Daily Reporter 3/10/06

As a young child in a family of 25 brothers and sisters, Sallie Sylvester had the ambition to excel and develop her life to the fullest, she says. She turned that drive intoa career in 1977 when she started her first business, and now is enjoying success with Sallie's Wholesale & Construction Inc.

The company is a small wholesale construction material supplier and contractor, performing general and subcontracting services in the building and highway industry. It provides equipment, maintenance services and construction materials to general and sub-contractors. The company also assembles and installs equipment, and offers a labor pool of general and skilled employees. Its highest annual sales figure was $2.5 million, according to Sylvester.

She said her company has been helped by several of the SBA's training programs, including its 'Basic Executive 7j Training' and 'Advanced Executive 7j Training,' and she encouragesall small businesses to take advantage of 'these excellent programs.'

She also says she would remind entrepreneurs that business 'is not to be taken lightly. Getting involved with the right programs may assist your efforts, but the overall effects arebased on your ambition to excel. If you only do what you have always done, then you only have what you've always had.'

Sylvester attributes her success to 'hard work, lots of growing pains, all of the excellent programs available to small businesses,and working with the many corporations that have embraced the concept of a small business development program.'

She says owning her own business has changed all aspects of her life.

'It has improved my life socially, economically, politically, and in addition has improved my sense of self worth. I now play a more positive role in the community.'

When asked what her likes and dislikes are about being in business, she gives a short, to-the-point response: 'One answer for two questions: I am my own boss.'

As to her plans for the future, Sylvester said she is seeking more long-term procurement opportunities that will cause sustainable growth and expand her business into a more solid corporation 'as one of the leading suppliers and contractors within my region.' "This article and the accompanying photograph do not constitute or imply an endorsement by SBA of any opinions, products or services of any private individual or entity."