Tulsa’s commercial core owes its creation to people who were willing to take a chance in business, Mayor Monroe Nichols told a Tulsa Regional Chamber audience Thursday.
“It is built into the DNA of who we are as Tulsans and who we are as Oklahomans to make a way out of no way, and it starts with great innovation,” he said.
Nichols was among the speakers at the Tulsa Small Business Connection meeting, which celebrated Oklahomans who captured 2026 U.S. Small Business Administration awards.
The Tulsa Small Business Connection is a Chamber-backed program designed to educate, empower and expand small businesses.
“Oklahoma small businesses are the engine of our economy and the foundation of a free and prosperous nation accounting for more than 99% of all Oklahoma private sector employers and creating nearly two out of every three new jobs nationwide,” said Fernanda Pedraza-Schmitt, director of the Oklahoma district office of the SBA.
“As our nation approaches its 250th anniversary, we are reminded that the American economy has always been built from the ground up. It grows when individuals are willing to take an idea, invest their effort and build something new, individuals just like all of you in this room.”
Broken Arrow’s Greg Costley was named Oklahoma Small Business Person of the Year. Other SBA state winners were Tulsa’s Tracy Copeland of TGI Enterprises (Entrepreneurial Success Award); Sand Springs’ Stacey Schmidt of OGI Process Equipment (Manufacturer of the Year); Partner Tulsa’s Jonah Toey (Small Business Champion); Gregg Dimery of Fenway Enterprises (Encore Entrepreneur of the Year); Rod and Mia Doyle of Allied Community Services (Oklahoma Veteran Small Business of the Year); and Shelly Boren of Shelly’s Stigler Café (Oklahoma Rural Small Business of the Year).
Oklahoma has about 400,000 small businesses, Pedraza-Schmitt said.
“We also have to cultivate what we have here,” Nichols said. “Even some of the biggest industries we have here, the ones that were created here, started out as small businesses. So, they are the bread and butter and backbone of our economy.”
