Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center leader Jim Carroll to retire

The chamber is conducting a statewide job search to replace Carroll. Hampton Roads Chamber President and CEO Bryan Stephens called Carroll the quintessential professional dedicated to helping small businesses succeed.

“His work ethic is unparalleled and his 25 years of contributions to the small business community and this chamber are unequaled,” Stephens said. “We cannot thank him enough and wish him well in his retirement.”

Navy provides a foundation

This is not the first retirement for Carroll, who served 21 years in the Navy and retired at the rank of commander in 1995.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Carroll earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Villanova University in 1974 and received his commission. He earned three graduate degrees including international relations from Salve Regina University, national security affairs and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a Master of Business Administration in international business from City, University of London’s business school.

“I knew I was getting out — retiring, if you will — and I decided that I needed to speak business as well as military,” Carroll said.

His naval career took him around the world, including duty stations at the West Coast, Bahrain, Japan, and England, but it was Hampton Roads that ultimately won his heart and became home. When it came time to settle down, Carroll declined a position in his home state to be back in Norfolk. His two kids loved the region.

The same year he left the Navy, he started his own business, Carroll’s Consulting, and landed a few contracts including one with the Small Business Development Center.

In 1996, he was hired as an adjunct professor to teach a postgraduate course at the U.S. Naval War College in Norfolk. Carroll maintained that role one night a week for 24 years.

In 1997, he added his “day job” at the Small Business Development Center and chamber.

Adapting and advocating

Over the years, Carroll said he has witnessed many changes in the business world.

“Obviously when I started, nobody knew about this thing called the internet,” he said. “And now you see how computers have basically come into our lives and taken over our lives — especially for small business owners; it was a brave new world for them.”

One thing Carroll said he noticed in the late 1990s was how people derisively looked at small businesses as mom and pops.

“I felt like I was Saul preaching to the Philistines trying to convince them that small businesses are really important,” he said. “That message has taken ahold across the country, thank heavens, and they now see the value of small businesses not only as an economic driver, but also as a quality-of-life driver.”

Carroll said he’s happy that small-business owners now get the recognition they deserve. With four congressional districts represented within Hampton Roads, Carroll said 93% of the employers are small businesses that employ more than 516,000 people.

“That equates to about $20 billion in payroll,” he said. “Now tell me again that that’s a mom and pop.”

His favorite aspect of the job was meeting and talking with small-business owners and learning about their ventures.

Carroll also noted that the past two years amplified 30 years of technological progress with a modified lexicon including BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store) and BOPAC (buy online, pickup at curbside), hybrid offices and remote work.

As he gears up for retirement, Carroll said he will miss his colleagues both in Hampton Roads and throughout the Virginia Small Business Development Center network.

“Every one of them had an impact on my life,” he said.

Fellow SBDC colleagues Bill Holloran, business adviser, and Debra Hamilton Farley, associate executive director, echoed equal sentiments about Carroll.

“Jim is a very dedicated hard worker and extremely dedicated to the SBDC,” Farley said. “The void will be felt by many.”