Greater Charlotte Biz 2010.03 by CLT.biz & Charlotte Biz & Greater Charlotte Biz

Southern Shows

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The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte

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AT- N E T

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Automated Shredding

march 2010

The

RIGHT THING Thriving on Family Values, Community Service

Robert Thomas (Tom) Dooley Jr. Founder RT Dooley A Balfour Beatty Company 2010 YMCA Mott Award Winner

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED 5601 77 Center Dr., Ste. 250, Charlotte, N.C. 28217

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 505 Charlotte, NC

in this issue

cover story

RT Dooley

Tom Dooley’s sons, Bob and David, credit their father’s lessons in family values and community service, as well as his penchant for always doing the right thing, for helping them build on his success in the construction business. A family of strong faith, they are being honored by the YMCA for their many contributions to the community. Indeed, for Tom, the Charlotte Dowd Y is his home-away-from-home.

Southern Shows

Celebrating their 50th year, Joan, Bob and David Zimmerman have become one of the most prestigious consumer show producers in the nation, owning and producing 19 separate shows annually in 11 different markets attracting approximately 10,000 exhibitors and more than 600,000 attendees every year.

The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte By listening intently, The RitzCarlton expertly and reflexively provides offerings to delight and serve its clientele. It caters to its high volume of business travelers and younger weekend clientele emphasizing time efficiency and availability of IT and support services, and other logistics.

departments publisher’spost

legalbiz

Transforming the Business of Law to Meet the Needs of Business

bizxperts

Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

employersbiz

Legislative and Regulatory Highlights for Area Employers

bizview

The Charlotte Skyline: Beautiful Any Time of Day

biznetwork

bizhealth

Making Healthy Work and Lifestyle Choices

AT-NET

AT-NET has forged some impressive acquisitions and is growing organically, too, but Jeff King maintains that “the bottom line comes down to serving people. We’re here to help people meet their business objectives and to make information technology simple for them.”

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on the cover: Robert Thomas (Tom) Dooley Jr. Founder RT Dooley A Balfour Beatty Company

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The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte

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AT- N E T

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Automated Shredding

march 2010

The

RIGHT THING Thriving on Family Values, Community Service

Automated Shredding

“Document shredding used to be just a best practice,” says Bob Korkos, “but now it is the law.” “We provide a convenient, secure and environmentally sensitive solution,” says Barbara, his partner in destruction of anything from paper and plastic to electronic equipment.

Southern Shows

Robert Thomas (Tom) Dooley Jr. Founder RT Dooley A Balfour Beatty Company 2010 YMCA Mott Award Winner

Photography by Michael LoBiondo

YEARS

2000 - 2010

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[publisher’spost] 704-676-5850

Big Hurt or Little Hurt? While our nation sinks further into huge financial debt and we try to recover from our Great Recession, Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a seemingly endless blame game that stymies any chance of reducing the deficit and eliminates any hope of balancing the federal budget. Most of the debate over these incredibly important issues has been counter-productive. As a result, the American public is frustrated and angry at the inacJohn Paul Galles tion and gridlock that stands in the way of making any progress. G. William Hoagland, a fiscal policy strategist to Senate Republicans, was reported as saying, “I used to think it would take a global fiscal crisis to get both parties to the (negotiating) table, but we just had one. These days I wonder if this country is even governable.” One good piece of recent news was that President Obama has appointed former Sen. Alan Simpson from Wyoming and retiring president of UNC Erskine Bowles to an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Bowles helped to broker the 1997 balanced budget agreement with congressional Republicans as President Clinton’s Chief of Staff. That was the first balanced budget in 30 years for the federal government. Recently, Mr. Simpson was quoted saying, “There isn’t a single sitting member of Congress—not one—that doesn’t know exactly where we’re headed. And to use the politics of fear and division and hate on each other—we are at a point where it doesn’t make a damn whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican if you’ve forgotten you’re an American.” Blue ribbon commissions come and go. They may make great recommendations, but if Congress does not pick them up and reach an agreement to move them forward, those great recommendations collect dust on the shelf of history. The debates will rage on through the elections next fall. In the meantime, many of the tax cuts that were implemented in the early years of Bush administration are sunsetting this year and the growth of our entitlement programs is nearly unstoppable. The United States is facing systemic financial problems with our tax structure that discourages employing people and a health care system that gobbles up premiums and subsidies beyond our imagination. As unpopular as they may seem, we will likely need a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that demonstrate to the world that we are determined to keep our fiscal house in order. We simply cannot sustain the course of spending on which we find ourselves without a significant collapse of the faith and credit of the United States. Interest alone on our debt will actually exceed annual appropriations on domestic programs. Even China, who buys much of our debt, is fretting about the fiscal direction of the United States. Public pressure will certainly demonstrate the disdain that people feel about our critical circumstances, but even that may not bring the outcome of bipartisanship agreement on budgetary pressures. The last commission that had a significantly positive impact was the Commission on Reform of Social Security that was led by Alan Greenspan in 1983. Its reforms have saved billions over many years. What we may need is the “big hurt.” When my mother would take out the rubber band around my sister’s ponytail at the end of the day, she would ask her, “Do you want the big hurt (a quick yank of the rubber band off the hair) or the little hurt (a slow pull of the rubber band that took longer)?” Neither choice was happy or easy. Our federal choices can be big hurts or little hurts. We need to confront our financial problems and identify the potential fixes so we can collectively encourage solutions for many years to come. Fortunately, historically, we seem to make more progress under governments that are divided with Republicans in charge of one branch and Democrats in charge of another. In order to make progress, they have no choice but to work together. Only time will tell whether our leaders will choose to act collectively. Waiting makes the hurt even bigger. biz

Let me know what you think - jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com

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March 2010 Volume 11 • Issue 03 Publisher John Paul Galles x102 jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com

Associate Publisher/Editor Maryl A. Lane x104 mlane@greatercharlottebiz.com

Creative Director Trevor Adams x103 tadams@greatercharlottebiz.com

Account Executives sales@greatercharlottebiz.com Marsha Bradford x106 Dave Cartwright x107 Bradley Jackson x107 Sandra Ledbetter x106

Contributing Writers Ellison Clary Susanne Deitzel Carol Gifford Casey Jacobus

Contributing Photographers Michael LoBiondo Trevor Adams Galles Communications Group, Inc. 5601 77 Center Drive • Suite 250 Charlotte, NC 28217-0737 704-676-5850 Phone • 704-676-5853 Fax www.greatercharlottebiz.com • Press releases and other news-related information: editor@greatercharlottebiz.com. • Editorial: mlane@greatercharlottebiz.com. • Advertising: jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com. • Subscription inquiries or change of address: subscriptions@greatercharlottebiz.com. • Other inquiries: please call or fax at the numbers above or visit our Web site www.greatercharlottebiz.com. © Copyright 2010 by Galles Communications Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, Galles Communications Group, Inc. makes no warranty to the accuracy or reliability of this information. Products named in these pages are trade names or trademarks of their respective companies. Views expressed herein are not necessarily those of Greater Charlotte Biz or Galles Communications Group, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. For reprints call 704-676-5850 x102. Greater Charlotte Biz (ISSN 1554-6551) is published monthly by Galles Communications Group, Inc., 5601 77 Center Dr., Ste. 250, Charlotte, NC 28217-0737. Telephone: 704-676-5850. Fax: 704-676-5853. Subscription rate is $24 for one year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Greater Charlotte Biz, 5601 77 Center Dr., Ste. 250, Charlotte, NC 28217-0737.

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Wishart Norris Henninger & Pittman AT T O R N E Y S AT L AW

Wishart, Norris, Henninger & Pittman, P.A.

[legalbiz]

Transforming the Business of Law to Meet the Needs of Business

!Employee Waivers Whenever you terminate someone’s employment and you want to provide some severance or other “payment” on termination that the employee is not otherwise owed, it is always a good idea to get a release and waiver of claims from the employee. Otherwise, you may be funding the employee’s ability to sue you. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued guidance to help employers know what they can and cannot do with regard to waivers of claims by employees. It is important to know that a waiver of claims by an employee does not prohibit the employee from filing a discrimination claim with the EEOC. While the employee may not have the right to pursue a claim against the employer, the EEOC can always pursue an investigation of a claim. Further, provisions attempting to limit or prohibit the employee’s ability to file and participate in a claim with the EEOC are most likely not enforceable. Here are some of the basics you need to be sure to follow in any waiver of claims: • the agreement must be in writing; • the agreement must be easy to understand by the employee; • the employee must be given time to review the agreement; and • the employee should be given the opportunity to respond to the agreement and the opportunity to negotiate the terms. Also, if you want to have age discrimination claims waived: • the employee must be given 21 days to review the agreement (employee can waive this period); • the employee must be given 7 days to revoke the agreement (so don’t make the severance payment until after this period expires); • the agreement must specifically reference the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; • you must advise the employee in writing to consult an attorney before signing; and • the agreement cannot waive rights that arise after the agreement is signed. Keep in mind that the items above apply when you are terminating the employment of one employee. If you are terminating the employment of a group of employees (two or more employees are a “group”), there are additional requirements such as a 45-day consideration period and a greater disclosure requirement about the overall termination process. By the way, the EEOC believes you still need to make payments of the severance even though the employee has filed a discrimination claim against you. At its core, you should not obligate yourself to make severance payments without having your employees waive their claims. Otherwise, you could end up financing both sides of a dispute with your employee.

!You May Already Be a Winner In case you have not heard, the Internal Revenue Service has decided to focus efforts on Employment Tax Returns (Form 941 filings). During 2010, the IRS will randomly pick 1,500 to 2,000 filings to examine. First, the IRS will focus on 2008 filings. Later in 2010, the IRS expects to move to 2009 filings. The IRS will focus across the board on large, mid-size and small businesses. Congratulations—you are as likely to be picked as anyone else for the review. Areas of focus for the IRS include: " classification of workers as employees or independent contractors; " under-withholding taxes for fringe benefits; " backup withholding; and " use of correct taxpayer identification numbers on Forms 1099-MISC. Bottom line—don’t borrow from the government by not paying these taxes and make certain that the people responsible in your business for filing and paying these taxes are doing so. You can go to jail as well as paying the financial penalties, even if it was someone else’s job to make the filings and payments. One owner who didn’t take care of these taxes faces more than three years in jail.

p u r s u i n g a b a l a n c e o f b u s i n e s s a n d l i fe

!2011 Tax Proposals As you know, Congress still has some work to do with regard to setting tax laws for 2010. Now, they have more to consider. At the beginning of February, President Obama released his 2011 budget and tax proposals. The proposals do not contain many surprises, as they reiterate ideas contained in his 2010 budget proposals. Some of the individual tax proposals include: • a 36% tax rate for individuals with taxable income above $250,000 less the standard deduction and two personal exemptions for married taxpayers filing jointly and $200,000 less the standard deduction and one personal exemption for single filers; • an expansion of the 28% tax bracket on individuals earning less than the $250,000/$200,000 amounts; • a 39.6% tax rate on individuals with taxable incomes more than $373,650; • a 20% tax rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends for individuals with taxable income above $250,000 less the standard deduction and two personal exemptions for married taxpayers filing jointly and $200,000 less the standard deduction and one personal exemption for single filers; • Reducing itemized deductions and phasing out personal exemptions; • Limiting the tax value of all itemized deductions to 28% when they reduce taxable income in the 36% or 39.6% brackets; • Extending the COBRA subsidy to cover employees involuntarily fired before 2011; and • Reinstating the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer trust taxes at 2009 levels so that the top tax rate would be 45% and the exemption amount for estate tax would be $3.5 million. Some of the business tax proposals include: • a tax credit of up to $5,000 for new employees added in 2010; • a $250,000 maximum “Section 179” expense for 2010; • bonus first-year depreciation for property placed in service in 2010; • a zero% capital gains tax on qualified small business stock acquired after February 17, 2009 and held for at least five years; • a repeal of the lower-of-cost-or-market inventory accounting method; • a repeal of the LIFO accounting method for inventories; and

• permanent enactment of the 0.2% unemployment insurance surtax. ~Steve Horowitz

Wishart, Norris, Henninger & Pittman, P.A. partners with owners of closely-held businesses to provide comprehensive legal services in all areas of business, tax, estate planning, succession planning, purchases and sales of businesses, real estate, family law, and litigation. For more information, please call Robert Norris at 704-364-0010 or visit www.wnhplaw.com.

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Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

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[bizXperts]

strategic thinking: the most critical CEO role Over the past couple of years, most companies have reverted to a tactical mode with the focus on survival and short-term action planning. The game plan orchestrated in general by company CEO’s has centered on operational cost-cutting and product/service sales, with a goal of minimizing losses rather than maximizing profits. Long-term business planning and strategic thinking have taken a backseat. While this management and leadership behavior has been necessary, it is time to start moving away from a purely short-term tactical focus to more of a longer-term strategic focus. The next five years will likely provide growth opportunities for most companies as the economy continues to rebound. Those companies that are best positioned strategically stand to capture the lion’s share of this growth. In the book Strategy Pure & Simple, author Michel Robert suggests that “the most critical CEO role is to be the Chief Strategist. In this role, the CEO’s focus is on shaping and clarifying the company’s future look or strategic profile. The goal is to determine what the company should look like in the future… products and services offered, markets and customers served, technology orientation, revenue size, number of employees, geographical footprint.” Just as important as defining what the company will strive to become, is defining what the company will not pursue. A well thought out strategic profile, a much better term than the often-used but misunderstood term ”vision,”

emphasizes the discipline required in deciding whether to chase opportunities that invariably come to all companies. By seizing only those opportunities that fit well with the future strategic profile, the impact of utilizing the resources of the company are maximized. It is important for the CEO and management team to distinguish between strategic thinking and traditional busiTom Jackson ness planning. Whereas strategic thinking has as its goal the defining of what the company will look like in the future, traditional business planning determines how to get to the future from the company’s present state. Traditional business planning, typically geared around the next quarter or the next twelve months, produces the goals/actions/tactics and who/what/when outcomes that most company management team members are familiar with. An analysis of companies that are truly successful over the long term usually reveals a high level of expertise in both strategic thinking and traditional business planning. Developing expertise in these two related, but decidedly different, competencies should be one of the major goals of the CEO. Tom Jackson is president and owner of Executive Forums of Charlotte, one of 50 nationwide offices of Renaissance Executive Forums, Inc. based in La Jolla, California. Tom leads over 50 business executives in four independent peer-to-peer advisory boards. Contact him at 704-367-0011or TJackson@ExecutiveForums.com.

THE NEW NORMAL... Are you working harder?

Are you working smarter?

Is your company vital?

Has the way you see things, feel about things, and think about things changed in response to the New Normal? The New Normal for a lot of businesses means working harder, working smarter, doing more with less. How is your company responding? If you have a good story to tell, we want to hear about it.

E-mail us at jgalles@greatercharlottebiz.com with Potential Biz Profile in the Subject line and tell us why!

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[bizXperts]

Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

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business economics meets â&#x20AC;&#x153;socialnomicsâ&#x20AC;? With more than 300 million users and counting, it is hard to ignore the potential impact Facebook can have on your business marketing plan. Other social media channels, such as LinkedIn (over 40 million) and Twitter (approaching 18 million), have also emerged as major influencers in the B2B and B2C economic environment. Today, social media no longer operates only on the fringes of the business world, but rather it has begun to mediate precisely how we conduct business on a day-to-day basis. This dramatic shift in our marketing climate, dubbed â&#x20AC;&#x153;socialnomicsâ&#x20AC;? by Erik Qualman in his book Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business, is creating a new, more personal and more immediate communication process with your customers. Adding a social media component to your existing Web site and broadcast e-mail activities can dramatically expand the relevance, reach and frequency of your marketing messages. Is your business truly leveraging these emerging tools? Think â&#x20AC;&#x153;Social Integration.â&#x20AC;? Face the Futureâ&#x20AC;Ś Facebook is intended to foster person-to-person interaction where users create individual â&#x20AC;&#x153;profilesâ&#x20AC;? describing their interests and activities. Build awareness for your business by including regular mentions about your profession and the services you provide. Produce a â&#x20AC;&#x153;fan pageâ&#x20AC;? posting news and information about your business. Create interest â&#x20AC;&#x153;groupsâ&#x20AC;? to promote an ongoing exchange of information and ideas with targeted customers.

Generate referrals by encouraging friends, associates and clients to post testimonials on your â&#x20AC;&#x153;wall.â&#x20AC;? Build a sales contact list by sending and accepting â&#x20AC;&#x153;friend requestsâ&#x20AC;? and by visiting other friendsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Facebook pages to send invitations to their own circle of friends and associates to connect to you. Facebook postings may also enhance your search engine rankings by offering frequent links leading new visitors back Kip Cozart to your primary Web site or landing page. Businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Missing Linkâ&#x20AC;Ś On LinkedIn, it is all about â&#x20AC;&#x153;who you knowâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;who knows you.â&#x20AC;? Gain exposure and establish your expertise by regularly contributing to the â&#x20AC;&#x153;questions and answersâ&#x20AC;? section. Become an insider by creating and joining different targeted customer â&#x20AC;&#x153;groups.â&#x20AC;? Use the LinkedIn â&#x20AC;&#x153;searchâ&#x20AC;? feature to identify new prospective sales contacts by company, city or industry and to communicate with them in an unobtrusive manner. Write and request â&#x20AC;&#x153;recommendations.â&#x20AC;? Create opinion â&#x20AC;&#x153;pollsâ&#x20AC;? and share your information with your other contacts. Use widgets to integrate other social media tools into your LinkedIn page. Kip Cozart is CEO of CC Communications, a Web design, programming and Internet media company. Contact him at 704-543-1171 or visit www.cccommunications.com/resources_articles.cfm for more information about emerging online technologies.

Mobile

Engage your market with automated texting.

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Empowering Your Visual Marketing Print2Mobile is a service of The Hickory Printing Group, a leading privately held print marketing provider. www.hickoryprinting.com | 1-800-HICKORY 725 Reese Dr SW | Conover, NC 28613

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Smart Salvos, Select Strategies and Succinct Solutions

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[bizXperts]

health reform redux

The smoke has cleared on the recently failed attempt to reform health care. With the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the 60 Democratic bloc has been broken and so the health care reform as it was being written is essentially dead. Nevertheless, we came within days of turning health care insurance upside down. Now is a good time to look back at the reality that might have come from the Senate bill.

The smoke has cleared on the recently failed attempt to reform health care. Now is a good time to look back at the reality that might have come from the Senate bill. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act included 2,076 pages with references to federal status and other acts which it amends. It also contains unique provisions such as Section 2006 which defines which states (i.e. Louisiana) recovering from a natural disaster would receive increased federal Medicaid subsidies. The question business owners are asking is what all of this might mean to the cost of their operations. Who will shoulder the cost of the penalties proposed as a part of this Amendment or alternative legislation proposed by the House of Representatives? In its July 14, 2009 Economic and Budget Issue Brief (Brief), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated that “although employers directly pay most of the costs of their workers’ health insurance, the available evidence indicates that active workers—as a group—ultimately bear those costs.” It states further that, “Employers’ payments for health insurance are one form of compensation, along with wages, pension contributions, and other benefits. Firms decide how much labor to employ on the basis of the total cost of compensation and choose the composition of that compensation on the basis of what their workers generally prefer.” Except for those businesses that employ individuals whose compensation is at or near the minimum wage; because the cash wages for individuals engaged in minimum wage jobs cannot be reduced, the increased cost of providing benefits required under the Amendment increases the total cost of their compensation. Consequently, the Amendment’s passage could result in minimum wage positions being eliminated as happens when the minimum wage increases. Apparently, Congress was not persuaded by the CBO Brief. Subtitle F of the Amendment, titled “Shared Responsibility for Heath Care,” contains penalty provisions presumably meant to require employers to partially shoulder the cost of its employees’ health insurance. Ostensibly, this is accomplished by subjecting large employers, those

p u r s u i n g a b a l a n c e o f b u s i n e s s a n d l i fe

with 50 or more employees that fail to offer affordable health insurance coverage to their full-time employees to a penalty. If such an employer does not provide health insurance coverage, a penalty would be assessed each month in which at least one full-time employee receives a premium tax credit, or is allowed or paid John Blair a cost-sharing reduction related to health insurance coverage provided through a health benefit exchange established by one of the states. The monthly penalty is equal to $62.50 times the number of full-time employees. For an employer with 50 full-time employees, the monthly penalty would be $3,125 or $37,500 annually, and this penalty is not deductible for income tax purposes. An employer is also subject to a penalty under the Amendment even if it does provide health insurance coverage but the employee’s portion for the cost of the coverage exceeds 9.8 percent of his or her income or the employer pays for at least 60 percent of the cost of an employee’s health insurance premiums. This penalty is equal to the product of the number of full-time employees certified to have received a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction and $250. The affordability penalty, however, cannot exceed the product of the number of individuals employed full-time by an employer and $62.50. Logically, employers required to provide and pay for a prescribed portion of the cost of health insurance for their employees, which is deductible, will do so to avoid the penalties assessed under the Amendment which are not tax deductible. Eventually, as employers incur the cost of health insurance for their employees, cash compensation employers pay their employees will decrease as they adjust the relative amount of the components of employees’ compensation such that total compensation remains constant. Consequently, as the CBO stated in its Brief, it is improbable that the cost of health care reform will increase the cost of most business’s operations. Will Rogers also said, “Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it,” which is instructive to those intent on enlisting employers in government’s attempts to provide affordable health insurance to more Americans. Now that bipartisan support is essential to the passage of health insurance reform, it may be even tougher to achieve the systemic reforms that many are seeking. At the same time, incremental reforms may be more likely as Republicans and Democrats seek common ground to demonstrate some progress on rapidly escalating health insurance premiums. John D. Blair Sr. is a managing partner at Blair, Bohlé & Whitsitt, PLLC, a CPA firm that provides accounting, assurance, tax compliance and planning services in addition to strategic planning and tax minimization strategies to privately held businesses. Contact him at 704-841-9800 or visit www.bbwpllc.com.

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[employersbiz]

Legislative and Regulatory Highlights for Area Employers

!DISCIPLINARY MEMOS When An Employee Won’t Sign On The Dotted Line

Every HR Manager knows the importance of disciplinary documentation. Ideally, the information is accurate and descriptive, with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. But what happens if an employee refuses to sign their disciplinary memo? Your carefully prepared documentation still stands, regardless. The question is how to deal with the employee. Make sure the employee understands what signing the document means. Explain that their signature simply acknowledges that they received and reviewed the disciplinary document; it does not indicate an admission of guilt or their agreement with the

THE EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION Trusted HR Advice, Tools & Training

contents. Consider adding this explanation above the employee signature line on disciplinary forms. Make sure the employee understands what not signing the document means. Explain that their refusal to sign does not in any way change your ability to enforce the disciplinary measure and their responsibility to abide by it. Add a “refused to sign” line. Since disciplinary meetings ideally include the employee’s manager, both you and the manager can witness the refusal and initial the “refused to sign” statement. Give a copy to the employee. They may still later try to claim that they never received the document, but at least they won’t have a valid point. Allow the employee to include a rebuttal, if they ask. The rebuttal gives the employee a chance to be heard; employees who feel they have no voice in the workplace are more likely to want to be heard in court. And it serves as proof that the employee reviewed the document. Just be sure to reiterate that the employee’s disagreement doesn’t change the content or consequence of the warning. (Personnel Legal Alert)

!GEARING UP FOR AN IRS EMPLOYMENT TAX AUDIT The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has just launched (February 2010) a major audit initiative focusing on the underpayment of employment taxes by employers. As part of its Employment Tax National Research Project (NRP), the IRS will randomly select 2,000 employers to audit each year for the next three years. Those employers will be subjected to comprehensive audits of their employment tax practices. “The results of the audits will allow the IRS to gauge more accurately the extent to which businesses properly comply with employment tax law and related reporting requirements,” according to the agency. “When completed, this information will help the IRS select and audit future employment tax returns with the greatest compliance risk.” The IRS began the NRP in 2000 to measure the so-called tax gap—the gap between taxes voluntarily

reported by taxpayers and the amounts actually due to the IRS. Past NRP projects have focused on audits of randomly selected individuals and S corporations. The IRS Advisory Council also recommended that the IRS utilize the NRP to explore employment tax and independent contractor issues. The NRP will focus on four areas that the IRS believes currently are improperly reported by employers: (1) Worker classification (employee vs. independent contractor); (2) Fringe benefits; (3) Executive compensation; and (4) Reimbursed expenses. So how will you know if your company is selected for an NRP audit? According to Joseph Tiberio, Program Manager for Employment Tax Policy in the IRS’s Small Business Self-Employment Division, an employer will know that it has been selected for an audit under the NRP when it receives a notice. There will be a designation with the letter indicating

that it’s not a routine payroll tax examination—it is an NRP examination. Tiberio stressed that an NRP audit will be very comprehensive, not limited in scope, and IRS examiners will be looking at various issues. On the other hand, if your company receives notice of an NRP employment tax audit, don’t panic. Selection for an NRP audit is not necessarily an indication that there’s something wrong with a return. So an NRP audit may not result in any changes— or any additional tax for your employer. Unlike routine employment tax audits that may be triggered by questions about your company’s returns, returns are being selected for NRP audit on the basis of statistical sampling. It’s simply the luck of the draw. (CCHOnline) The Employers Association provides comprehensive human resources and training ser vices to a membership of over 865 companies in the greater Charlotte region. For more information, please call Laura Hampton at 704-522-8011 or visit www.employersassoc.com.

And They Call These “Common” Areas? At the Design Center, our surroundings are anything but ordinary. That’s why we are known as a home for those who dream big and find inspiration in our unique architectural details and strong vintage vibe. It’s not just the buildings that make our space so special–the Design Center’s ideal location, diverse mix of tenants, and unique focus around events make us Charlotte’s hub for forward thinking businesses. Contact Meredith Dickerson at 704-971-6517 to see for yourself what makes us truly unique.

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designcentercarolinas.com

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CUT THE CORD TO YOUR OUTDATED

COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS... UNIFY YOUR

COMMUNICATIONS

TO CONNECT SEAMLESSLY

Voice • Video • Data Making IT Work! AT-NET is a network systems integrator. We provide data, voice, video, and security products and services. AT-NET also maintains an ISP division to service our customer’s Internet and Disaster Recovery needs. We are leaders in our industry. Engage us to keep your technology working for you.

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(l to r) David J. Zimmerman President Joan Zimmerman Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder Robert E. Zimmerman Chairman and Co-founder Southern Shows, Inc.

hen visitors enter the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show every March, they step into a magic world. The 240,000 square feet of exhibition space at The Park is filled with flowers, gardens and exhibits that evoke the spirit of springtime. Over two dozen meticulously landscaped gardens and 400 exhibits provide visitors with entertainment and inspiration. It is an interactive world where consumers meet sellers and experts mingle with amateurs and everyone gets in the mood to usher in spring. And, that’s just the way the Southern Shows, Inc. has been doing it for 50 years. “We purposefully hold the show in March every year, a month before the calendar says it’s actually spring, so guests can enjoy their first taste of springtime at our show,” says Joan Zimmerman, who created Southern Shows in 1959. Show Business At the time, Joan Zimmerman was working for Greensboro public relations agency executive John Harden. Dr. Sid Dorton, who ran the N.C. State Fair at the time and for whom Dorton Arena in Raleigh is named, came into the office one day complaining about having to travel to New York to attend a garden show. Joan immediately recognized the value of creating a North Carolina show and Harden offered her his support. Joan also recognized there was one person whose sales and people skills could make such an event truly successful, and that was her husband, Robert, who, at the time, was running his family’s electric fence business.

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by casey jacobus

[bizprofile]

There's No Business

LIKE SHOW

BUSINESS

Southern Shows Celebrates 50 Years of Success “When you stand at the front of the show and watch the crowds coming in, you think this is phenomenal. To stand there and see all those people coming to enjoy something you created.” ~Joan Zimmerman Chief Operating Officer

Robert immediately signed on, selling the exhibit spaces, meeting with the nurserymen, attending every garden club meeting in three states, and was the visionary for the look and feel of the fledgling Southeastern Flower and Garden Show, held in the Dorton Arena, while Joan organized both the show and the public relations effort to attract the public. The Zimmerman’s teamed up with Raleigh landscape artist Richard Bell, who designed the show, utilizing ideas that were innovative for the time, such as rooftop, patio and container gardens. “All of us were young,” says Joan. “We had nothing to lose and didn’t recognize the potential pitfalls.” It took nine months to organize that first show and, while it didn’t make money, it was an aesthetic success. Through the 1960s the

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Zimmermans kept their day jobs, while organizing exhibitions on the side. The company moved to Charlotte in 1962 when the 80,000-square-foot Charlotte Merchandise Mart opened. In 1967 they bought out John Harden’s interest in Southern Shows. That was also the year they opened the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte, followed by the Southern Farm Show in Raleigh in 1968, the Southern Women’s Show in 1982, and the Southern Ideal Home Show in 1985. Today, with the Zimmermans’ son David now serving as president, Southern Shows has become one of the most prestigious consumer show producers in the nation. It owns and produces 19 separate shows annually in 11 different markets throughout the South and Midwest. The combined shows attract #

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approximately 10,000 exhibitors and more than 600,000 attendees every year. Time to Celebrate This year Southern Shows marks its 50th anniversary. Appropriately, the theme for this month’s Southern Home & Garden Show is “Celebrate!” Although the spring show has changed its name several times since that first exhibition in Raleigh, it remains the bedrock show for the company, focusing on the latest and best in home improvement and gardening. About 12,000 people attended the first show in 1961 over its four-day run. Tickets cost $3. Exhibitors paid $250 to display their wares. This year exhibition space runs about $900 for a 10-foot square area, while guests will pay $10 at the door. The 2010 show, which runs for five days, is expected to attract 60,000 visitors. During the past 50 years, Southern Shows has grown almost as quickly as its oldest show. In 1967, it opened the Southern Christmas Show, creating an enchanted land for holiday revelers, with Olde Towne Shops filled with decorations, wines, gifts and crafts, as well as plenty of seasonal entertainment. The Christmas Show has become a tradition for many local families and visitors. It has grown from a three-day event to a 12-day affair that each year attracts over 100,000 people and over 600 exhibitors, making it the largest event on Southern Shows’ calendar. In 1968, Southern Shows produced the first Southern Farm Show at the N.C. Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Now the largest agricultural exposition in the Carolinas and Virginia, the show features over 300 exhibitors representing 500 manufacturers. In 1982, the company created the first women’s show in Charlotte where women can shop, watch fashion shows, attend cooking demonstrations, sample gourmet foods, treat themselves to makeovers, and meet celebrity guests. The idea caught on quickly and Southern Shows now produces women’s shows in ten different cities, from Florida to Michigan. In 1985, the company added six home and garden shows, held in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro, to the schedule. Testimony to Success While the shows provide plenty of entertainment and require what David Zimmerman calls “a city of builders” to produce, they are not theater, but commerce. Although the public comes to the shows for a variety

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of reasons, exhibiters are there primarily to market their products. “It goes back to the concept of the ancient bazaar,” explains Joan Zimmerman. “We bring buyers and sellers together in a fun exciting atmosphere. It’s a wonderful opportunity to test market a product to thousands of people.” Max Appel, who spent years promoting the virtues of his Orange Glo products at home and garden trade shows, agrees. “There is nothing like it for hearing what the customer wants,” says Appel. “It’s the best focus group in the world.” Appel, a consultant to environmental and medical organizations, developed Orange Glo Wood Cleaner and Polish, a cleanser made from the oil of Valencia oranges, in his garage. In 1986, he began exhibiting the sweet smelling product at the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show and for a long time consumer shows were his only form of distribution. In 1992, he introduced Orange Glo’s second product, Orange Clean MultiPurpose Cleaner. Next came OxiClean, a laundry detergent. “When I was first starting out, I came to Charlotte with Orange Glo,” says Appel. “The Southern Spring Garden Show was just great. Huge crowds, good buyers.” After Appel teamed up with legendary pitchman Billy Mays, a 1997 deal with Home

Shopping Network catapulted Orange Glo’s sales to a reported $100 million in just a few years. Appel sold Orange Glo in 2006. Appel says Southern Shows was instrumental in building his company’s reputation. “Southern Shows is the Apple Corporation of consumer shows,” asserts Appel. “There is nothing like it for its variety, its people and its general professionalism. Joan Zimmerman created it from scratch. She’s extremely focused and exacting. She is absolutely great.” Today, Appel has a new company, which produces homeopathic creams and lotions. His first product after selling Orange Glow was Aaah Toilet Paper Foam. Now he is marketing OxiNeem, made from the Neem tree in India, and back on the consumer show circuit. On With the Show Home shows consistently attract a large, quality audience, eager to learn about the latest products and services for their homes. “We bring people that personal connection,” says David Zimmerman. “People can see a product, pick it up, and touch it. They can talk with someone about it.” Approximately 90 percent of the exhibitors at Southern Shows are small business owners, says Zimmerman. The Southern Shows staff provides training classes before

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The Southern Spring Home & Garden Show is 240,000 square feet of exhibition space at The Park filled with flowers, gardens and exhibits evoking the spirit of springtime.

Southern Shows owns and produces 19 separate shows annually in 11 different markets throughout the South and Midwest; the combined shows attract approximately 10,000 exhibitors and more than 600,000 attendees every year.

the show, offering help in exhibit design and tips on how to be most effective. David Winters is a case in point. He started his business, the Charlotte franchise of Screenmobile the nation’s largest mobile screening company, at a difficult economic time. He was told that the Southern Shows would be a great marketing tool, but he worried about the initial investment in booth space as well as the development of the booth itself. Those worries are long gone. “The last two shows alone have generated approximately 35 percent of my total sales for the year,” Winters wrote Zimmerman in August 2009. “Nothing else has come close to being this effective…Even in these tough economic times it produced so much work we could barely keep up.” As well as helping to promote small business, the Zimmermans have used their home shows to support local artists. In the early ’70s they saw Max Howard’s sculptures at

a Charlotte arts festival and invited him to participate in the Southern Spring House & Garden Show. Howard, a former welder in the fabrication industry, creates sculptures using brass, copper and titanium and his outdoor wall pieces, fountains and planters provide accents for many homes in the Carolinas. “I really got my start at the Spring Home & Garden Show,” says Howard. “My work was well received and it gave me the push I needed to try sculpture full-time.” While working for other landscape companies, Kevin James attended three Southern Spring Home & Garden Shows. He could never understand why his bosses would set up their garden displays, leave the exhibition, and then return to dismantle the exhibition. “It seemed like a lot of money to spend for the two or three calls that would come out of it,” James comments. “When I started my own company, I decided to stay at the garden for as much of the show as I possibly could.”

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James has attended the show for the last 12 years and has been delighted with the results. Every day of the show, he talks with 50 to 60 people, generating a year’s worth of work from the five-day show. “I talked with one woman about a bird feeder and that led to a $30,000 landscaping job,” James reports. “People call and say they saw us at the show four or five or six years ago, and now that they are ready to build their dream house, they want us to design the landscaping. It’s all about making connections.” While Joan and Robert Zimmerman continue to participate in the management of Southern Shows, David Zimmerman now runs the company. During a difficult market, he has managed to increase attendance and exhibitor bases at all the shows. He continues to apply the skills he learned from his parents—innovative thinking, persistence and service, but he gives a lot of credit to his staff. “We find good people and hang on to them,” he says. “Forty percent of our staff has been with us for 10 or more years. My job is to just keep them on the highway.” As to what motivates the Zimmermans to continue to produce shows after 50 years, Joan sums it up best. “When you stand at the front of the show and watch the crowds coming in, you think this is phenomenal,” she says. “To stand there and see all those people coming to enjoy something you created.” biz Casey Jacobus is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

Southern Shows, Inc. 810 Baxter Street Charlotte, N.C. 28202 Phone: 704-362-6594 Principals: Robert E. Zimmerman, Chairman and Co-founder, Joan Zimmerman, CEO and Co-founder; David J. Zimmerman, President Founded: 1959 Employees: 35 Business: Produces 19 consumer shows each year in 11 markets, ranging from Florida to Michigan. Shows include the Southern Christmas Show, the Women’s Show Series, the Southern Farm Show, the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show and the Southern Ideal Home Show series; BBB Accredited Business with a rating of A+. www.southernshows.com

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“

~David Rothwell

General Manager

“If we are continually reinventing ourselves, not resting on what we did yesterday, and executing in each moment of truth, we can undoubtedly be the best.”

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by susanne deitzel

[bizprofile]

Putting

RITZ

on the

The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte Meets the Gold Standard

n 2005, when Bank of America announced that The Ritz-Carlton would open a hotel in Charlotte, the city was flushed with excitement. The legendary hotel’s reputation for hospitality, impeccability and business savvy would add an impressive gem in the Queen City crown and bring international exposure. The hotel was built by Bank of America for a price tag of about $60 million, and managed by The Ritz-Carton Hotel Company. The 146-room hotel is part of a $540 million complex including the 30-story Bank of America office tower. A primary intention of the project was to provide amenities for Bank of America employees, directors, vendors and guests visiting from out of town. When the recession set in, there was concern that the project might be scrapped, or that the venue would struggle to find solid footing in what has widely been reported as a dour climate for hospitality. To the contrary, The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte opened on October 1, 2009. After its first five months General Manager David Rothwell reports, “Our October occupancy was the highest ever for a Ritz-Carlton in the first month, and we have had increasingly successful months since then. February was an absolute home run for us.” Which begs the question—with unmitigated success in what many refer to as a turbulent and competitive industry—what can we learn from The Ritz-Carlton? Strong Values + Flexible Thinking = Innovation The danger of being an icon is that many of them get trapped in their historical successes. Totem practices and processes become an invisible part of the landscape, often blinding growth opportunity. Not so with The Ritz-Carlton. A firm commitment to its values—most importantly impeccable guest service—has facilitated a flexibility of thinking organization-wide. By listening intently to the unique needs and desires of guests in emerging markets—like Charlotte—The Ritz-Carlton expertly and reflexively provides offerings to delight and serve its clientele. #

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David W.B. Rothwell General Manager The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte

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Comments Rothwell, “This is not your grandfather’s Ritz-Carlton.” The Charlotte hotel’s sense of place is different—giant floral arrangements have been replaced with crisp artwork and photography, and the music has changed. Rothwell adds, “The gentleman at the front door of The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte isn’t wearing a top hat.” The most significant evolution that The RitzCarlton, Charlotte has made is seeking LEED Gold certification. The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is the first Ritz-Carlton set to attain Gold status and is only the second luxury hotel in North Carolina to do so. Hotel management and Bank of America ownership collaborated on the LEED design because they saw it as a clear opportunity to offer what the market was asking for while simultaneously becoming recognized as leaders in environmental sustainability. Ultimately, the transition raised the hotel’s service delivery from the individual to what would also best serve the community and the planet. It has also gotten the hotel world-wide media recognition. The most buzzworthy LEED feature is the hotel’s green rooftop. It includes 18,000 plants that save energy costs by insulating the building. It also yields a variety of organic fruits and vegetables harvested for use in menu items served in its popular Lobby Lounge and via In-Room Dining. The process of LEED Gold Certification is rigorous—from the types of construction materials used and how far they must be shipped, to waste management, lighting, employee transit, materials used in rooms and amenities like the spa and restaurant, and water use. The hotel has installed four on-site water filtration systems that eliminate the need for plastic water bottles, which, while sounding like a detail, is estimated to divert 73,000 plastic bottles from landfills, save more than 104 barrels of oil, eliminate 49 tons of CO2 emissions and save almost 605 billion BTUs of electricity each year. “We are very aggressive in finding new and better ways to be a leader in environmental sustainability. Our goal is to eliminate 74 percent of waste by the end of the year—we are currently at 40 percent. Our purchasing is organic whenever possible, with an emphasis on buying from local farms. We have 150 bike racks between the hotel and the corporate tower, and encourage the use of mass transit,” says Rothwell. The hotel also offers complimentary parking for hybrid vehicles and complimentary weekday morning transportation via hybrid vehicle. He says that the process is changing the way the company does business, and providing

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new outlets for the creative problem solvers that are the hallmark of Ritz-Carlton’s service excellence. Ladies…and…Gentlemen! While the practices of The Ritz-Carlton are centered in evolution and innovation, the essence of the brand is steeped in one value: service. And this service ethos is deeply rooted in the history of the company. Nowhere is this more evident than its moniker for hotel staff: “Ladies and Gentlemen,” or its slogan, “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” Its tenets regarding a “Customer-Centric Culture” have lead to the development of a certificate program to teach other organizations the secrets of its service excellence, and been recognized with the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award twice. Rothwell says that the company is vigilant about honoring its stringent service core, while also making sure that it is constantly questioning its practices. He explains, “In 2006 we received data that

the expression, “My pleasure,” that we had had been using was starting to fall out of favor as ‘too robotic.’ So we asked our employees to make their interactions with customers personal and natural to them. At the same time, you won’t hear people saying ‘folks’ or anything inconsistent with the brand.” The company’s obsession with finding data and leveraging it to make improvements is central in its continuing pursuit of excellence. In January, Rothwell found himself walking in a line employee’s shoes, washing dishes for four hours while wearing a suit. The outcome of that evening was a request for a new spray head for the washing station, a request for a smaller portion and different presentation of butter in the dining room, and a new presentation of chocolate on dessert plates to reduce the amount of water and time needed to clean them. “I started out washing dishes, and I loved the chance to do it again. It was great to be reminded that everyone can be an owner in his/her role and make a significant difference,” says Rothwell meaningfully.

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Executive Looks. Exceptional Prices. Internal transfers account for 98 percent of Rothwell’s executive team, and 58 percent of the hotel’s Ladies and Gentlemen came from other Ritz-Carlton properties, including 13 from his former base at The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples, Fla. He explains, “We’ve got to transfer expertise and culture to create a strong mentoring climate.” He adds, “We are also very careful not to bring too much of our experience into what is a new and very different market for many of us. Charlotte is a city hotel—much different from a resort location. Its high volume of business travelers and slightly younger weekend clientele make the priorities different. There is a lot of emphasis on time efficiency, availability of IT and support services, and other logistics.” The hotel staff rigorously documents client preferences to assure they are delivering its hallmark personalized service. Explains Rothwell, “The Ladies and Gentlemen learn to serve by observation and documentation. They have preference pads and record the answers to guest questions like: ‘What magazines #

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did they read? Did they only eat the banana out of their fruit salad? Did they order a lime with their beverage’?” Such attention to detail also provides the ability to make big picture changes in what the hotel offers. Rothwell says that in the first month of operation the hotel had to purchase additional in-room dining tables because guests enjoyed staying in their rooms for breakfast, as well as increased requests for latenight, in-room dining. The hotel goes to extraordinary lengths to empower its staff to make decisions that will serve the customer. Up to $2,000 is provided per employee to provide a “Wow” experience for a guest. One employee used it to correct a luggage mistake that involved an employee hand delivering items to both Winston-Salem and Fort Lauderdale, by the next morning. Ritz-Carlton’s extensive hiring and training practices, as well as their GM Roundtables, daily shift lineups, and employee recognition programs are structures that perpetuate and continue to develop a climate of trust, mutual respect and commitment to delivering upon promises made to each other. “Our Ladies and Gentlemen are the experts in what our clients need and want, which is the key to our success. Our executive team is beholden to upholding our Employee Promises to them, just as the Ladies and Gentlemen are beholden to their promises to our clients.” The company uses copious data collection techniques from internal surveys, customer feedback and Gallup surveys to assure that the guests and employees are receiving everything they need. They also stay immersed in travel and hospitality trends, best-of lists and media coverage to brainstorm about new ways to delight guests.

And it’s working. Currently Rothwell’s team has exceeded other Ritz-Carlton city hotels in the system by 10 percent in customer engagement scores. Community-Footprints “The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte has been one of the most successful openings in the history of The Ritz-Carlton. It is also the first time one has opened on time,” says Rothwell. The competitive GM says that his goal is for The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is to become the top hotel of its kind in the world, and leading efforts to get Charlotte what he believes to be welldeserved national and international recognition. “Charlotte is a relatively unknown gem. With attractions like the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the Bechtler, Gantt, Levine and Mint Museums, the Speedway, Whitewater Center, the NC Music Factory, the Blumenthal and EpiCentre, there is a rich variety of experiences. The regional attractions are incredible too—I had a trip to Childress Vineyards that rivaled experiences I have had in Napa.” He concludes, “The bottom line is that national and international travelers will get to experience all that the city has to offer and will make it become the destination it is capable of becoming.” The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte is focusing the majority of its community initiatives around environmental awareness, wellness and service, commensurate with its core values and unique and visible position as a LEED Goldbuilt luxury hotel. As part of the company’s Community Footprints program, the hotel is planning major initiatives for Earth Week in April, a children’s program, and partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank which includes

donations and gifts-in-kind. Rothwell’s optimism about the city’s possibilities for partnership and growth is infectious; largely because it is clear he has both a trained eye and the drive to turn opportunity into reality. “If we are continually reinventing ourselves, not resting on what we did yesterday, and executing in each moment of truth, we can undoubtedly be the best.” biz Susanne Dietzel is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. dba

The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte 201 E.Trade Street Charlotte, N.C. 28202 Phone: 704.547.2244 Principal: David W.B. Rothwell, General Manager Opened: October 1, 2009 Employees: 180 Rooms: 146 Amenities: BLT Steak Restaurant and The Lobby Lounge, The Wellness Center and Spa, 146 spacious luxury guest rooms, industry-leading traveler conveniences, meeting space, ballroom, business services. LEED: Groundbreaking designation as the first LEED Gold-built hotel in The Ritz-Carlton network, and only the second luxury hotel in the U.S.; vegetated rooftop, water filtration, eco-friendly transit options, organic building materials and organic/sustainable product purchase, recycling, and waste reduction. www.ritzcarlton.com

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On the Balfour Beatty acquistion: “The value proposition, is a world-class organization that gives us scale diversification and an elevated level of sophisticated service. This has been overwhelmingly positive. That’s not only for our employees but also for our customers.” ~David Dooley

Photo: Michael LoBiondo

Chief Executive Officer

(l to r) Robert Thomas (Bob) Dooley 111 Chief Operating Officer Robert Thomas (Tom) Dooley Jr. Founder David Dooley Chief Executive Officer RT Dooley A Balfour Beatty Company

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by ellison clary

[bizprofile]

{THING

The RIGHT

Thriving on Family Values, Community Service

is only title these days is “grandfather,” but R.T. (Tom) Dooley laid the foundation for what later grew into a $306 million a year construction company. His sons, Bob Dooley and David Dooley, credit their father’s lessons in family values and community service, as well as his penchant for always doing the right thing, for helping them build on his success. Just last year the sons made the strategic decision to sell R.T. Dooley Construction to Balfour Beatty Construction U.S., a division of London-based Balfour Beatty plc, a construction, engineering and investment firm. Both sons continue to operate the firm from its 27,000-square-foot headquarters on Barringer Drive. That’s within three miles of Balfour Beatty’s Southeast Division headquarters. A Faithful Example Tom Dooley was a long-time referee in the National Football League and is characterized by son Bob as “a rule nut.” “It’s just like life,” the elder Dooley says. “If you don’t follow the rules, then you fail at everything.” He and wife Nancy Wheeler Dooley are devoted to Christian principles, although son David allows that “the Christian side of my father is very quiet.” “We’ve always had a strong faith,” Tom Dooley says. “Jesus has been in our lives for a very long time.” For Tom Dooley, so has the YMCA. Charlotte’s Dowd Y is his home-away-from-home. “I eat lunch at the YMCA every day,” he says, adding that it’s usually with a group whose members have shared the mid-day meal around the infamous roundtable for decades. After work he returns: “Every night I go to the YMCA about five o’clock and take a shower, shave, put on clean underwear and go home.” Bob and David Dooley speculate their father hasn’t showered at home in 40 years, and Tom and Nancy Dooley say they’re right. “I like the Y so much because they are good folks,” Tom Dooley says. “I think you # have a tendency to gather around folks like you.”

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Honored by the Y For setting a faith-based example and giving back to the community, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte is honoring Tom Dooley with its John R. Mott Award. The honor is named for the Nobel Peace Prize winner who championed the cause of displaced prisoners in both World Wars. “I’m humbled about getting the award,” Tom Dooley says. “It’s undeserved. I was having fun. I was doing what I wanted to do.” In the early years, Dooley would close the office at lunch so any employee who wanted to could spend time at the Y. Today, his sons still encourage everybody in the firm to participate in the Y if they wish. The sons say it’s one of the core values RT Dooley shares with Balfour Beatty, which recently extended its discounted Y membership program for employees to cover 100 percent of the cost. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dooley and the Rev. Leighton Ford, who served 30 years in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association before starting Leighton Ford Ministries, decided the Y needed to integrate. They began networking within the AfricanAmerican community and identified youths to join the Y basketball squads they coached. Dooley, Ford and others didn’t stop with racial integration. They also successfully lobbied for females to become Y members. Even then, Dooley wasn’t through. He and Frank Dowd III of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry were instrumental in establishing Y branches in many parts of Mecklenburg County. Dooley has been a staunch supporter of the Charlotte Y since he gravitated to it in the early 1960s. “People know he’s genuine” Ford says, “and he’s been a great force for the Y.” Growing Up The elder Dooley grew up around Salem, Va., in the Roanoke area, and he parlayed a penchant for football into an education at Virginia Military Institute. He was an offensive end and punter while earning a bachelor’s in civil engineering. He followed that with a master’s in engineering from Georgia Tech. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, Dooley arrived in Charlotte with a connection through a general to the F.N. Thompson Construction Company. He worked there for 16 years. Living first in Selwyn Village, Dooley hung out with the likes of attorneys Bob King and Ham Wade and bankers C.D. Spangler and Hugh McColl Jr. Wade got him involved with officiating youth football and he moved through the ranks to high school games and then college contests. The NFL hired him in 1978 and he

officiated in Super Bowl XV. He was acquainted with well-known Charlotte NFL players such as Mike Cofer from Charlotte Country Day School, who became an acclaimed field goal specialist, and Dwight Clark from Garinger High, who starred as a receiver. Dooley liked officiating, son Bob says, because the three hours on the field each Sunday relaxed him. He was in a world of clear demarcations. Yet Dooley stopped officiating abruptly in 1992. For him, the decision was “just like I turn the light off. I came home and told Nancy I had notified them I was not going to work anymore. She thought I’d lost my head.” Ford offers insight. “Are you doing the urgent things or the important things?” he asked in a talk at the annual YMCA prayer breakfast. Dooley missed the breakfast but listened to the tape of Ford’s message in his pickup truck. When he returned from his trip, he called the head of the NFL referees and said he was through. He had decided his family and the Lord were most important to him. Dooley allayed his wife’s fears when he told her, “There’s no problem at all. I’m not looking back.” And he hasn’t, although he does watch NFL games on television and likes instant replays because they help officials correct bad calls. “If you make a mistake, you need to change it,” he says, “and in life that’s the same.” In the Big Leagues At F.N. Thompson, Dooley made another abrupt decision. “I just woke up one morning and walked in and told Charlie Mikell, ‘I’ll finish all the jobs I have for you, but as of this day I’m leaving.’” “I was shocked,” Nancy remembers. The couple had talked about starting a firm, so she knew it would happen. But the timing was a surprise. “Absolutely,” Dooley answers, when asked if he’d handle the situation that way again. “Because Nancy was 100 percent behind me, whatever I did,” he explains of his wife of 52 years. He started R.T. Dooley Construction in 1977, and quickly built a reputation for quality work and exceptional customer service. These hallmarks helped the firm grow quickly and remain a part of the RT Dooley firm’s core philosophy today. Well-known RT Dooley projects include the Johnson & Wales University academic center, headquarters facilities for the Lowe’s Corporation in Mooresville, Goodrich and Nucor corporate offices, and the corporate offices for Duke Energy. Additionally, the

Dooleys have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Bank of America and predecessors and Wachovia/Wells Fargo. RT Dooley also thrives in the mission-critical market and quietly builds major data centers for Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies across the United States. Bob and David Dooley, 49 and 46, grew up working in the family business. Although Bob once vowed he’d never make a career with his father and David toiled for a time with construction firm McDevitt & Street, both ended up at RT Dooley. Now David is chief executive and Bob is chief operating officer.

!National Gypsum Headquarters

!The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte

!Lincoln YMCA Pool

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Everybody who works here gets a portion of their salary above what we pay them that they have to give away. Many don’t have a clue where to give. Once they’ve made a choice, they have to justify it to their peers and bosses. And with their check, they must supply an accompanying letter. ~Tom Dooley Founder

!Bank of America Trading Floor - Hearst Tower

!Time Warner Cable

!Tom Dooley and Gracie Hargro, Fitness Bar Assistant Manager at the Dowd YMCA

Carrying on the Tradition Together, Bob and David helped their dad grow the company while he taught them about life and business. David says he learned humility and the value of servant leadership. “Identify the problem, fix it and move on,” Bob remembers hearing. He also notes lessons from sports, such as learning how to lose. “The Y basketball experience was really a lifelong lesson in teaching me that you need to have sportsmanship, and you need to be a humble loser and a gracious winner,” Bob says. “Those attributes are deeply embedded in how we operate our business and they are part of our values as a family.” For his part, Tom Dooley takes pride in giving his sons and others the space and support to make decisions on their own. He’s

never micro-managed. The brothers are bullish about RT Dooley’s future. They feel their business heritage of being nimble and scrappy, combined with the much greater resources of Balfour Beatty, will hasten expansion and growth while providing greater opportunities for their employees. “The value proposition,” says David Dooley, “is a world-class organization that gives us scale diversification and an elevated level of sophisticated service. This has been overwhelmingly positive. That’s not only for our employees but also for our customers.” In addition to their father’s business philosophy, Bob and David Dooley have taken on their father’s precept of giving back to the community. An RT Dooley engineering scholarship allows the firm to nurture the talents of students through internships and recruitment at UNC Charlotte, NC State, Clemson, Appalachian State and Georgia Tech. That’s another legacy from their father who established funds for what was dubbed the “Matthew 25 Scholarships” at VMI, Appalachian State and Penn State, among others. The scholarships are need-based and available to any student. The main criterion is that the recipient must bring positive recognition to his or her university or school. At 76, Tom Dooley answers only to the title of grandfather. Between Bob, David and their older sister Nina Dooley McLean, he has eight granddaughters, ages 11 through 20. A long-time member of the Leighton Ford Ministries board, and its treasurer for 11 years, Dooley stepped down last year. On the board or off, Dooley has been a solid supporter, Ford says. Ritual Still Brings Enjoyment Dooley still enjoys what has become an endof-year ritual at his company. “Everybody who works here gets a portion of their salary above what we pay them that they have to give away,” he says. Many don’t have a clue where to give and he instructs them to get out in the community and decide what groups they feel are performing worthwhile endeavors. Once they’ve made a choice, they have to justify it to their peers and

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bosses. And with their check, they must supply an accompanying letter. “It’s one of the most joyous things this company does,” Dooley says. The company also encourages its employees to get involved personally in worthy causes. “We’ve got people on boards and volunteering in great organizations all over town,” he says. For advice to a young person, Dooley is adamant: “They’ve got to get a soul mate to succeed.” Secondarily, he advocates strong motivation and a love for a chosen pursuit. The elder Dooley keeps a company office that he visits three days a week. Associating with the firm’s employees means much to him. “People are much more sophisticated now,” Dooley says. “Our company has grown and we had to hire other people who would do what we ask. But they had enough moxie that they ended up doing it their way. And their way is better.” Meanwhile, Ford offers the ultimate praise: “I’ve never heard anybody raise any question about the integrity of Tom and his company.” biz Ellison Clary is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

RT Dooley A Balfour Beatty Company 4024 Barringer Drive Charlotte, N.C. 28220 Phone: 704-527-6111 Principals: Robert Thomas (Tom) Dooley Jr., Founder; David Dooley, CEO; Robert Thomas (Bob) Dooley III, COO Established: 1977 Acquired: February 2009 Parent: Balfour Beatty Construction U.S. of Balfour Beatty plc Revenue: $306 million (2008) Employees: 130 Business: Builder specializing in corporate headquarters, corporate interiors and mission critical infrastructure work; known for its focus on green building practices and deep community involvement. www.rtdooley.com

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The YMCA Honors... John R. Mott Award John R. Mott (18651955) was one of the great Christian leaders of the YMCA movement. He was known as a ‘citizen of the world’, served as Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946. The name John R. Mott is respected globally as a shining example of servant leadership. Each year, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte presents an award in honor of John R. Mott. The 2010 recipient is the Tom Dooley Family. Prior John R. Mott Award honorees are: 2009 James (Jim) H. Morgan 2008 J. Frank Harrison III 2007 Steele Dewey 2006 The Dowd Family 2005 Russell M. Robinson II 2004 Malcolm (Mac) Everett 2003 Robert (Bob) King Jr. 2002 Graeme M. Keith 2001 H.C. (Smoky) Bissell

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2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

Harry H. Brace Thomas M. Belk James J. Harris William M. Barnhardt Joseph W. Grier Jr.

George Williams Awards The original YMCA started in London in 1844 as 22-year-old George Williams and 11 friends came together for prayer and reflection. They were compelled to help other young men find what they felt: God’s grace. In recognition of George Williams’ leadership, each year YMCAs across the world recognize outstanding volunteers at their branches. This year, YMCA of Greater Charlotte branches honor… • William B. Cornett, YMCA Camp Thunderbird and YMCA Camp Harrison at Herring Ridge • Casey McKinney, Childress Klein YMCA • Si W. Davis Jr., YMCA Community Development • F.A. “Chip” Cash III , Dowd YMCA • Steven Summerville, Gateway Village YMCA • E. Blake Graeber III, Harris YMCA

• George M. Hargrove Jr., Johnston YMCA • David Kiley, Lake Norman YMCA • Paula Turner, Lincoln County YMCA • Pat Schlageter, Lowe’s YMCA • Aretha V. Blake, McCrorey YMCA • David Huss, Morrison YMCA • Ronald M. Bost, Sally’s Y • Mary Sue Jones, Simmons YMCA • Geoff Kemble, Siskey YMCA • Richard Keagy, Steele Creek YMCA • Paul Steffens, Stratford Richardson YMCA • LuAnn Jordan, University City YMCA Willie J. Stratford Sr. Diversity Award In 1998, an award was established in recognition of Willie J. Stratford Sr., a devoted champion of diversity in the YMCA and community, for his faithful service and dedication to practicing John 17:21, “That they may all be one even as thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send me.” This award is given to someone who recognizes, leads and inspires others to help create a stronger community through valuing diversity. This year, the award honors… • Debra Campbell

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No Matter Where You Are or What Device You Use, It's Just Like Being There! “We’re in the people business. We’re here to help people meet their business objectives and to make information technology simple for them,”

Jeffrey S. King President and Founder AT-NET Inc.

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by ellison clary

[bizprofile]

VIRTUAL WORKSPACES

AT-NET Keeps You “Plugged In”

“

“We are capable of anything in the technology business. That’s the easy part for us, but it’s the scary part for our customers. We want the technology that they are signing up for to go exceptionally well and for them to get the full benefit of it. That way, we become a trusted advisor.”

eff King knows why his information technology company is growing rapidly, becoming one of the largest in the Carolinas. As founder and president of At-Net Services – Charlotte, Inc. (AT-NET), he has forged some impressive acquisitions and is growing organically, too, but, he says, “the bottom line comes down to serving people.” “We sell products by necessity,” King says as he strolls around his south Charlotte office. “But our main focus is keeping our customers happy. We’re in the people business.” “We’re here to help people meet their business objectives and to make information technology simple for them,” he adds. “We are capable of anything in the technology business. That’s the easy part for us, but it’s the scary part for our customers. We want the technology that they are signing up for to go exceptionally well and for them to get the full benefit of it. That way, we become a trusted advisor.” AT-NET is a network systems integrator that provides data, voice, video and security products and services. It also services Internet and information recovery needs. The company counts about 300 clients who’ve used its services in the last six months. Though AT-NET has customers literally around the world, the bulk of them are in the Carolinas or the Southeast. And though some are huge, many are small and medium-sized. One satisfied client is Wishart Norris Henninger & Pittman, a law firm which concentrates on closely held businesses. Robert Norris, managing partner in Charlotte, sings AT-NET’s praises. “With over 75 employees, including 35 lawyers, it is essential that our IT system always be up and running at a fast pace,” Norris says. “Given that we have offices in Charlotte and Burlington, it has been a challenge to have the appropriate IT support at each office on a cost-effective basis. AT-NET has customized our services contract to meet these challenges. “We could not be happier with their responsiveness,” Norris adds. King comments, chuckling: “If we can keep a law firm happy, we can keep anybody happy.” He’s proud of AT-NET’s capability to design, build and maintain a turnkey information technology system for any individual business or institutional need. Further, he touts his firm’s reputation for quick reaction. AT-NET operates our own technicianstaffed customer assistance center for 24/7 response. #

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“The goal is for each cry for help to land on a technician’s ear the first time. We are accessible to our customers,” King says. “We have one-hour contracts we respond to. Within one hour, we are fixing the problem. We impress urgency upon our engineers.” It brings him to a pet peeve: customer service. “American business has forgotten about service; I have not,” King says forcefully. “I’m deeply invested in my customers’ success. And I do truly care about it. We always make good on our promises. We’re here to take care of people.” The Making of Success The son of an IT manager at Westinghouse, King grew up in Winston-Salem watching his dad work in computer rooms. As a child he’d play with hole-punch cards that programmed those lumbering 1970s machines. While earning a business degree with a concentration in real estate and urban analysis at Appalachian State University, King worked three jobs. He was a waiter, a real estate agent and a night security guard at a women’s dormitory where it was permissible to doze. “I got paid to sleep,” he grins. After graduation, he returned to WinstonSalem and wound up in a commercial real estate firm. Because the company used five methods to value properties, calculator work was never-ending. So King dabbled in IT without realizing it. “I sat down on a Macintosh with Excel and wrote all kinds of formulas where I could plug in some basic variables and, for what would normally take a week, it would spit out answers for me in less than an hour,” he remembers. Pretty soon, he was selling copies of his program for $600 a pop. Next, he used IT applications in Charlotte for his first father-in-law’s point-of-sale company. He was instrumental in growing the business from $1.3 million in annual revenue to about $13 million. But he had yet other adventures to pursue. He took a job with a start-up that paid him to build a nationwide golf handicapping network. The result was “a fascinating piece of software that worked like a champ, but it didn’t sell,” King says ruefully. So in 1995, King took what he terms a “long vacation.” He bought a house on Lake Wylie and remodeled it. He soon grew restless enough to hire out as a consultant and found himself logging 300,000 air miles a year as he worked on voice recognition systems for big banks. When that contract concluded, King had an

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“The goal is for each cry for help to land on a technician’s ear the first time. We are accessible to our customers. We have onehour contracts we respond to. Within one hour, we are fixing the problem. We impress urgency upon our engineers.” ~Jeff King President and Founder epiphany one evening while sitting on the back porch of his lakeside home with ROI, his golden retriever. King decided to start his own business. He had a knack for computers and had learned a lot about voice, data, video and security products and services. Optimizing for Success And so it was 1998 that he founded the J.S. King Company. Subsequently, he changed the name to AT-NET. At the time, the field of offerings was very splintered, and King took full advantage of combinations that made sense for his business. In 2000, King linked up with Premiere Alliance Group, which had 16 sales representatives. Two years later, King bought out the partnership with Premiere and folded the integration company into AT-NET. That started a string of years when AT-NET grew at least 100 percent and sometimes 1,000 percent. Acquisitions fueled much of the run. “Organic growth is essentially hard,” King explains. “There’s not a lot of margin in the computer business. In our annual growth model, probably 75 percent is based on acquisitions.”

King bought a Gastonia firm, then one in the District of Columbia. Early last year, he purchased a small Charlotte company and, by mid-2009, AT-NET was on track to be a $10-million-a-year outfit. Then came AT-NET’s biggest buy ever: SDI Networks based in Greenville, S.C. Three times the size of AT-NET, it was owned by John Ludwig, who was facing criminal charges after his out-of-control Maserati crashed into a residential home, killing a man watching television. King e-mailed Ludwig’s attorney of his interested in buying SDI. A week later, King was bonding with some employees around the office pool table late on a Friday when Ludwig dialed his cell number. “It was the fastest multi-million dollar deal I’ve ever done,” King says of the August agreement to acquire SDI. “I knew it was a good company. The unit had a lot of financial trouble. But I also knew we could fix it.” King kept three essential executives from SDI: the heads of sales, accounting and engineering. Meanwhile, he did all he could to heal the employees’ battered psyche. “By December 1, everything was operating smoothly,” he says. “We have been swallowing a whale and recently we just got the tail down.” Now with 80 employees, about 30 of them in Charlotte, AT-NET operates from a 13,000-square-foot headquarters on Southern Pine Boulevard. It also maintains offices in Atlanta, Greenville, Columbia and Charleston in South Carolina, as well as Knoxville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C.

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Integrating Newer Technologies AT-NET is on schedule to turn $30 million in revenue for 2010, but King has his eye on a couple of new Carolinas acquisition targets. He predicts AT-NET will be ready to make a run at one of them by late this year. “We will be purchasing someone in the Internet service provider side of the world,” he says. “It’s more of a recurring revenue model.”

allowed them to run it. I’m not a micro manager. “I have people who know what their jobs are and I don’t have to tell them every day. I can take a vacation. That’s what gives me satisfaction. We’ve built a good, sustainable company that doesn’t rely on me to pull it forward.”

With AT-NET’s dramatic growth, the size of a remarkable achievement has escalated. “It used to be if we got a $5,000 sale, we would go to the Sizzler and we were just happy as we could be,” King smiles, adding that today is different. “Anything $500,000 and higher is a good celebration for us.” A product in high demand continues to be VoIP, or voice over Internet protocol, which facilitates computer-based oral conversations. But as its popularity wanes, a couple of new items loom large. One is virtualization, or “cloud computing,” which King says is simply “a term meaning that we take a client’s systems into one of our data centers. We’ve built our centers in such a fashion that people can plug in and use our resources. It’s going to run our sales model for the next five years.” Another next big thing is telepresence, an advanced videoconferencing in which people in various locations can see and hear each other as if they were together. “It’s inexpensive compared to what it used to be,” King says, “and it doesn’t require huge amounts of bandwidth like it used to.” Further, it injects a personal aspect into remote communications that King feels has been lost with e-mail. In e-mails, most people are not quite as cordial as in person, he’s observed, adding that video conferencing is much more engaging. “It brings manners back,” he says simply. King values civility with his employees. “I’ve hired people who are dedicated to the business and want to make it successful,” he says. “I’ve

at a moment’s notice to tackle any customer’s IT challenge. King points to that in-office pool table as he explains how he tries to combat such strain. “I supply diversions like pool and a pingpong table,” he says. “We have exercise rooms. We have showers.” But there is accountability. He monitors performance constantly.

A Kinetic Future For King, the confidence in his shop doesn’t discount the stress of being available

“American business has forgotten about service; I have not. I’m deeply invested in my customers’ success. And I do truly care about it. We always make good on our promises. We’re here to take care of people.” ~Jeff King President and Founder That brings him back to growth. “Our goal is to hit $50 million a year and then look around and see if we want to continue. I’m interested in longevity for the employees and for their careers.” So King thinks he may try to double his $50 million target. But someday, he’ll sell, he says— “to the right buyer.” “Money will be important,” he allows, “but the biggest aspect is ‘Who are we going to dance with?’ Is it the right fit, for the employees first,

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and is it right for our customers?” King is only 45. What would he do next? Several factors might influence that decision. His wife, Michele Juba King, is the human relations executive at her family’s Juba Aluminum firm based in Cabarrus County. It provided the skin for such high-profile structures as the Duke Energy Center and the Arlington condo tower. For daughters Isabella 5 and Sophia 3, King

wants to be a meaningful part of their life. So he might consider a less time-consuming pursuit, perhaps related to the environment. “My wife and I are on a big green kick,” he says. “I’m terribly interested in energy, and in hydrogen engines. I would love to see us all driving hydrogen-powered vehicles that produce water vapor. It’s very viable today.” He pauses and smiles. “I also thought about just opening a cheeseburger stand.” biz Ellison Clary is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

At-Net Services – Charlotte, Inc. dba

AT-NET (also written @.net) 9625-D Southern Pine Blvd. Charlotte, N.C. 28273 Phone: 704-831-2500; 866-708-0886 Principal: Jeffrey S. King, President and Founder Established: 1998 as J.S. King Company Employees: 80 Offices: Atlanta, Charlotte (headquarters), Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, Knoxville, Washington, D.C. Revenue: $30 million (projected annual revenue for 2010) Business: Network systems integrator providing data, voice, video and security products and services, in addition to servicing Internet and disaster recovery needs. www.at-net.net

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[bizprofile]

by carol gifford

“Document shredding used to be just a best practice, but now it is the law.” ~Bob Korkos Vice President

MISSION

CRITICAL Automated Shredding Assures Secure Destruction of Sensitive Data

oday the protection of confidential business and client data is mission critical. All businesses discard confidential data. Customer lists, price lists, sales statistics, drafts of bids and correspondence, and even memos contain information about business activity which would interest any competitor. Every business is also entrusted with personal and credit information that must be kept private. Employees and customers have the legal right to have this data protected. Without the proper safeguards, sensitive documents end up in the dumpster where the information is readily, and legally, available to anybody. The trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most available source of competitive and private information from the average business, as well as a significant source of individuals’ personal information. Any establishment that discards private and proprietary data without the benefit of destruction, exposes itself to the risk of criminal and civil prosecution, as well as the costly loss of business. That’s where Automated Shredding, Inc. comes in. It makes it very simple and affordable to dispose of sensitive data protectively and easily by providing mobile on-site secure shredding. “Document shredding used to be just a best practice,” says Bob Korkos, vice president of Automated Shredding, “but now it is the law.” “We provide a convenient, secure and environmentally sensitive solution,” says Barbara Korkos, the company’s president. “We’re large enough to serve corporate clients with the best stateof-the-art equipment but still small enough to serve small and mid-size businesses and residential customers. We can compete with anyone in our industry because of our experience and the flexibility of our operation to adapt services and pricing to meet our clients’ needs,” she continues.

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Bob Korkos Vice President Barbara Korkos President Automated Shredding

!How it Works

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Automated Shredding’s state-of-the art shredding equipment has the capabilities of shredding anything from paper, plastic, microfilm, and x-rays, to electronic equipment including CDs, hard drives, PDAs, and retired cell phones. On average, a shredding truck can shred up to 5,500 pounds per hour. Additionally, the company is industry certified and all employees undergo extensive background investigations and drug testing, and are continuously trained on secure policies and procedures to provide shredding service that complies with industry best practices. Disposed to Charlotte Veterans in the shredding business, the Korkos’ first owned and operated a

shredding company in Milwaukee which became one of the largest shredding operations in southeast Wisconsin and one of the first nationally certified. In Wisconsin Bob Korkos was selected by Shred Tech, the leading manufacturer of both mobile and stationary shredding equipment, to field test the first MDS 35GT mobile shredder model before general release. Since then, he has continued to serve as a consultant to the company and on its focus advisory boards, helping to review new shredding truck needs. In fact, it was a Shred Tech consulting gig that brought Bob down South in the first place and during his trip he drove around Charlotte. “I called Barb and said we need to look

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at Charlotte for our next shredding business venture,” says Bob. “We thought Charlotte looked like a great place—with a great climate, especially in comparison with Milwaukee winters—and a good business environment,” says Barbara. So, in 2007, they moved the whole family to Charlotte. With an initial investment of about $500,000, the couple started networking and reaching out to the community. They became members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, the Executives Association and the Hospitality and Tourism Alliance. Utilizing the proven business model they had developed in Milwaukee, the Korkos’ launched their new business. #

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“We needed to make a presence in a new market and adapt to changing trends in media,” explains Bob. Believing the yellow pages and direct mail to be outdated and ineffective for their marketing needs, they went online. “We developed an online marketing strategy with local marketing firm,” continues Bob, “and supported it with radio and signage campaigns to create a strong brand and build a recognizable presence.” “When we are contacted by a new customer, we offer a free evaluation of their needs, even if they were already using a competitor service. We ask to visit the workplace and look around because we know we can save them money and offer a secure quality service,” says Barbara. For customers who choose routine scheduled service, Automated Shredding provides secure locked containers ranging from 95 gallon bins to laminated executive consoles and underdesk personal shred bins. Facilitating Disposability “We were using another shredding company during a period when we were transitioning from paper to electronic medical records,” says Pat Phillips, administrative supervisor with Cleveland Urologic Surgery in Shelby. Her practice was in the middle of a big clean out and called its shredding vendor to request service with a four-day advance notice. The vendor could not provide service for a week or so, recalls Phillips. “I saw Automated Shredding on the Internet and called to ask for service,” says Phillips. “They came out the next day and took care of shredding six to seven years of old paper documents all that day. We thought they really wanted our business and did a great job.” Phillips, who is now a regular customer of Automated Shredding, has four containers in her offices and the sensitive information is picked up and shredded every two weeks. She has been with Automated Shredding for a year and a half now. “It doesn’t make sense for us to shred on our own,” she says. “It wouldn’t be cost efficient for us to buy a shredder or waste the money and benefits we’d pay to an employee to do this work. This service works out fantastic for us.” Sal Balsomo, co-owner of Barrister’s Title Services of the Carolinas in Mooresville, chose Automated Shredding over other services because of a price difference. “Automated Shredding was willing to charge us by the visit versus a monthly fee,” says

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Balsomo, whose office has the choice of calling and cancelling if a pick-up if not needed. Balsomo explains how the shredding process works: “Automated Shredding provides a locked shred container for us to temporarily store our materials to be shredded. They come once a month and dump the contents of the cabinet into a large trash receptacle and then wheel the receptacle out to their large truck. “A mechanized arm picks up the receptacle and overturns it into the sealed shredding hopper on the truck. We are able to view the shredding process with a large color monitor mounted at eye level on the side of the mobile shredding truck to assure that our documents are safely and securely shredded onsite in our parking lot.”

service to customers. He serves on NAIDrelated committees and is a regular speaker at annual conferences. Automated Shredding, Inc. is one of the few AAA-certified NAID companies in the Carolinas, meaning it has been independently audited and meets certification requirements for destruction of paper media and hard drives. “Shredding companies that refuse to submit to NAID audits are asking you to

“We’re large enough to serve corporate clients with the best state-of-the-art equipment but still small enough to serve small and mid-size businesses and residential customers. We can compete with anyone in our industry because of our experience and the flexibility of our operation to adapt services and pricing to meet our clients’ needs.” ~Barbara Korkos

President

Security and Certification Security is top priority in the data destruction industry, which has its own professional association, the National Association for Information Destruction, or NAID, a nonprofit watchdog group founded in 1994. Bob Korkos, a former Harley Davidson district and regional sales manager, started in the data destruction industry “when it was just a fledgling in early 2000” and learned early on of the need to offer secure, reliable

trust them to regulate themselves. And that’s simply not good enough,” explains Bob. NAID conducts annual professional audits of Automated Shredding and could arrive for unannounced audits at any time. Certified companies are also required to maintain a $2 million general liability insurance policy, in addition to the NAIDrequired insurance. Automated Shredding also carries professional liability insurance, known as errors and omissions insurance as

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“It doesn’t make sense for us to shred on our own. It wouldn’t be cost efficient for us to buy a shredder or waste the money and benefits we’d pay to an employee to do this work. This service works out fantastic for us.” ~Pat Phillips Urologic Surgery in Shelby

extra protection for their clients. “Offering a green solution is another benefit to customers,” says Barbara. “Automated Shredding recycles 100 percent of its waste. This provides additional security as the shredded paper is reduced to a liquid pulp fiber that is used to produce high grade paper towel and toilet tissue. The mobile shredding truck can hold up to 10,000 pounds, or five tons, of compacted shredded material and each ton of recycled paper can

save up to 6.7 cubic yards of landfill space.” To make it easier for customers, all paper waste can be placed in the secure containers without removing metal such as paper clips, binders, staples or even metal rods from hanging folders. The shredding process and recycling process will dispose of and filter out any metal impurities. Bob says shredding helps reduce trash removal costs for the customer, in some cases, up to 50 percent. On average, the company shreds 65 to 70 tons of documents each month, resulting in 130,000 to 140,000 pounds of recyclable paper product each month. Shredding Is a Success Despite stiff competition in the Charlotte market, Bob Korkos says his company is thriving. Since its start in the Carolinas, Automated Shredding has serviced close to 2,500 customers including regular routine route, one-time purges, residential and drive-up individuals. Automated Shredding has also cultivated partnerships and grassroots marketing ideas to offer the service to consumers at non-traditional locations. “From November thru January, we hosted a drive-up shredding at different Showmars restaurants in the Carolinas every Saturday,”

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says Barbara. “We set up in the parking lot and offered a 50 percent drive-through discount to shred personal information and give out a $5 gift card for Showmars.” Even during last year’s economic slump, the company increased revenues for regular routine route customers by 49 percent, according to Bob. He attributes the company’s success to hard work, exceptional customer service, flexible pricing programs and adapting and responding to client needs. “He may be a Yankee from Wisconsin, but Bob is a friendly, conscientious guy who does a lot of the pickups himself. He wears a uniform and is proud of the work he does,” says H.A. Thompson, president of Rose Chauffeured Transportation in Pineville, who is a regular customer. “He has adapted well to Charlotte and I see him at many civic functions. He’s a part of the community— but he doesn’t eat grits!” Automated Shredding has plans to expand this year. “We plan to add additional trucks and drivers,” says Bob, noting the company is operating close to capacity now. “It is very important that we manage our growth; quality of service must be maintained. At a cost of $250,000, each truck is a major investment for us, and we want to make sure that the quality of service is never compromised as we grow.” “We believe in Charlotte and expect to continue our growth based on customer recommendations and referrals. “Charlotte has been very good to us.” biz Carol Gifford is a Charlotte-based freelance writer.

Automated Shredding, Inc. 15105-D John J. Delaney Dr., Ste. 215 Charlotte, N.C. 28277 Phone: 704-542-4514; 866-407-1954 Principals: Barbara Korkos, President; Robert Korkos,Vice President Established: March 13, 2007 Certification: Rated AAA-Certified by the National Association of Information Destruction (NAID) Business: Certified secure on-site mobile document, hard drive and product shredding service specializing in helping business and government agencies stay in compliance with document destruction laws and providing residential shredding service protecting individuals from identity theft. www.automatedshredding.com

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!March is National Nutrition Month March is National Nutrition Month sponsored by The American Dietetic Association. In honor of National Nutrition Month try these Healthy Tips:

" Steam your vegetables to preserve the natural vitamins. " Eat fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables rather than canned if possible. If you buy canned food items, try the “low sodium” or “no salt added” variety. " If faced with a choice of brown or white rice, choose brown rice. Brown rice is a whole grain and carries more nutrients. " Ensure you get the proper daily intake of calcium. Yogurt, cheese and 2% or low fat milk, are good for your health. Lactose-intolerant individuals should try lactose-free products such as juices fortified with calcium.

!What Color is Your Food? Taste a rainbow of fruits and vegetables for better health

!The Beauty of Healthy Eating Fruits and vegetables provide our palates with an array of flavors ranging from sweet to tangy. Close your eyes and imagine feasting on an elaborate fruit and vegetable spread. Before your mouth can absorb the succulent flavors the fruits and vegetables provide, your eyes take pleasure in the rainbow medley the magnificent display radiates. So what is behind the color? You will be interested to know that there is a direct correlation between the color of the fruit or vegetable and its nutritional value. Choose plants from different color groups to benefit your body in these specific ways:

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!Red fruits and vegetables: Red lycopene or anthocyanins is a pigment that accounts for the red color in certain fruits and vegetables. Lycopene acts as an antioxidant which helps to lower your risk of developing certain cancers. Other benefits: !Maintain a healthy heart !Help memory function !Maintain urinary tract health Examples include red apples, red peppers, beets, tomatoes, red grapes, and pomegranates. !Orange/Yellow fruits and vegetables: Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables contain the pigment called carotenoids. Depending on the type of fruit or vegetable, foods rich in carotenoids are a great source of vitamin A, C or folate. Other benefits: !Maintain a healthy heart !Maintain healthy vision !Strengthen the immune system (Vitamin C) Examples include yellow apples, carrots, apricots, oranges, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins. !Green fruits and vegetables: Green fruits and vegetables contain the pigment chlorophyll. Certain green vegetables are a great source of folate and help to minimize the risk of birth defects. Other benefits: !Maintain healthy vision (Vitamin A) !Maintain bones and teeth (Calcium) Examples include kiwi, asparagus, spinach, green pears, avocados, okra, peas, broccoli, and bok choy. !Blue/Purple fruits and vegetables: Blue and purple fruits and vegetables get their color from the pigment anthocyanins. In certain types of food these anthocyanins act as antioxidants and may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Other benefits: !Help with memory function !Maintain healthy aging !Maintain urinary tract health Examples include dried plums, raisins, Zante currants, blueberries, eggplants, and purple cabbage. !White/Tan/Brown fruits and vegetables: White anthoxanthins are the pigments responsible for the white color in certain fruits and vegetables. These pigments are high in potassium and contain allicin which may help to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Other benefits: !Maintain a healthy heart !Helps keep cholesterol levels healthy Examples include dates, dried figs, bananas, Asian pears, leeks, onions, garlic, cauliflower, jicama, quince, and mushrooms. #

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Healthy eating includes making healthful food choices, which means knowing what and how much you eat. To follow the USDA’s MyPyramid and to consume enough calories to maintain a healthy weight, you need to know about servings. People need different amounts of fruits and vegetables depending on their age, gender and amount of daily physical activity. For example, the recommendation for a 40-year-old male who gets about 60 minutes of daily physical activity is 2 cups of fruit and 3 1⁄2 cups of vegetables. The recommendation for a 15-year-old female who gets less than 30 minutes of daily physical activity is 1 1⁄2 cups of fruit and 2 1⁄2 cups of vegetables. What's a serving size anyway? Recommendations for fruits and vegetables are now in cups. One cup equals: 1 small apple 1 large banana 2 cups of raw greens 12 baby carrots 1 large orange 1 large bell pepper 1 medium grapefruit 1 large sweet potato Here are some everyday comparisons to help you figure out your serving sizes: " A teaspoon of margarine is the size of one dice. "%Three ounces of meat is the size of a deck of cards. "% One cup of pasta is the size of a baseball. "%An ounce and a half of cheese is the size of four stacked dice. "%One-half cup of fresh fruit is also the size of a baseball. (www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov, www.eatright. org and www.mypyramid.gov)

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!Tips to increase fruits and vegetables in your diet Eat a variety of foods from all the food groups every day. Strategies you might try: " Keep cleaned fruits and vegetables in the refrigeratorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;ready to eat. " Have vegetables with low-fat dip for a snack. " Add vegetables to casseroles, stews and soups. " Drink 100% fruit juice instead of fruitflavored drinks or soda pop. "%Have fruit for dessert. " Keep a bowl of apples, bananas and/or oranges on the table. " Choose a side salad made with a variety of leafy greens. " Bake with raisin, date or prune puree to reduce fat and increase fiber. "%Add lettuce, onions, peppers and/or tomatoes to sandwiches. " Order veggie toppings on your pizza. "%Enjoy fruit smoothies for breakfast or snacks. "%Pack fresh or dried fruits for quick snacks.

!Smoking and Eye Health You should already be aware of the many health risks posed by smoking such as lung cancer, emphysema, infertility in women and countless other diseases and conditions. But are you aware of the various studies that suggest a correlation between tobacco smoke and eye health? These findings show that tobacco smoke may increase an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition which can lead to the loss of central vision. In fact, research indicates smokers are four times more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration than non-smokers. CharlotteDrs.com providies comprehensive health and wellness resources including: research on health and wellness topics, articles written by local experts, online forums and discussions, and community events and career listings. Become an advocate for your own health and visit www.CharlotteDrs.com.

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