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S M A L L B U S I N E S S O F T H E Y E A R 2 0 1 3

B2 » INSIDE BUSINESS » MAY 13, 2013

Small Business of the Year Awards

The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business De-velopment Center of Hampton Roads have recognized small businesses with the annual Small Business of the Year Awards for 29 years.

A panel of judges gathered again this year to select a business from each city on the Southside and – new this year – one on the Peninsula to present with an award. The businesses were evaluated based on financial performance and business history, staff training and motivation, commu-nity involvement, business plan, growth, and customer service and satis-faction.

In addition, awards are presented to the Top 10 to Watch – 10 companies that show signs of significant growth and potential, as well as awards for leadership and entrepreneurship.

The eventWhen Thursday, May 23, 12-2 p.m.Where Virginia Beach Convention Center Guest speaker Dr. Stephen Scoper, vice president of Virginia Eye Consultants, the chamber’s 2011 Small Business of the Year Tickets $35 members, $50 othersTo register Visit http://events.HamptonRoadsChamber.com For information Contact Shirley Core at score@hrccva.com or 664-2535

The contents

Chesapeake Personal Touch Services Inc.

Norfolk Strickland & Jones PC

Peninsula Triquetra Technologies Inc.

Portsmouth Hampton Roads Community Health Center

Suffolk Reed Integration Inc.

Virginia Beach 360 IT PARTNERS

2013 Impressions in Print Leadership Award Zack Miller, managing director of Hatch

YEA! Young Entrepreneur Award Brad Scott, owner of Cetan Corp

2013 Top 10 to Watch

Meet the judges

The sponsorsThe Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce wishes to thank the sponsors for this event:

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“The best part about all of it,” Lorrie Elgin said, “is that in the end, you get to see them happy again.”

To the Elgins, owners of Person-al Touch Services Inc. in Chesapeake, business is as personal as family is. Their company motto, “We give you the personal touch you deserve,” sums up its founding principles, Stephen El-gin said.

He and Lorrie get involved in every job, ensuring that customers can reach them and that everyone is satisfied.

“We make sure they get treated the way we would want to be treated,” he said.

Although the couple had started the company in 1989 based on Stephen El-gin’s talent for working with his hands and the recession-proof nature of doing restoration for insurance companies, it took only two years for them to begin

adding rebuild services upon custom-er request.

By ’93, per the demand of happy cli-ents, the company expanded into home renovations and remodeling, which then led to the addition of commercial construction.

Today, Personal Touch Services em-ploys 13, four more than last year, in-cluding their daughter, Stephanie El-gin Dudley, who started cleaning fire-damage scenes at age 15. Through high school and college, Dudley worked both in the field and in the office, cul-tivating an understanding of the scope and responsibilities of running a ser-vice-centric business. Now the execu-tive assistant, Dudley plans to own the company someday.

“I’ve worked at a couple of differ-ent places and I can’t imagine calling those a career or calling those home,”

she said. The Elgins value their employees

and demonstrate that with staff recog-nition and bonuses, by asking for goal-oriented input and by providing sup-port for professional growth through frequent customer service meetings, trainings and certification programs, which benefit the staff, the customers and, ultimately, the company.

The Elgins also value community in-volvement. They encourage volunteer-ism and contribute generously to em-ployees’ families’ fundraising efforts.

Ultimately, “our guys take care of our customers because they know we take care of them,” Dudley said. “And the happier we make our employees, the happier they’re going to be to talk about our company.”

Amy Barcroft, office manager, agrees. She noted that the feeling pre-vails company-wide and that mutual respect and support is key to helping employees be their personal and pro-fessional best.

“I can speak highly of Steve and Lor-rie, and of the company, from experi-ence,” Barcroft said. “It’s not just a job that we’re getting paid for. It’s a job that comes from the heart.” IB

CHESAPE A KE

HARRY GERWIEN

Owners Stephen and Lorrie, right, Elgin get involved in every job. Their daugther, Stephanie Elgin Dudley, left, is executive assistant and plans to own the company.

about the companyOwners Stephen and Lorrie Elgin

Main location 936 Professional Place, Suite A-9, Chesapeake

Phone 467-7777

Website www.personaltouchservice.com

Company philosophy We guarantee our work. Our employees and our customers are like family to us.

Employees 13

Growth From nine to 13 employees; financial growth of 15 to 20 percent in past year

Personal Touch Services Inc.BY NORA FIRESTONE

There’s no satisfaction in witnessing the crushing sadness of a distraught home-owner after a damaging flood, fire or other home disaster.

But there is a reward, according to Stephen and Lorrie Elgin; it’s helping them through the seemingly overwhelming process of restoration and rebuilding to a re-newed sense of normalcy.

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“I really think that our firm’s strength is our level of experience and the personalized service that we ren-der,” said co-owner and CPA Jimmy Strickland of his team of certified pro-fessionals and support associates.

Strickland, a certified public ac-countant, founded the business as a sole proprietorship from his Norfolk home in 1979. Thirty-four years lat-er, the company has 26 associates, in-cluding partner Stephen M. Jones, also a CPA; two offices, in Norfolk and Vir-ginia Beach; and an array of profes-sional-service offerings ranging from accounting, bookkeeping and tax advi-sory and preparation, to financial and business consulting, estate planning, valuations, and management advisory and strategic planning.

The overarching mission, Strickland said, is to work with individuals and

businesses, offering tailored solutions they can trust, to help them achieve their particular financial goals.

In turn, “we’ve always found that if we keep our clients’ best interest fore-most, then our best interest will also be served,” he said.

“Our clients are our success,” his wife, Gale Strickland, said .

The firm couldn’t provide its depth of expertise and integrity without the exceptional personnel, she said.

“We have to hire well and keep them happy,” she said. “It all works togeth-er.”

The firm strives for a team ap-proach, with a “level playing field” of mutual respect for the value each as-sociate brings to the table, the cou-ple said. They manage by committee, for an all-voices-matter environment, and they facilitate ongoing continu-

ing education and social events to fos-ter strong professional growth and re-lationships.

And the firm’s parking lot isn’t full of accountants’ cars on the weekends, even during tax season. Working week-ends isn’t allowed at Strickland & Jones, as associates deserve the family time and rest that render them spirited and well prepared for the week, Strick-land said.

“The way we treat our associates really comes back to us, many times over,” Gale Strickland said.

The couple also said they believe that giving back is an important part of cor-porate citizenship. Their own nonprof-it, Creative Global Relief, assists de-serving families in need in Malawi, Af-rica, and the whole firm participates in local community initiatives such as Adopt-a-Spot stewardship of The Hague and the annual CPA Day of Ser-vice.

Recognition of his company’s role within the community is affirming, Jimmy Strickland said.

“For us to be chosen means a lot to us,” he said of the award. IB

NOR FOLK

HARRY GERWIEN

CPA Jimmy Strickland, right, founded the business as a sole proprietorship in 1979. Today there are 26 associates including partner Stephen Jones, left, also a CPA.

about the companyOwners James V. Strickland Jr. and Stephen M. Jones

Main location 749 Boush St., Norfolk

Phone 627-7672

Website www.stricklandandjones.com

Company philosophy The mission is to provide clients with the best financial services and sound professional guidance possible.

Employees 26 associates, more during tax season

Growth Approximately 5 percent revenue growth in past year

Strickland & Jones PCBY NORA FIRESTONE

Recognition of the premise that it’s easier to keep a great client than it is to at-tract a new one doesn’t preclude the fact that that’s easier said than done. Ac-knowledgement of this paradigm is paramount at Strickland & Jones PC, a Nor-folk-based certified public accounting and consulting firm.

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The company was started in June 2008 by Terri Richards in her Minnesota home. Her husband, Tom, joined her in December 2008. They earned their first big contract and relocated to Virginia.

In December 2010, the company re-ceived a large contract with Intelligent Software Solutions that allowed it to grow to 18 employees. It employs 21 to-day.

Triquetra earned $6 million in revenue in 2011 and experienced a $1 million dip in 2012, which Terri Richards, now the company’s CFO, attributed to the gov-ernment redirecting resources.

“We lost a couple of positions,” Ter-ri Richards said. “In the next fiscal year, we gained them back, and we had a con-tract expire and it was not extended.”

The company’s main component is knowledge management, said Dave Flick, program manager of the Knowl-edge Management Training Institute, a business unit within the firm .

Retired and former military person-nel make up most of the employees. Many work in Afghanistan coordinat-

ing information between different oper-ations in the mission, said Flick, a retired U.S. Navy commander who previously worked with NATO.

The Knowledge Management Training Institute offers another component.

“Information is useful only if it is ac-tionable,” he said. “We train people how to manage the information and for them to provide it to the right people in order to make an informed decision.

“We coordinate and create team build-ing so that all are on the same sheet of music,” he said. “We teach them how to use information once they get it.”

Ever-changing technology is a chal-lenge. Flick said while technology is helpful, “it will never solve the problem of proper information sharing.”

The human factor plays an important role, he said. That is where Triquetra Technologies and the Knowledge Man-agement Training Institute come in.

“There is too much relying on technol-ogy such as email,” he said. “With tech-nology we are missing out on the face-to-face communication. It is hard to build

trust and collaboration that way. That is viable for the job in order to function.

“Technology can help in the knowl-edge program,” he said. “But it is the people piece that is needed.”

The Department of Homeland Securi-ty was created to ensure information is shared among various intelligence and law enforcement, but it does not always happen, Flick said. He believes those working in intelligence and law enforce-ment hold back from sharing informa-tion because budget cuts create a fear of job loss. He pointed out that cooperation helps agencies be more effective and se-cure jobs.

The Department of Defense is not the only government agency the company will continue to work for. The company is seeking state contracts with the Vir-ginia Department of Transportation and other local agencies.

The large number of people retiring from the workforce creates a greater need for the company, he said.

“There are many who have much ed-ucation and experience. They are walk-ing away to go fishing. Companies need to figure out how to harness that infor-mation so they are not re-creating the wheel,” he said.

Flick said the company provides help to veterans’ hospitals, Wounded War-riors and foodbanks. “That is very im-portant to us,” he said. IB

PE N I N S U L A

HARRY GERWIEN

Tom and Terri Richards started Triquetra Technologies in 2008 in Minnesota and moved the business later to Virginia.

about the companyOwners Thomas and Terri Richards, CEO and CFO, respectively

Main location One Enterprise Pkwy., Suite 330, Hampton

Phone 778-8787

Website www.t2-inc.com

Company philosophy To recruit, train, deploy and manage the most skilled experts in the world in direct support of warfighters and warfighter operations.

Employees 21

Growth Revenue of $5 million in 2012, up from $1 million in 2010, and expected revenue in 2013 of $10 million

Triquetra Technologies Inc.

BY SUSAN SMIGIELSKI ACKER

It is said knowledge is power. Hampton-based Triquetra Technologies Inc. is in the business of making knowledge more powerful for the Department of Defense and other government agencies.

For starters, she said, free clinics typically don’t charge their patients. This center charges a nominal fee based on a sliding scale.

Free clinics rely mostly on dona-tions. The HRCHC has three main sources of income: patient fees, funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and various oth-er grants.

And unlike free clinics, which use a rotating roster of volunteer physi-cians, HRCHC employs a regular team of doctors. They include a chief medi-cal officer, pediatrician and an obste-trician/gynecologist. The center also has a lab for blood tests, urinalysis and hemoglobin screenings.

“Our doctors are either salaried or contracted to see patients on a con-sistent basis,” she said. “So the doctor that you are assigned to, that is your physician. In a free clinic, a cardiolo-gist who volunteers providing prima-ry care may devote one day or sever-al days. It varies. There’s not as much consistency in terms of ‘This is my

doctor.’ ”The 16,000-square-foot facility,

housed in a renovated former BI-LO grocery store, serves a range of cli-ents, from public housing residents to the working poor. Homeless patients increasingly include families who live with relatives, shelters or in their cars because the household’s breadwinners lost jobs in the recession’s wake.

“Our challenge is getting the word out and getting people to understand what’s right in their neighborhood: ac-cessible, affordable health care in a clean, safe environment,” Willis said. “And you can have insurance and still come here. We are partially funded by the federal government to serve the uninsured and underinsured popula-tion.”

One of those populations is growing. Before the economic downturn, be-tween 35 and 40 percent of the center’s patients had no insurance. Today, at least half of them are uninsured.

The HRCHC also operates in Nor-folk, at 35th and Granby, on Shore

Drive and at Young Terrace. Those are newer facilities, with two of them opening as recently as December 2012. In Portsmouth, the center has made do in its converted 1980s building for nearly 20 years.

“One of the things we would love to do in Portsmouth is build a new site,” she said.

The price tag for a state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot center is between $5 million and $7 million. But Willis and the 13-member board of directors believe it’s time for the investment. They’d like to build more comfortable exam rooms, improve access for the disabled and update the facility’s tech-nology capabilities, particularly now that the center’s medical records are paperless.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’re doing very well with what we have,” Wil-lis said, “but this is the 21st century, and so we have sought federal funds and we missed an opportunity for that and now we’re looking from within our board of directors as to what our op-tions would be to have a new facility.”

Many board members have first-hand knowledge of the center’s needs. About half of them are HRCHC pa-tients.

“It’s a federal requirement,” Wil-lis said. “They become the voice on the board. It’s typical for community health centers.”

Other goals include mental health care, optometry and a computer room for patients who need online health in-formation. The center treats 6,000 pa-tients in Portsmouth and 3,000 in Nor-folk. By 2014, Willis expects to have a total of about 10,000 once the newer fa-cilities are more established.

“Once we can get ’em in,” she said, “people will typically stay with us.”

Willis, who joined the center in 2003, has more than 35 years of expe-rience developing health benefit pro-grams, including posts at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Mead Corp., the state health department in Ohio and United Healthcare.

As such, she has an unusual perspec-tive on the Affordable Care Act, which will require most uninsured Ameri-cans to enroll in some form of medical coverage by 2014.

She’s confident that most HRCHC patients will stay loyal to the center that has served them for so long.

“Since we have been servicing a lot of these individuals with little or no revenue or funds being generated,” she said, “we would hope they would recognize the service that has been provided to them all along when they did not have insurance and see that we’ll still be providing that full com-prehensive care.” IB

PORTSMOUTH

HARRY GERWIEN

Barbara Willis, CEO of the Hampton Roads Community Health Center in Portsmouth, said the center would like a new building.

about the companyOwners Governed by a 13-member board of directors, 51 percent of whom are actual patients of the health center.

Main location 664 Lincoln St., Portsmouth

Phone 397-0042

Website www.hrch.org

Company philosophy A not-for-profit, comprehensive, primary health care organization, dedicated to providing quality and affordable health services in a safe environment to our communities.

Employees 61

Growth 15 percent increase in employees and 10 percent increase in revenue to almost $4.5 million in the past year

Hampton Roads Community Health Center

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BY TERESA TALERICO

Often misdiagnosed as a “free clinic,” the Hampton Roads Community Health Center in Portsmouth is anything but. Many people don’t understand the distinc-tion between community health centers and their no-cost counterparts, said CEO Barbara Willis. The HRCHC, which has provided health and dental care for low-in-come residents since 1995, still finds itself explaining the difference.

Once we can get ’em in, people will typically stay with us.”BARBARA WILLIS,CEO

The woman-owned small business also provides systems engineering training and other solutions, and one of its main goals is to help public- and pri-vate-firm projects achieve optimal per-formance results.

“We do a lot of helping everybody do their job better,” said President and CEO Becky Reed.

Reed started the company in 2002 in Alabama, but reincorporated the com-pany in Virginia in 2003. She and Vice President Steve Waddell went full-time with the joint venture in 2007.

Reed has a background in aerospace and nuclear technology and worked on various government contracts. Waddell has a background in engineering and information technology and spent 25 years at Newport News Shipbuilding.

The company’s other core competen-cies include acquisition excellence, risk insight and business process innova-tion, Waddell said.

“We’re expanding into cyber securi-ty,” Waddell said.

The firm has been growing on several fronts. It had 15 employees in 2011, but now has 22 full-time employees. It has about 15 part-timers.

Annual revenues have more than qua-drupled since 2010, going from $856,000 in that year to $3.5 million this year.

Its footprint has been expanding, too. Last November it opened an office in Alexandria to support a recent contract with the U.S. Navy Research Laborato-ry valued at just under $4 million.

Reed Integration was headquar-tered in Portsmouth, but moved to a 7,600-square-foot facility in the Bridge-way Technology Center in Suffolk in April.

The move allows them to expand and enhance their service suite, company officials said, and the facility features a 48-seat center called the Reed Learning Institute.

The relocation also qualifies them for tax rebates through the Suffolk Tech-nology Zone Program, one of the city’s efforts to lure tech companies.

Besides government and commer-cial clients, the group has also been in-volved in training individuals.

It has partnered with Old Dominion University, for instance, to offer a proj-ect management professional, or PMP, training certificate.

Officials said the training develops skills that apply to IT projects, product design and development and other proj-ects of any size with specific perfor-mance, time and funding targets.

Reed Integration has employees in Huntsville, Ala., working on-site at a NASA facility. It also has an employee in Bellechester, Minn., and an employee in Orlando, Fla.

“We hope to open an office in South Carolina in the near term,” Waddell said.

The company’s competitors range from large firms, like Booz Allen Ham-ilton, to smaller ones.

“Any of them that are involved in professional training programs and government contracting on the en-gineering management side,” Reed said, “those are the ones that we’re up against.” IB

SUFFOLK

HARRY GERWIEN

Suffolk-based Reed Integration Inc. has employees in Alabama, Minnesota and Florida as well as Virginia. Here in Suffok are Bill LaMarsh, Justin Hornbeck, Becky Reed, Seth Martin, back row, and Steve Waddell.

about the companyOwner Becky Reed

Main location 7007 Harbour View Blvd., Suite 117, Suffolk

Phone 541-8032

Website reedintegration.com

Company philosophy To create a place where the employees are happy, which means the customers are going to be happy.

Employees 22 full-time; 15 part-time

Growth Revenue grew 40 percent in the past year

Reed Integration Inc.BY JARED COUNCIL

Reed Integration Inc. might be a small business, but it has served some major clients and has been growing rapidly.

One of its offerings involves management consulting and training, and its cus-tomers have included NASA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Virginia Port Authority and Northrop Grumman.

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“I don’t know why I still have this back here,” Joseph said, reaching be-hind his desk to retrieve an AT&T Glo-balyst notebook computer. Built in the mid-1990s, the bulky, slate-gray lap-top weighs nearly 7 pounds. Considered lightweight in its day, the Globalyst is now about as sleek as a brontosaurus.

“Look at how heavy this is,” Joseph said with a laugh, gauging the machine’s heft with both hands.

A fossil, for sure. But it’s also a great reminder of how the early bird gets the worm.

“I got started in the business in the late ’80s,” Joseph said. “It was a time when the 8088 PC, the XT, was like the first real IBM computer. Back then, you could really be a computer expert be-cause it was very much an infant indus-try. I just got started at the right time and kind of grew with it.”

In the process, he learned the value of diversification as Joseph shifted gears from retail customers to the home-of-fice market to commercial clients. He also discovered the power of rebrand-ing from an ambiguous, acronym-based

corporate moniker to a more meaning-ful name that reflects his company’s circle of IT services and its relationship with customers and employees alike.

Raised in Virginia Beach, Joseph ma-jored in marketing at Norfolk State Uni-versity, where he put himself through school as a Farm Fresh bag boy who quickly rose to frozen food and dairy. After graduation, he worked as a night manager at the grocery store. One eve-ning, he met a customer named Darl Anderson, owner of Micro Marketing, a local mom-and-pop computer store. By 1987, Joseph was in charge of Ander-son’s sales and marketing.

“He was my mentor,” Joseph said. “There were things I learned about be-ing a small business that I couldn’t get from college. So those were great les-sons and really provided a nice bridge for me.”

On the side, Joseph and two partners – Tom Connelly and Martin Bowers – launched their own business, TOMAR (a fusion of their first names) Manage-ment Corp.

“It was no conflict with what we were

doing at Micro Marketing,” he said. “And we grew it pretty quickly.”

So quickly that by 1992 Joseph flew the nest at Anderson’s and went full-time with his partners. The company changed its name to TOMAR Computer Station and opened a Chesapeake com-puter store that catered to the general public.

But Joseph realized that Best Buy, Of-fice Depot and other national retailers would easily dominate the consumer market. So he branched out on his own in 1995, founding TOMAR Computer In-tegration, which focused on small and medium businesses with networks of five to 25 computers.

“We really wanted to focus on our business customers,” he said. “And that was the beginning of the right formula.”

TOMAR CI merged in 2004 with a firm called CompuGeek, whose spe-cialty was small-office and home-of-fice customers. Joseph retained those clients for a few years, but then nar-rowed the businesses down to larger cli-ents, aiming for those with networks of up to 300 computers. He also revamped his business model, adopting a proac-tive, preventive approach to IT services rather than a “break-fix” philosophy.

In 2010 the company got a facelift to reflect that new focus.

“We rebranded as 360IT PARTNERS; we hired a marketing agency to help de-sign our logo. It was a real game chang-er,” he said.

Surprisingly, the technology company still had a lackluster website. So it up-dated that, too.

“It’s kind of interesting, right?” he said. “It’s kind of the old adage of the cobbler’s children [who don’t have shoes]. So, in our ‘About Us’ area, we put a bio and a photo of every one of our employees. And they all said, ‘Martin, this is unbelievable; we feel like we’re part of something special.’ Beyond that, I think it really helped elevate us to a higher caliber of client. The name re-ally stood out as something they could identify with.”

Last month the Virginia Chamber of Commerce honored 360IT Partners as one of the 2012 “Fantastic 50” fastest-growing companies in the state.

Joseph credits his various partners – employees, customers, consultants and others – for fueling that growth. And he rewards them for it. His vice president, Aaron Frketich, and treasurer, Jasmin Rebultan, own 10 percent of the compa-ny. Joseph gifted them each a 5 percent share.

“By being able to build a team, I’ve got a few layers of people I can real-ly count on,” he said. “Before, I was the guy who wore all the hats. This is not the Martin Joseph award; this is the 360IT PARTNERS award.” IB

V IRG IN IA BE ACH

HARRY GERWIEN

360IT President Martin A. Joseph, left, rewards employees for the company’s growth. Here he is with Jasmin Rebultan, treasurer, and Aaron Frketich, vice president, who own 10 percent of the company.

about the companyOwners Martin Joseph, president; Aaron Frketich , vice president; and Jasmin Rebultan, treasurer

Main location 5241 Cleveland St., Suite 101, Virginia Beach

Phone 499-6761

Website www.360itpartners.com

Company philosophy To reliably deliver outstanding IT systems and support services that improve productivity, uptime and profitability.

Number of employees 23

Growth 24.2 percent in revenue in past year; went from 15 to 23 employees

360IT PARTNERS

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BY TERESA TALERICO

Martin Joseph, president of 360IT PARTNERS, keeps a dinosaur in his office. Last month he introduced it to some visitors at his Virginia Beach company, which provides technology services and “computer geek” assistance for shipbuilders, motorcycle shops, insurance agencies and other Hampton Roads businesses.

In 1929, two generations earlier, 14-year-old Pearl Carter Scott became the youngest solo pilot in America. As a young woman, the Oklahoma avia-tor was a stunt pilot. Four decades lat-er, after her children were grown, she became one of the Chickasaw Nation’s first tribal legislators, with a platform of improving health care in the com-munity.

“The biggest thing she instilled in us was to never give up, don’t let anything hold you back, regardless of experi-ence, education, upbringing, race, sex, age, any of those things,” Brad Scott said of his grandmother.

He apparently took those words to heart. After nine years in the U.S. Army and National Guard, the Win-chester native honed his IT skills at software firms both large and small, including BMC Software. In 2007, armed with a little knowledge and a lot of ancestral pluck, he founded Cetan Corp.

Four years later, Inc. Magazine de-clared Scott the No. 1 Native American Entrepreneur of 2011. That same year, Cetan ranked No. 119 in the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies. It also earned a spot as the best IT ser-vices company in Virginia.

Cetan’s roster of clients is impres-sive, including the likes of IBM, Est-ee Lauder, Williams Sonoma, the IRS, the U.S. Army and the FBI. Because of that national focus, some of the compa-ny’s 20 employees are actually based throughout the U.S., or local staff members are traveling to customers nationwide, from California to Arizona to Michigan to New York.

“We really are all over the United States,” he said. “Every Sunday and Monday morning, our consultants are on airplanes to go see our clients and work with them.”

But Scott wants to bring more of that business home to Hampton Roads.

“We deal with a lot of Fortune 100

and Fortune 500 clients,” he said. “A very small percentage of our custom-ers are based here in Hampton Roads. That’s one of the main reasons we de-cided to build our corporate footprint here about two years ago, is to expand that presence. And we have been bring-ing that expertise of working with very large organizations to more midmarket [clients] locally.”

Though smaller than Cetan’s tradi-tional clients, those local companies are just as progressive as the larg-er corporations when it comes to their technology needs, Scott said. He cited two examples: RDS Recycling & Dis-posal Solutions in Portsmouth and TFC Recycling in Chesapeake.

“They’re very innovative and for-ward-thinking – not ‘How do we fix this just so we can get to the end of the

day?’ It’s ‘How do we do this so five years from now we’re going to be big-ger and better?’ ”

In other words, Scott wants his cli-ents to soar. In fact, Cetan distinguish-es itself from other IT firms by traits derived from its corporate totem: a hawk. The name “Cetan” actually has roots in a Native American word for the majestic creature. And Scott mod-els his business on speed, dedication and vision, all traits embodied by the hawk.

“We’re 100 percent client-focused, which I think a lot of people say, but we’re also very results-oriented,” he said. “As the people who know me know, if I say I’m going to do some-thing, I’m going to do it – and do it well.”

Grandma would be proud. IB

2013 YOUNG E NTR E PR E N E U R AWARD WINNER

HARRY GERWIEN

about the companyOwner Brad Scott

Main location 1001 Scenic Pkwy., Suite 203, Chesapeake

Phone 548-6420

Website www.cetancorp.com

Company philosophy From Cetan Corp’s YEA application: “The name Cetan derives from hetá or “hawk” in Native American mythology. Cetan Corp honors our namesake by applying speed, dedication and vision as core guiding principles and as qualities that we strive to bring to every client relationship.”

Employees 20

Growth Revenue of more than $8.46 million in 2011 and $11.43 million in 2012 and added two employees during that time.

Brad Scott, Owner, Cetan CorpBY TERESA TALERICO

As the grandson of a Chickasaw Na-tion Hall of Famer, Brad Scott seems to be channeling his go-getting gran-ny’s youthful ambition, both in the Na-tive American community and beyond.

This year, Scott, the 39-year-old own-er of Chesapeake technology firm Ce-tan Corp, has won the 2013 Young En-trepreneur of the Year Award from the Hampton Roads Chamber of Com-merce.

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Brad Scott, owner of Cetan Corp, has been working to expand the client base of his company in Hampton Roads. Many of the company’s clients are large companies scattered across the U.S.

Perhaps, Miller poses, too many members of the Hampton Roads tal-ent pool have been so intent on job se-curity within one of the region’s top, government-dependent industries that they’ve discounted the rewards born of successful entrepreneurship.

In turn, he has a futuristic vision of his own, recognizing Hampton Roads’ potential as a leading technology hub. At some point Miller assumed a self-imposed challenge: to cultivate the most promising talent he could find within an environment of support and burgeoning opportunity right here in Hampton Roads.

His mission officially launched in 2012 as Hatch, a Norfolk-based tech-nology business accelerator designed to take a few select startups and their founders, in two sessions annually, from fledgling to full flight.

Comprising some 100 business men-tors, 12 investors and 40 associated co-founders, Hatch has helped devel-op nine companies to date. Three made the Hampton Roads Chamber of Com-merce’s 2013 Top 10 to Watch list.

Gearing up for Hatch’s next four-month round, Miller, recipient of this year’s Impressions in Print Leadership Award, accommodated an impromp-tu Skype session for a glimpse into his day.

His busy “off”-season schedule still encompasses a daily office-arriv-al time of about 6:30 a.m., followed by immediate consumption of some 100 electronic messages and a full plate of interviews, application reviews, refer-ence-checking, committee meetings, book-writing and more.

As the T-shirt-clad entrepreneur glanced around his office for Ashe-brooke, his beagle, his haircut whis-pered volumes, part close-crop in-tensely business and part rebel spike.

Reflecting on the impetus for Hatch, Miller said, “I just saw a huge hurdle for early-stage companies to get rec-ognition and support.”

He saw the supply of talent and fresh ideas on one side of the picture and the demand for a new, economical-ly viable channel for area business de-

velopment on the other. Imagining the synergy, he couldn’t refrain.

“I think I’ve pushed those who may have been on the fence to start a com-pany, to see why it’s important to start something rather than wait for some-thing to happen,” he said. “And I really pushed for them to have an opportuni-ty to be seen and to be heard here.”

One Hatch-cultivated company, Vir-ginia Beach-based GM Engineering Services LLC, is now worth millions, with revenues and sales from around the world.

Selected startups must show that an idea is viable and that if automated, will likely profit.

“Basically,” Miller said, “we’re look-ing for proof of concept.”

From one entrepreneur to a world of others, Miller advises this:

People who put in the effort to make something happen are usually the ones who succeed. Don’t rely on govern-ment funding, don’t complain and be solution-oriented, he urged.

“If your solution is wrong, that’s OK,” he said, “but try it first.” IB

HARRY GERWIEN

Zack Miller, Managing Director, HatchBY NORA FIRESTONE

At 29, a casually dressed but highly

focused agent of Generation Y asks an entire generation, “Why?”

Why wait for someone else to create your job, Zack Miller challenges. Why position yourself to rely on govern-ment funding, he contests.

2013 IM PR ESS IONS IN PR INT LE A D E R S H I P AWA R D

about the companyMain location 111 Granby St., Norfolk

Phone 295-8635Contact zack@hatchnorfolk.comWebsite www.hatchnorfolk.com Company philosophy Don’t wait for someone else to provide for you; put in the effort and create your success.Number of associates About 150 mentors, co-founders and investors Growth Cultivation of nine startup companies in past year

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Zack Miller created Hatch to assist startup companies. So far nine companies have gone through the program, including three that are on the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Top 10 to Watch list.

Meet the judges

The Top 10 To Watch were selected by a panel of judges convened by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Developoment Center of Hampton Roads to recognize 10 companies that are some of the fastest-growing in the area and for their service in supporting the local business community. They will be honored at the chamber’s award luncheon.

GM Engineering Services LLC

Virginia Beach

Hampton Roads Veterinary Hospice

Virginia Beach

Dancing TomatoVirginia Beach

GreenLife Adventure SportsNorfolk

VinylmintNorfolk

RoboCent Inc.Norfolk

O’Connor Brewing Co.Norfolk

ShepelleWatkinsWhite Consulting & Law PLLC

Chesapeake

Vox OptimaChesapeake

Kelli’s Dance ExplosionPortsmouth

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Joseph Donnelly, CPA, President of Donnelly Real Properties LLC

Caron Crouse, Office Managing Partner, Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP

Lamont Maddox, business lawyer, The Guidance Law Firm

Dorris Gomez, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Program Director, M.A. Organizational Leadership, Regent University School of Business & Leadership

Susan Long-Molnar, President, Managing Communications Consulting

Stephen Lanivich, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management & Entrepreneurship, Old Dominion University College of Business & Public Administration

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