Innovator Stories
As Executive Director of EforAll Berkshire County, Deborah Gallant helped new business owners start and stay afloat through a pandemic, connecting them to resources and learning opportunities. Now, as Manager of Program Innovation for EForAll’s sister organization, Entrepreneurs Forever, she’s planning to make an even bigger impact, giving small business owners everywhere the tools and support they need to succeed.
Innovator Stories
Meet Deborah Gallant
As Executive Director of EforAll Berkshire County, Deborah Gallant helped new business owners start and stay afloat through a pandemic, connecting them to resources and learning opportunities. Now, as Manager of Program Innovation for EForAll’s sister organization, Entrepreneurs Forever, she’s planning to make an even bigger impact, giving small business owners everywhere the tools and support they need to succeed.
The roots of Gallant’s new role come from the developments she made leading EforAll’s efforts in the Berkshire region, one of 12 communities served by EforAll. All EforAll sites offer pitch competitions, a 12-week small business accelerator program, and other standard resources. Leading the Berkshire chapter through a pandemic led Gallant to develop additional programming small business owners needed—and were asking for.
A longtime business coach and Columbia MBA, Gallant is known for a no-nonsense approach. “I knew there was a lot more for people to learn,” she said. Partnering with John Lewis and Team R3SET, she developed a digital business survival course that helped business owners go fully online, covering digital marketing basics. That program helped around 50 businesses, and its success led to other programs, teaching local entrepreneurs how to apply for COVID relief funding, wellness during a pandemic, and a “Deep Dives” series on multiple topics like certification as a minority- or woman-owned business, how to hire employees, new changes in Google Analytics, and other topics.
“EforAll has this credibility and trust we’ve built up,” she said. “It made perfect sense to expand our offerings to meet the needs of the small business community in every way we could.”
Entrepreneurs Forever is a sister organization to EforAll, and offers facilitated monthly peer group learning and accountability. In her new role, Gallant will create programming that will touch an even larger audience outside of the Berkshires. By understanding the needs of the solo and small business owner, EF can offer learning and support on of-the-moment topics like cyber security or recent changes to social media advertising. “I wanted to come up with programs to take a young business and bring them further along, and help them in a collaborative way,” she said.
EforAll and Lever have similar missions but different audiences—Lever’s focus on scalable, innovation-driven enterprises and EforAll’s focus on small business end up creating a complementary ecosystem for people looking to expand on what they’re doing, find new customers and investors, and solidify their skills. “It’s good to be in contact, and collaborate and understand where each of our strengths are,” Gallant said. “We want to make sure entrepreneurs know all the opportunities available to them.”
Gallant said she will miss the direct, everyday contact she had with the Berkshire business community, but is excited to develop new learning opportunities that will benefit them. “There’s a heck of a spirit here. People have a can-do attitude,” she said. “I feel really good that EforAll is on a stable foundation, staff-wise and financially. I feel really proud about the work I did there.”
Find out more about Entrepreneurs Forever: https://www.entrepreneursforever.org and EforAll at www.eforall.org.
The roots of Gallant’s new role come from the developments she made leading EforAll’s efforts in the Berkshire region, one of 12 communities served by EforAll. All EforAll sites offer pitch competitions, a 12-week small business accelerator program, and other standard resources. Leading the Berkshire chapter through a pandemic led Gallant to develop additional programming small business owners needed—and were asking for.
A longtime business coach and Columbia MBA, Gallant is known for a no-nonsense approach. “I knew there was a lot more for people to learn,” she said. Partnering with John Lewis and Team R3SET, she developed a digital business survival course that helped business owners go fully online, covering digital marketing basics. That program helped around 50 businesses, and its success led to other programs, teaching local entrepreneurs how to apply for COVID relief funding, wellness during a pandemic, and a “Deep Dives” series on multiple topics like certification as a minority- or woman-owned business, how to hire employees, new changes in Google Analytics, and other topics.
“EforAll has this credibility and trust we’ve built up,” she said. “It made perfect sense to expand our offerings to meet the needs of the small business community in every way we could.”
Entrepreneurs Forever is a sister organization to EforAll, and offers facilitated monthly peer group learning and accountability. In her new role, Gallant will create programming that will touch an even larger audience outside of the Berkshires. By understanding the needs of the solo and small business owner, EF can offer learning and support on of-the-moment topics like cyber security or recent changes to social media advertising. “I wanted to come up with programs to take a young business and bring them further along, and help them in a collaborative way,” she said.
EforAll and Lever have similar missions but different audiences—Lever’s focus on scalable, innovation-driven enterprises and EforAll’s focus on small business end up creating a complementary ecosystem for people looking to expand on what they’re doing, find new customers and investors, and solidify their skills. “It’s good to be in contact, and collaborate and understand where each of our strengths are,” Gallant said. “We want to make sure entrepreneurs know all the opportunities available to them.”
Gallant said she will miss the direct, everyday contact she had with the Berkshire business community, but is excited to develop new learning opportunities that will benefit them. “There’s a heck of a spirit here. People have a can-do attitude,” she said. “I feel really good that EforAll is on a stable foundation, staff-wise and financially. I feel really proud about the work I did there.”
Find out more about Entrepreneurs Forever: https://www.entrepreneursforever.org and EforAll at www.eforall.org.