Eight business owners recognized during National Small Business Week

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Eight small business owners have been recognized for their contribution to the economy.

Each represents different sectors and their years of career productivity range from three to 60. They all are from three of the four Rio Grande Valley counties – Cameron, Hidalgo, and Starr.

The distinctions were given during an award presentation held Thursday, May 2, at the Brownsville Events Center. It was part of this year’s National Small Business Week, which is a nationwide event held to honor the top entrepreneurs each year.

The eight awardees are:

–        Woman-owned Small Business of the Year: Kids at Play Learning Center, Linda Bunton.

–        Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Meet Texas, Julian Jimenez.

–        Family-owned Small Business of the Year: Bill Bunton Auto Supply & Machine, Brian Robert Bunton.

–        Home-based Small Business of the Year: Rose E. Estrada.

–        Minority-owned Small Business of the Year: Ricardo Salazar.

–        Rural Owned Small Business of the Year: In Style Beauty Salon, Petra Garza.

–        Veteran Owned Small Business of the Year: Ricardo Salazar.

–        Small Business Person of the Year: NVS Corp, Nicolas V. Soto.

The award recipients were from Pharr, McAllen, Mercedes, Alamo, Rio Grande City and Brownsville.

Jimenez’s company, Meet Texas, is what he calls the Rio Grande Valley’s first social application.

“It’s an automated networking application that connects people that share common interests,” he said. “We started the company in 2020 and launched it in 2023.”

Jimenez, who lives in McAllen, said Meet Texas has four employees and is in the process of moving to Austin.

On the other end of the business spectrum was Mercedes resident Bill Bunton.

He said he opened the business 60 years ago and it’s going well after all that time.

The awards ceremony was hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership and was attended by several hundred people many of whom came to support their bosses and/or companies.

Brownsville Mayor John Cowen, Jr., welcomed the crowd, saying that small businesses and their owners are the backbone of any local community.

Others offering support included Nathan Burkhart, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, and entrepreneur Michael Wilson.

The honorary guest was Jennifer Kim, an associate administrator with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Field Operations.

She said billions of dollars have been approved to assist small business during the nearly four years of President Joe Biden’s administration.

Kim said 17 million new small businesses opened nationwide during this time, of which more than 1.4 million are from Texas alone.

“It’s very important to recognize their contribution to the nation’s economy,” she said. ‘We have been doing this for more than 60 years.”

Before the ceremony started, a number of elected representatives made remote remarks about the winners and their accomplishments.

They included U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzales, Monica De La Cruz and Henry Cuellar.

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