Marcella Hurley, the new director of the Small Business Development Center at UCCS, holds a black belt in Shotokan Karate.
Those who understand karate know it is a discipline involving aspects of mind and spirit, not just fighting capability. The self-awareness Hurley gained through the discipline helped solidify core values in the philosophy she brings to her job.
“Finding your core and building from that,” she said, “puts a small business owner on sure footing when planning the startup and operation of a productive company.”
All facets of life need to be based on core values, Hurley said, to maintain balance when the environment shifts and changes. A life based on external factors will lose balance when those factors change.
The SBDC operates as a part of the College of Business, and meeting faculty and administrators was an encouraging experience. She said she found ethics, standards, and giving back to the community to be high priorities in the college’s classes and practices, and very much in step with her own philosophy.
“Incredible people with incredible values,” she said.
Appointed to her new position on May 16, Hurley is in charge of developing strong relationships between the university community and various business, economic development, and government agencies in the state and region, including the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration and the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Her responsibilities include providing business counseling and training to business clients as well as assisting the state director in developing private and public sector initiatives that provide services to the small business community.
Hurley said she became very interested in small business development about 2005, referring to small businesses as “the life’s blood of our economy.” She said her experiences in central South Dakota, counseling small business enterprises in rural areas and leading the Center of Excellence in Native American entrepreneurship, proved that strong relationships are based on honesty and trust and a sharing of core values. Understanding this goes a long way to managing successful businesses. Entrepreneurs who delivered on their promises, maintaining attitudes of honesty and integrity, she said, add value to the community and to the economy as a whole.
Hurley served more than six years as regional director of the Central South Dakota Small Business Development Center, taught at various colleges and universities as an adjunct faculty instructor, and published many articles on entrepreneurship. She created a strategic plan for the Nebraska Healthcare System, was a member of the University of South Dakota School of Medicine Administrative Council, was a partner in a large mortgage bank and an executive management consultant for the banking, medical and transportation communities.
Hurley graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree completed a master’s in business administration at the University of South Dakota.
She looks forward to serving a wide range and variety of individuals seeking the services of the SBDC, including veteran entrepreneurs, emerging and creative industries and existing businesses planning for expansion or reinventing their business model to compete in a changing marketplace. Hurley finds her mission to help them on their way gratifying, helping them to find their core values and build on them.
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