February 25, 2026

Greater Grays Harbor Inc. (GGHI) held its annual membership meeting at the Aberdeen Rotary Log Pavilion on Tuesday with CEO Darrin Raines reviewing 2025 and upcoming goals and priorities moving forward. Raines remarked that GGHI held 27 ribbon cutting ceremonies last year. He also noted a marked increase in GGHI website traffic with a surprising amount coming from China. Raines said the primary focus of GGHI right now is strategic planning on how to help increase overall business in Grays Harbor for 2026.  

Keynote speaker Kyle Todd, from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Washington, stressed that the SBDC is a low- or no-cost resource for advising small business owners. In 2025, SBDC conducted over 3,500 individual training events with a 97% satisfaction rating from business owners.  

The Washington SBDC is a resource for expert advising, management training and market intelligence, and SBDC business advisors offer one-on-one, no cost, confidential advising to help people make informed business decisions in many areas of specialty and experience.  

Small business consultant Hugo Nicolas from the Governor’s Office for Regulatory Innovation and Assistance (ORIA) followed Todd’s keynote address. ORIA is designed to help people navigate Washington’s environmental and regulatory systems. He touted their office’s Small Business Guide as the most viewed topic on their website and most used publication produced by the office and urged people to refer to business.wa.gov for any Washington state business questions.  

Nicolas works with employers, entrepreneurs, and community partners to help businesses navigate regulatory requirements and access state resources, and helps improve customer service across state agencies, expand multilingual business guidance, and reduce regulatory barriers.  

The business resource forum’s final speaker was Lisa Smith from the Washington State Microenterprise Association (WSMA). The WSMA tasks itself to help Washington’s smaller businesses find funding and financial support through entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) in Washington state. Smith pointed out that fundhub.wa.gov is her favorite site on which to get started. According to Smith, there are over 400,000 businesses with five or less employees and WSMA caters directly to these businesses to help find grants and micro loans as these businesses typically don’t qualify for normal business loans.  

Smith has collaborated with policy makers, lenders, manufacturers, port districts, tribal partners, leaders in sustainability, workforce/economic development teams, and ESOs around the country to grow the field of microenterprise development. These ESOs provide business training, technical assistance and/or financing to microenterprises so they can earn more, innovate, grow, and contribute to Washington State’s economy.  

The next GGHI Business Forum will be the ever-popular Lunch with the Mayors on Tuesday, March 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen. This event is the community’s exclusive opportunity to meet with the mayors of Grays Harbor County. Attendees will hear from each mayor during a roundtable discussion as they present their recent accomplishments, priorities and plans as well as answer questions from the floor.

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To learn more, contact:

Lisa Smith, Executive Director

Washington State Microenterpre Association

lisa@wamicrobiz.org