Shannon Baird had been an entrepreneur for two years when referrals and sales began to slip at her Orem-based custom ring company, Shannon.
The company has rebounded, with more revenue in the first four months of 2025 than the entirety of 2024. All it took was a boost of confidence and community, in the form of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses education program at Salt Lake Community College.
“Standing here three months later, I am not the same person I was, and my business is not the same business that it was,” she told the crowd at the local program’s 35th cohort graduation ceremony recently in Salt Lake City.
The program, she said, allowed her to move her ideas “from just being a dream to an actual plan for growth,” and the other program participants gave her the confidence to be successful.
“I realized I had been an entrepreneur all along,” Baird said, “and this program gave me the knowledge, resources and community to do it better. No one can build a business completely on their own. This program and this community ensures that none of us has to.”
The Goldman Sachs 10KSB program has been in Utah for 13 years and celebrated its 1,000th graduate at the ceremony.
Asahi Pompey, global head of Goldman Sachs’ office of corporate engagement and chair of the company’s Urban Investment Group, noted that the Utah program began during the country’s economic recovery. “While everyone else was really focused and saw a moment of crisis, Goldman Sachs saw a moment of opportunity,” she said.
The 1,000 graduates in Utah employ a total of 24,000 people and have combined annual revenue of over $2 billion. The 15-year-old national program has advanced beyond its goal and now has more than 16,600 graduates.
Pompey commended the local participants for their dedication.
“It’s hard running a small business. … I know that it’s a struggle sometimes to get through the day,” she said. “I know that you write your paycheck last. And I know that while our program encouraged you to work on your business instead of in your business, did life stop while you were in the program? No. Absolutely not. It was your third shift of the day.”
The program’s success prompted Goldman Sachs to announce a statewide expansion.
“So, statewide expansion across Utah, so that rural small businesses, businesses outside the metro Salt Lake area, can now benefit. Businesses from Iron County and Summit County and Daggett County can now all access this best-in-class educational program, access to capital and an all-important peer network. Why are we doing this? Because Goldman Sachs is bullish. We’re bullish on the economic power and potential of Utah.”
Gov. Spencer Cox was appreciative of the expansion.
“Some of the best entrepreneurs I know are in rural Utah,” Cox told Pompey. “It’s hard to start a business on the Wasatch Front; it’s even harder to start a business in a rural area. So, this news, to me, is a dream come true. I love this program. I believe in it so much. And my only lament was always that it wasn’t available to everyone, and now it is, so thank you.”
Cox said that in talks with program participants, what emerged was a sentiment of “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” They lacked some education about business, and in the rush to get the day’s job done and make next Friday’s payroll, they also were unaware of resources available to help.
The governor said people, like those at Goldman Sachs, need to constantly be “planting and watering” to ensure new growth.
“The dollars-and-cents return on investment on your balance sheet probably doesn’t look as good here as it does in some of the other investments, but long term, your vision is that,” the governor said. “You’re betting on these people, and these are people worth betting on.”
Just as Utah emerged from tough economic times in 2007-08 and during the COVID pandemic, Cox expressed optimism about program graduates doing the same in today’s uncertain economic environment.
“Yes, there are clouds on the horizon — not on the horizon, they’re here — but this is your chance because of your confidence, because of the knowledge that you now possess,” Cox told them. “Others are going to fall away, and that leaves more space and more opportunities for those who are prepared and understand how to survive through difficult times. You now have those tools to do that.”
Natalie Kaddas, CEO of Kaddas Enterprises, was part of the local program’s first cohort. “I never could have imagined the transformational impact that this program would have on me and my business,” she said.
When she took over the company from relatives in 2008, it had two weeks’ liquidity and no business on the books. The Goldman Sachs program “could not have come at a better time for me,” she said.
“I had been focused on just managing the decimal point and I was coming up for air, but we were not thriving. We were just surviving,” Kaddas said. “The program taught me to step back, work on my business and on my growth plan. And that put us into a mode of ‘thrive.’”
The company now exports to 15 nations and is launching a major project this year in Kenya. Its manufacturing space has ballooned from 15,000 to 92,000 square feet.
SLCC President Gregory Peterson said having 1,000 local program graduates is “huge.”
“That means you’re everywhere. … That makes Utah such a better place for us moving forward,” he said.
“Challenges will come, but you can do it. You’ve built that confidence that you can weather whatever comes moving forward. And you can do that because you are part of a network. You are part of the community that will continue to support you.”
The 10,000 Small Businesses program began in Salt Lake City in 2012 with a $15 million commitment. Nationally, the program’s more than 16,000 small businesses represent over $27 billion in revenue and 307,000 employees. The program’s 12-week curriculum features lessons that can be immediately implemented into businesses; an actionable growth plan; and a network of likeminded entrepreneurs.
The rural Utah expansion is part of a new $100 million Investment in Rural Communities initiative that launched in 2023. It includes $75 million to Community Development Financial Institutions to provide loans to small businesses, $15 million in funding for the business education programs at local community colleges, and $10 million in access to capital capacity-building grants.
As part of the rural expansion, the Utah cohort will start in October and represents the initiative’s 11th state to date, on track to meet its goal of reaching 20 states in five years.
Details about the program are at https://10ksbapply.com/.