4 questions with the Prior Lake Businessperson of the Year

Prior Lake American

The Prior Lake Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of the coveted Business of the Year and Businessperson of the Year awards during the annual meeting on Jan. 17.

Jenny Nagy, the community involvement coordinator for Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools was named Businessperson of the Year.

Nagy organizes all adult enrichment through the district including classes for adults as well as events involving the community like the career and job fair or community festival in the fall.

Nagy has worked for the district for nearly 14 years and has been involved with the chamber since the beginning of her position.

Here are four questions with Nagy, the 2018 Businessperson of the Year.

1. Why do you think it’s important to promote local businesses?

I just think it’s important to support our community. I didn’t probably have that feeling before I held this position. There’s really something special about being a part of the community and being a part of the school district. You see those people around town and so you want to help them ... you want to support them. It doesn’t mean you can always shop local, but I would say that I try to shop local when I can. I like to see those businesses around town versus other kind of chain businesses and chain restaurants.

2. What would you say are lessons you’ve learned in your career as a businessperson?

Prior to my current position, I did work in a more business related field so now that I work in the education field it was really special that somebody thought of me as a businessperson. One of the ongoing beliefs of community education is that we support local businesses and we support local programs and we don’t duplicate programs. I think that has influenced how I feel about being a local businessperson as well.

3. What lessons do you feel like you’ve learned in your career that you might pass on to someone else?

I think it is all about networking. You get to meet people and you learn about them and hopefully you can support them and support their business — but if you can’t do that today, it might be a week from now or even a month from now, you have an opportunity where you can share information about their business to others or you have an opportunity to support them. I would say it’s really all about getting to know people and wanting to build those relationships. When you build those relationships, then you want to support what they’re doing.

4. How did you feel when you won Businessperson of the Year?

I felt incredibly honored. I mean, I knew I had been nominated and even being nominated ... a whole list of wonderful people were nominated and so, it was totally incredible.