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Weekly UpdatesIn an effort to help promote small businesses in the Detroit area and provide valuable exposure for five companies doing exceptional work to help improve our local economy, the Detroit Regional Chamber introduced the Five on the Rise awards as part of the chamber's Small Business Club this past winter.
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The Small Business Club was created by the chamber in response to feedback we received from our members, who voiced a need for a forum to conned and support one another to remain stable and grow. The Small Business Club provides this opportunity, as well as valuable networking and professional development tools that small businesses need most to get an edge and stay relevant in a turbulent market.
The Five on the Rise awards program was developed to celebrate entrepreneurial spirit in our region and recognize five small businesses for their positive achievements and contributions to the community. The companies who have won a Five on the Rise award are shining examples of successful businesses and serve as inspiration during times when many of the news stories coming out of the area have a negative connotation.
Winners of the inaugural Five on the Rise awards are:
1 Revenue Growth: McGraw Wentworth, an employee group benefit brokerage/ consulting firm
2 Innovative Products and Services: Identity Marketing ft Public Relations, a full-service agency specializing in businsess-to-business communication strategies and programs
3 Staff Expansion & Development: Nemeth Burwell, P.C., a law firm counseling clients in management labor and employment law
4 Young Professional-Owned Business: Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes, a restaurant featuring 20 crepes made by hand, each with a story
5 Global Expansion: Global IT. a company specializing in language training, cultural training, translation solutions and expatriate relocation services
Revenue Growth
McGraw Wentworth
Hitting the Bottom Line
With a client base mainly consisting of Michigan-based businesses, McGraw Wentworth has continued to grow financially even in a down economy. Since 1997, this employee benefits group firm has consulted with mid-sized organizations and human resources staff in putting together an effective, efficient and well-communicated employee benefit program for their clients.
Founded by Thomas McGraw and William Wentworth, McGraw Wentworth serves a diverse client base - including privately- and publicly-held firms, municipalities, school districts, non-profits, manufacturers, services, retailers and wholesale firms. This has ensured the firm's stability and growth, resulting in a twelve-year average annual growth rate of 148 percent, growing from year-one revenue of $282,000 to $11,711,000 in 2008.
"There was not any one client engagement that pushed us over the top or gave us the rocket boost to success," McGraw says. "It was rather a constant chipping away and building our business, hiring the right people and having initial early success winning client engagements in 1997 and 1998 so we could tell early on that we were on the right path."
McGraw Wentworth has grown from three to 67 employees in more than a decade of business. In addition to offering a focused strategy that is customized to fit the client's needs, McGraw insists that the firm has "the very best people in employee benefits consulting.
"We spent a lot of time identifying, recruiting, retaining and developing the best people in employee benefits consulting in Southeastern Michigan," he says. "We have a culture that believes in excellence and anticipating the next question of clients, seeing around corners [and] getting things done ... We have a great group of people who are very self-disciplined in what they do and very focused in getting things done."
This combination has led to recent successes even in Michigan's challenging economy. McGraw Wentworth has won several new consulting engagements including Citizens Bank in Flint and Tecumseh Products in Tecumseh.
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"We continue to build our business engagement by engagement, one client at a time making sure that as we grow we never loose sight of the needs, expectation and services that our clients of eight or 10 or 12 years need," McGraw says. "And we take care of them every bit in an excellent fashion as we do a new client."
-Julianne Mattera
Innovative Products and Services
Identity Marketing & Public Relations
Leaving a Mark
Fueled by the desire to succeed or fail based on their own talent, drive and professional connections, Mark Winter and Paul Kesman left their cushy public relations jobs and created Identity Marketing & Public Relations. Ten years later, this entrepreneurial spirit remains a key philosophy, driving employees and creating satisfied clients.
Each account person works with a book of clients, essentially running their own business within Identity. There are several right ways to do things successfully, says Tom Nixon, a partner at Identity, and we empower each of our employees to explore those and make the right calls to deliver results.
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"When you empower account people in account load, that translates into the client getting service beyond what's expected, which translates into client retention and employee retention," Nixon says. "We've never had an employee quit, and the clients we started with on day one are still clients today."
But delivering a quality product while staying ahead of the curve have also been key.
"We're full-house in-house," Nixon says. "Everything you need, we do it - media relations, Web development and design, graphic design, copy writing and editorial services, social media strategy and development, advertising, direct marketing strategies, branding. There's really very little that we outsource, and we try to keep everything under our roof."
And when new disciplines within marketing, public relations or advertising emerge - such as the most recent boom of social media - Identity quickly makes it their mission to master new trends and technology and implement it for their clients.
"The success of the agency has been chiefly owed to our ability to evolve with the evolving marketing disciplines very quickly," Nixon says. "This evolution is going to happen, the question is how quickly do companies evolve. When something is changing or evolving, we are very very quick to adapt, to understand and then to implement for our clients."
Most importantly, Identity's focus is "outcome based," says Nixon.
"We are focused on results. We don't get tied up necessarily in the sausage making in the process and procedures in plans, and we don't try to impress clients with planning and road-mapping," Nixon says. "Many of our clients are small enough that they don't have a ton of money or time for results, and they expect results right way."
-Julianne Mattera
Staff Expansion & Development
Nemeth Burwell, P.C.
Growing a Strong Firm
With 17 years of practicing employment law under its belt, Nemeth Burwell, P.C. has grown from a party of two to 35 employees overall. After building up a reputation for expertise in the area of labor and employment law, attorneys passionate about practicing in that field flock to the firm.
"I've been told by people that joined the firm, 'I want to work here because of the attorneys that are already working here ... [the] depth of labor and employee knowledge and because of the synergy that already exists here,'" Nemeth says.
But it all began when Patricia Nemeth embarked on her solo employment law firm practice in 1992. A few years later, she was joined by Linda Burwell. And, in 1998, the firm became Nemeth Burwell, P.C.
"We started building the firm in a strategic and conservative basis," Nemeth says. "We didn't hire people just for hiring sake. It was planned growth. We hired when it made sense to do so."
Nemeth emphasizes the company was strong from the beginning due to their dedication to finding people that fit with the firm.
"Having the right people around you is important and having good relationships between people is important and that starts at the top," Nemeth says. "In addition to finding the right people is mentoring them. We love to see people shine and reach their full potential, so finding the right people and then mentoring them is key."
While for the most part their expansion has been steady, the past couple years have been booming compared to previous years. Since 2007, Nemeth Burwell hired two new partners from outside of the firm and promoted one senior attorney to a partner. In addition, they've hired additional support staff, as well as five attorneys, some of whom brought their own book of business to the firm.
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"Generally, business has been generated by Linda and myself," says Nemeth. "But we added a couple attorneys where they have brought their own book of business into the firm. This is what has been really exciting."
And the growing firm has recently moved into a new home - just completing a move from a 6,500 square foot location to a 15,000 square foot location.
"I feels like a new start for our firm with all our people together and with new people on board," Nemeth says. "I consider that a major success for our firm."
-Julianne Mattera
Young Professional-Owned Business
Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes
Giving Detroit a European Flair
From French teacher to creperie entrepreneur, Torya Blanchard has brought her personality to the table. After teaching French for five years, Blanchard envisioned the perfect location for a petite walk-up creperie shop on John R Street, just around the corner from the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. And in July 2008, Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes was born.
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