin Islands with their economic recovery for over 2 years.  I ended that contract in July and focused my attention on expanding my business.  Immediately, the University of the Virgin Islands Research Tech Park hired Sagax to work on a few initiatives and now we are discussing expanding our support role for them.

Sagax had worked with an economic development company based in Austin to support them with economic recovery and resilience research prior to our contract with USEDA.  This company was purchased by Ernst & Young and is now known as EY Economic Advisory Services.  We had been partnering with EY on a few proposals, but in September of 2021, Sagax went through the EY vetting process to be an official subcontractor.  We’ve already worked on two major exciting projects with them and look forward continuing to work with this fantastic team.

A few weeks after I ended my contract with USEDA, the same agency announced innovative and transformational American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding opportunities.  I made sure to become as well-versed with these Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) as possible.  I went back to USEDA regulations, standard “terms and conditions,” and other grantmaking guidance so I could support clients with these NOFO’s.  I’ve reviewed several grant applications and provided technical assistance to organizations across the country. But this would not have been possible without continue to work with my network and keep my expertise on USEDA programs.

Also in July, I had applied to the US Small Business Administration to be a certified woman owned business under their new certification process.  I had previously had the company certified under the SBA self-certification process. I decided to take the extra time and supply additional financial documentation to SBA for “economically disadvantaged” certification. I had to provide additional documentation and received conditional approval from SBA in the fall, but partner companies indicated I should wait until I receive official final approval from SBA to go after contracts with this designation. We were officially notified in January!

In late December, I received a huge recognition by being named as the “Next 1000” Startups by Forbes Magazine.  Forbes originally reached out to me in August wanting to learn more about my business.  Sagax has been around since 2013, so it’s certainly not a traditional startup.  However, Forbes indicated that my scale-out my company during the pandemic and the services we provided were of interest to them.  Throughout the fall, Forbes reached out to me with interview questions and follow ups for information on Sagax.  I wasn’t sure if I would make the final list or not.  I was pleasantly surprised to hear that we were named.

In August, I applied to be a Counselor of Real Estate.  It was a very thorough application, and the approval process was pretty intense.  Similar but different to the SBA certification process and the EY vetting process.  After some interviews and references, I received notification of certification as an official Counselor of Real Estate (CRE).  And in January, we had our first introduction meeting, and I was interviewed on the CRE thought leader podcast in January.

In August, we submitted a proposal in response to Southeastern Connecticut’s Enterprise Region (seCTer) request for proposals to updated their 2017 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS).  After the procurement process, we were awarded the contract in October and were able to attend their annual meeting (in person!) in late November where we had a windshield tour, navy base tour, meetings with stakeholders, kickoff meeting, and I was the “keynote speaker” for their annual meeting. It was so fantastic to meet people in person and see first-hand all the wonderful assets Southeastern CT has. We are hoping to do more work in Connecticut and work on more CEDS projects in the near future.

With all this work, we’ve had to build our core Sagax team.  Cora has always been by rock providing much needed administrative support.  Sydney started with me in the beginning of this scale-out as well, but as a graduate student at Columbia, she needed to focus on academic-based work.  The timing worked out perfectly and she returned in January! She wears a lot of hats but works on research-based projects and business development.

We also brought on someone new in January, Sarah Beyers, who is a sustainability consultant.  She is quickly learning the ropes and working on several projects. The growth that occurred over the late summer and autumn required us to bring on additional talent.  In addition to our core team, we are also working with dedicated project-based subject matter experts for data dashboards, geographic information systems, online storyboards, Spanish translation and interpretation, podcast and webinar production, graphic design, marketing and publicity, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and other seasoned economic development consultants.

Now we are partnering with companies on several proposals and projects.  The Better Business Bureau had reached out to us in August as a private company reached out to them to understand our credentials.  Through that process, Sagax became an accredited Better Business Bureau company with an A+ rating.

So you see, with all these relatively recent announcements, the seeds were planted several months ago.  It’s taken patience and determination to grow this business. It certainly does not happen overnight.  I am looking forward to bringing on more people to our team, partnering with other companies on projects, and supporting more clients around the country while we recover from the pandemic and become resilient to future economic disruptions.