2015 MBEs And The Role Models That Shaped Their Businesses
Propelling Business With Long-Term Partnerships
Cory Elliott, CMT Roofing LLC
After spending 15 years dealing with constant structural changes and demands on her time as a hospital administrator, Cory Elliott was faced with relocating to another state at a time when her twin sons were seniors at De Smet Jesuit High School. “My son had just been voted the student body president,” she says. “I decided to find something new that I would enjoy and be successful at doing.”
Although she didn’t have any direct roofing industry experience, Elliott became familiar with it while leading construction projects every year in her health care role. “Facilities and maintenance were always departments that I was responsible for, so roofing projects were part of the package,” she says. “We did a $9 million roofing project at one of the four hospitals I was responsible for.”
Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Elliott believed she could learn the industry and grow a successful business. “I have always thought about owning a business and dream of new businesses every day,” she says. “To me, owning this company is no different than how I led in health care. I learn the subject matter and surround myself with smart, talented people. I always tell people, ‘I was never a radiologist and I can’t cook, but yet radiology and food service were very successful departments that reported to me.’”
CMT Roofing LLC received its first repair job in March of 2012, and the rest has been a straight upward trajectory of bigger and better projects, according to Elliott. “I am proud to say that we still have our first client and have gone on to do multiple projects with that client. To date we continue to increase revenue, year after year.
Over the past 3½ years, Elliott has accepted the guidance of many mentors, including her dad, Bob Zeffert, whom she watched run a successful company for 20 years and sell it last year. “With that said, my growth as a businessperson has really come from a team approach,” she says. “There are so many people that have opened their arms to me when I started and I can call today.”
In line with the advice she received early on, Elliott believes all entrepreneurs should create a team to rely on. “Focus on establishing long-term strategic partnerships,” she says. “Surround yourself with good people.”
Spending Time On, Not In, Her Business
Gloria Carter-Hicks, Hicks-Carter-Hicks
Over 20 years ago, Gloria Carter-Hicks started her career as an HR generalist in the financial services industry. She quickly fell in love with HR and internal consulting work. Then, when the last company she was working for decided to sell its marketing division and move to Chicago, she decided it was time to start her own business. “My parents owned a business for 35 years. Therefore the idea had already been planted in me when I was young,” says Carter-Hicks. “It was just a matter of finances, time, the right opportunity and the right business.”
On April 1, 1999, Carter-Hicks used her severance package to start her company, Hicks-Carter-Hicks, a full-service performance improvement company that designs and develops customized business solutions to help organizations improve their performance and overall results. Since then Carter-Hicks has benefited from the wisdom of her mentors, Brenda Newberry, independent director at The Laclede Group and retired CEO, chairman and founder of The Newberry Group, and Barbara Turkington, assistant director for advancement at the St. Louis County Library, both of whom are former business owners.
Carter-Hicks carries four lessons from her mentors with her:
1. Learn and understand the business of business.
2. Persevere even when the best plan fails – don’t be disappointed about things you can’t and don’t control. Move forward.
3. Make sure your small business looks like a big business, e.g., image and brand.
4. Not every contract is a good contract. Turn down business if it isn’t in the best interest of your company.
Carter-Hicks sums it up for other business owners, recommending they spend more time on their business instead of in it: “Passion doesn’t pay the bills, but running a successful business does,” she says.
Caring About Every Client
Jeanetta Hill, Personal Touches by Jeanetta Inc.
Jeanetta Hill was always artsy as a child. Her interest was supported by her mother, who was into art, flower arranging and crocheting, and her teachers. “I had a teacher that kept putting me in art fairs and pulling me out of class to decorate the stage for school plays,” says Hill. “At home I would also have plays, decorate the stage and perform. So it was always in my fabric. A part of my DNA.”
After gaining sales experience working as a sales rep in her early 20s, Hill decided to take her longtime interest in floral arrangement and make it a career. “With my sales background, I thought I could sell anything,” she says. “I started doing floral arrangements for family and friends.”
Although Hill’s first paid job was a disaster, she wasn’t deterred. “I remember my first client saying: ‘Just because you face a challenge, don’t shut down. You have to persevere’. So we did,” says Hill. “Our greatest challenge – logistics – became our greatest strength.”
Since then Hill has readily accepted the advice of others while growing her business, Personal Touches by Jeanetta Inc. “I have had a lot of teachers and have been very blessed to have four mentors,” she says.
Hill’s mentors include Ellen Sherberg, publisher of the St. Louis Business Journal; Jan Hess, vice president of St. Luke’s Hospital; Raullo Eames, senior financial consultant at the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA); and Charles Henson, project director at MBDA. Some of the most significant business skills Hill has learned from her mentors include how to be present, how to put your clients’ needs ahead of your own, how to recognize your own worth and how to find balance.
Of the many lessons Hill has learned over her past 27 years in business, she most would like to emphasize to other entrepreneurs the importance of caring about clients and their projects. “So many people are after the money, they forget that we’re dealing with human beings who are trying to accomplish something,” she says. “Care and be a giver.”
Building Networks To Reach Further
Floyd Simms, Simms Building Group
After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in civil engineering, Floyd Simms went to work for the Illinois Department of Transportation in Champaign-Urbana. While the work building bridges and highways interested him, he eventually wanted to return to his hometown of St. Louis.
With his experience, Simms found a new position with Parsons Brinckerhoff, where he focused his work on design and the runway expansion at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in particular. Two years later he was drawn back to the construction side of his industry. “I took a job with M.L. Johnson,” he says. “But when the firm abruptly closed its doors, I decided I had to take control of my own destiny.”
Still in the midst of a project he was on contract for with Brinkmann Constructors, Simms continued to work for a year and a half, all the while planning the structure for his own business, Simms Building Group Inc. “After a year and a half of planning, I had everything in place for my business,” he says. “I just needed projects. I was supposed to begin work as project manager on a new project for Brinkmann. I pitched them the idea of keeping me on as project manager but replacing Floyd Simms with Simms Building Group. They bought it.”
Twelve years later Simms has grown his business from a one-man shop supporting just his own family to 24 full-time employees and contractors. “As we added personnel, I realized I was taking care of those families too.”
To do so, Simms makes sure to continually expand his client base and earn new business, learning from several mentors, including Marvin Johnson, his former boss and owner of M.L. Johnson. “Although Marvin went out of business abruptly, we stayed in touch,” says Simms. “He owned a very successful business that failed and shares a lot of learned advice with me as a coach. He is now a consultant and spokesperson.”
One of the best pieces of advices Simms received from Johnson was to build industry relationships. “Build your network of people to reach further,” says Simms. “This is especially important to small businesses that don’t have the same resources as large companies.”
Learning The Skill Of Running A Business
Michael Zambrana, Pangea Group
Michael Zambrana’s father, who was a civil engineer and licensed surveyor, was his family’s first entrepreneur. Not only did Zambrana grow up working with him in the field and visiting large projects such as dams when on vacation, but he also watched intently as his father grew his business after its inception in 1982.
“I got to see how he started and ran a business on a shoestring budget,” says Zambrana. “He also got to make his own schedule and work on projects that he liked. That was appealing.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, Zambrana started in the engineering and construction business by filling out paperwork on a HUD project in the Central West End. After college he worked for large firms Fruin-Colnon and McCarthy Brothers. “After those large businesses, I began working for smaller firms and could bring the discipline of the large business to the smaller projects,” says Zambrana.
Zambrana was then offered an opportunity, and his entrepreneurial roots came calling. “A good former engineering client had faith in me and offered me a project to build,” he says. “That was the beginning of Pangea Group.”
Twenty years later Pangea Group has grown to be an industry-leading business with 55 employees. Even with two decades of ownership experience, Zambrana still reaches out to and learns from longtime mentor Tom Fleming of Distribution Management Inc. “We would vacation together and talk business,” he says. “We are in different lines of business, but we always talked about opportunities, challenges and team building. We still talk a few times per week and spend a lot of time together."
Zambrana also passes his wisdom on to other business owners. “There are many people who are good at a craft or have a good idea,” he says. “Running a business is a separate skill. Reading and understanding contracts before you sign them is a key of running a good business. Your hell and your salvation are in those contracts. Know them well.”
Loving What You Do
Darren Clay, Clay Piping Systems
Early on, Darren Clay watched his father, who was a carpenter, and recognized the vast opportunities in construction. “Once I started working in the industry, I realized the potential in creating a business incorporating both construction and meeting the demand for more minorities in the field,” he says.
One week after taking his aptitude test, Darren Clay was fortunate enough to be hired as an apprentice, an interview he still clearly recalls. “The owner of Trojahn Plumbing asked where I saw myself after 15 years in the construction industry,” says Clay. “My response was owning a business.”
While the owner smiled at Clay’s response, he also corrected him. “He said that I should first strive to learn the trade and be a great foreman,” says Clay. “He was correct; one of my biggest assets now in business is that I learned and mastered all aspects of the trade.”
Today, five years into his ownership of Clay Piping Systems, Clay’s 25 years of experience as a union member, plumber and pipefitter helps him successfully run the three divisions of his growing business – commercial plumbing, HVAC piping, and insulating of duct and distribution piping.
While Clay’s experience and skill level gave him a solid foundation for business, he has had the guidance of many people in growing his business. “This starts with my wife and parents, members of Phi Beta Sigma, the MBE Minority Associations, my banker, accountant, lawyer and my network of business peers,” he says.
Lessons Clay takes to heart include asking questions first and impacting people in the right way. “I have learned that people will forget what you said, will forget what you did, but will never forget how you made them feel,” says Clay. “This quote has been a great practice for establishing business relations and for interacting with my employees.”
Overall Clay believes you should love what you do. “Keep taking the steps that will get you closer to the career you love,” he says.