Eugene, Ore. (PRWEB) May 22, 2014
Palo Alto Software, creators of small business planning and tracking software, won the Small Business Administration award for Oregon’s family-owned small business of the year.
The award recognizes small businesses that have demonstrated long-term success after being transitioned from one family member to another. Businesses were chosen based on profit margins, employee growth and community involvement.
Palo Alto Software’s founder, Tim Berry, started the company in 1988 after noticing a lack of reasonably priced business planning tools available for small businesses. He created an extensive library of software offerings used by businesses worldwide over the 19 years as CEO. In 2007, he passed the business leadership onto his daughter, Sabrina Parsons.
“We’re so honored to be recognized for our efforts to make the ownership transition smooth and successful,” said Parsons. “Throughout our company transition, we’ve made many changes to our product offerings and marketing efforts, but we’ve stood by our goal to help small businesses grow and become successful.”
After becoming CEO, Parsons transformed many of Palo Alto Software’s product offerings to a cloud-based software tool called LivePlan, and launched Bplans.com, the company’s business planning blog. Palo Alto Software has since witnessed 106% growth in revenue for in the past year for LivePlan alone, and 24% growth in employees over the last 18 months. Berry continues to play a significant role in Palo Alto Software’s success, often working with outside organizations to mentor small business owners.
"Sabrina has done a fantastic job creating modern software for Palo Alto Software customers while still sticking to the heart of what we do as a company," said Berry. "Our number one priority is to help small businesses grow and succeed long term, and with LivePlan and Bplans, Sabrina has been able to reach more entrepreneurs than ever before."
Parsons and the rest of the Palo Alto Software team are also known for their efforts to mentor small business owners, entrepreneurs and students both locally and nationwide. The company organizes dozens of business planning classes and pitch competitions each year at universities, SBA offices and other entrepreneurial organizations.
“Palo Alto Software provides small businesses with a necessary tools for business growth and development,” said SBA Region 10 Administrator Calvin Goings. “Founder Tim Berry helps spread his knowledge about business planning through SBA.gov’s community blogs.”
Palo Alto Software was honored at a Small Business Administration award ceremony Thursday in Portland.
About Palo Alto Software
Palo Alto Software, Inc. has been creating best-selling business planning software for over for twenty years. LivePlan, the company’s flagship product, is a SaaS (software as a service) solution for business planning and small business management. LivePlan offers small businesses a dashboard to help them see how their business is doing, in real time. Palo Alto Software's Bplans.com and Mplans.com sites provide award-winning free content, tools, and advice for small businesses to help them start, run, and grow their companies. Palo Alto Software has been the market leader in its category for over 18 years and has served well over 2 million entrepreneurs in 180 countries. It was founded in 1988 by business planning expert Tim Berry. Sabrina Parsons has been the company’s CEO since 2007. Parsons successfully expanded its service offering into the cloud with LivePlan. Palo Alto Software is a privately-owned corporation based in Eugene, Oregon.