COMO
LOVES
SMALL BIZ PAGE 44
BARRY ROEWE TrueSon Exteriors
Chamber Small Business of the Year Finalist 2017
Meet CBT's 20 Under 20 PAGE 35
Erica Pefferman President, The Business TImes Company
“
THE ENTIRE TEAM AT GFI DIGITAL, FROM SALES, TO service, to IT support, always takes care of us and our printing needs. When we are getting ready to go to press it is critical that our office runs smoothly. That includes the ability to print and review proofs. Andrea is continually monitoring our printing needs and recommending solutions that work for us. With the print reliability and advanced color management options that GFI has provided, we can concentrate on our core mission, the quality of product we deliver to our customers - Erica Pefferman, The Business Times Company
Andrea Paul Senior Account Manager for GFI Digital
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SIMPLIFIED. OFFICE EQUIPMENT MANAGED PRINT SERVICES MANAGED NETWORK SERVICES ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
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WHO WILL TACKLE THE PROBLEMS MOST PEOPLE SHY AWAY FROM? ®
One in five Boone County residents lives in poverty.
We surround our community’s most critical problems. We find every dollar we can to address them. But we are more than fundraisers. We are the hand raisers. The game changers.
WE WILL, WHEN WE LIVE UNITED.
Because change doesn’t happen alone. Join us.
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Heart of Missouri United Way fights to improve lives in our community. To join the fight, visit uwheartmo.org. GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER.
Heart of Missouri United Way
S
COMO
LOVES
SMALL BIZ PAGE 44
BARRY ROEWE TrueSon Exteriors
Chamber Small Business of the Year Finalist 2017
Meet CBT's 20 Under 20
mall Business Week has always been one of the most fun weeks of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce year. Each finalist has a party, and there’s the big reveal — you basically don’t get any work done the entire week if you’re a finalist, but it’s worth it. From getting to know new friends and new businesses to unlimited platters of snacks, it’s a great week. This year, Small Business Week has a new meaning for us, as our parent company, The Business Times Company, was named the 2017 Small Business of the Year by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. Wow! I think we’re all still in shock over this amazing recognition. Though I’ve always enjoyed Small Business Week, I left this particular week with several great takeaways I’m still thinking about:
PAGE 35
ON THE COVER
TrueSon Exteriors has a reputation for beautiful work, and there’s no better way to showcase that than photographing owner Barry Roewe outside his home, a TrueSon original. Photography by Anthony Jinson.
We talk about how supportive the business community in Columbia is, but there’s a difference between thinking something and knowing it. The sense of camaraderie the week creates — not just for employees on one team, but between all the finalist teams — is fantastic. The fact that dozens upon dozens of people who have absolutely no skin in the game show up for these seminars is stunning. I felt support from friends, sure, but I also felt support from people I’d never met. Celebrating Small Business Week is a huge accomplishment in itself, and Columbia has been doing it well for 25 years.
Life moves fast and work seems to move faster. It’s always rewarding and worthwhile to stop for a moment and assess how far you’ve come and envision where you want to end up next. The SBOTY process gave our team a chance to slow down, look around, and celebrate our successes. Take the time to recognize your clients, partners, or friends in the business community with a nomination for something. Most nomination forms for business or businessperson awards take a minimal amount of work on the nominator’s part. You don’t know the exponential value of the 20 minutes you spend on a nomination form — even if the business doesn’t end up winning, they’ll be tickled and proud to be nominated, and that will help create more success in their future. Plus, it just feels good to give the recognition to someone else. Whether it’s CBT’s 20 Under 40 awards or the various Chamber awards, look around you and identify the those who deserve recognition. Throughout the years, I’ve gotten a chance to build relationships with the teams at AnnaBelle Events, Harold’s Doughnuts, Tompkins Homes & Development, and TrueSon Exteriors. They’re all immensely successful and talented, and they also have fantastic people behind those brands. We are honored to be in their company, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading about each of their businesses on page 44. We’ve committed to telling the finalist’s stories each year, so that means tooting our own horn a little, too. Lastly, we hope you’ll join us at CBT’s Top of the Town party on June 28 at Logboat Brewing Co., presented by Columbia Regional Airport. If you’ve never been, it’s a fun evening outside with food, drinks, music, and lots of COMO biz love. You can buy your tickets on Eventbrite. Thanks for reading,
12 JUNE 2017
@ Co l u m b i a B i z
SMALL BUSINESS WEEK 2017 The Chamber’s Small Business Week is always full of fun. Here were some of my favorite things about the week.
Being reminded of my favorite Harold’s doughnut. There’s nothing quite as amazing as the Harold’s doughnut topped with homemade sprinkles. It’s the juxtaposition of the soft doughnut and the justcrunchy-enough topping that make this an unforgettable ball of dough.
The décor at AnnaBelle Events’ party. Specifically the clever takehome gift of colorful party hats filled with wildflowers. It was an unexpected and delightful gift that everyone at the party was talking about. Anne Churchill puts us all to shame with that cuteness!
The gorgeous pool and view at The Gates. Tompkins Homes & Development has created a wonderful community there, and the pool and shared-use cabana were a great setting for their small business seminar.
Photographing Barry Roewe of TrueSon Exteriors for the cover. We took the cover photo the morning of the Small Business Week final party. He has a beautiful home and was kind enough to offer it up for a backdrop. It’s always a treat to work with a genuine, laid-back person like Barry.
Brenna McDermott, Editor brenna@businesstimescompany.com
/Co l u m b i a B u s i n e ss Ti m e s
EDITOR'S PICKS
Co l u m b i a B u s i n e ss Ti m e s .co m
Ed i to r @ B u s i n e ss Ti m e s Co m p a ny.co m
EDITORIAL Erica Pefferman, Publisher Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Fran Patrick, Associate Publisher Fran@BusinessTimesCompany.com Brenna McDermott, Editor Brenna@BusinessTimesCompany.com Matthew Patston, Managing Editor Matt@BusinessTimesCompany.com DESIGN/CREATIVE SERVICES Jordan Watts, Editorial Designer Jordan@BusinessTimesCompany.com Keith Borgmeyer, Art Director Keith@BusinessTimesCompany.com Kate Morrow, Graphic Designer Kate@BusinessTimesCompany.com Cassidy Shearrer, Graphic Designer Cassidy@BusinessTimesCompany.com MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES Deb Valvo, Marketing Consultant Deb@BusinessTimesCompany.com MANAGEMENT Erica Pefferman, President Erica@BusinessTimesCompany.com Renea Sapp, Vice President ReneaS@BusinessTimesCompany.com Amy Ferrari, Operations Manager Amy@BusinessTimesCompany.com
Inside the Issue Twitter Chatter Caleb Rowden @calebrowden Way to go @ColumbiaBiz and @epeff! Well deserved #MidMOForward Harold’s Doughnuts @haroldoughnuts Congrats to @epeff & @columbiabiz on winning the Small Business of the Year award! Thanks for all you do for COMO! Dr. Ty Douglas @DrTyDouglas Looking forward to speaking at the @ColumbiaBiz 20 Under 20 Awards banquet today! Honored to share with gr8 high school seniors #inspire House of Brokers @HOB_Realty Congratulations to Sara Harper for being featured in the Columbia Biz Times for May!
Around the Office
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Keith Borgmeyer, Tim Brown, Anthony Jinson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Beth Bramstedt, Anna Comfort, Jerry Dowell, Sarah Everett, Al Germond, Nikki McGruder, Monica Pitts, Tony Richards, Sean Spence, Jennifer Truesdale, Anne Williams, Megan Whitehead INTERNS Sarah Bruenning, Niamh Cremin, Sade Howell, Kendall Lappe, Maya McDowell, Hunter Myers, Allison Moorman, Alexanderia Rinehart, Kennedy Robinson SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rate is $19.95 for 12 issues for 1 year or $34.95 for 24 issues for 2 years. Subscribe at columbiabusinesstimes.com or by phone.
PARTY TIME!
Ain’t no party like a CBT party! Join us for Top of the Town, presented by Columbia Regional Airport. Be there on June 28 at Logboat to recognize outstanding businesses in Columbia! Get your tickets at Eventbrite.com.
LIKE THE OSCARS, BUT FOR BUSINESS MAGAZINES. CBT took home three regional Azbee Awards this year – for the redesign of CBT, feature design, and feature writing. We’re so excited!
Contributors
The Columbia Business Times is published every month by The Business Times Co., Copyright The Business Times Co., 2008. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited. OUR MISSION STATEMENT The Columbia Business Times and columbiabusinesstimes.com strive to be Columbia’s leading source for timely and comprehensive news coverage of the local business community. This publication is dedicated to being the most relevant and useful vehicle for the exchange of information and ideas among Columbia’s business professionals. CONTACT The Business Times Co., 2001 Corporate Place, Suite 100 Columbia, MO, 65202 (573-499-1830) • columbiabusinesstimes.com
Beth Bramstedt
Sarah Everett
@BethBramstedt
@EverettSarahL
Jennifer Truesdale
Anna Comfort @Anna_LifeAndTea
Correction In last month's issue, an article on Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity said the group offers lowinterest home loans to clients. Habitat's home loans are actually no-interest. Write to CBT editor Brenna McDermott at Brenna@BusinessTimesCompany.com COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 13
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14 JUNE 2017
JUN E 2017 VOL. 2 3 / ISSUE 12
TA B LE OF CON T EN TS
The Industry and Trade Issue 12 FROM THE EDITOR 13 INSIDE THE ISSUE 16 CLOSER LOOK 18 BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS 20 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT Mid-Missouri Legal Services
22 CELEBRATIONS
The Callaway Bank
26 MOVERS & SHAKERS 29 P.Y.S.K. Susan Hart, Huebert Builders Inc.
32 11 QUESTIONS
Bob Pugh, MBS Textbooks
33 OPINION 69 ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH 10 Best Practices to Keep Your Team Winning
71 DIVERSITY
The “Why” behind Diversity and Inclusion
72 ASK ANNE
Small Business HR Simplified
75 POLICY
44
Drug Monitoring Program Overdue
77 BUSINESS SMARTS
Getting More from Online Reviews
78 MARKETING
Making Your Email Marketing Work
Sweet Small Business Week The Business Times Company is honored to be the 2017 Small Business of the Year, but we’re even more honored to be included among our amazing fellow finalists, like the above-pictured Harold's Doughnuts.
35
52
81 NEW BUSINESS LICENSES 82 ECONOMIC INDEX 83 DEEDS OF TRUST 84 BY THE NUMBERS 88 THIS OR THAT Nick Allen, Manor Roofing
90 FLASHBACK
The Conley House
60
20 Under 20
Closing the Deal
‘New Collar’ Jobs
Meet the group of talented high school grads who are taking off from Columbia to go make their mark around the country.
After a couple high profile business recruitment deals in recent months, we took a look at how recruitment works on a state and local level. (It’s hard.)
How Moberly Area Community College and State Technical College are mixing up their strategy to train job-ready graduates.
BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
Closer Look
Parkside Skate Shop
KwikDish
East Campus Bed and Breakfast opened in March and had more than 30 nights booked by May. The building, on University Avenue, was originally going to be turned into student housing before Joy Piazza stepped in to run it as a bed and breakfast. “It’s a quiet house in the middle of a lively area,” says Piazza, “a great option for an audience that wants an intimate, more personalized experience.” The home is equipped with four bedrooms and a common area, and each guest receives a homemade Paleo breakfast each morning. Before moving to Columbia, Piazza was involved in the arts and music scene in Kansas City, and she’s toying with the idea of hosting concerts at the B&B to support local musicians. Piazza also hopes to partner with businesses in the community like restaurants and transportation services to create package deals for her customers. “There are so many untapped resources in this town,” she says.
Chris Bailey had been skateboarding for 20 years when the opportunity arose, in 2009, for him to open Parkside Skate Shop. He was quick to jump on board. The shop is located just across from Cosmo Park — home of Columbia’s only skate park — and provides boards, gear, and shaved ice for anyone interested in the world of skateboarding. Through his activities with Parkside, Bailey has worked closely with the City to give skateboarders the same rights as cyclists. “The trend of skateboarding is like a wave, always going up and down,” says Bailey. “Right now it’s pretty mainstream, but it’s not always like that.” The shop hosts events about once a month, as well as a day camp during the first week of August. During the camp, kids are given a blank board to decorate before skating at the park. According to Bailey, starting young is one of the best ways to keep the sport alive — although anyone can grab a board and get rolling.
Columbia has been a hotspot for Midwest foodies for years now, and that’s exactly what AJ Shrestha, founder of KwikDish, had in mind when he chose it as the Midwest launch site for his business. KwikDish is a platform that will connect customers to local restaurants and cooks through a series of special deals offered at lunchtime. Through the purchase of a meal plan, customers will use tokens to order snacks, lunches, and other special dishes from cooks around town, which the customer can then pick up. Shrestha hopes the app offers great food at an attractive price while simultaneously creating foot traffic for the restaurants. “The local restaurants need support, and that will come from the community,” he says. His goal is to not only increase the number of customers, but the diversity of them as well. Offering meals starting at just $6 gives customers an incentive to try something new, bringing in string of guests that restaurants may have otherwise missed.
Contact: 573-416-0212 Website: facebook.com/eastcampusbb Address: 1315 University Ave.
Contact: 573-447-5283 Website: parksideskateboards.com Address: 1614 Business Loop 70 W.
Contact: 573-230-3674 Website: Kwikdish.com
East Campus Bed and Breakfast
Are you an entrepreneur? Are you sprouting a new business? Tell us about it at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 16 JUNE 2017
C LOSER LOOK
Live2Lead CoMo
Dunkin’ Donuts
360 CoMo
Leadership training is a valuable asset for any business, regardless of its size. But attending worthwhile leadership conferences can be costly, especially if travel is required. This was one of the many reasons Angela Hooper decided to bring the Live2Lead conference, a nationally renowned event hosted by leadership coach John C. Maxwell, to Columbia via a live streaming event on October 6. It’s also a big part of why Valerie Zumwalt, of CoMo Leaders, chose to join the team. “We don’t have to travel to a big conference. We can get all of the same content in a day in COMO,” Zumwalt says about the event. The first half of the day is spent watching the Live2Lead speakers via a web screening. The second half is focused on workshops. “It’s only a return investment if you can implement [what you learn] into your life,” Zumwalt says. Columbia is the only city in Missouri to currently host a Live2Lead event, but the Columbia team is interested in branching off and hosting in St. Louis and Kansas City as well. They do not yet have a venue for the event.
The atmosphere of the new Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins downtown fits in just right with the rest of The District. Modern décor and a smiling staff are just a couple of the things the franchise brings to the downtown community (not to mention the countless ice cream, donut, and coffee options). “We spent a lot of time talking to other business owners downtown,” says Anup Thakkar, owner of both the Providence and downtown locations, “[and] we’ve gotten great support.” The business is already on its way to opening two more stores by the end of the first quarter next year. While the prospect of opening the new stores is exciting to Thakkar, he is most looking forward to the opportunity to give back. Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins created the Joy in Childhood Foundation, which gives to children’s aid organizations. Keeping revenues in Columbia and returning them to beneficial programs is one of the business’s goals. “We want to return the favor to our community,” Thakkar says. “Keep the momentum going.”
It can be hard for smaller businesses to compete with bigger corporations in their online marketing strategy, but 360 CoMo wants to change that. Owners Al Belcher and Karen Sicheneder founded the company in April to provide affordable marketing to local businesses. They utilize virtual tours, drone photography, and other traditional and non-traditional marketing techniques. “We are doing everything we can to get [your] phone to ring and get people in the door,” says Belcher. The company focuses on using Google Local Optimization, as opposed to the common global SEO. Because local searches are used when individuals want to learn about the businesses in their area, 360 Como believes GLO offers a smarter choice for local establishments. “SEO is dead because you just can’t compete with multi-million dollar companies,” says Sicheneder. GLO provides smaller businesses a chance to get on the map. “If we do it right,” says Belcher, “the SEO does itself and we help get [your business] above the fold.”
Contact: Valerie@comoleaders.com Website: facebook.com/comoleaders
Contact: 573-476-6341 Website: Dunkindonuts.com Address: 821 Elm St.
Contact: 573-356-5812 Address: 2519 Bernadette Dr. Website: 360como.com
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 17
BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
Briefly in the News JUNE 2017
C OM M U N I T Y
ACT NOMINATED Alternative Community Training has been nominated for a Best Practices award by the Association for Persons Supporting Employment First, an organization dedicated to inclusive hiring practices. “Employment first” means that employment in the general workforce should be the first and preferred option for individuals with disabilities receiving assistance from publicly funded systems. The winner will be announced in June. ACT provides employment services with the goal of preparing and connecting individuals with disabilities to high quality employment and opportunities to excel.
BUS INES S
WOODRUFF C OM M U N I T Y
CAMPUS LUTHERAN CHURCH EXPANDS Campus Lutheran Church began their two-story expansion project with Coil Construction. The project will add 8,400 square feet to the existing campus. CLC was first constructed in 1963 at the intersection of College Avenue and Anthony Street.
BUSINESS
AURORA MOVES FORWARD Aurora Organic Dairy finalized its plans to construct a new dairy processing facility in Columbia, which would create an initial 90 jobs and up to 150 jobs over the next five years. AOD , based in Boulder, Colorado, is a leading producer and processor of store-brand organic milk and butter for U.S. retailers. Construction will begin this year, and AOD expects the plant to be fully operational in early 2019. Missouri competed against four other states for the facility, which will be located on Route B at the Sutter Industrial Site.
REBRANDS Woodruff Sweitzer celebrated its 25th anniversary with a new name and organizational structure. The full-service marketing and communications agency is now simply Woodruff, and the company will soon become employee-owned. By becoming employee–owners, the company says, Woodruff team members are encouraged and free to take the same risks that first led to the company’s establishment in 1992. Woodruff Sweitzer Canada will operate as a sister agency to the U.S. agency and has been rebranded as WS.
“It’s not just giving our employees a sense of ownership. It’s literally giving them ownership. Everyone will have the opportunity to participate in our new employee stock ownership program and be able to share in the success they helped generate.” — Ter r y Woodr uf f , foun d e r, p resident , a n d C E O 18 JUNE 2017
BR I EFLY I N T H E N EWS
H E ALT H
BOONE HOSPITAL LEASE The Boone Hospital Board of Trustees is still considering five options for the operation of Boone Hospital Center, beginning January 1, 2021. The options are to continue partnering with BJC HealthCare, out of St. Louis; partnering with Duke LifePoint Healthcare, MU Health Care, or Saint Luke’s Health System; or operating Boone Hospital Center as a standalone facility. Before making a final decision, the board will conduct public hearings and consult newly elected members. The current lease with BJC HealthCare extends through 2020 and will automatically renew for another five year term unless either party provides written notice of termination in December 2018.
“MU Health Care is pleased and honored to be included among the options being considered by the BHC trustees. We are looking forward to continuing our discussions with the trustees about ways we can work together to advance the health of our community and the patients we serve.” — Mary Jenkins, MU Health public relations manager
CHARITY
H IS T ORY
C H AR IT Y
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS DONATION
BOOK RELEASE
JERSEY MIKE’S SUPPORTS WELCOME HOME
U.S. Cellular announced a $25,000 donation to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia. The check was presented during a beautification event where club members and U.S. Cellular associates helped with weeding, trimming, planting, and mulching. The donation will provide K–12 STEM educational opportunities to club members. The local donation is part of a $1.3 million donation from U.S. Cellular to clubs nationwide.
Local author Dianna O’Brien recently released her book, “From Melon Fields to Moon Rocks,” about the life of the late Charles W. Gehrke, an MU professor who was tapped to analyze the moon rocks brought back from the Apollo missions. In 1968, Gehrke founded ABC Labs, which went on to employ about 300 people. ABC was bought in 2015 by EAG Laboratories, a global scientific services company headquartered in San Diego.
BUSINESS
REACTOR ADDS PARTNERSHIP Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., an international specialist in molecular nuclear medicine, signed a 10-year exclusive supply agreement with the University of Missouri Research Reactor for lutetium 177, or Lu 177, a radionuclide used in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors.
The local Jersey Mike’s sandwich franchise raised $4,898 for Welcome Home Inc. as part of their “Month of Giving” campaign in March. Nationwide, the company raised more than $5.5 million for nearly 150 charities. Welcome Home Inc. is a nonprofit that helps homeless veterans return to society as self-supporting citizens.
“MURR has a proud history of providing research isotopes to industry. Since the early days of targeted Lu 177 research at MURR, our vision has been to reliably supply Lu 177 chloride for research and ultimately produce directly for drug manufacturers. . . . The agreement allows MURR to continue its worldwide research collaborations using this uniquely capable isotope.” — Ralph Butler, MURR executive director COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 19
BUSINE SS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
Above and Beyond Mid-Missouri Legal Services provides legal assistance to low income individuals.
BY MEGA N W HIT EHEA D
EVERYONE NEEDS A LAWYER AT some point in their lives — whether you’re dealing with a divorce or need a will drawn up, professional legal assistance can make your life much easier. Unfortunately that assistance can quickly become unaffordable. And that’s the problem that Mid-Missouri Legal Services wants to solve. Founded nearly 40 years ago with support from The Missouri Bar, the MU School of Law, Central Missouri Community Action Program, and six Mid-Missouri county bar associations, MMLS serves eligible mid-Missouri residents in Columbia, Jefferson City, Fulton, Eldon, Moberly, and more in almost any non-criminal legal issue. “MMLS is the only free legal services provider in central Missouri that represents low-income people in complex court or administrative cases,” says Executive 20 JUNE 2017
Director Susan Lutton. “We provide access to justice to people in more than 1,100 cases each year who otherwise would not have legal help. Unless they have legal representation, most of these people could not prevail in their case, especially if their adversary has a lawyer.”
TRUE NEED It isn’t hard to picture. A family of four is doing their best to live within their means. Mom and Dad both work two jobs, only making enough to feed their kids and save what little they can for their future. A parent is wrongfully terminated from one of their jobs and cannot afford the legal help they need to keep their family afloat. When someone is working their hardest and life throws a curveball at them, services like MMLS can provide the relief of knowing that help is available.
Tyler Levsen is one of the eight MMLS staff attorneys who provide that needed support. He also represents low-income people who are purchasing homes through community redevelopment projects, and he defends homeowners in foreclosure proceedings. Levsen ensures homeowners are protected if lenders fail to provide notice of impending foreclosures. “People fall behind in making mortgage payments often due to various setbacks, such as losing a job or having a health crisis,” says Levsen. “Without MMLS’s assistance, they would lose their homes without even knowing all of their legal options.” Ed Kolkebeck, another staff attorney, represents clients who have complex health care issues. Kolkebeck helps remove obstacles that prevent clients from enrolling in health insurance, giving them an opportunity to get coverage and effectively use
N ON PR OFI T
Mid-Missouri Legal Services FUNCTION Provides free civil legal services to low income individuals and families in need.
FOUNDED IN 1978
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 8
BOARD MEMBERS • Mary Beck • Philip Wooldridge • Deborah Riekhof • Cecilia Young • Truman Allen • Arvids Petersons • Kristin Arnold • Frank Koch • Max Lewis • Derek Hux • Kathleen Burns • Dawn Catron • Kristin Stokely
NEEDS • Attorney volunteers • Law student volunteers
their health care plans. “The federal marketplace and Medicaid systems can be very complicated, and many people aren’t aware of all of the options and benefits that are available to them,” he says. “I help clients by explaining different insurance options and by resolving difficulties that arise when trying to enroll in or use their health care coverage.” MMLS also serves clients dealing with consumer law, domestic violence and family law, elder law, employment law, and public benefits law.
Enter MMLS. The Tuesday and Thursday clinics are held when and where veterans can easily access them. “We’re referred people by the social workers at the VA hospital, by other community social agencies that also work in the VA hospital,” Lutton says, “and often we meet with Ed Kolkebeck people who have called our office, and they can meet us at the hospital on days when they’re going to be there anyway.” Trained attorneys and volunteers are able to counsel veterans and their families in not only consumer issues, but also any other civil legal matter they may RECIPROCAL need help with, including SERVICE protective services, housMMLS’s dedication to the needs of Mid-Missouri is ing law, and health law. on clear display in their The MMLS staff sees it as a Susan Lutton Veterans Clinic. Through a way of returning the favor partnership with the Harry by serving those who have S. Truman Memorial Veteralready sacrificed for others. ans’ Hospital, MMLS holds MMLS ultimately hopes a walk-in clinic for veterans to help to those who can’t and their families to disafford to hire an attorney for a complex legal matcuss their legal issues. Lutton traveled to Washingter that can have far-reachton, D.C. last year to dising consequences. “Withcuss the program’s impact out an attorney, domestic at a congressional briefing. and sexual violence surviThe clinic helps address vors are much more likely legal issues that are comto stay with their abuser because they can't navigate mon among veterans, the court system alone,” which can lead to the disTyler Levsen Lutton says. “Other indiproportionately high number of veterans who are viduals are likely to lose homeless. In large part, this is due to errors their home, custody of their children, their in the collection of debts. “We see a lot of health coverage, or to have judgments people with consumer issues and that’s entered against them for debts they don’t what usually leads to the homelessness we owe. MMLS often is their only hope to presee,” Lutton says. “They don’t go to hearvail in their case." CBT ings, they think ‘I’ve already paid this company for this debt, I don’t have to go to this hearing, this must be an error.’ A default judgment is entered and it comes straight Mid-Missouri Legal Services out of their paycheck. That’s when the 1201 W. Broadway homelessness starts, because they can’t pay 573-442-0116 their rent.” mmls.org COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 21
From left: Josh Stephenson, Kim Barnes, Gary Meyerpeter
1857
1930s
1960
1993
The first bank in Callaway County is established in Fulton.
The Callaway Bank is one of two banks in the county to survive the Great Depression.
The Callaway Bank brings drive-in banking to Fulton with a separate downtown facility.
The bank merges with Steedman Bank to replace services lost to Mokane residents during the flood.
22 JUNE 2017
B U SIN E SS • P EO P L E • I M P R OV E M E N T • F Y I
C ELEBRAT I ON S
The Callaway Bank Combining community values and innovative services.
BY BET H BR A M STE DT | P H OTO G R A P H Y BY TI M B R OW N
IT’S A THURSDAY MORNING, AND THE executive team of The Callaway Bank is gathered around the conference table at their West Broadway location. This board table is a place they find themselves regularly, a place where decisions have been made over the years, and it shows. Made by Elliot’s Custom Cabinets in Fulton, the table has had a productive life, and it bears the marks of the company’s quest to uphold its legacy as the oldest independent bank west of the Mississippi. Every dent and scratch tells a story. Today, the team congregates around it once again, this time to relive the history for their 160-year anniversary and celebrate the values that are still pushing them forward.
RESPECTING THEIR ROOTS Opened in 1857, The Callaway Bank has survived the Civil War, The Great Depression, both world wars, the Great Flood of 1993, and the financial crisis of 2008. Kim Barnes, president and CEO, recounts the Civil War’s effect on the bank. “The founding fathers were scared about the unsettled nature of things, so they took the resources of the bank and, under the cover of night, sunk the gold in a nearby well to protect it,” she says. The money remained there for a few years until the well was pumped dry, and all but one small coin was recovered. While sorting through historical documents, Barnes recently found the original telegram notifying the bank to cease operations for three days during the Great Depression. “It even had the original paper clip attached to it,” she says.
“You have to appreciate where you came from, your roots, in to order to think strategically and know what the future looks like,” says Barnes. She believes the common thread throughout the bank’s history is its progressiveness and innovation. “It’s caring for the client and doing it in a community-minded, humanistic way. You don’t get mired in sentiment, but you honor your roots to build on what’s next. It’s stewardship.” “This bank is 160 years old, and we’re the keepers of it,” adds Jeff Jones, chief communications officer. “We’re stewards of the institution.” “But it’s stewardship with a passion,” Public Relations Director Debbie LaRue says. Barnes agrees — it’s the company’s code of ethics, its set of core values that make it sustainable. Those include fairness, honesty, integrity, and innovation, and they were embodied by their former CEO, the late Bruce Harris. Barnes says Harris was approachable and engaging. He led the bank for 13 years before losing a battle with lung cancer in December of 2012. “Bruce knew that, to stay viable, the institution had to adapt. That’s what would make it thrive,” Barnes says. “His goal was to make an institution that could survive past any one of us.”
HARNESSING INNOVATION Harris’ vision guides the current leadership team and translates into a spirit of innovation that permeates their culture. “We were the first bank in Callaway County to do ATMs, drive-in locations, debit cards, image checking, and a debit card reward program,” Barnes says. “We figure out what we need to do and we go do it.”
1999
2015
2017
The first Columbia branch opens at 1600 Chapel Hill Rd., followed quickly by two more Columbia locations.
The Ashland branch opens at 101 W. Broadway.
The Callaway Bank has eight banking offices, 12 direct ATM locations, and over 24,000 locations nationwide through the MoneyPass Network. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 23
BUSINE SS • P EO P L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
“You don’t get mired in sentiment, but you honor your roots to build on what’s next. It's stewardship.” - K IM BA R N E S , P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O
C ELEBRAT I ON S
vice four routes and between 75 and 100 customers today. “The service is so valuable for our customers because they can stay in their store,” says LaRue. “It was a very innovative idea.” Whether it’s creating a customer care team, adding a local shopping aspect to their debit reward program, developing a seminar to help businesses become more profitable, or starting Callaway Kids’ Bank, The Callaway Bank works to remove barriers between them and their customers. “We’re not transactional,” Meyerpeter says. “We’re in it for the long haul. I think that’s one thing that sets us apart.”
MOVING INTO THE FUTURE
GARY MEYERPETER
JOSH STEPHENSON
They were also the first bank to loan money for student projects. Barnes, who started 30 years ago as the lobby receptionist, recalls the time a grandmother brought in a student requesting a loan. He needed $85 to buy a goat and goat food for his FFA project. “This was post 2008, so there were rules and regulations,” she says, “but the lender thought we needed to do something.” Barnes agreed, and she figured that if one student needed help, so would others. Within 45 minutes, the team had set aside a sum of money and created the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, or YEP for short. “Now when a student comes in and says, ‘I need some money for a project, can you help?’ all we have to do is say YEP!” Barnes says. Over the years, the bank has added additional services as they’ve seen needs arise. Boone County Market President Gary Meyerpeter recalls the time he met several business owners who wanted to use the bank’s services but lacked a convenient branch location. “Bruce thought about the problem, and then he asked, ‘Well, why couldn’t we go to them?’” Meyerpeter says. So the bank created a courier branch that continues to ser-
Meyerpeter will retire on August 31, making way for a new period in the bank’s history. Senior Vice President Josh Stephenson has been selected to take his place. “My time at The Callaway Bank has been a very positive experience,” Meyerpeter says. “But Josh’s network is unlike any I’ve experienced. I have no doubt the bank will be more successful than it’s been during my tenure.” Stephenson, whose branch office is often his truck, will continue to go where his clients need him to be. “Customers are people, not numbers,” he says. “And I’m excited about the opportunity to continue the bank’s success in the Boone County market.” As the meeting comes to a close, the team pushes their chairs away from the table, and Meyerpeter shares a final thought. “At The Callaway Bank, it’s more about the people than me,” he says, “and that perspective makes life a lot more gratifying personally and professionally.” CBT
The Callaway Bank 1600 Chapel Hill Rd. 573-447-1771 callawaybank.com
Celebrating an anniversary or an award? Email us at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 24 JUNE 2017
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Movers & Shakers JUNE 2017
Dr. Richelle Koopman
Ebony Reed
Koopman, associate professor of family and community medicine at the MU School of Medicine, has received the 2017 Tribute to MU Women award. The award highlights those who create an environment of equity, fairness, and justice for women at MU and promote the advancement of women through education, advocacy, support, and activism.
Reed will be taking over the role of director of the Futures Lab in the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Reed joins the school after previously serving as the executive advertising director at the Boston Business Journal and former director of business development for local markets at the Associated Press.
University of Missouri Billie Cunningham and Stacey Woelfel have both been awarded William T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence. Cunningham, professor of accountancy in the Trulaske College of Business, and Woelfel, associate professor and director of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism, were both presented with $10,000 checks to celebrate their outstanding skills. Also, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky has been named the new dean of the MU School of Law. Lidsky previously worked at the University of Florida, where she served as associate dean for graduate and non-JD programs.
Williams-Keepers LLC Madison Buecker and Lindsey Benson both joined the Williams-Keepers team earlier this year. Buecker comes on as a tax associate after recently graduating from MU, and Benson comes on as project coordinator and receptionist with six years of experience as an office representative in the insurance industry.
Fairouz Bishara-Rantisi Bishara-Rantisi has been named the new principal at Gentry Middle School for the 2017-18 school year. Bishara-Rantisi has 18 years of experience in education, and she’ll be coming to Gentry after serving as associate principal for East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Annie Vollrath Vollrath has been promoted to branch manager of Commerce Bank’s Bernadette Banking Center. Vollrath will be responsible for business development and customer service related to the bank’s consumer banking, lending, and small business services. Vollrath joined Commerce in 2007 and was previously the assistant branch manager at the Bernadette location.
Kari Dowell Dowell has been named the new director of admissions and marketing for Columbia Independent School. She comes with more than 15 years of professional experience in marketing and will be responsible for outreach to prospective students and their families, managing the admissions process, and sharing information about CIS with the community.
Phillip Ashley Ashley, the director of strategic initiatives at Family Health Center, recently received the Emerging Leader Award by Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. The institute selects 15 emerging leaders from all the over the country to highlight their current talent and future contributions to the field of community health.
KOOPMAN
LIDSKY
BUECKER
BENSON
BISHARA-RANTISI
Are you or your employees making waves in the Columbia business community? Send us your news at Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 26 JUNE 2017
M OVER S & SH AKER S
Justin Hahn
Taija Segelhorst
Hahn, a Columbia State Farm agent, has qualified for the company’s prestigious Chairman’s Circle Award for his work protecting his clients through risk management and financial services. The award places Hahn and his office in the top three percent of more than 18,000 State Farm agents in the nation.
Segelhorst, vice president at The Callaway Bank, has been promoted to director of retail banking. In her new role, Segelhorst will be working with each market leader to ensure retail branches remain a strong part of the bank’s overall strategy and support units like risk management, marketing, human resources, training, and IT.
Christina Link
Colby Kraus
Link, a financial advisor at Wells Fargo, has earned the certification of Certified Financial Planner after working for the company since 2008. Each CFP professional has high competency in the realms of financial planning, risk management, investments, tax planning, and estate planning.
Central Bank of Boone County Central Bank of Boone County appointed two new managers to local branches. Kristen Moore has moved to the CBBC location inside the Columbia Mall and Cassie Kauffman will be managing the Motor Bank on East Walnut Street. Both will be responsible for the dayto-day operations of the respective branches.
Kathleen Bruegenhemke Bruegenhemke has been elected to serve on the board of directors for Hawthorn Bancshares. Bruegenhemke currently serves as the company’s senior vice president and corporate secretary as well as chief operating and risk officer for its subsidiary, Hawthorn Bank.
Kraus has recently joined the Lift Division team as a digital marketing executive. Kraus joins Lift Division after previously serving as a creative strategy director for SuretyBonds.com.
VOLLRATH
SEGELHORST
ASHLEY
KRAUS
HAHN
DUGGAR
LINK
FOWLER
BRUEGENHEMKE
BAUSMAN
Mike Duggar Duggar has been named the new president and CEO of Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri. He brings nearly 25 years of experience in foster care, residential treatment, and communitybased services to LFCS.
Columbia Public Schools Candace Fowler has been recommended as the new principal at Russell Boulevard Elementary School. She previously served as the assistant principal at Fairview Elementary School and has 12 years of experience in the education field. CPS also named Keith Bausman as the new assistant human resources superintendent for Columbia Public Schools. Bausman was a math and science teacher for 13 years and also served as executive director of human resources for Socorro Consolidated Schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. CBT
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 27
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B U SINESS • PEOP LE • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
P E R S ON YO U SH OU LD KN OW
SUSAN HART
VICE PRESIDEN T/ PARTNE R | HU E BE RT BU I LDE RS I NC. | AGE: 5 2 Job description: Management of sales and operations. Years lived in Columbia/ Mid-Missouri: 29 years. Original hometown Jonesburg, Missouri. Education: I have degrees in calculus and accounting from Central Methodist University. Favorite volunteer/community activity: Being the Foundation District Grants chair for Rotary District 6080, which covers Central Missouri and the Springfield and Branson areas. It's fulfilling to be a part of the impact Rotarians have throughout Missouri with the various grant projects. Last year alone, we had over $160,000 in grant projects. Professional background: Started at Deloitte in St. Louis, concentrating in construction and manufacturing auditing and accounting; moved to Columbia and worked at Gerding, Korte, and Chitwood, and in 1990, I started at Huebert Builders Inc. A favorite recent project: Potbelly Sandwich Shop — the franchise owners are great! A Columbia businessperson I admire and why: Scott Orr is retired now, but he’s been my mentor since I was 16 years old, and I still call him for advice. Dr. Raymond Plue is also someone I work with and admire. Why I’m passionate about my job: I enjoy working with small business owners and creating spaces for them and watching their business grow.
Photography by Anthony Jinson
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 29
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"I feel like Columbia can be the place in the central U.S. to start and grow businesses." Why I’m passionate about my company: Wayne Huebert and I have worked many years to create an atmosphere where our clients receive personalized attention. We pride ourselves on paying attention to the small details, which can make a big difference on a construction project. I’m proud that we've worked with the majority of our clients on multiple projects! Biggest lesson learned in business: The relationships you’ve established are the most important things you can have in business. When you hit a hard time, those relationships will help you through all of it and survive. Accomplishment I’m most proud of: In work, it’s working with John and Vicki Ott to transform the North Village Arts District. In the community, it’s being selected as incoming chair-elect of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. The next challenge facing my industry: There is a lack of qualified trained workers. It’s a difficult industry to recruit young men and women. 30 JUNE 2017
If I weren’t doing this for a living, I would: Be a high school math teacher or director of a public library.
Greatest weakness: Avoiding confrontation when I should just go ahead and deal with it.
What people should know about this profession: It’s about relationships, not lumber, steel, or nails.
My next professional goal: Develop a business and industrial park east of Columbia.
How you would like to impact the Columbia community: I would like to be a mentor and provide support to the entrepreneurial community. I feel like Columbia has a chance to be the place in the central U.S. to start and grow businesses. I also want to continue to provide support to the cultural arts community so that we continue to have all the arts opportunities available in Columbia. I firmly believe the arts in Columbia make it wonderful to live here. Greatest strength: I am a good listener and planner.
What I do for fun: Cooking, attending live music concerts, riding bikes on the trail with my family. Family: Two sons: Lucas, age 9, and Ben, age 8. Favorite place in Columbia: Anywhere downtown. Most people don’t know that I: Competed in the 1995 World Chili Society cook off competition in Reno, Nevada — I was a big part of the “Hog Wild Chili Girls” team! We didn’t win, but we had lots of fun and great stories. CBT
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4. What makes you most proud about what you and Dan Schuppan were able to build at MBS? Since we started business on South Ninth Street, we’ve provided hundreds of jobs and opportunities to succeed. Young people starting at an entrylevel position have taken advantage of the opportunities we provided to move to higher paid positions. Back in the 1970s, we hired several Vietnamese refugees. They seized the opportunity and became successful American citizens. Since then, MBS has become the most diverse employer in town. MBS employs refugees from over 25 different nations. Finally, MBS, working with agencies such as Job Point (formerly Advent), has provided jobs for people with different disabilities, helping them succeed in a real workplace.
Q&A BOB PUGH
Former CEO of MBS Textbook Exchange and former mayor of Columbia
1. You were CEO of MBS Textbook Exchange for more than 30 years. When you sold the company to Barnes and Noble earlier this year, was it hard to let go? Not really. The transaction had been contemplated for some time. 2. What’s your role with the company look like now? Minimal. I will act as an advisor for a few months to anyone who will ask and listen. 3. How do you think things will change at MBS under new ownership? In terms of the basic business model, very little change. Now that MBS is a part of a public company, there will be changes in the accounting and MIS shops, in order to comply with SEC rules and regulations. The folks at MBS have had a long and good relationship with the folks at Barnes & Noble. The companies have many things in common, the first being a lot of smart, hardworking people.
5. Having served as mayor, you’ve seen Columbia’s business community from both the public and private sides. What’s changed in that community over the course of your career? Not as much as you might imagine. The town is bigger, and until last year MU was the major growth engine — that's one measure of Columbia’s growth. In 1980, I could say I’ve been in every bar in town. I can no longer make that claim. Perhaps the most visible evidence of growth, besides the highrise apartment buildings in downtown, is the many, many medical or health care facilities that have popped up. A few weeks ago, I drove down between the University Hospital and the [Truman] VA hospital — different place from what I remember. Columbia may have more “doc-in-the-boxes” than banks. With the advent of shopping centers at the edges of Columbia, downtown has morphed into a different place; however, unlike other towns, our downtown is alive and well, and you still can’t find a place to park. There has been a slow but steady redefinition of the role of municipal government. I can’t say I agree with all of this, so I have to realize that I’m an old has-been. I still say, like I did in 1976, that Columbia is the best town in the United States of America, even if I don’t ride a bike or jog on the Katy Trail. 6. How would you assess the relationship between the business community and city government now? First of all, there really is not a “business community.” You cannot herd cats. Businesspeople may have one thing in common
1 1 QU EST I ON S
— they resent regulations or having someone, or some agency of government, tell them how to run their business. Like I mentioned above, there has been a slow redefinition of the role municipal government. Perhaps the most significant change has been the growing urge of the city management and city council to write new rules and regulations, particularly related to development and construction. 7. Who do you see as an emerging leader in the business community? A yet to be identified person who can herd cats. 8. Which job was harder: mayor or CEO? I call a tie. The hardest thing to accept in government or business is that not everyone agrees with you. 9. What challenges do you think Columbia faces moving forward? I could write paragraphs on this subject. What happened at MU in 2015 did not need to happen. No one stood up for MU or the city of Columbia. Allowing a group of students to tag the university, the student body, the employees, and the people of Columbia as racist did great harm to the university and Columbia. If anyone, for one second, thinks the significant decline in enrollment and the inevitable reduction in the number of university employees will have no impact on our town, you need to extract your head from the Boone County clay. Meanwhile, the then student body president and homecoming king, the hunger strike kid, Melissa Click, certain members of the UM Board of Curators and MU management, and associated rabble rousers have either moved on or lay very, very low. This might help put a perspective on this issue. The enrollment decline at MU will be greater than the population of Macon, Missouri. Think about it — poof, Macon is gone. Columbia goes from a growing town to a shrinking town, and, in the short run, there’s not a damned thing anyone can do about it. 10. If you could go back and change one thing about your career, what would it be? Score below 100 in a game of golf. 11. What are you most looking forward to in retirement? Hell if I know! CBT
Check out past questions and answers with Columbia businesspeople online at ColumbiaBusinessTimes.com. 32 JUNE 2017
B U SINESS • PEOP LE • IM P R OV EM EN T • F YI
Higher Ed Roundup BY A L GERMON D
A DECLINE IN PROJECTED FRESHMAN enrollment at MU continues to roil the community, but the economic consequences are still difficult to quantify. The brand — “Mizzou,” which has become the common parlance — has been damaged. UM System President Dr. Choi is thankfully on board, but unfortunately it will take a while for MU to recover from the chronic malaise that is ailing the institution today. First order of business for MU has to be a thorough, impartial investigation of the fictitious “hunger strike,” tent city, and protest on the Carnahan Quadrangle some 18 months ago. Missourians are a suspicious tribe. What we still want to know is: Was this a home-grown, inside job led by the scion of a wealthy Omaha transportation executive, or was the squabble really led and pushed — as many still suspiciously believe — by a horde of outside agitators paid to make trouble here? Some of us wring our collective hands and wonder what we can do while MU slides into recession. Well, not much. There are many different things at play here. MU’s original plan a few years ago called for an enrollment of 40,000 a few years hence. Recruitment efforts — both out of state and foreign — were going well. Real
estate developers took note, and this is the reason for the spurt in student housing projects. We’ll never know how enrollment would have grown if nothing had transpired during that fateful autumn. What we need to know is why thousands of potential freshmen, as well as transfers from other institutions, have spurned MU and what can be done to get them back. If students at such-and-such high school have rejected MU as an option for college, let’s go there and find out why and work on aggressively recruiting them. Seems like a simple matter of market research, perhaps with some financial incentives tossed in along the way. There’s no reason to be completely dour about our hometown university. Time to talk the place up and give it the moral support it deserves. As a major research university, with its numerous schools and colleges, teaching hospital, medical center, and extensive academic and research staff, there’s a whole lot of great stuff going on over at MU, and it’s a pity that we never seem to hear about any of it. So there's another priority: MU needs to work on touting the uniquely beneficial role it plays in bettering the lives of Missourians.
OPI N I ON
Let’s quit calling our state university “Mizzou” and call it what it really is — The University of Missouri. "Mizzou” is nothing more than a catchy nickname adorning stuff we wear. Utterly meaningless in the echelons of academia while doing nothing to promote the State of Missouri. Among the other area educational institutions, both Columbia College and Moberly Area Community College continue to thrive, as do William Woods University and Central Methodist University. Then there’s Stephens College. Not much news there. In the waning days of Dr. Seymour Smith’s presidency 43 years ago, Stephens was a big deal, with some 2,000 students, more than 200 faculty and staff, and an impressive physical plant. Stephens has stoutly resisted co-education forever. Many wonder aloud what will become of the place. Some rue the destruction of buildings coupled with real estate asset sales to generate the funds keeping doors open while wondering what’s left to dispose of for more quick cash. The recently announced closure of Wentworth Military Academy, in Lexington, underscores the fragility of small, privately-supported educational institutions. Stephens College is under no obligation to tell us anything, but we’d sure like to know how sound the place is financially. Roles reverse over time. Fifty years ago, Stephens was thriving with an up-to-date physical plant while Christian College was housed in a somewhat threadbare campus. Enrollment south of 500 students led those in charge to look for a financial angel. In 1970, a nationally promoted offer for naming rights in exchange for a boatload of cash came for naught, but rebranding the institution as Columbia College and going co-ed with a four-year program, coupled with an aggressive off-campus military base extension program, put the place on a solid financial footing — solid in terms of endowment, which we were recently told was in the $150 million range. So here’s something to consider: Columbia College could easily buy Stephens. It’s an amalgamation of assets that wouldn’t surprise us if it happened. CBT Al Germond is the host of the Columbia Business Times Sunday Morning Roundtable at 8:15 a.m. Sundays on KFRU. He can be reached at algermond@businesstimescompany.com. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 33
34 JUNE 2017
Tomorrow's LEADERS
CBT’s 20 Under 20 class of 2017 will wow you. BY SARAH EVERETT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 35
20UNDER20
SHRISTI BHANDARI BASHISTA Columbia Independent School; Barnard College at Columbia University
Each year, CBT recognizes a group of 20 students under 20, game changers in the classroom and in their community. These high school seniors in Columbia were nominated by teachers, mentors, and friends for their leadership, involvement, respect for others, and enthusiasm for learning and experiencing new things. (They’ll also probably make you feel like you haven’t accomplished much. Don’t worry, the entire CBT staff is with you on that one.)
Who They Are
SAMUEL BAUMER Rock Bridge High School; College of the Ozarks; Pre-nursing
CALEB BAVLNKA Battle High School; University of Oklahoma
MARYAM BLEDSOE Rock Bridge High School; University of Chicago
36 JUNE 2017
They are Makali Hawkins, Samuel Baumer, Elliot Bones, Landon Wiswall, Gracie Hollrah, William Eiffert, Brevinn Tyler, Dzung Nguyen, Adam Lance, Dane Steinhauer, Bennett Lopez, Stephanie Zhang, Maryam Bledsoe, Marc Chauvin, Boon Palipatana, Shristi Bhandari Bashista, Caleb Bavlnka, Freeman Hickman, Madison Null, and Mekhia Thompson. Seven Battle Spartans, three Hickman Kewpies, nine Rock Bridge Bruins, a Christian Fellowship Knight, and a Columbia Independent School Lion. The 20 Under 20 Class of 2017 will solve all of your computer problems and they’ll beat you in a 5K. They’re language learners, activists, hikers, athletes, philanthropists, mathematicians, and dancers. They’re as kind as they are dedicated, as funny as they are smart. Many of them enjoy hiking and the outdoors. Baumer hopes to visit every national park, start a wilderness guide service, and run the Leadville Ultramarathon, in the Colorado mountains, in under 25 hours. Lance is a lifeguard, knows wilderness first aid, and is sailing counselor-certified. Eiffert hopes to someday hike the Sierra Nevada. “My favorite thing to do is waterfowl hunt with my dog, Sage, and my friends,” Wiswall says. “I also like to go fishing as well as ride four wheelers and go camping and bow fishing.” “When I’m in active mode,” Palipatana says, “I enjoy playing soccer and attempting to play basketball. I also don’t mind a nice hike and hammock, or a very brief jog. In couch potato mode, I’m usually found reading comic books or binge-watching a superhero show, SpongeBob, or gameplay videos on YouTube.” Many of them played sports in high school. Track and cross country, football, lacrosse, soccer, wrestling — these students have most of their bases covered.
CLASS OF 2017
The students found that sports helped make them more well-rounded. “I am the first Battle swimmer to swim all four years of high school and am proud to have helped to shape the new team,” Null says. “I lettered all four years and had amazing experiences along the way. Swim pushed me mentally and physically. It tested my strength and endurance. Swim introduced me to friends and best friends.” Tyler, who played quarterback for Battle and earned a football scholarship at Colorado Mesa University, reflects on how sports have taught him about personal character. “The way you perform on the field might make people like you or dislike you,” he says. “The way you impact lives outside of sports is what really matters and can make people love you.” These students have a passion for communicating with and helping others. “Communication is imperative,” Eiffert says. “You have to be able to relay ideas and information to other people.” Hawkins, a member of the People to People program at Hickman, got the opportunity to go on multiple mission trips abroad. “If I didn't have to worry about money, I would go on mission trips for the rest of my life,” she says. “I really enjoy going to different places and learning about different cultures while helping out where I can. I would love to help with impoverished neighborhoods, hurricane relief, finding solutions for clean water, or anything else where I can make small differences.” Hollrah, as a Hickman homecoming queen candidate, raised $6,500 dollars for a friend at her dance studio with cystic fibrosis. Null and Hickman were involved in local service through the Battle Service Corps. Nguyen hopes to someday start a nonprofit in Vietnam to offer free art classes to children. Others are passionate about the arts. Chauvin is an avid photographer; his work was showcased in Columbia Art League’s Quentessence Art Show, a professionally judged contest, where he won an Emerging Artist award. Bledsoe likes to sketch and read poetry, “but not in a pretentious way,” she says. Zhang studies classical piano in her spare time — she particularly enjoys playing pieces by the Romantic composers. And all that is just what they do outside of school.
ELLIOT BONES Rock Bridge High School; University of Pennsylvania; PPE
MARC CHAUVIN Battle High School; Two years at MACC, then university; Photography
WILLIAM EIFFERT Christian Fellowship School; Purdue University; Computer science
MAKALI HAWKINS Hickman High School; University of Missouri; Major in nursing, minor in photography
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 37
20UNDER20
What They're Doing
These 20 students, like so many other good students, have used their work in the classroom and in extracurriculars to broaden the scope of their lives outside of school. In addition to her interior design class, which inspired her to pursue interior design in college, Thompson enjoyed being a part of AVID, MAC Scholars, GSA, TEDx Battle, and Darkroom Records. Chauvin also interned with Darkroom Records; his favorite course, not surprisingly, was photography. Bavlnka enjoyed AP Chemistry the most, and he also took collegiate-level math courses. “I’m most proud of taking and acing Calculus 3 at the University of Missouri on top of my high school schedule,” he says. “I put in the time and worked through my confusion to pass a college class I hardly thought I would survive.” Maryam Bledsoe was part of the Making Waves Youth Radio program at Rock Bridge, where she made radio programs about things she was passionate about. “I learned about storytelling and how to express myself more accurately and effectively, which is something I often have trouble with,” she says. “This project also inspired me to do a similar project in my school with an ELL class I've been working with. It was a truly rewarding experience.” Nguyen herself is an English language learner; she began to learn English six years ago when she came to the U.S., and her proudest feat in high school is typing essays in English without using a translator. Her favorite class was computer-aided design, where the curriculum and her teacher, Robert Allee, inspired her to pursue a design-related career path. She loves tinkering with 3D modeling software and was also a member of her school newspaper. Wiswall’s favorite course at Hickman was Dr. Deanna Wasman’s calculus class. Hawkins, in addition to People to People and lacrosse, was part of Hickman’s Speech and Debate team. Bones wants to be a civil rights lawyer. His favorite class was U.S. and comparative government and politics. Lance, too, enjoyed the challenge of his social studies course, A.P. World History. “The biggest lesson that I’ve learned from high school is that you should do things that you enjoy and that make a positive difference for others,” Bones says. “If what you’re doing makes you happy and it helps the community, then it doesn’t matter what other people think about it.” Steinhauer is most proud of achieving a cumulative 4.0 GPA in high school, which made him one of Battle’s valedictorians. He was on the leadership team of Battle’s Science Club, and he’s proud of his work in organizing an event with the MU school of nursing. “I learned quite a bit about leadership,” Steinhauer says. 38 JUNE 2017
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Check out where Columbia's best and brightest will be making a name for our city across the nation! COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 39
20UNDER20
FREEMAN HICKMAN Battle High School; University of Missouri; Marketing
GRACIE HOLLRAH Hickman High School; Chapman University; Dance and physical therapy
ADAM LANCE Rock Bridge High School; United States Naval Academy; Mechanical engineering
Lopez was voted courtwarming king by his peers at Rock Bridge; his favorite extracurricular was show choir, and he hopes to be a Broadway star someday. “Never be afraid to be yourself,” he says. Zhang went to Rock Bridge, where her favorite class was AP Physics 2. “We all worked — struggled — together on assignments, but learning how to collaborate is incredibly important in STEM fields,” she says. Zhang is most proud of organizing a math contest for fourth and fifth graders with Mu Alpha Theta, Rock Bridge’s mathematics honor society. (Palipatana served as president of the organization.) “It’s heartwarming to see the kids have a blast playing at the booths and having fun with math,” Zhang says. Palipatana’s favorite was AP Computer Science, which he dove into with no prior programming experience. “I’m still free to admit that my programming skills currently lag far behind those of some of my experienced friends,” he says. “I’ve nevertheless held a great enjoyment in the subject despite still being relatively bad at it, and when that’s the case, you know it’s true love.” Eiffert attended Christian Fellowship School, and his favorite class was Advanced C++ programming. He was the programming lead for a project that recreated the game “Missile Command” from scratch. “It was not the best recreation ever,” he says. “It consistently plays with lag and the gameplay is not the best. However, I’m proud of the time and thought I put into the project all the same. It was my first ‘big’ program.”
Where They're Going
BENNETT LOPEZ Rock Bridge High School; University of Missouri; Business and pre-law
40 JUNE 2017
The next chapter in all their lives is full of possibilities. They’ve nurtured passions throughout high school; now it’s time to explore them. Null, for one, will study biology at Colorado State University. “I’ve always wanted to work with plants and animals,” she says. “Throughout my life thus far, I’ve had many experiences that have broadened my ideas of what to do with my life and career. I have bounced around between veterinarian, wildlife conservationist, and even environmental pathologist. Currently, I don’t have a specific ‘dream job’ in mind, but I’m going to see where my field of study takes me.”
CLASS OF 2017
Tyler wants to go into sports psychology, which will be his major at Colorado Mesa University. He hopes to use his skills “to serve as many people as possible in the best way possible.” Hawkins has a similar goal of making others and herself happy. “Ultimately, my biggest future goal right now is to finish college with a degree that I love and find a job that I genuinely enjoy getting up in the morning to go to,” she says. Bavlnka wants to be a chemical engineer; he hopes to work toward developing some sort of chemical molecule that helps mankind, perhaps through eliminating the drawbacks of herbicides, curing a disease, or producing new synthetic material. Wiswall, a young entrepreneur with his own lawn care business, wants to own or operate a hunting guide and outfitter service. Hollrah’s dream job is to be a professional dancer. Baumer will be a pre-nursing major at College of the Ozarks, and his dream is to become an emergency nurse and wilderness guide. Bones will graduate from Rock Bridge and will study PPE (philosophy, political science, and economics) at the University of Pennsylvania. His dream is to become a civil rights lawyer, but before law school, he wants to travel the world for a year or two. Nguyen will also attend Penn; she’ll pursue a digital media design program that integrates math, art, and computer science. Her dream job is to be a Pixar employee, but she’d settle for working anywhere in the field of computer graphics and animation. “I can see myself as a zealous product designer who constantly seeks problems and comes up with solutions, or an animator who creates worlds that help foster children's creativity and imagination,” she says. “I would also like to help establish an art department at my elementary school in Vietnam, whether it is through designing the blueprint for the physical space or providing monetary support.” Lance will be attending the U.S. Naval Academy after graduating from Rock Bridge and hopes to become a U.S. Navy aviator. He will major in mechanical engineering, but before he leaves for school, he wants to finish earning his private pilot’s license. Steinhauer wants to be a patent engineer, following an interest he’s developed throughout his high school classes. “I want to be an outstanding student at the Univer-
DZUNG NGUYEN Rock Bridge High School; University of Pennsylvania; Digital media design
MADISON NULL Battle High School; Colorado State University; Biology
BOON PALIPATANA Rock Bridge High School; Cornell University; Information science
DANE STEINHAUER Battle High School; University of Missouri; Electrical and computer engineering
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 41
20UNDER20
CLASS OF 2017
MEKHIA THOMPSON Battle High School; University of Central Missouri; Interior design
BREVINN TYLER Battle High School; Colorado Mesa University; Sports psychology
LANDON WISWALL Hickman High School; MU or MACC; Business
STEPHANIE ZHANG Rock Bridge High School; Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Yale University; Mathematics with computer science at MIT or statistics at Yale 42 JUNE 2017
sity of Missouri who succeeds in and out of the classroom,” he says. “Besides making good grades, I also plan to be involved with the Formula Car Racing Team and might even interview for MU Tour Team. I will also proceed to promote golf in the community that I love by working with the Columbia Golf Foundation.” Lopez will go to MU and hopes to attend law school in the future. Bledsoe will attend the University of Chicago. After college, she wants to be a professor or teacher in a foreign country. “I really want to move around as much as possible,” she says. Mostly, Bledsoe cares about being a good person and making positive experiences. Her advice to future students: “Do not procrastinate!” she says. “I rarely follow this.” Zhang is a self-proclaimed “STEM-inist,” an advocate for other girls in the STEM field. She will either be majoring in mathematics with computer science at MIT or majoring in statistics at Yale. Eiffert wants to earn his bachelor’s degree and then work in computer science developing new applications and algorithms for tech giants like Google or Microsoft, create new startups, hike, and travel the world. Bashista will attend Barnard College at Columbia University and hopes to study abroad and do community service in the future. High school allowed her to develop a unique perspective, something specific to her. “I’m proud that I’ve grown and learned and now can think about things in ways that I’d never been able to before,” she says. Palipatana will graduate from Rock Bridge High School and attend Cornell University, where he will major in information science with a concentration in data science. “I’d love to be a data scientist or business analyst for a tech giant until I either hold a management role or gain enough general technical know-how to start something of my own,” he says. “I hope to someday oversee a tech-centered organization that would bring effective impact to one — or many — of society’s issues.” To the class of 2017, thanks for sharing this slice of your lives with CBT; enjoy life, learn, and set goals going forward. And continue to be unapologetically yourselves. CBT
Member SIPC
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COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 43
44 JUNE 2017
Small & STRONG This year’s class of finalists for the Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year had heart, innovation, and a spirit for collaboration that lifts up the entire business community — and we were honored to be one of them!
BY ANNA COMFORT PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEITH BORGMEYER
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 45
46 JUNE 2017
From left: Brenna McDermott, Erica Pefferman, Amy Ferrari, Jamie Patterson
2017
Small s s e n i s Bu r a e Y e h of t The Business Times Company Year founded: 1994 Number of Full-time Employees: 21
CREATING IN THE DIGITAL AGE The Business Times Company has been a part of the Columbia community for three decades. Its secret to success? Supporting other businesses. “We really need there to be a vibrant business community in Columbia,” says president Erica Pefferman. “Without that, we don’t have any stories to tell.” The company’s latest venture, Business Times Interactive, was born of that desire to see Columbia businesses thrive. “Media companies have had to figure out how to stay relevant as the landscape has gone more digital” Pefferman says. The team
learned a great deal about what it takes to succeed online as the company began producing more online content and building its social media presence. Pefferman envisioned BTI as a way to share that expertise with other companies through digital marketing. The company already had a loyal base of advertising clients as well as the necessary creative skills on staff. “We had designers, writers — everything that we needed except for a digital strategist,” Pefferman says. After a lengthy search, Jamie Patterson became BTI’s digital services director, and the division launched in late 2015. Patterson says BTI takes the needs of each client to heart. “We're not just going out and selling digital ad space to every single client or business,” she says. “We craft those strategies to make sure that we're generating ROI for our clients.” In BTI’s first year, its team grew from one to four, and Patterson has plans to bring on two more staff members. Among BTI’s advertising services is advanced behavioral targeting, a way for businesses to reach customers who are more likely to interact with the company. For example, if someone has been searching online for a new sofa, BTI can show that person a Facebook ad for their client’s sofa. “I think we're making marketing more
HOW WOULD CLIENTS DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN ONE WORD?
Relevant relevant to consumers,” Patterson says. “The ads mean something to you because you're actually in the market [for that product].” Pefferman says that adaptability is what makes The Business Times Company strong and BTI credible. “When we talk to our clients about things they should do, we're doing those things for ourselves,” she says. She cites the redesigned Columbia Business Times and the rebranding of Columbia Home into COMO Living as evidence that the company is always evolving and finding new ways to tell stories. “This isn't just, ‘Do as we say, not as we do,’” Pefferman says. “We want everyone to be successful.” COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 47
Anne Churchill
AnnaBelle Events Year founded: 2010 Number of Full-time Employees: 2
BRINGING JOY TO EVENTS Anne Churchill is an entrepreneur at heart. She’s the force behind AnnaBelle Events, a planning service primarily focused on weddings and corporate events, but around the company’s seven-year mark, Churchill was “itching for something more,” she says. The result was Jubilee Planning Studio, a sister company to AnnaBelle Events designed to create collaboration and growth between AnnaBelle and other event vendors. Jubilee, located on West Ash Street, is a shared space for vendors to meet with clients and one another. Anyone planning an event can come to the studio for a free 30-minute consultation with an event planner. The free consultation, says Churchill, makes event planning more accessible to people who may feel they can’t afford it. “About 50 percent of the time, [people who come in] end up hiring AnnaBelle Events. One hundred percent of the time, they’re hiring at least one of our vendors,” Churchill says. The process helps customers discover what’s available to them, and it simplifies referrals. Marlo Bolinger, of Busch’s Florist & Greenhouse, based in Jefferson City, joined Jubilee after working with Churchill on several projects. She says membership at
HOW WOULD CLIENTS DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN ONE WORD?
Passionate 48 JUNE 2017
Jubilee is helping her business expand into the Columbia area. “It's been a blessing to have the meeting space there because a lot of times, working with brides, we have to work after hours to meet everybody,” Bolinger says. “[Jubilee] has been a nice place to have a neutral zone” while Busch’s works on a brick and mortar location in Columbia. Churchill has big plans for Jubilee as a vehicle for growth. “I thought about having it just as an extension of AnnaBelle Events, but the important thing to me was that AnnaBelle Events is a certain person's planner,” she says. “And I want Jubilee to be everybody's brand, and I want everyone to feel that it's obtainable.” So instead of expanding brick and mortar locations for AnnaBelle, Churchill plans to franchise Jubilee in other cities like Columbia. “It'll be a nice marriage of the two in that
where the markets make sense for AnnaBelle to go into the Jubilee, we'll do it,” she says. In other places, she’ll look for the other “AnnaBelles of the world” to open a Jubilee and collaborate with their own network of trusted vendors, as Churchill has done in Columbia. She always wants to build something new.
From left: Shaun Tompkins, Felicia Tompkins, Mary Kroening, Mike Tompkins, Sedel Marino Carson
HOW WOULD CLIENTS DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN ONE WORD?
Win-win Tompkins Homes and Development Year founded: 1986 Number of Full-time Employees: 15
CUSTOMIZING THE DREAM Since Mike Tompkins took over his parents’ construction business, founded in 1986, he’s had no problem bucking industry trends. Whereas most builders hire subcontractors to
complete much of the on-site work, Tompkins says, “for the last 25 years we’ve had our own framing crew, trim crew, painters, and miscellaneous workers.” This helps him ensure timeliness and consistency on each custom home project while making the most of his natural strength — originality. The tricky part of having 15 full-time employees, as opposed to subcontracting labor, is the need for steady work. Rather than laying people off during slow seasons, Tompkins began purchasing land to build houses for rent in between custom building projects to keep his workers busy. Instead of student housing, Tompkins primarily builds single family home rentals aimed at university executives and graduate students. A recent land purchase will more than double the company’s current rental holdings, from 23 to more than 50 units. Working with the same crew on each project encourages creativity and collaboration. “Since we were good at design and customiza-
tion, as a sideline business we started picking up unusual lots or sites,” Tompkins says. “For one reason or another, nobody wanted to buy it. We would look at it and adapt our plans to make things work.” Tompkins himself has exclusively focused on land development for the past 10 years while his son and daughter-in-law run Tompkins Construction. For Sedel Marino Carson, Tompkins Homes and Development’s director of operations, land development is all about visualization. “When we're out on a piece of property with a prospective client, and we're standing there, looking at this piece of land, they get this look on their face, and you know that they're imagining their dream house,” she says. Among the company’s current projects are The Gates at Columbia, Rokes Bend, and Breckenridge Park. Tompkins recently purchased plat three of The Vineyards, a development that stalled out during the 2008 downturn. “When people want to build in Columbia, or they want land or they want to be in a subdivision, we want to be the ones they think of,” Marino Carson says. COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 49
TrueSon Exteriors Year founded: 2010 Number of Full-time Employees: 12
BUILDING ON SUCCESS When TrueSon Exteriors was last nominated for Small Business of the Year, in 2015, founder and president Barry Roewe was considering adding a construction division to his exterior remodeling business. Customers had requested interior remodels over the years, but Roewe usually recommended other contractors. “I can't just sell [a service] and then hope to figure out how to do it,” he says.
But with new staff members in place to provide necessary experience and skills, TrueSon Construction is now a reality, adding interior remodeling, new construction, and custom home design to the company’s list of services, which already included roofing, siding, windows, doors, and decks. For a small business, offering such a wide range of services requires careful project management. Sales manager Nevada Shelkey says TrueSon accomplishes this with technology. “We have a great process in place, from capturing the customer's information all the way through to follow-up, sending their warranties, and everything.” This process is aided by BuilderTrend, a webbased software designed specifically for builders and remodelers. When a lead comes in for a new project, Shelkey enters the person’s information into BuilderTrend and assigns that lead to a sales specialist. Paper contracts are no longer necessary. They make the proposal on BuilderTrend, and then it's sent out to the cus-
tomer. The customer can approve it and sign their name within the program. From there, Roewe can use the app to create the project schedule and track costs. The customer can log in and see the status of the project. “It’s streamlining the whole process,” Shelkey says. TrueSon also uses Renoworks, a website and app that helps customers preview the changes they want to make to their home. After uploading a photo, customers can “try on” different siding styles, colors, and other features. Renoworks tracks the customer’s preferences as they use the simulator and presents that data to the company, helping TrueSon to better understand their clients. Effectively using technology has helped TrueSon explore new possibilities. “We're always looking for better products, more ways to be efficient,” Roewe says. “We're getting ready to move locations and double our square footage, put a bigger showroom in. Whatever we can do to help the customer visualize what they want.”
HOW WOULD
CLIENTS DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN ONE WORD?
Genuine 50 JUNE 2017
From left: Gene DeVore, Barry Roewe, Nevada Shelkey
From left: Amy Winschel, Michael Urban, Melissa Poelling
HOW WOULD CLIENTS DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY IN ONE WORD?
Love
Harold’s Doughnuts Year founded: 2014 Number of Full-time Employees: 4
GROWING A
DELICIOUS BRAND In the two years since its opening, Harold’s Doughnuts has become a Columbia classic. Offering a mix of traditional, trendy, and completely novel doughnut creations, the store’s success has sometimes threatened to outpace its small kitchen’s capacity. Growing from a two-person online business to a popular brick-and-mortar destination was “kind of like what a minor leaguer would feel like going up to the big leagues," says Michael Urban, who founded Harold’s with his wife, Karli, in 2015. “The demand was such that we couldn't possibly keep up, which was a good problem to have.”
Both MU graduates — Karli is a physician with University Hospital — the Urbans have tapped into the spirit of their adopted hometown with Harold’s-sponsored events. For National Doughnut Day in June of 2016, they launched Harold’s National Doughnut Day 5K, which drew more than 400 participants. And last October, Harold’s teamed up with other area businesses to host the Love Your Craft Fest, which featured live music and brought craft vendors in to fill up two blocks of downtown Columbia. This fall, they want to expand it to three. “We should celebrate people loving what they do, no matter what that is,” Michael says. “It could be food and beverage, could be music, could be the arts, it could be fashion, anything.” “It's been fun to throw ideas out there and see what sticks,” Karli says of these events. “And the things that have stuck have stuck really well.” As for the doughnut shop itself, Karli says they’re opening a second store in town. “There's certainly an interest, and we've looked into that and realized that Columbia could sustain another Harold's.”
In the meantime, Michael has plans for expanding Harold’s offerings to include more beverages. He’s partnering with Hugo Tea, a loose leaf tea company out of Kansas City owned by another MU grad, Tyler Beckett. “We're excited to collaborate with them to build products for this shop and our customers, both hot tea and bottled iced tea,” Michael says. And he’s working on scaling up production of Harold’s Orange Juice, a recipe he says is “amazingly delicious.” With several projects in the works, Michael loves where Harold’s is headed — “It's a lot of fun to be in that creative space.” CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 51
52 JUNE 2017
Get the Deal Done A primer on how Columbia brings in new business. BY MATT PATSTON
THE AURORA ORGANIC DAIRY SITE, off Waco Road, is pretty barren for the time being. Eventually, the Colorado-based dairy company will be opening a $90 million milk and butter processing plant there. If all goes according to plan, 150 people will go there every day and work for a “living wage,” or lower middle-class income, the sort of job that nearly every community in America wants to create. But, for now, the site is flat acres of dirt, with a few hills of dirt, guarded by some temporary office trailers in a gravel parking lot and some heavy-duty CAT vehicles dotted throughout the site. There was a roaring wind on Aurora’s groundbreaking day — it rattled and shook the tent that had been set up for the ceremony; it caused the welcome banner, strung up between two CAT excavators, to flap; later, it caused the microphone on a small podium at the front of the tent to squeal. Still, there was a triple-digit crowd that included Aurora executives, construction workers, elected officials, city staff, REDI representatives, business leaders, a handful of journalists, and one protester. (Her bright green sign, which read “Not
Organic, Not my Milk,” a nod toward a recent newspaper article questioning Aurora’s farming practices, was blocked from podium view by a line of Big D Construction employees toward the end of the ceremony.) Mayor Brian Treece talked to the crowd about how he was only one generation removed from dairy farmers, and he used to carry a bucket of cream around his family’s farm to help out. He said the Aurora project honored “Missouri’s values of hard work and innovation.” Steve Johnson, from the Missouri Partnership, also spoke, as did Aurora CEO Marc Peperzak, who talked about how he’d first come to scout the site five years earlier. At that time, five years earlier, nobody from the city knew any Aurora officials were in Columbia. They didn’t even know Aurora Organic Dairy was thinking about Columbia. Business recruitment deals are governed by a strict process of confidentiality and meticulous planning, double-checking, analyzing, and evaluating from multiple levels in the public and private sector. These deals can hinge on little differences between dozens of communities across COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 53
Investing in Recruitment
“Recruitment is the sexiest part of economic development,” Greg Steinhoff says. “These guys are wired to find deals, and then it’s purely sales — how you sell Missouri relative to another part of the United States, and in our case, we’re competing largely against Arkansas, Texas, and Illinois.” Steinhoff is perhaps the man most responsible for the current economic development infrastructure in the state of Missouri. As Governor Matt Blunt’s director of economic development, Steinhoff oversaw the creation of a more aggressive business recruitment strategy, the crown jewel of which was the Missouri Partnership, a public– private economic development group tasked with marketing the state to site location specialists across the country. Steinhoff left public service in 2008 for executive life, now at Veterans United Home Loans, but his policies made Missouri’s DED a more aggressive competitor for recruitment projects like Aurora. But when he first started, he mostly studied and listened. “When I came on board, we weren’t winning anything,” Steinhoff says. “What I found out was that we saw where the major investment was happening was in the Southeast, especially automotive. The core of Asian automobile manufacturing, and then the thou54 JUNE 2017
sands of companies that feed those, were in the Southeast. So we started to study it and figure it out.” What he found was a slick, professionalized recruitment operation with ample support from both state government figures (former Texas governor Rick Perry was a notoriously effective recruiter, helped by his state’s “deal-closing fund” that could kick in millions of dollars in extra cash to attract businesses) and private sector businesses. “We had people — no offense, they were good people, but they were two years out of college, getting paid $28,000 a year, and making $500 million dollar deals. And we were losing,” Steinhoff says. “These other states had the same teams in place for a long time. . . . I said we can either sit back, rely on our low tax rating, and try to promote our state through advertising, or we can compete. And if we’re going to compete, we’re going to need to up our flexibility to have more incentives, and we need to put together a sales team.” The state created the Missouri Quality Jobs Program (hence replaced by Missouri Works) to develop a broader set of performance-based incentives, and it created the Missouri Partnership as the sales team. The Partnership develops relationships with site selection specialists — there are around eight law firms who handle the majority of cases — and helps connect local economic development teams with companies that would be a good fit. The Partnership can arrange meetings around the state and the country, sometimes around the world, showing off what Missouri has to offer. “If we tried to do that on our own, you know, those kind of events would cost thousands of dollars,” says Bernie Andrews, vice president of REDI in Columbia. “But if we partner with Missouri Partnership, we just pay a fee to go along and pay our air fare and everything else is taken care of.” The Missouri Partnership is the first stop for a company interested in coming to Missouri. The Partnership is the first to handle a request for information, or RFI, from a site selector: a document that outlines the broad strokes of a company’s investment in the state
Looking for a Match
the country; they can change based on relationships, tax incentives, workforce changes, local ordinances, and a host of other factors. It’s hard to overstate the amount of consideration and conversation that built up to that windy groundbreaking day. The same could be said for any of these recruitment projects, including American Outdoor Brands, which quickly followed Aurora as the fifth company to receive a Chapter 100 tax abatement in exchange for investing in Boone County. The ceremony’s finale was a photo-op featuring 20 ceremonial shovels stuck in two neat rows of loose gravel. Nineteen of them were gold and brown, but one had a shaft painted in the black-andwhite pattern of a Holstein cow — to welcome Aurora to Columbia.
The top 10 community factors for site selectors considering investment. The numbers are what percentage of respondents deemed the factor “very important” or “important.”
100%
Availability of skilled labor
98.7%
Highway accessibility
95.8%
Labor costs
95.8%
Proximity to major markets
95.8%
State and local incentives
95.8%
Available land
95.8%
Tax exemptions
93%
Energy availability and costs
93%
Proximity to suppliers
91.7%
Training programs/technical schools
Source: Area Development magazine survey, 2016
and asks for information on qualified communities. If the Partnership talks with REDI and decides that Columbia might be a good fit for a dairy processing plant, for example, then they’ll have the city submit an RFI response to the company, explaining things like local infrastructure capacity, workforce patterns, schools, and incentives. And while the site selector is evaluating the state and its cities, the state and cities are evaluating the company: Will this company bring the right kind of jobs to the community? What will their financial impact be on local taxing entities? Will they create ancillary jobs outside of their company? Will they fit into an existing industry cluster? “I don’t think people realize how calculated these proposals are,” Steinhoff says. “These people are experts at making sure that it’s a core job, that it’s going to bring back a good return to the state . . . You’re basically trying to find the threshold of public investment to then garner a certain amount of private investment.” These kind of calculations are what leads the city to sell a piece of land that they paid $3 million for to a company like Aurora for $2.1 million — if the city figures it can make up revenue in the long term by adding permanent facilities and high-paying jobs, it can offer more to a company in the short term. “We don’t submit to every project that’s out there,” Andrews says. “Sometimes [the RFI] might have wage information saying they’re looking to hire 100 people at a certain wage. If we don’t think that’s going to be high enough here to be attractive to the labor force, we don’t submit for that. If it’s something that’s kind of a heavy industry that we don’t think would fit well within the city of Columbia, we’re not going to see that site in Columbia. We’ll look at these to see if it’s something we feel comfortable encouraging.” Andrews says Columbia is especially interested in “basic” employCOLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 55
ers serving at least a multistate customer base, but preferably a national or international one. Generally speaking, these are candidates like manufacturing companies (like Dana Light Axle Products, another recent Chapter 100 recipient) or life sciences companies (like Northwest Medical Isotopes, another recruitment project many years in the making). For most of the recruitment process, the business remains anonymous; if word leaked that company XYZ was looking at a site in Columbia, their competitors could potentially mobilize faster and beat them to the punch. The city gives potential recruitment projects code names for most of the negotiation process. Aurora was “Project Cadre”; some years ago, IBM’s data center, now on Lemone Industrial Boulevard, was “Project Tiger.” If, after going to the Missouri Partnership and then collecting an RFI submission from a city, a site selector feels that Columbia could be a nice fit, they put the city on a finalist list. Sometimes these lists include 10 cities; sometimes just three. But making a finalist list is a big deal — American Outdoor Brands started with a pool of more than 80 cities across 18 states. Being a finalist means you’re close. It means you’re about to have a lot more conversations. That’s particularly true in Columbia.
Cards on the Table
Chapter 100 bonds are one example of the types of performance-based tax incentives that Steinhoff promoted at DED; they’re also the only type of tax incentive that can be deployed for local projects in Boone County. “Basically, our only real tool at this point in time, locally, is the Chapter 100 abatement, which is Boone County policy,” Andrews says. The city briefly tried to designate part of Columbia as an enhanced enterprise zone, or EEZ, which would have opened up more incentive possibilities, but opponents of the policy eventually won out. Chapter 100 policy is determined at individual county levels, but generally speaking, the program offers property tax breaks in exchange for a certain amount of investment in the community. In Boone County, the current policy calls for a minimum $10 million capital investment for a new company or a minimum $5 million investment from an existing company to qualify for the bonds. Aurora received a 75 percent abate56 JUNE 2017
ment over 10 years, paying $1.7 million in taxes over that period. The county is currently reexamining the threshold limits on its Chapter 100 policy, but the thresholds aren’t really what makes Boone County’s Chapter 100 bonds so quirky. Dave Griggs, owner of Dave Griggs’ Flooring America, former county commissioner, and former REDI chair, is now the incentives committee chair for REDI; once a company indicates that Columbia is a finalist for a site and they’re interested in Chapter 100, Griggs gets to work. He studies what impact the project would have on taxing entities in town, the biggest of which is Columbia Public Schools. He meets with County Assessor Tom Schauwecker to parse through the revenue that would be gained by a project and abated through Chapter 100. And none of that is really normal. “Let’s say that you and I want to start a saw mill in Henry County and we want to take advantage of Chapter 100,” Griggs says. “We go to the county commission and say, ‘Hey guys, here’s what we’re gonna do
and we want to do Chapter 100.’ Generally, what happens outside of Boone County is the county commission says, ‘Hmm, you’re going to spend how much money in our community? You’re going to pay how much in property taxes? OK, we’ll do it!’” At the next commission meeting, Griggs says, they’ll hold a first reading for their approval of the Chapter 100 bonds; if there’s a newspaper in the county, they might report it, but it’s unlikely that the public would ever hear anything about it. At the next meeting, they’ll approve the application and grant the incentives. “That would just be an impossibility here,” Griggs says. “So, when we drafted our policy, we very methodically and very intentionally involved all those taxing entities. But that’s what makes our process, I think, very open, very upfront, and extremely valuable. Because Bernie, Stacey [Button, director of REDI], and I may not think of something. Bernie, Stacey, and I and the Missouri Partnership and DED might have overlooked something.”
“Recruitment is the sexiest part of economic development. These guys are wired to make deals.” - GREG STEI N H OFF COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 57
Going through the Process Companies going through the site selection process have to meticulously weigh costs and benefits between dozens of different communities. It can get complicated.
Time needed for information gathering
3-6 months: 7% 6-12 months: 21% 1-2 years: 49% More than 2 years: 24% Number of locations or economic development organizations making “the short list”
1-5: 93% 5-10: 4% More than 10: 3% Number of locations visited before finalizing the location decision
1 or 2: 28% Up to 5: 60% More than 5: 12% Source: Area Development magazine survey, 2016 58 JUNE 2017
Any Chapter 100 application in Boone County has to first clear a Chapter 100 review committee, which includes appointees from each taxing entity in the county, who have the power to reject an application before it ever reaches the county commission. REDI, city officials, and the company have to present their ideas and plans to the committee and answer any questions that come up. In other counties, the library district and the school district might bemoan Chapter 100 projects getting breaks on taxes that would otherwise go to them; in Boone County, those taxing entities control the process. “Instead of three people making the decision, like in every other county in Missouri, 75 people make the decision before it even goes to the three people who are going to vote,” Griggs says. It should be reiterated that the guiding principle not only of the Chapter 100 process, but also the Missouri Partnership and DED and REDI, is job creation. The lens through which every potential recruitment project is viewed is jobs: how many jobs will the company bring, how many more jobs will those jobs create, how much tax revenue will those jobs make up for, and so on. While the county has approved three Chapter 100 applications in the last year, they’ve only approved two others since adopting the policy in 2005 (EAG Laboratories, formerly ABC Laboratories, and Kraft Heinz, who said they’d move to Madison, Wisconsin without an abatement). “The real potential, the actual potential for jobs, that was something that really motivated me to look much more kindly on this,” says Janet Thompson, the Northern District commissioner for Boone County. “I would much rather not give these tax benefits to companies where, you know, I think they could get financing another way, and tax money is hard to come by. And that’s why it has to be vetted so carefully to make sure you’re not giving something up that outweighs this other benefit. It’s a balance that you have to strike, and that’s why we look very closely at things like infrastructure cost.” Before the county commission would approve the 75 percent abatement for the Aurora project, they asked Columbia City Manager Mike Matthes to provide certification that the facility wouldn’t cause any
undue strain on sewer capacity; maintaining water quality was a particular concern for Thompson. By the time Chapter 100 comes into play, a company has generally already been sold on Columbia as a suitable site for their project; that’s essentially what being a finalist means. But — to repeat an important point — business recruitment is an outlandishly competitive game, and you have to play hard to win. If you don’t have incentives, other communities will. “The genie is out of the bottle for tax abatements,” Thompson says. “Since he’s out, let’s direct him in a direction that helps our community and doesn’t turn around and snap at us.” Griggs says the county will likely update its Chapter 100 policy — probably changing the investment thresholds and erasing some language that’s now repeated in state policy — but the public-facing process will stay in place. “When companies first come to us, one of the first things we do is hand them our policy and say, ‘If you decide to do this, it’s an open public process,’” he says. “You’ve got to put your cards on the table or we’re not the right choice.”
"The real potential, the actual potential for jobs, that was something that really motivated me to look much more kindly on this." - JANET THOMPSON
A Bipartisan Investment
The trouble with open government processes, like the Chapter 100 approval procedure, is that the public often doesn’t voice its opinion until it’s too late. To the citizen who’s a casual follower of local happenings, the prospect of giving up a weeknight to listen in on a dairy processing company’s infrastructure presentation to the library board is understandably less appealing than a normal night in. But the business recruitment process in Boone County — that is, the process that starts once Columbia is seriously contending for a company — is designed to be perpetually strengthened by public input. If you want to make it better, you can literally do that just by speaking up. “I think, you know, if we are concerned, if we want to know where our tax dollars are going, then speak up if there’s an opportunity for a public hearing, which there are with Chapter 100,” Thompson says. “There’s at least two in the commission chambers and even more through REDI. And I wish we, as citizens, would be more engaged and ask more questions, and say those things that are important.”
Aurora, while it has received criticism from some anti-incentive hardliners and skeptical organic-certification enthusiasts, had broad support across the ideological spectrum. Steinhoff, a conservative who served in a Republican governor’s cabinet, sees it as a fulfillment of the business-friendly economic development strategy the state began to develop a little more than a decade ago. Thompson, a former public defender and Democrat, supports it as a way to provide middle-class jobs to workers whose only other alternative would be minimum wage. At the local level, business recruitment — even though it intersects with public policy in a number of different ways — isn’t really political. “All the politics aside, all the opinions,” Steinhoff says, “is this deal going to produce a better community when it’s done than what we have now, and can you make a case for why that’s going to happen? That’s the bottom line for economic development.” At the Aurora groundbreaking, Marc Peperzak, the CEO, talked about Colum-
bia being a good “cultural fit,” which is also something that Andrews says REDI considers when responding to an RFI forwarded to them by the Missouri Partnership. The appropriate people will calculate the return on investment and the revenue impact of a recruitment project, but is the company something that could really integrate into Columbia for the next several decades? After all, those are the types of businesses that create other businesses and other jobs; those are the types of businesses that end up putting people on the boards of REDI and producing people who run for school board and participate in Chapter 100 committees down the road. “From a personal standpoint, I’m passionate about economic development,” Griggs says. “I’m a regular guy. A Boone County farm boy, born and raised. But if I wanted a career position working for somebody, if I can create that kind of job where I can start and grow in that job — well, that’s my personal goal for what we do.” CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 59
‘New Collar’ jobs Closing the gap in the skilled workforce. BY JENNIFER TRUESDALE
60 JUNE 2017
Photography by Anthony Jinson COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 61
BY 2020, TWO-THIRDS OF U.S. JOBS WILL NOT require four-year degrees, according to a Georgetown University study. The demand for “middle skill” workers — those with associate degrees or training certificates — will continue to grow rapidly, especially in well-paying fields like health sciences, information technology, and advanced manufacturing. But the deficit in the availability of these skilled workers is also mounting. Skilled labor accounts for 53 percent of the state’s workforce, but only 46 percent of Missourians are trained in skilled vocations. Nationwide, some three million jobs for skilled workers remain unfilled today. Career and technical education, once stigmatized as a less-attractive option than four-year college programs, offers employers a way to fill gaps in the skilled workforce and offers colleges a way to build streams of employable workers. And that’s precisely what’s happening at two small Missouri colleges.
“There was a time when someone could complete high school and that was sufficient education for many career or technical jobs for the person who wasn’t interested in pursuing higher education,” says Dr. Jeff Lashley, president and alumnus of Moberly Area Community College. “What’s different today is that most middle-skill jobs require training beyond high school but don’t require a bachelor’s degree. Training for these jobs is one important niche that community and technical colleges are meeting.” MACC has around 5,500 online and in-seat students between its campuses in Moberly, Columbia, Mexico, Kirksville, and Hannibal. It offers more than 40 programs in career and technical education, or CTE, in addition to a number of liberal arts offerings. In two years or fewer, MACC students can complete associate degrees or certificates in a variety of health, business, and technology fields and graduate ready to work in those disciplines. In April, MACC announced its participation in the Missouri Community College Association’s Workforce Development Network — under the program, all 12 Missouri community colleges are teaming up to share their collective resources to meet the growing labor demand. “It’s about serving Missouri, serving the businesses,” says Lashley. One such local business is 3M, one of Columbia’s largest employers. With the help of a $70,000 grant from 3M in 2013, MACC established a mechatronics (short for mechanical electronics) program to help meet a growing need for technicians at 3M and in other advanced manufacturing settings. “That absolutely was REDI coming to us and saying 3M is struggling to find employees with specific training and skill sets needed for advanced manufacturing,” Lashley says. “REDI, 3M, MACC, Columbia Area Career Center, and some additional businesses all met and we developed the new curriculum with and for them. We developed the curriculum to be what they wanted it to be,” Lashley says. IBM also looks to benefit from a new partnership formed with MACC earlier this year. When IBM opened its doors on 62 JUNE 2017
Ph otogra phy by A n th ony Ji ns on
MOBERLY AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 63
Photos provided by State Technical College
64 JUNE 2017
FASTEST GROWING MIDDLE-SKILLS JOBS IN MISSOURI PROJECTED GROWTH RATE 2014-2024
NUMBER OF JOBS BY 2024
AVERAGE SALARY
RANKING (all fast-growing jobs in Missouri)
Occupational therapist assistant
41.67%
1,360
$55.520
1
Physical therapist assistant
38.07%
2,720
$50,220
2
Millwright
26.6%
1,990
$51,320
9
Web developer
26.5%
2,530
$62,660
10
Cardiovascular technologist & technicians
22.45%
1,200
$47,760
17
Source: 2017 Zippia report of fastest growing Missouri jobs
JOB TITLE
Lemone Industrial Boulevard in 2010, they estimated the site would add up to 800 new jobs to the local economy. But, like 3M, IBM has struggled to fill vacancies requiring specific skills. In response, the company launched an internship program with MACC, where students in the programming and networking degree programs can qualify for paid positions. IBM also created a “New Collar” initiative to attract students studying other fields who demonstrate analytical thinking skills. IBM selected MACC to be the first community college in the nation to pilot this initiative. Both programs offer on-the-job training, shadowing, and mentorship from IBM employees. “These New Collar positions are in some of the technology industry’s fastest growing fields, such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, and digital design,” says Clint Roswell, director of external communications for IBM. “The Columbia area has been a key source of New Collar talent.” Suzi McGarvey, director of CTE programs at MACC, says the partnership opens doors for students that might not otherwise be there. “It is wonderful to work with a well-known partner like IBM,” McGarvey says. “I think everyone is realizing the educational institutions and
industry need each other to develop the kind of workforce our community needs.” “We have to stay connected to our business and industry people [in order to] provide the students training that they actually need,” Lashley says, “not what we think they need.”
STATE TECHNICAL COLLEGE With its main campus in Linn, Missouri, and satellite campuses in Jefferson City and St. Charles, State Technical College of Missouri has a total enrollment of around 1,300 students. Also accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, STC offers more than 35 CTE programs in fields like health science, automotive technology, and manufacturing that can be completed in two years or less. “We have industry members and business owners who sit on our advisory groups and advise us about industry trends and what’s needed to better prepare our students to become full-time employees for them,” says Ed Frederick, instructor and department chair of diesel programs. Frederick sat on one of those advisory councils for 14 years before joining STC’s faculty in 2010. Since 2000, STC has participated in the Caterpillar ThinkBig Technician Education program through a partnership with the
heavy-equipment manufacturer. The program is one of 11 in the nation and offers CAT-proprietary curriculum that helps prepare students for future employment with the company. The program averages 30 to 35 students, who complete the program in five semesters, splitting time between in-seat courses and hands-on experience servicing CAT equipment. STC partners with Fabick CAT, headquartered in Fenton, Missouri, and Foley CAT, located in Wichita, Kansas, for the program. CAT ThinkBig students go through the standard admissions process for STC, but the CAT dealer decides who makes the cut. The dealers sponsor the chosen students and provide them with paid internships. “We usually sponsor eight to 10 students each year,” says Chris Bond, Fabick CAT’s training supervisor and ThinkBig intern advisor. “We are after the best of the best, and we’re also after 100 percent job placement after graduation.” They’ve achieved that goal three years in a row now. Bond says the starting salary for these graduates is $40,000 to $50,000 per year, excluding benefits, retirement, and overtime pay. “Fabick’s partnership with State Tech is our company’s best resource to close the gap in hiring skilled workers,” Bond says. “When we COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 65
hire our interns out of the program, they’re ready to work on day one.” ThinkBig graduates also have the opportunity to pursue a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in diesel and heavy equipment through the CAT ThinkBigger program at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. The degree is designed to train graduates for higher-paying management opportunities. STC also partners with the Heartland International Dealers Association to offer training in medium and heavy-duty truck technology. An average of 22 students, chosen by HIDA and supported with a paid internship, participate in the program. Six regional International truck dealers for the network, including Al Scheppers Motor Company, in Jefferson City, and Summitt Truck Group, which has 32 locations in eight states, including Missouri. “State Tech is the main source for our future technicians,” says Jim Hinton, service trainer for Summit. Hinton says there has been a shortage of medium-heavy truck technicians for several years, and the need will continue to grow. Since the program began at STC in 2012, Summitt has hired 25 STC graduates, who start at $17.25 per hour or more. The relationship between the Heartland International Dealers Association advisory committee and STC has been key in developing a quality training program. “State Tech puts trust in our advisory committee,” Hinton says. “The committee consists of industry partners that meet twice a year to review program content and make suggested changes to meet the ever changing advances in medium-heavy duty truck technology. This way our graduates of the program are trained on up-to-date products.” Frederick agrees the relationship STC has with industry partners is beneficial to the students and the companies that hire them. He says, “We feel that we are delivering a product that [industries] are accepting of, and they, in turn, hire our graduates to fill their needs.”
Is the four-year degree going to become a thing of the past? Probably not. Lashley says that about 60 percent of MACC students will transfer to four-year institutions to complete a bachelor’s degree. Both MACC and State Tech have articulation agreements with four-year state institutions, allowing completed course work to satisfy degree requirements for various bachelor’s degree programs. Some MACC students, however, start associate degrees — which are generally 60 to 72 credit hours — and stop after completing the 32 hours needed for a certificate, Lashley says. 66 JUNE 2017
Ph otogra phy by A n th ony Ji ns on
THE FUTURE OF THE FOUR-YEAR DEGREE
“We do fewer certificates than degrees, but we have many students who will start a degree program with us, get halfway through the program, and find they’ve acquired enough skills to get a job with a certificate.” While that helps skilled workers enter the labor market faster, it has a downside for the college. “Unfortunately, some of the ways we’re judged and evaluated through the organizations that accredit us is based on degree completion,” says Lashley. “Perhaps students do not complete degrees or certificates, but they leave us and get good jobs they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.” For many students, those good jobs mean bypassing entry-level positions and entry-level pay while saving money on education. While tuition and fees vary a bit from program to program, the cost of attendance for a two-year associate degree runs about $23,600 for in-state STC students. (Two years of campus housing adds another $10,600.) A two-year program at MACC runs about $20,000, which includes books, supplies, and the estimated cost of living off campus. Many students at both institutions take advantage of the A+ Scholarship Program offered by the Missouri Department of Higher Education, which reimburses up to $159.75 per credit hour to eligible students attending qualifying community and technical colleges full-time. For students who do transfer to four-year institutions, the cost savings realized during the first two years of technical or community college
SKILLS THAT TECH EMPLOYERS VALUE (REGARDLESS OF FIELD)
P ho tography by A nt hony J inson
can reduce the overall cost of a bachelor’s degree. One year of tuition and housing for in-state residents attending MU, for example, runs $27,374. Plus, STC and MACC graduates are likely to enter the workforce immediately and earn a living, which may make an advanced degree easier to afford down the road. The Heartland International Dealers Association program offers an average starting salary of around $31,000. Mechatronics technicians have starting salaries in the $40,000 range. Perhaps most notably, however, are the salaries in the health sciences. According to a report released by Zippia, an employment information company, earlier this year, occupational and physical therapist assistants are the fastest growing jobs in Missouri — and they are predominantly held by women.
•
Critical thinking
•
Science reasoning
WOMEN IN TECH
•
Creativity/ability to think outside the box
•
Dependability
•
Ability to professionally communicate with customers and peers
•
Strong writing skills
STC averages an overall female enrollment of about 17 percent, and while MACC’s female enrollment is nearly 60 percent, both schools find more men enrolled in their industrial programs. Perhaps not surprisingly, it’s the nursing and health science programs that yield the most female students. Nationally, about 69 percent of occupational and physical therapist assistants are women. Increasing demand for OTAs and PTAs may be in part due to the healthy starting salaries these
fields offer. OTAs in Missouri average a salary of around $55,000, while PTAs average around $50,000. STC offers a PTA program, and MACC offers both OTA and PTA options. While women are thriving in certain CTE areas, research suggests the gender wage gap is still thriving. A 2016 study by Comparably, another employment researcher, found that women under the age of 25 entering tech fields have the largest wage disparity with their male counterparts, earning about 29 percent less. Female programmers make nearly 30 percent less than their male counterparts, according to a 2016 Glassdoor survey. Both schools do have women enrolled in their industrial programs (and men in the health sciences). Two of the first graduates of MACC’s mechatronics students were women. STC currently has four women in its medium-heavy truck program, and the CAT ThinkBig program’s first female student is ready for this fall. While only time will tell if the gender wage gap will prevail as more women enter these fields, job opportunities for skilled men and women across numerous industries will only continue to increase. Frederick says, “The industry demand continues to grow as the workforce ages, and graduates from our programs have amazing opportunities to quickly advance their career as trained technicians.” CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 67
68 JUNE 2017
B U SINESS • P EOP L E • IM P ROVE M E N T • F YI
OR G A N I ZAT I ON AL H EALT H
mance, increase awareness, build trust, and reinforce confidence.
5. Identify and reward high performing employees. If you don’t clearly identify and reward someone who’s hitting the mark or going past it, what’s the incentive to grow? Also, knowing and being able to clearly identify who your high performing team members are is critical. These are the performers you can’t afford to lose as long as they’re living out your team values and hitting the marks. If they’re hitting the marks and not living the values, you can’t afford to keep them.
6. Have a succession plan. It’s a fact: you will
ORGA N I Z AT IONAL H E ALTH
10 Best Practices To Keep Your Team Winning BY TON Y RICHA R DS | Fou n de r of C le ar Visio n Deve l o p m e n t G ro u p
A WINNING TEAM IS EASY TO SPOT — it’s something about the way they get along with each other, the swagger they carry and the way they go about their business. But you can also spot a team that isn’t winning much. There’s bickering and infighting, dissatisfaction is everywhere, and most people are just surviving, out for themselves. It’s a leader’s job to turn that around. Here are 10 things we can put into practice to keep our winning teams winning and turn around those teams in a decline.
1. Get alignment. You, as the leader, need to make sure everyone on the team has goals that are aligned with the organization’s. Communicating any change for the organization’s directional course, focus, or priorities is also something you need to be able to articulate and communicate quickly and clearly. Monitor progress and make sure everyone arrives at the same place at the same time.
2. Conduct employee performance reviews more than annually. Yes, some people still do them once per year, and some people do them,
uh, never. But more frequent review sessions give the team member a chance to talk about what they’re doing well, gaps in performance, competency improvements, and so on. It also allows the leader some teaching moments with lower performers, giving them more chances to improve their skills and help the team.
3. Provide ongoing feedback to maximize performance. Giving feedback is the one skill every leader needs to improve. It’s not something we do well. Giving feedback should happen daily, with plenty of interaction. Waiting to give feedback — even in more frequent performance reviews — is not enough. Feedback needs to happen in real-time “game situations” to let the team member know you’re listening, watching, and helping them get better.
4. Invest in performance improvement and development. Yes, here’s my plug for people development. It’s like taking the right supplements with your diet; it helps in ways you cannot imagine before you try it. Investing in people development will help improve perfor-
lose people. You must be able to replace critical people at all times. A vacant spot on your team, which represented essential skills, creates a gap that will cripple your organization. Keeping a talent pool freshly stocked and trained is an activity too many leaders avoid.
7. Balance effectiveness and efficiency. Endeavor to balance the right things with doing things right — by that I mean make sure that you’re not very efficiently doing the wrong things. Start with making sure you’re doing the right things at the right time, and then focus on doing them as efficiently as possible.
8. Tap into your most passionate team members. It’s too easy to forget about the people who consistently make things happen behind the scenes because they care and love what they do. Take the focus off the complainers and critics. Give these balls of energy the opportunity to release their passion.
9. Practice amnesia on things you can’t control. Be an example of quickly putting things that are out of your control out of your mind. It’s frustrating for you and drains all the energy out of your team when you continually focus on issues you can’t affect. When something like this comes along, practice telling yourself, “NEXT!”
10. Deal with negative people in private. Do not expose the whole team to corrective feedback when just one or two people are the culprits. The rest of your team will know you dealt with it and they will appreciate how you did it. We’re all subject to negativity at times and would like to be dealt with in the same manner: in private, not in public. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 69
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70 JUNE 2017
BU SINESS • P EOP L E • IM PROVE M E N T • F YI
DI VER SI T Y
?
?
?
DI VERSI T Y
The “Why” behind Diversity & Inclusion Efforts in Business
BY NIKKI McGRUDER | Regional Manager of Diversity Awareness Partnership
MANY COMPANIES NATIONWIDE HAVE stated a commitment to diversity, yet that commitment, and how it’s exercised in the workplace, varies. One way to uncover a company’s true understanding of diversity is to visit their website and review their statement on diversity and inclusion. Check to see if the company has a page dedicated to diversity efforts, programs tailored to those efforts, and departments or executives leading those initiatives. Much of what is (or is not) found there identifies why diversity and inclusion strategies are important for business success. As individuals and as organizations, it’s important to understand that decision-making is best served when there is a diversity of input in the process. That’s where inclusion comes in — because diversity alone is not enough. Once our personal understanding is deepened, we can move forward in our efforts to impact others. This approach can be effective from the top down as well as the bottom up. If our presidents
and CEOs are expanding their understanding alongside individual contributors and middle management, an organization can work toward a healthy and productive environment together. The United States 2010 Census projected that the U.S. population will be more racially and ethnically diverse by 2060, and current demographic trends suggest the same. As our nation becomes more diverse, businesses and organizations should move in the same direction. Your goal is to reflect the populations you wish to serve. But why should we pay attention to diversity and inclusion efforts in business? Why should this be a main topic of discussion as businesses are developing strategies in our ever-changing economy? Let’s look at a few reasons: 1. Diversity will increase the bottom line. One business case for this comes from McKinsey & Company, a trusted leader in global management consulting, that has developed research and initiatives on
the topic of diversity in the workplace for years. In “Diversity Matters,” published in February 2015, they reported many reasons why diversity has a positive impact on productivity. In research of 366 public companies, key findings showed that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. On the other side of that scale, companies in the bottom quartile, both for gender diversity and for ethnic and racial diversity, are statistically less likely to achieve aboveaverage financial returns than the average companies in the data set. Those companies are falling well below the power curve. 2. A commitment to diversity and inclusion efforts assists in crosscultural promotions. If we know the goal is to increase business productivity, then marketing across cultures in a responsible way is important. It’s imperative that any business venture or marketing initiative be free of preconceptions about what others value — respect cultural language, gestures, context, and even how people negotiate or approach new opportunities. 3. Recruitment and retention of diverse talent is instrumental to achieving many multicultural business goals. This is a two-part objective. It’s important to have recruiting initiatives that focus on getting more people from underrepresented groups in the door, but doing that alone will not serve a company well — a simultaneous effort must be made to ensure that talent is retained. Executives should ask, “How can we ensure upward mobility for our diverse talent and not stagnation in long-term positions?” and, “How can we ensure that our diverse talent is being heard around the table when key decisions are being made?”
What questions will you pose in your next staff meeting? How can diversity and inclusion strategies help improve your organization’s culture and performance? If you need help, reach out — I’m excited to do this work with you. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 71
BU SINESS • P EOP L E • IM PROVE M E N T • F YI
leave; disability; gender-pay differences; workplace safety; immigration; and more. These laws apply to all employers, regardless of their size. It could and has cost companies millions upon millions to fight these types of lawsuits. Hiring the right people for the job. Jacoby says people often hire candidates because they know them or like them or feel sorry for them. Do yourself a favor: Only interview people to hire them for the job to be done. It has been proven that when you hire friends or unqualified folks for the position, everyone eventually loses.
A SK A N N E
Small Business HR Simplified
BY A N N E W ILLIAM S | P re side n t of JobF in der s E m p l oy m e n t S e r vi ce s
Q Dear Anne, I own a company that has grown and is now employing 14 team members. I don’t have any HR education or training, but I have taken on the responsibilities of human resources, including evaluations, payroll, hiring, and office management. What do I need to learn and understand as I take on this challenge?
Congratulations! You’ll learn a lot if you do the job the way the regulators want you to. I recently read a blog in The Huffington Post by Margaret Jacoby, a certified senior 72 JUNE 2017
professional in human resources, that addresses some common mistakes small businesses make in their HR. She understands you’re overloaded and mistakes are bound to happen. “Human resource management mistakes can be devastating for your company in numerous ways, from litigation to employee replacement costs,” Jacoby says. This means you need to take your HR role seriously, learn all you can, and follow the rules and regulations set forth by state and federal government. A few things to be aware of while working in HR at a small company include: Employment law. Familiarize yourself with various areas of employment law, like discrimination; overtime; family, military and maternity
Creating strong, accurate job descriptions. Once you decide to hire for a certain position, you generally have a job description in mind. But you must have a clear, written description of the job and the position before you start actively advertising and recruiting. It should include the skills, training, and education of the person you are searching for as well as the basic duties and responsibilities of the job. Once this is complete, you’ll have a road map for the search process. My rule of thumb is to only choose job candidates that match a minimum of 90 percent of your description to interview. Managing performance issues. Performance issues do not go away! Most small business owners I’ve met hope that problem employees eventually rectify themselves on their own. You’re not always so lucky. The key is to get problems out in the open quickly. There are many corrective action form templates you can find on the internet or at the library to assist you in getting the performance issue written down. Many have areas for action steps to correct the behavior and, if need be, termination agreements. Whatever the outcome, make sure both parties sign off on the form. Misclassifying employee status. Are you using “contract workers” that work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week at your business? Do they have quotas, goals, or someone telling them they get two weeks off? If so, you may be misclassifying them, according to the IRS and the Department of Labor.
ASK A N N E
Many small employers don’t want to pay benefits and hassle with unemployment insurance and other costs of hired employees, so they make their workers independent contractors. But the rules are very specific on who is eligible to become a contractor. (You’ll find a lot of info at the DOL and IRS websites.)
According to Jacoby, a person is only an independent contractor if you:
• Don’t have control of their job and the work they do. • Don’t have any written contracts, benefit plans, or vacation time spelled out. • Don’t control the financial aspects of the worker’s assignments.
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Q Dear Anne, I do not know what “business casual” means. I went to a meeting wearing a sundress and sandals and was completely underdressed. Now I’m embarrassed. Please help!
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Business casual dress is different wherever you go. It depends on the size of the company, number of employees, amount of interaction between employees and customers, geography, climate, culture, and average age of the workforce. Business casual encourages employees to project a professional, business-like image while enjoying the advantage of more casual clothing. To be on the safe side, men should stick to slacks or khakis, a dress shirt or polo, and closed-toed shoes. Women should wear a dress or skirt (no minis) or slacks or capris with an appropriate blouse. Shoes may be sandals but not flip-flops of any kind. Avoid T-shirts and shorts, and until you understand the dress culture of your company, aim to overdo it! CBT Anne Williams is not an attorney. All content in this column is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality and is not to be construed as legal advice.
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POLI CY
addiction, overdose, and death. Participation in PDMPs has been shown to reduce these rates. According to the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, there are seven key characteristics of a strong PDMP. 1. Monitored drugs should include federally controlled substances and potentially abused drugs. 2. Monitoring systems should proactively provide information to law enforcement and other appropriate individuals.
P OL IC Y
Drug Monitoring Program Overdue BY JERRY DOWELL | Director of Government Affairs, Columbia Chamber of Commerce
3. Programs should be allowed, under statute, to disclose data for public research. Authorized individuals should include dispensers, prescribers, law enforcement, and licensing officials. 4. Users should receive specialized training with the program. 5. An evaluation component should be included that would allow for cost–benefit analysis and means for improving the program. 6. Collected data should not be subject to public record laws.
I EXPECTED THAT, BY THE TIME THIS article was published, the Missouri General Assembly would have passed a prescription drug monitoring program that would make Missouri the last state in the country to adopt one. They didn’t. Prescription drug monitoring programs in the U.S. are not new, but they’ve constantly evolved as policies have reflected changes in society’s attitude toward prescription drugs. According to a study published by Pew Charitable Trusts, nine statewide PDMPs were established by 1990, starting with California, in 1939. In their early forms, many of these programs were operated by law enforcement or regulatory agencies and had a narrow focus on tracking Schedule II drugs, primarily opioids. Prescribers and pharmacists in these states rarely received the reports filed under these programs. While the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Grants and the passage of the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act reflect the federal government’s growing interest in PDMPs, the states carry the burden of operations, oversight, and enforcement. And despite nearly all states enacting or approaching the adoption of sim-
ilar programs, the function of these programs remains inconsistent. Because much of the early interest was focused on resolving issues of diversion, abuse, and deaths related to prescription drugs, early PDMPs in the U.S. were designed to aid regulatory and law enforcement agencies, who used PDMP data to identify targets involved in the abusive distribution of controlled substances. Five of the states currently participating in a PDMP have continued to leave control of their programs to law enforcement agencies, but more and more states have realized that medical professionals can also utilize the program to better serve patients and families. The program could deter “doctor shopping,” and giving professionals access to a complete patient record of prescription drug usage can improve the overall quality of patient care and safety. This data can also be used to combat insurance fraud related to billing practices. Missouri is home to 1,318 pharmacies and 22,430 prescribers, according to the PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center database. Incomplete self-reporting of medical history by patients can lead to harmful health practices, and increased prescriptions for opioids correlates with increased rates of abuse, diversion,
7. Each state should put into place measures to address interstate abuse of prescription drugs.
Because the Missouri legislature couldn’t pass a PDMP this session, we’ll presumably try again next year. It has been a long, winding road toward PDMP in our state — related legislation has been filed every year in Missouri since 2004. During that period of state inaction, local municipalities and civic and member organizations began to take independent action. The Columbia Chamber of Commerce has been advocating for a statewide program and testified for the adoption of a local effort. Since 2016, 27 cities and counties, including Columbia and Boone County, have joined a PDMP created by the St. Louis County Health Department; that program now covers more than half the state, which means that many Missourians are enrolled in a PDMP while the state continues waiting. The PDMPs of the future — hopefully including Missouri’s — should allow for interstate data sharing and real-time collection of data, and that should become the standard of care. We may be late to adopting the policy, but maybe Missouri can lead the effort for the next generation of PDMPs. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 75
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B U SINESS • P EOP L E • IM PROVE M E N T • F YI
B U SI N ESS SM AR TS
use on our site.” You might also consider providing an online form on your company website allowing customers to offer feedback and leave reviews.
RESPOND It is a good idea to regularly check sites where you may be reviewed and do regular online searches for your business name — it’ll help monitor your online reputation. This can be important for addressing negative reviews, but remember that responding to positive reviews can be just as important. People generally like to know that a business takes the time to read their comments, and participating in this kind of online dialogue can encourage old customers to return and show new customers that you’re a business that cares about customers.
BE HONEST
B U SI N ESS S MARTS
Getting More from Online Reviews
Make sure everything you do is genuine and honest. There have been instances of businesses getting caught posting fake reviews in order to inflate their reputation or cover up negative reviews. This can damage a company’s reputation and is one of the reasons BBB verifies that reviews are from actual customers before allowing them to be posted.
BY SEAN SP ENCE | Re gion al D ire ctor of Be tte r B u s i n e ss B u re a u Co l u m b i a
PUBLICIZE
BUSINESSES KNOW ALL TOO WELL the power that can come with online reviews, whether good or bad. Customers rely on online reviews to help make buying decisions, and reviews can also make a big difference in a company’s overall search engine optimization, making it more likely that potential customers will find them when searching online. To be competitive, businesses need a strategy for getting and using positive online reviews. Options for displaying customer reviews include posting them on your company website, enabling review functionality on your company Facebook page and other social media, and motivating customers to leave reviews with online directories, like those provided by Yelp, HomeAdvisor, and Better Business Bureau. So how do you get those reviews to be positive, and what do you do once you have them? Here are some tips for using reviews to attract more business:
ASK As sales people, we know that we get more if we ask more; asking satisfied customers for reviews on a regular basis can boost the number of positive reviews a company receives. Customers tend to be most motivated to post a review when they’re unhappy with something, and we do not want to let those reviews overwhelm the good ones. Fortunately, a request is often all a happy customer needs. Post a sign, give customers a card when the job is done, or send a follow-up email asking for a review.
MAKE IT EASY If you want reviews in the BBB directory, on your website, or somewhere else, provide customers with direct links. In your follow-up e-mail, for example, say something like: “Thank you so much for your business! If your experience with us was positive, please consider leaving us a review on our BBB profile (include link) or send it directly to us (email address) to
When asking for feedback, get permission to use comments in company promotions, on your website, or on social media. Let customers know whether you plan to use their full name, just their first name and last initial, or something else before posting. When you get permission, share the positive feedback widely. Thank reviewers on social media and include what they said. Use them as testimonials on your site and put them in your marketing materials to share what your customers think about you.
ADDRESS NEGATIVE REVIEWS Before you ask for any more feedback, address valid negative issues that you learn about online. If customers see that you have not responded to or addressed previous problems, they may be concerned about your sincerity. All businesses should want to interact with their customers as much as possible — it’s a way to demonstrate your value and build loyalty. Online reviews, when they’re monitored and used correctly, offer an easy and effective way to strengthen your customer network. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 77
BU SINESS • P EOP L E • IM PROVE M E N T • F YI to 87 percent, but “Last Minute Gift We Have the Answer” only claims a 1 to 14 percent open rate. • If you’re not sure what works for subject lines, try A/B testing. Many email services allow you to send out the same email with two subject lines, testing the two on a small selection of your subscribers and then using the more popular subject line to title the remainder of the emails. • Try sending emails at various times and days of the week. Tuesday is considered the best day to send business to business emails, but it may not be the best for your business, you won’t know until you test and monitor.
MA RKET I NG
Making Your Email Marketing Work BY MON ICA P ITTS | C h ie f C re at ive D ire ctor o f M aye C re ate D e s i g n
THE ONLINE MARKETING COMPANY Constant Contact surveyed small business owners and found that 49 percent do not use email marketing data because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re reading this article, I’m betting you’re in the 49 percent. Let me see if I can help. Before you can diagnose what’s going on with your metrics, you’ll need to understand what the metrics mean. Let’s start with the two biggies: open rate and click-through rate.
OPEN RATE The percentage of recipients who opened and looked at an email. Getting readers to open your email is the first hurdle to sharing your message, but typical open rates vary per industry. According to MailChimp, a prominent email 78 JUNE 2017
marketing provider, the average open rate for nonprofit emails is 24.98 percent, while open rates for marketing companies, for example, is closer to 17.81 percent. Most businesses experience an open rate of around 21 percent. If you have a low open rate, consider making a few adjustments: • Adjust your subject lines. According to MailChimp: “When it comes to subject lines, boring works best. When you write your subject line, don’t sell what’s inside — tell what's inside. If your email is a newsletter, put the name and issue of the newsletter in your subject line. Don’t write your subject lines like advertisements.” Mailchimp’s best email subject line is currently “COMPANY NAME Sales & Marketing Newsletter,” with an open rate of 60
• Consider segmenting your lists into groups based on shared traits or interests. Segmented email campaigns in 2016 had an open rate that is 14.32 percent higher than non-segmented campaigns, according to MailChimp.
Open rate is an intriguing metric, though it’s not always a true representation of the number of emails opened. An “open” actually comes every time an image in the newsletter is downloaded — so if you don’t have images, you can’t track open rate. Some mobile devices read email in text format only, so even if someone opens your email, it may not report back as opened.
CLICK-THROUGH RATE The percentage of subscribers who clicked on one or more links within an email message. Compare your open rate with your clickthrough rate, or CTR, to better understand if your audience likes the content you’re sharing. For example, if your open rate is high but your CTR is low, you have a great email title with a poorly executed message. Click through rate is a good measure of how much your audience likes your content. This metric also varies per industry: most business experience a CTR of slightly lower than 3 percent.
M ARKE T IN G
If you have a low CTR, make sure you’re giving recipients a reason to click. • If all your newsletter content is available in your email, there’s not a reason for recipients to click. Write a teaser and direct recipients to your website for more information. • Test your subject line against the content of the email. It should be consistent with the information delivered in the body of the email. • If you’re only using text hyperlinks in your emails, consider using a button for your links. Campaign Monitor reports including a call to action button instead of a text link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28 percent. • Consider using variables to personalize content with information from your subscribers’ profiles. Experian reported that, in 2016, brands that personalized promotional marketing emails experienced 27 percent higher unique click rates and 11 percent higher open rates than those that did not personalize. • Make sure your email is mobile friendly. About 53 percent of emails are opened on mobile devices according to Campaign Monitor, and recipients won’t take the time to deal with your ill formatted email message.
If you’re feeling super overwhelmed, call for backup! Ultimately, email marketing is not so different from all types of marketing: You have to review the numbers until you get the results you crave. CBT COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 79
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80 JUNE 2017
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BU SI N ESS • P EOPL E • IM P R OV EM EN T • FY I
New Business Licenses JUNE 2017
Unitee Barber/Salon
Jdt Architecture LLC
Gaps Automotive
301 W. Sexton Rd. 573-303-2101 Barber and beauty salon hair cuts
204 Foxwood Ct. 314-307-7229 Architecture
1909 Vandiver Dr. 573-474-9798 Mechanical automotive repair
Infinitech Consulting Mindful Movement
Farmland
4603 John Garry Dr. 573-607-2728 Physical therapy
2401 Bernadette Dr. 573-234-6540 Business-to-business technology re-sell and consult
Trevor Lally Appraisals
Hemme Real Estate
MO Central Delivery
4406 Crystal Rock Ct. 573-424-5176 Appraisals
Group
on Demand
5200 Thornbrook Pkwy. 573-999-6944 Real estate
3214 Belle Meade Dr. 888-773-3548 Food delivery and package delivery business
Physical Therapy
Midwest Office Supply
1901 Vandiver Dr. 573-474-4057 Retail commercial furniture, office, and supplies Windgo
1627 Towne Dr. 573-268-7870 Window sensor testing and product design-sales
Ukatsu
500 E. Walnut St. 573-673-2841 For-profit service-based youth development program
Columbia Lawn Guys LLC
502 Himalayas Dr. 573-864-7582 Lawn care, mowing Carlito's Cabo
510 E. Green Meadows Rd. 573-443-6370 South American restaurant Eat Fit Go Healthy Foods
1101 Grindstone Pkwy. 573-449-3344 Prepared, prepackaged meals
Consultants LLC
1000 W. Nifong Blvd. 573-673-9291 Real estate brokerage
RTK Realty LLC
2024 Cherry Hill Dr. 573-355-6860 Real estate property management
F&A Cycle LLC
1213 N. Old 63 573-214-2300 Repair and parts for ATV and motorcycle The Fibersmith Company
3201 S. Providence Rd. 507-583-4565 Telecommunications engineering consulting services
Son Shine Cleaning Professional
3000 Birchwood Dr. 573-814-8010 Janitorial and cleaning services Waterborne Environmental Inc.
2608 N. Stadium Blvd. 913-221-0709 Environmental consulting studies
6602 Chelan Dr 573-289-9842 Residential general contractor
11101 Hwy. 40 573-445-2128 Electrician trade contractor work
3107 Green Meadows Way FOR LEASE PRICE: $1,000 - 3,000 TYPE: Retail/Office ZONING: M-N SQ. FT: 1,000-3,059 $12.00 PSF, NNN • Can be divided into smaller footprint for a lower monthly rent • Located in Green Meadows Plaza, next door to Murry's Restaurant • 2 ADA restrooms and small office area. • Restaurant equipment: walk-in coolers, oven and display counter • Green Meadows Way Average Daily Traffic Count (ADT): 26,900
Tallmage Plumbing
1720 Boyd Ln. 573-239-3829 Plumbing and heating Signs Now Columbia
805 N. Old 63 573-815-9293 Printing signs, banners, displays, light installations
Alpha & Omega Halo Homes LLC
FEATURED LISTING
Utmost Cleaning LLC
4180 W Bethany Dr. 573-872-0790 Cleaning CBT
GINA RENDE
314-477-4462 gina@malyrealty.com
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 81
B U S I N E SS • P E O P L E • I M P R OV E M ENT • FYI
Economic Index LABOR
Commercial additions and
March 2017 –
alterations: 17
Columbia, Missouri
Value of commercial
Labor Force: 67,116
additions: $4,448,768
Employment: 65,252 Unemployment: 1,864
HOUSING
Rate: 2.8 percent
March 2017
Single-family homes sales: 200 March 2017 –
Existing single-family home
Boone County
sales per month: 171
Labor Force: 98,506
New construction single-
Employment: 95,809
family home sales
Unemployment: 2,697
per month: 29
Rate: 2.7 percent
Single-family active listings on market: 590
March 2017 –
Single-family homes average
Missouri
sold price: $206,088
Labor Force: 3,058,587
Single-family home median
Employment: 2,930,850
sold price: $179,900
Unemployment: 127,737
Single-family homes average
Rate: 4.2 percent
days on market: 65 Single-family pending listings
March 2017 –
on market: 307
United States
Labor Force: 159,912,000
UTILITIES
Employment: 152,628,000 Unemployment: 7,284,000
Water
Rate: 4.6 percent
April 2017: 48,746 April 2016: 48,334
Indoor/Outdoor Lighting Fireworks Corporate Event Lighting 573-424-6676 | sw.productions@outlook.com
82 JUNE 2017
CONSTRUCTION
Change #: 412
April 2017
Change %: 0.852
Residential building
Number of customers
permits: 69
receiving service on May 1,
Value of residential building
2017: 48,777
permits: $10,395,659 Detached single-family
Electric
homes: 42
April 2017: 49,624
Value of detached single-
April 2016: 48,846
family homes: $9,712,680
Change #: 778
Commercial building
Change %: 1.593
permits: 23
Number of customers
Value of commercial building
receiving service on May 1,
permits: $7,584,078
2017: 49,658 CBT
B U SINESS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • FY I
Deeds of Trust WORTH MORE THAN $424,100
$100,000,000
$791,060
$468,000
AOD-MO Holdings LLC Bank of Montreal LT 1A1 Sutter Industrial Plat 4
Tompkins Homes & Development Inc. Central Bank of Boone County STR 17-48-13 //W SUR BK/PG: 3182/105 AC 90.8 FF PT Tract 1 W/Exceptions
Brocksmith, James T & Vicki E Landmark Bank LT 34 Champetra Lake North Shore #2
$3,952,500
Brooks at Columbia LLC The Central Bank of Boone County STR 15-48-12 /W/SW $1,700,000
Tompkins Executive Lease LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 2 PT Garths Add $1,565,000
True Properties LLC Landmark Bank LT 73 Mikel Sub $1,250,000
Max Investments LLC The Bank of Missouri LT 2 Country Squire Plat 1
$756,044
763 Real Estate LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 1 Gas Light Industrial Park Plat 3 $707,533
COMO Rentals LLC Hawthorn Bank LT 238 Cross Creek Plat 1 $614,150
Barnes, Eric & Tracy Landmark Bank LT 1B Country Club Fairways Plat 1-B $585,000
$1,068,000
Southside Ventures LLC First State Community Bank Lt 4 Bethel Manor
Toehead Properties LLC The Bank of Missouri LT 7 PT BL 1 FF Shields Eastern Addition
$1,030,000
$550,000
Bessey, Robert Eric & Kimberly P The Callaway Bank STR 11-47-13 SUR BK/PG: 1097/917 FF Tract 19
Gaboury, Joseph B Living Trust The Bank of Missouri STR 32-50-14 /S/NE $510,000
$896,000
Haker Property Management LLC Landmark Bank LT 1 BL 1 Rockbridge Estates
East Campus Historic Properties LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 7 PT Pratt Add $497,600
$876,157
Northwest Office Plaza LLC Central Bank of Boone County STR 11-48-13 /NW/NW SUR BK/ PG: 297/220 AC 0.93 FF Tract 4
Bluestem Ridge Properties LLC Hawthorn Bank LT 107 Chapel Plaza Condominums
FEATURED LISTING
$460,000
Gadbois, Mary UMB Bank LT 5 PT Country Farms Sub $455,000
Dunkin, Kevin & Judy The Callaway Bank LT 526 Smithton Ridge Plat 5 $450,000
Atkinson, Donna D & Samuel Trust Central Bank of Boone County Lt 81A PT Waters Edge Estates Blk 4 $450,000
Campus Corner LLC The Central Bank of Boone County Watson Place FF Part $450,000
Happytime Exchange LLC Central Bank of Boone County LT 154 PT Columbia
1591 Prathersville Road Lease Rate $12/SF NNN Type Office Space SQ FT 5,280-21,120 sq ft. Will Divide. ZONING M – LP (Planned General Industrial) • Fenced yard available • Over 130 parking spaces
$426,120
Herter, Christopher & Nicole The Federal Savings Bank Lt 406 Vistas At Old Hawthorne Plat 4 $424,100
Ribaudo, Andrew S & Michelle L Central Bank of Boone County LT 1414 Highlands Plat 14-B The CBT 590 deeds of trust were issued between 3/27 and 4/21
MEL ZELENAK
573-999-3131 mel@malyrealty.com
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 83
B U SINESS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • FY I
INDUSTRY & TRADE $
92%
3,580
Percentage of the workforce employed by Missouri manufacturers in 2010
Number of people employed in production jobs in 2015 in Columbia
Amount of money that is added to the economy for every $1 spent in manufacturing
(National Association of Manufacturers Missouri Manufacturing Facts)
(Missouri Economic Research and Information Center)
(Missouri Association of Manufacturers)
$
15.89
89%
Mean hourly wage of a person in a production occupation in Columbia
Percentage of Missouri’s exports that manufacturing accounts for
(Bureau of Labor Statistics)
(National Association of Manufacturers Missouri Manufacturing Facts)
$
1.81
10
Number of Missouri manufacturers included in the 2014 Fortune 1000 (Department of Economic Development – Missouri’s Proud Advanced Manufacturing History)
BY T HE N UM BE R S
IN MISSOURI FEATURED LISTING
197,140 Number of Missourians employed in production occupations in May 2016 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
2.1%
Percentage that Missouri’s manufacturing employment grew during 2014 (2015 Missouri Economic Report)
Lake Broadway Condominiums Lot 4 A 1209 W Broadway PRICE: TYPE: ZONING: ACREAGE:
$345,000 ($3.54 PSF) Land P-D (Planned District) 2.24 Acres
Property associated with Broadway Office Park Condominiums - Preexisting building not included. Located at the corner of Pershing Road and Gary Street. No annual assessed condo fees. Current Approved Plans allow for a Two-Story Building at 16,800 Total Square Feet (8,400 Square Feet per floor) Light Commercial Use Permitted under City Ordinance 29 - Current plans show 114 Parking spaces (including existing parking) Land could be downzoned to allow for a broader usage like condos
4% Percentage that production jobs make of the total employment in Columbia (compared to 6.6% of the U.S.) Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
7,017 Number of manufacturing firms there are in Missouri (Missouri Economic Impact Brief – Manufacturing Industries)
GINA RENDE
314-477-4462 gina@malyrealty.com
COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 85
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BUSINESS TIMES
We k n ow m i d - M O. 86 JUNE 2017
TOP B2B PRODUCT OR SERVICE
TOP COFFEE MEETING LOCATION
TOP JANITORIAL SERVICES
TOP ENGINEER
First Place: CoMo Connection Exchange Second Place: Influence & Co.
First Place: Kaldi’s Coffee Second Place: Dunn Bros. Coffee
First Place: Atkins Second Place: City of Refuge
TOP BUSINESS WITH A COMMITMENT TO PHILANTHROPY
TOP BUSINESS ROOKIE
First Place: Crockett Engineering 2608 N Stadium Blvd., Columbia crockettengineering.com 573-447-0292
TOP ADVERTISING AGENCY First Place: Caledon Virtual 1906 Corona Rd. #200, Columbia, 573-446-7777, caledonvirtual.com
Second Place: Word Marketing
TOP PLACE TO WORK First Place: Veterans United Second Place: Fresh Ideas
TOP LOCAL TEAM-BUILDING EXPERIENCE
First Place: Veterans United Second Place: The Bank of Missouri
TOP BUSINESS INSURANCE First Place: Columbia Insurance Group Second Place: Mike Messer – Shelter Insurance® Agent 908 Rain Forest Parkway, Columbia, 573-442-5291, shelterinsurance.com/ CA/agent/mikemesser
TOP HAPPY HOUR First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. Second Place: Houlihan’s
TOP CHAMBER VOLUNTEER First Place: Wally Pfeffer Second Place: Michele Spry
TOP FACE OF BUSINESS First Place: Bill Costello Second Place: Kit Stolen
First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. Second Place: Paint the Town
TOP COMMERCIAL LENDER
TOP NATIONAL IMPACT
First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. Second Place: Stoney Creek
TOP PLACE TO CLOSE A DEAL
TOP ACCOUNTING SERVICE
First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. Second Place: Boone Central Title Co.
First Place: Williams-Keepers Second Place: Accounting Plus
First Place: Lift Division 308 S 9th St., Columbia 573-445-0658, liftdivision.com
TOP IT COMPANY
First Place: Flat Branch Second Place: 44 Stone
First Place: Midwest Computech Second Place: 43Tc 1000 W Nifong Blvd., Ste. 220, Bldg. 6, Columbia, 855-647-43TC, 43tc.com
TOP COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHER First Place: L.G. Patterson Second Place: Casey Buckman
TOP CATERER First Place: D. Rowe’s Second Place: Hoss’s
TOP HR FIRM First Place: Moresource Inc. 401 Vandiver Dr., Columbia 573-443-1234, moresource-inc.com
First Place: Veterans United Second Place: True Media
First Place: John Keller, The Bank of Missouri Second Place: Todd Hoien, Hawthorn Bank
TOP EVENT LOCATION
Second Place: THHinc McClure Engineering
TOP FAST-GROWING COMPANY
TOP CULTURE First Place: Veterans United Second Place: Delta Systems Group
First Place: Kaitlin Warner Second Place: Lydia Melton
First Place: CARFAX Second Place: Veterans United
TOP WEB DEVELOPER
TOP PLACE FOR BUSINESS LUNCH TOP REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER First Place: Mike Tompkins, Tompkins Homes & Development Second Place: John Ott, Alley A Realty
TOP BANK First Place: Central Bank of Boone County Second Place: The Bank of Missouri
Second Place: Caledon Virtual 1906 Corona Rd. #200, Columbia, 573-446-7777, caledonvirtual.com
TOP COMMERCIAL BUILDER
Second Place: Accounting Plus
TOP OFFICE DIGS First Place: Veterans United Second Place: Delta Systems Group
TOP COMMERCIAL VIDEOGRAPHER First Place: Chimaeric Second Place: The Evoke Group
TOP STAFFING COMPANY First Place: JobFinders Second Place: Pulse Medical Staffing
TOP ARCHITECT
First Place: Coil Construction Second Place: Little Dixie
First Place: Simon Oswald Architecture Second Place: Peckham Architecture
TOP SEASONED PRO
TOP OFFSITE MEETING LOCATION
First Place: Mary Ropp Second Place: Kat Cunningham
First Place: Logboat Brewing Co. Second Place: Stoney Creek COLUMBIABUSINESSTIMES.COM 87
B U SINESS • P EOP L E • IM P R OV EM EN T • FY I
T H I S OR T H AT
NICK ALLEN Owner, Manor Roofing & Restoration Services
Mac
1 Details Cursive Early Bird Cinema
2 Michael Jackson Firefox 9-5 Learn At Your Desk Wine Pie Improviser Modern Skeptical City
Optimistic Business
The Beatles Chrome Flexibility Teach In a Meeting
Cake Planner Traditional Certain Country 6
Dog Driver 7 Plane Mountains Realistic Casual Team
For Here
To Go
DISC
StrengthsFinder Magazines
Reading
Writing
Creative
Analytical
Introvert
Extrovert
Podcast Cluttered Card Game Concept Fiction Text Soup
3
Beer 4
Solo
Books
88 JUNE 2017
Netflix
Winter
Ocean
to craft beers. 5. Not a big dessert person unless it’s ice cream! 6. A country boy at heart that loves to visit big cities. 7. Unless I’m with my wife. 8. High I, high S. 9. The strategy component of running a small business is so much fun.
Night Owl
Summer
Car
1. Always trying to spend more time on the latter. 2. Totally amazed at my answer here. 3. Neither — in the community for sure. 4. Love red wine, but my strange fruit and/or alcohol allergy pushes me
Spend
Cat
AM E N DME N TS A N D CONDI TI ONS
Big Picture
Save
Passenger
Photography by Anthony Jinson
PC
Playlist Minimalist Board Game Execute Non-fiction Call Sandwich
ADVERTISER INDEX ACCOUNTING PLUS............................................................................................91 AFFINITY OFFICE FURNITURE......................................................................22 ANTHONY JINSON PHOTOGRAPHY............................................................. 7 BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOME SERVICES.......................................4 & 74 BUSINESS TIMES INTERACTIVE.................................................................... 10 CALLAWAY BANK, THE.....................................................................................71 CARPET ONE.........................................................................................................82 CENTRAL BANK OF BOONE COUNTY......................................................... 5 CITY OF COLUMBIA WATER & LIGHT........................................................... 6 COIL CONSTRUCTION...................................................................................... 34 COLUMBIA ART LEAGUE..................................................................................18 COLUMBIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE....................................................... 8 COLUMBIA EDP....................................................................................................82 COMMERCE BANK................................................................................................11 D & M SOUND....................................................................................................... 30 FIRST STATE COMMUNITY BANK.................................................................79 GFI DIGITAL............................................................................................................. 9 GROVE CONSTRUCTION................................................................................. 70 HAWTHORN BANK.............................................................................................92 JENNING'S PREMIUM MEATS.........................................................................82 JOBFINDERS........................................................................................................ 66 LANDMARK BANK................................................................................................ 2 MAHER COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE.........................................................36 MALY COMMERCIAL REALTY........................................................ 79, 81 & 83
MIDWEST COMPUTECH....................................................................................55 MISSOURI EMPLOYERS MUTUAL...................................................................18 MONARCH TITLE COMPANY..........................................................................72 NATHAN JONES LAW.........................................................................................61 NAUGHT NAUGHT INSURANCE AGENCY.................................................79 PEDNET..................................................................................................................... 3 PERSONAL TOUCH CLEANING SERVICE..................................................36 PROVIDENCE BANK................................................................................. 16 & 69 PWARCHITECTS, INC.........................................................................................75 QUALITY DRYWALL CONSTRUCTION...................................................... 68 REMAX BOONE REALTY...................................................................................14 RESTORATION EYECARE................................................................................22 SEPTAGON CONSTRUCTION...........................................................................16 SOCKET.....................................................................................................................11 STANGE LAW FIRM.............................................................................................89 STATE FARM INSURANCE - STEPHANIE WILMSMEYER......................81 SUPERIOR GARDEN CENTER/ROST LANDSCAPE................................81 SW. PRODUCTIONS............................................................................................85 THE DISTRICT...................................................................................................... 34 TIGER COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION............................................................73 TIGER MAIDS.........................................................................................................75 UMB.......................................................................................................................... 30 WILSON'S FITNESS............................................................................................38
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The Conley House BY SA RA H BRUEN N IN G | P HOTOG R A P HY BY MATT PATSTO N
TUCKED AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF MU’S campus, the Sanford Conley House is one of many historical landmarks within campus lines. Built in 1869, the house is quiet and unknown to most students passing by, but the lives led behind the front door intrigue those who still continue to study the building today. Previously known for its uncommon architecture, it was first owned in the late 1800s by Sanford Conley, where he lived with his wife and four sons. The house was owned by the Conley family until 1970, when it was purchased by MU; because of its location on campus, it’s now used as the home of the campus writing program and excellence in teaching program. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In the fall of 1986, a group of MU students and professors performed an archaeological sur-
vey at the Conley house in the hope of gaining more understanding about the original structure’s biography and historic landscape. During the dig, a portion of the original sidewalk and limestone building was revealed, along with other artifacts that helped shed more light onto the everyday lives of the Conley family. Items included an old English Tipt teaspoon, an 1800s perfume atomizer, various pieces of jewelry, and newspaper clippings describing the wedding reception of the Conleys’ daughter, Helen Singleton Conley. One of the biggest findings during the dig was the unearthing of the servants’ quarters foundation, including a sink and commode. After finding this physical structure, Katherine Conley Turner was invited to visit the site from Kansas City. Katherine lived in the Conley house for 23 years and was able to give the students
an oral account of the different items they were finding during the dig. Aside from its physical history, the house also has a paranormal aspect. According to the Conley descendants, the house is haunted by the ghost of Aunt Sally Conley. Aunt Sally was described as a very disagreeable woman, and she requested to be buried in the north wall of the house after her death. She is known to haunt the fireplace of the house at night, but only when the door to the upstairs attic is left open. The green shutters of the Conley house seem to be hiding their fair share of secrets, as many visitors continue to learn. CBT
The Conley House 602 Sanford St. missouri.edu
We love Columbia business history. If you have any interesting photos and stories, please send them to Editor@BusinessTimesCompany.com 90 JUNE 2017
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