Small biz director retires from CCC

After making a speech at her retirement ceremony, Sandra Taylor-Sawyer awaited a long line of people with a gracious smile. Each person looked more elated than the next to congratulate her on a storied career working for the Small Business Development Center at Clovis Community College. 

If Taylor-Sawyer ever wondered if she made an impact on local small businesses, the sea of people at CCC's Eula Mae Edwards Museum last Tuesday afternoon confirmed it. 

Following a career that spanned three decades, Taylor-Sawyer will be remembered for giving practical advice on accounting and other complex business operation matters to small business owners. In doing so, she helped them navigate obstacles that helped them realize their dreams – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"In this line of work, you have to be calm and reasoned and measured in your approach with businesses," said Trish Livingston, a former coworker. "And she's certainly all of that."

Taylor-Sawyer said small business owners are experts in what they're selling. The problem, however, is they sometimes struggle to navigate bookkeeping, taxes and marketing. When stress from this aspect is compounded with the stakes of providing for their families, small business owners often struggle with high levels of anxiety and feel overwhelmed. 

So, Taylor-Sawyer, with a strong accounting background, helped them understand unfamiliar terms and concepts, track revenue streams and stay on top of their finances. Without executing these aspects, small businesses place themselves on a grim trajectory, she said. 

While she thrived at this, her ability to listen, provide emotional reassurance during times of uncertainty and help people find their purpose is what drove her. 

"One question that we like to ask people is, what motivates them ... a typical answer is money," Taylor-Sawyer said. But after prodding, small business owners often reveal something "deeper."

"It's starting this business so that my children can see that they can make it, that they can be successful, that they can do something that's different from what our family has done," Taylor-Sawyer said.

While describing this, a smile grew across her face. "I do get joy from helping people," she said. 

The knack for helping people – and accounting skills – can be traced to being raised in Clovis' First Church of God in Christ, she said. 

According to her sister, Retha Taylor-Parsons, the family was involved with the church's Help Ministries, providing prayer, clothes and food to any members struggling. 

"We believe the Scriptures when it said that we are helpers of one of another," Taylor-Parsons said. 

And it was here where Taylor-Sawyer observed her mom, Ruby, who was the church's treasurer. 

"I was just in awe with what she did, just the different tasks, just dealing with money and doing the accounting, the bookkeeping for the church. And that just intrigued me," Taylor-Sawyer said. 

Though Taylor-Sawyer had helped businesses for multiple decades, she solidified her legacy by helping small businesses secure grants and loans during COVID-19. With New Mexico's stringent COVID-19 restrictions decimating revenue, several small business owners worried if they'd survive.

"A lot of the businesses really had it tough," said Raymond Mondragon, a local director of economic development. 

Randy Petty, part owner of Clovis Furniture Exchange & Mattresses Too, should know. 

"We weren't allowed to have people in the store to look at stuff," said Petty, who feared that he had to let employees go or close when the pandemic started. "I was very concerned. I didn't know what was going to happen."

So, Petty connected with Taylor-Sawyer, who helped him utilize a "payroll loan" which "helped me keep my guys on payroll when I didn't have any income coming in," he said. Petty added that a "small business economic disaster loan" allowed him to "pay off my inventory that I already had and didn't have income to pay for, and was able then to purchase more as things began to pick up after we had closed."

A few years later, with his business in a stable place, Petty said he felt eternally grateful for Taylor-Sawyer. 

While Taylor-Sawyer is looking forward to doing accounting work full-time now in her "retirement," it's stories like this that she'll miss the most. 

"I'm a firm believer that God partnered me with Sandra ..." Petty said.