8(a) program offers a broader brush.

When Melanie Breeden set out to make an indelible mark on the business world, she found an invaluable ally in the Small Business Administration.

Since opening in 2003, Cherokee Painting LLC has performed beyond her dreams. The commercial industrial paint contractor has landed jobs including school districts, the local Job Corps and Tinker Air Force Base, with contracts ranging from $30,000 to $1 million.

"It just took off," Breeden said. "I've got people with the right experience working for me, and I've got the management side of things covered here at the office. And having the SBA backing me up every step of the way has been a huge asset."

Cherokee Painting is nestled in an older residential area in Midwest City, Okla., on the eastern side of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The business is a block away from a busy retail street and a mile from Rose State College--where Breeden met Mike Cure, a business counselor with the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center.

Her single-floor warehouse buildings, painted dirty yellow with terra-cotta red highlights, are surrounded by a small fleet of white pickup trucks and vans with the company's logo on their sides. If the company continues to grow, Cherokee Painting might acquire neighboring lots, she said.

But the facade isn't a top priority: "We don't have to impress the public. We could have our warehouse in the middle of nowhere, as long as we have the materials and labor to get the job done," she said.

Breeden has even set aside her own office decor until this year. She promised herself a few comfortable furnishings and wall decorations for Christmas, but the price tags are still hanging on shelving behind her desk. The desk itself is a folding conference table.

Her spare surroundings aren't for lack of funds. Her second year of business grossed about $1.2 million; her third year, $3 million; and the last couple of years have grossed about $5 million each. Breeden is projecting more than $6 million this year.

The first year, though, kept her on the edge of her seat--needlessly so, Breeden said with hindsight.

"I knew the benefits of being 8(a) certified, so I didn't really have anything to worry about," she said. "I guess my toughest question at the time was, is this year of paperwork and all the steps I have to go through really going to be worth it? But I knew it would in the end."

The SBA 8(a) Business Development Program for minority and woman-owned small businesses helps with a range of training and services, including access to federal contracts.

Breeden began exploring going into business after leaving the Oklahoma Tourism Department, which she had joined at age 19 as a clerical trainee. She retired at 41, shortly after getting married, and took a year to figure out what to do with her life. She got involved in husband Danny's painting business, taking care of his books and gaining a new perspective on management.

That's when she started taking seminars at Rose State and struck up a working relationship with Cure. She had a goal: start a business of her own and gross $1 million by her second year. And the surest path to success was 8(a) certification and government contracts, Breeden said.

"Normally you have to be in business for at least two years before you can earn your certification, but because I had retired from the state Tourism Department as the assistant director and general manager of Oklahoma Today magazine, I had the management background to have the two-year waiting period waived," she explained.

Breeden sold her house and was able to put $26,000 of that money with a small-business loan from Local Oklahoma Bank for $40,000 with a six-month payoff. She was back in the black and turning a profit before the first year was over. Her first prime contract was a day-care center for $1,500.

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"What Mike (Cure) showed me was that if I got my 8(a), I could become my own prime contractor, instead of working through someone else," she said. "I can manage my own affairs and I don't have to wait for someone else's jobs."

With Cure's help, Breeden discovered she could qualify as a HUBZone business, and because of her Cherokee heritage, a Native American business.

A business in a HUBZone--which stands for historically underutilized business zone--can get preferences on federal contacts because it's in a distressed area in need of job creation.

"It's phenomenal what they've been able to accomplish in such a short time," said Cure, Rose State SBDC director. The SBDC, funded in part by the SBA, offers free and low-cost training to small businesses.

Cure said Breeden's background made for an easy transition to entrepreneur--she had managed a staff and budget at the magazine. But all that aside, Cure said Breeden has the one aspect that virtually guarantees success.

"She had the right attitude, from the first day I met her," Cure said. "After our first conversation, she said, 'You just tell me what I've got to do and I'll do it.' That's the key."

Breeden plans to continue developing Cherokee Painting for several years with her husband, whom she hired as general manager. "We're thinking of retiring at some point, so we don't want to get so big that we don't feel good about walking away from it," she said.

BREEDEN'S GREATEST FEAR?

"It can be very scary when you grow fast, going from almost nothing to managing larger operations. It's kind of like when you're poor and you don't have anything; once you make it, you're afraid of letting down all those people who rely on you for their livelihoods. And you're always wondering if you can handle it."

Cherokee Painting LLC * 807 Jet Drive, Midwest City, Okla. 73110 * (405) 610-7620 * www.cherokeepainting.com Founded 2003 * 30 employees * 2007 revenue: $5 million+