Hundreds of Florida SBDC consultants, small businesses and state leaders gathered for the 2026 Small Business Success Summit this month, sharing advice and resources. The year’s conference, celebrating the 50th birthday of the Florida SBDC Network, was held at the Sunseeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor. Key themes included success strategies, how to use AI in a small business, and resources available to help small businesses.
Keynote speakers and breakout sessions spanned topics like government contracting, manufacturing, marketing strategies, tax strategies, raising capital, AI and more. Gregg Britton, Florida SBDC Network director, reminded the audience that 99.8% of Florida’s companies are small businesses and 60% of Floridians work for one of them. Tiffany Esposito, representative for Florida House District 77, said there are 3.8 million small businesses in Florida. Imagine if they all just create one new job this year, she said.
Florida SBDCs around the state all provide confidential, no-cost business consulting and training to small businesses. Last year they provided over 100,000 consulting hours. These efforts helped small businesses increase revenues by $585 million and access $535 million in capital.
At the Florida SBDC Networks’ awards presentation held just after the summit, three FSBDC at FIU consultants were among those honored for their impactful work. The Florida Team Spirit of the Year award went to Ray Juncosa, for demonstrating true team spirit and self-motivated leadership. “Juncosa was recognized for his efforts to strengthen regional collaboration, improve quality of client services, and share best practices across the network.” Shelly Bernal, who has helped FSBDC at FIU clients access over $50 million in capital, received a Capital Access Lifetime Achievement Award. Luis Batista, with Florida APEX at FIU, was a Government Contracting Lifetime Achievement Award winner. He helped clients secure of $250 million in contracts.
With 42 keynote talks and breakout sessions at the 2-day Summit, plus a reverse trade show, we couldn’t be everywhere. However, what follows are five things we learned at the Summit:
No. 1: AI is not a strategy; it is a tool. Plus, there is much more to working with AI than asking it to ‘write like me.’
Always keep the human in the loop and “trust your gut.” Your process guides the technology, not the other way around, said keynote speaker Joshua Frank, Managing Partner of RSM Federal and author.
Indeed, AI was a hot topic throughout the conference. Incorporating your voice as the brand voice in your AI takes work, said Ebony Langston, the founder of The Patient Experience Strategist and Momentum Books & Media, who gave practical advice about training AI to become a true copywriting partner, starting with providing several writing samples – start with 3-5 but the more the better – and clear instruction on tone, rhythm, cadence and perspective.
In another session, Marc Farron of Florida SBDC at FGCU suggested small businesses need an “AI charter” available to all that will guide AI adoption that includes robust security. Train staff and encourage a feedback loop for continuous improvement. Don’t let your employees go rogue using AI agents on personal devices, he warned. And as others have said, always keep a human in the loop.
No. 2: Florida has talent. Florida small businesses benefit from our state’s collaborative workforce development efforts.
A talented and ample workforce is essential for business growth. For example, CareerSource provides over 100 career centers that help businesses source talent and provide grants for training employees. It also brings together business and education partners to ensure training is responsive to industry needs. SelectFlorida assists small businesses with exporting through specialized training and trade missions. Veterans Florida provides veterans with entrepreneurship training as well as tools like SkillBridge, enabling service members to work with civilian employers during their final six months of service.
The panel also highlighted specialized efforts for industries like defense and life sciences that need specialized talent, such as state college programs that have grown from 5,800 offerings to 9,600 since 2019. Where to learn more: CareerSourceFlorida.com, FloridaJobs.org, SelectFlorida.org, and VeteransFlorida.org.
No. 3: ‘Your ultimate competitive advantage is a strong culture.’
That was shared by Jim Weber, former CEO of Brooks Running. Weber took the helm of Brooks on the brink of bankruptcy and helped transform it into a $1.6 billion industry leader. “Culture is your values in action.” Another competitive advantage is focus. “The smartest leaders have incredible focus but also curiosity, like Warren Buffet.” Throughout the keynote, he compared starting and running a small business to running a marathon.
No. 4: There isn’t just one playbook for success.
College Hunks Hauling Junk showed that the “Get Rich Slow” scheme can work quite well too. “We call it a 20 year overnight success,” said Omar Solimon, co-founder of the Florida-born success story now with over 200 franchises nationwide. Indeed, 30 percent of College Hunks’ business is repeat business from word of mouth. College Hunks still write handwritten letters to customers after providing a service.
No. 5: Support is out there for small businesses: Tap into it.
Throughout the conference, programs like Florida SBDC’s network of business consultants, APEX for contracting, FloridaMakes for manufacturing, and CareerSource offerings were highly recommended. In a session titled The Capital and Collaboration Playbook, leaders from the Florida High Tech Corridor, an economic development agency focused on helping high-tech businesses launch and grow; Florida Commerce, which highlighted various funding programs for small businesses; The Federal Laboratory Consortium, which has technologies available for licensing at 60 labs across Florida; and the USPTO, the one-stop shop for patents and federally.
Did you know this? “We have a very strong network of investors in this state, with two inventors clubs – the Inventors of South Florida and the Tampa Bay Council of Inventors. And then we have the National Academy of Inentors, which was born out of the University of South LForida and the Inventors Hall of Fame,” said Elizabeth Dougherty, a 35-year veteran of the USPTO.
READ MORE from the Small Business Success Summit. We’ve got a rundown from FSBDC at FIU consultant Roslyn Rice’s talk called Pricing for Profit HERE.