US SDA Deputy Administrator highlights small business growth in rural regions amid National Small Business Week

BOX ELDER, S.D. (KOTA) – It’s National Small Business Week, and as part of the National Small Business Week Roadshow, the US SBA Deputy Administrator is stopping by two small businesses in Western South Dakota on Monday and Tuesday. The first stop for the deputy administrator is a veteran-owned business in Box Elder.

With almost 90,000 small businesses in South Dakota, companies like VRC Metal Systems, founded in 2013, continue to innovate what being a small tech business in the state means.

“We do a lot of DOD work, so we work with all the services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard. We work with nuclear power companies; we work with conventional power companies and space companies,” VRC Metal Systems CEO and co-founder Rob Hrabe explained.

The idea for the cold spray products didn’t come out of the blue. It was reinforced after an Ellsworth Air Force Base commission was meant to find new technologies for an aging aircraft facility.

“I learned from that effort; I was a consultant on that, and I learned there’s a real need for the transition of technologies out of laboratory environments into operational use or operational products,” Hrabe continued.

The journey the idea of a cold spray has taken from 2010 to now, in 2024, couldn’t have been done without the investment of state and federal governments.

“When we are investing in new industries, batteries, and others, it is going to create an expansion in the market where companies like these can actually even have stronger prospects for growth,” US SBA deputy administrator Dilawar Syed said. “That’s why it’s so critical that we promote innovation capacity within the entrepreneurship community in our country, both in the metro regions and also in underserved rural regions.”

The success story of VRC Metal Systems is what the US SBA encourages, not only across the country but in those underrepresented rural regions.

“So, this is an exciting time for us to build those industries for us to welcome new businesses and build legal systems that can raise South Dakota in the region,” Syed expressed.

According to the Biden Administration, 17.2 million new business applications have been filed as of April 29.

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