Liz Gray

Liz Gray, State Director of NH Small Business Development Center (SBDC), embraced the pandemic needs of small businesses around the state. She has brought big ideas as solutions to big issues, and made them happen. At the beginning, Liz recognized that people needed a place to go to find out about what businesses needed to know about doing business during the pandemic, so SBDC built a COVID assistance webpage that has had over 35,000 pageviews and began sending weekly newsletters. SBDC’s business advising team met at least weekly to continually learn about the changing relief programs; essential businesses and reopening; and how to survive and thrive. SBDC worked with SBDC has offered hundreds of webinars on COVID relief programs and other pertinent topics, and developed new eCourses and videos. We helped 7,178 businesses in 2020. Liz also saw the need for quantifying businesses’ pandemic journey so that SBDC and economic development organizations can better address current and future business concerns. SBDC recently released results of Phase 2 of a 3-part Business Resiliency Survey produced with the UNH Survey Center, which had 1,611 respondents from 174 NH cities and towns.

Next week starts a never-been-done-before (as far as we can tell!) 10-week Small Business and Community Resiliency Academy, presented in partnership with UNH Cooperative Extension, offering a speaker/panel series and cohort support for developing or updating businesses’ resiliency plans. Currently, over 200 people have registered, including people from elsewhere who are interested in bringing the idea to their state. In addition, SBDC, in partnership with NH Tech Alliance, just launched the Cybersecurity Initiative, bringing proven cybersecurity resources and a webinar series to the Granite State. Another key piece that Liz has brought to the NH business community during this crisis has been the ability to attract and work with partners all across the state, including a new Chambers of Commerce Collaborative partnership. This adds strength to projects and embeds the work done into the fabric of the business community. Liz Gray is truly deserving of being part of the Women and Girls of the Pandemic.