Legacy Businesses

ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N

10 years

LEGACY

BU SI NE SSE S Inside Columbia’s CEO Celebrates Columbia Businesses More Than 10 Years Strong!

Other businesses may come and go, but some Columbia companies have become institutions in our city. Over the decades, they’ve built a reputation for reliability and impeccable service. When faced with any challenge, they meet it head-on and emerge stronger.

Solid, locally owned businesses play a vital economic role in our community and we celebrate these companies that have been making Columbia a better place to live for many years.

ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 1975

Dave Griggs’ Flooring America

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ave Griggs grew up working construction for others, but always had an entrepreneurial bent. In 1975, he opened Color World Inc., which would later evolve into Dave Griggs’ Flooring America.

Griggs realizes that an experienced staff and a diverse business mix have helped his local company stay well positioned versus larger competitors.

As a member of the Flooring America cooperative, Griggs’ customers benefit from its national buying power. “I firmly believe that we have flooring for virtually every budget and for virtually every need,” he says.

Griggs has always tried to bring the best flooring products to the market. “If I personally 50

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don’t believe in the product, or my staff questions its integrity or the honesty of the company behind it, you won’t find it in my store,” he says.

Playing an active part and investing in the Columbia community is very important to Griggs and his staff. His company is a past recipient of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Small Business Award. “I’ve been privileged to have served many community-based organizations over the years,” he says. “I strongly believe the relationships I’ve made while serving in those capacities have played a key part in building our business.”

Griggs would like to thank the community for supporting his business for the past 40 years.

ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 1976

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Kliethermes Homes and Remodeling Inc.

ack in 1976, after working for several local contractors while attending MU, Dan Kliethermes caught the building bug and decided to start his own business: Kliethermes Homes and Remodeling Inc. Today, it’s one of only a few design/build firms in Columbia.

“You do not need to go to an architect first in order to create a space for your home,” says says Dan’s son, Cale Kliethermes, general manager/ owner. “Either new construction or remodeling, we can design and build whatever the needs are.”

Kliethermes says successful projects start with understanding. “We seek first to understand the homeowners’ ideas through their eyes. When we do this, we can design a project that really meets their needs. Actually, a lot of times it exceeds them.”

There’s one misconception about his firm that

Kliethermes would like to clear up: that they’re expensive. “What we find is expensive is doing it the wrong way first and then having to go back and redo it the right way the second time.”

When asked to explain the firm’s continued success in Columbia, Kliethermes offers a simple explanation. “Do the right thing when no one’s looking,” he says, and “if you have to ask yourself, ‘is it good enough?’ then it’s not!” This philosophy has served the firm well, and helped it weather the many economic challenges of the housing market.

Kliethermes feels that Columbia supports his business because “we do what we say we’re going to do.” The business makes it a priority to support the community in return, by giving back when it can, either with time or money.

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ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 1994

Missouri Employers Mutual

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n 1994, Missouri’s legislature created Missouri Employers Mutual to solve the workers’ compensation crisis of affordability and accessibility. The following year, MEM opened its doors with no policyholders and a $5 million startup loan from the state.

According to Jim Owen, MEM president and CEO, launching that way was the most difficult situation the business has faced. “Opening our doors with no policyholders was a major challenge for any insurance company!” Owen says. “Fortunately, we had great partners in all Missouri independent agents, employees, and the initial policyholders who placed their trust in us.”

That trust was well-founded. By the end of 1995, MEM had captured the No. 1 spot in Missouri’s workers compensation market, a distinction it still holds today by a wide margin.

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Owen says one secret to the company’s longstanding success is the fact that its employees are safety obsessed. “At MEM, we’re safety fanatics, which means we’re passionate about eliminating workplace injuries,” he says. Indeed, MEM delivers more workplace safety resources than other carriers, including an entire website dedicated to workplace safety.

All its efforts pay off: “More than 80 percent of our policyholders are injury-free in a typical year,” Owen says. When there are claims, MEM responds with prompt, personal claims service.

The company takes pride in helping not only those injured at work, but the people and partners in their communities throughout the state. “MEM and our employees are generous contributors of their time and money through volunteerism, charitable giving and corporate sponsorships,” Owen says.

ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 1995

Visionworks Marketing Group

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t was a cool, early spring evening in 1995, and Lili Vianello was brainstorming career ideas with a group of friends over dinner.

The topic turned to one of her passions – graphic design – which led to sharing thoughts about how to assemble a business plan. By the last bites of dessert, a vision had come into focus.

Visionworks Marketing Group (then known as Visionworks Graphic Design) started as a two-person operation in Vianello’s home the next day. Twenty years later, the company has survived the inevitable ups and downs that challenge every new business, big or small.

Vianello remembers the process of establishing a foothold in a competitive marketplace – and keeping it – as a humbling time.

“Transition and change is always difficult,”

she says from her office in south Columbia. “In two decades of business, we’ve had times of significant staff changes, which I now recognize as great opportunities to refocus and reinvent ourselves.”

Navigating change within the marketplace and turnover among her staff are skills that Vianello had to master on the fly. During that trying first year, abrupt personnel changes made it seem as though Visionworks might not work out. But she persevered.

Vianello says there’s no secret formula to her business’ success: “Do what you say you’re going to do. Charge the price you quote. Take care of people the way you would want to be taken care of, be it a co-worker, vendor or client.”

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ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 2002

Mutrux Automotive

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n 2002, after 22 years working in the corporate world of the automotive industry, Ross Mutrux decided it was time to open up a small garage to call his own, one that would have a more personal appeal to customers. With that, Mutrux Automotive was born.

The business Mutrux owns with his wife, Cindy, is a full-service gas station and garage. “We can do everything a large garage can do,” Mutrux says. But Mutrux Automotive can do something large garages can’t: fill up customers’ cars. “Who doesn’t want their gas pumped?” Mutrux asks.

Indeed, many Columbians are happy to come in for the convenience.

Dealing with his garage is “like a step back into Mayberry,” Mutrux says. People appreciate 54

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the personal attention and high level of customer service. Sometimes that service really goes above and beyond. Mutrux recalls one particular example: “We saved a lady’s life who was locked in her car at Walmart,” he says. “It was a very hot summer day and she couldn’t get out; her battery was dead.”

Mutrux credits a simple formula for his business’s continued success: “Be honest, never quit, always smile, keep a positive attitude.”

Mutrux adds that being understanding is also important. “You never know the other person’s battles,” he says. His own personal battle has been one of space. He says it’s been hard “finding room on our parking lot to park all the cars.”

ADV E RTI S I N G S ECTI O N Legacy BUSINESSES

Legacy Businesses

CELEBRATING COLUMBIA BUSINESSES SINCE 2002

Dents Unlimited Columbia

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hen Marc LaFeriere and Ryan Garrett examined the Columbia market in 2002, they noted that there were no paintless dent repair shops in town. So they decided to open one.

By 2005, they were doing minor paint repair and refinish, primarily for the wholesale dealer market.

Then, in 2006, they purchased the 17,000 square foot shop that houses Dents Unlimited Columbia today.

During its early years, the business faced some tough times, especially each winter when demand for cosmetic repair would slow. By gradually expanding the shop’s services well beyond small dent and minor cosmetic repair, LaFeriere — who bought out Garrett in 2012 — was eventually able to maintain a steady workflow throughout the year. Dents Unlimited Columbia now offers collision repair, paintless dent repair, mechanical repair, and auto glass repair and

replacement. “Many potential customers do not know we repair severe structural damage as well as mechanical work, including state inspections, brakes and tires, and heavy mechanical work,” he says.

LaFeriere is proud of the relationship of trust that his business has built with the local community. “We do a ton of repeat and referral business,” he says, “because customers know we offer them honest opinions and stay educated on the repair needs of today’s complex vehicles.” He wants Columbians to know how much he truly appreciates their continued trust and support.

“We have tried to do something different by offering multiple services while maintaining quality standards, trust, and a genuine desire to do best by our customers,” he says. “Hard work and dedication have kept us growing and improving.”

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