Fairfielder Deborah Pratt Burns Wins Alignable Local Business Person of the Year for 2nd Consecutive Year

FAIRFIELD, CT, & BOSTON, MA -- Fairfield Resident Deborah Pratt Burns, Founder, Literacy to Legacy Mentors, Connecticut’s first behavioral finance education and mentoring company, has been chosen as Alignable’s 2023 Local Business Person of The Year in Fairfield for a second year in a row it was announced today by Boston-based Alignable, North America’s largest online small business referral network with 7.8 million members across 35,000 communities. The award recognizes business leaders who have gone above and beyond to guide peers and support small businesses through continued economic challenges.    

“I am humbled and honored to win this coveted award, and congratulations to all the winners. My heartfelt thanks to my clients, colleagues, and small business owners, who voted for me and provided testimonials.” Burns said. “As a small business champion, I remain committed to helping companies build market share.” Burns is one of 60 Connecticut winners. According to the Connecticut Small Business Economic Profile, more than 350,000 small businesses are registered in the State.   

According to Alignable’s President and Co-Founder Venkat Krishnamurthy, “Local business owners are the heart and soul of their communities, and the contest generated incredible peer testimonials, demonstrating that small business owners are stronger together.” 

The 2023 contest is the most popular competition since Alignable launched it in 2019, marking a 61% jump in participation over 2022. All told, 3,750 communities across the U.S. and Canada selected 3,976 winners this year (including ties), resulting in 1,400 more winners than last year.  More than 226,000 votes and close to 51,000 testimonials were received, praising more than 125,000 local leaders for helping their peers and communities through a turbulent year with many challenges, including high inflation, rising interest rates, and recession fears. 

In fact, 67% of small businesses are still trying to reach pre-COVID revenue levels, underscoring the importance of contest winners continuing their work to help even more businesses bounce back from pandemic-era and post-COVID issues. 

Literacy to Legacy Mentors mission is to educate, inspire, and motivate people to master their financial lives, think more abundantly and live more prosperously at any age through personal finance education and mentoring.