February 17

Suntree Country Club

February 9

Heritage Club at Heritage Isle

February 17

Bernard Simpkins Auditorium, BCC-Cocoa

Members of BCA’s Executive Committee are:

• Chairman Mike LaFortune, Datatel+SGHE
• Kimberly Agee, Chair-Elect, Agee Consulting
• Carey Gleason, Secretary
• Marilyn “Bunny” Finney, Past Chair
• Josh Field, SCB Marketing
• Gina Kaiser, FLORIDA TODAY
• Tony Sasso, Cocoa Beach Surf Museum and Keep Brevard Beautiful
• Susie Wasdin, Wasdin Associates
• Kathy Thomas-Beck, Financial Counsel, McGladrey & Pullen, LLC
• J. Mason Williams, Legal Counsel, GrayRobinson, P.A.

New members appointed to the BCA Board for 2012 are:

• Jim Haworth, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Lighting Science Group, has recently moved to Brevard from Chicago with his family. Haworth was recently honored by the White House as a Champion of Change 2011, is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a BBA from Loyola University and an MBA from Northwestern University.
• Walt Johnson is a City of Titusville Council member and Vice-Mayor. He served in the United States Air Force, was a businessman and restaurateur for many years, and served as the Executive Director of the Space Coast Economic Development Commission from 1998-2005. Johnson is the Space Coast Office of Tourism liaison to the BCA Board.
• Karen M. Montas-Coleman is an attorney practicing with Johnson Law Center, P.A. in Rockledge. Montas-Coleman earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Nova Southeastern University. She is an active member of the Brevard County Bar Association, Jr. League of South Brevard and First Baptist Church of Palm Bay.

Brevard Cultural Alliance is Brevard County’s designated arts and cultural council dedicated to building and sustaining a vibrant and dynamic arts and cultural sector integral to Brevard County’s quality of life.

Top Brevard IT Firms Eye Future Expansion and Continued Growth

Rockledge/Melbourne, FL – February 13, 2012.  netDirective Technologies, Inc. and Artemis International Technologies, Inc. are pleased to announce their merger to form ndtArtemis, Inc.  The merger, which is expected to be completed by March 31, 2012, brings together two of Brevard County’s leading IT service, network engineering, telephony, and cloud computing firms. ndtArtemis’ combined talent and resources create an organization of over fifty employees committed to its existing clients and poised for aggressive growth.

“One of the most exciting parts of this merger is the talent it brings together under one roof”, states David Soper, who will serve as Chief Technology Officer of ndtArtemis, “We have always had great respect for Artemis; I believe our combined team is among the best in the industry. Our focus has been, and will continue to be, delivering the highest quality technology based solutions to our clients.  Without them and their support over the years, we would not be where we are today.”

Independently, both companies have experienced robust growth. Together, they combine to create a financially strong organization, poised to execute long-term strategies for even greater expansion.  ndtArtemis will continue to evolve existing lines of business while pursuing new markets and opportunities.  This strategy includes the launch of a new, state-of-the-art, multi-million dollar data center in partnership with sister company, ndtHOST. There will be no job losses due to the merger — ndtArtemis expects to hire additional staff throughout 2012.

According to D. Travis Proctor, who will serve as CEO of ndtArtemis, “Both companies have built their success on establishing long-term partnerships with their clients. Our combined strength positions ndtArtemis with even greater resources and expertise to ensure our clients are maximizing returns on their technology infrastructure investments.”

ndtArtemis will remain headquartered in Brevard County, Florida, and provide IT services to companies of all sizes throughout the Central Florida Region.

For more information:

D. Travis Proctor, president
Artemis International Technologies, Inc.
(321) 757-8909

David Soper, president
netDirective Technologies, Inc. /ndtHOST, LLC
(321) 205-1830

and Other Issues in a Family-Owned Business

One of the most famous lines from Francis Ford Coppola’s classic movie, “The Godfather,” was delivered by the raspy voice of actor Marlon Brando playing Don Corleone: “It isn’t personal, it’s business.” Well, when it comes to family business, it’s always personal, as the saga of the Corleone family clearly testified.

Multi-generational and family-controlled businesses have long been part of the American dream, and many have proven highly successful; giants like Walmart, Anheuser-Busch, Johnson and Johnson and Smuckers are just a few that come to mind. It may surprise you that, according to the Small Business Administration, 90 percent of U.S. businesses are family-owned and it is an even higher percentage in many other nations.

Edward Hess, author of The Successful Family Business, contends that family business owners face challenges that other types of businesses don’t. He wrote, “The added complexity of family dynamics causes most family businesses to operate differently from non-family businesses. Leaders of family businesses must learn the processes and attitudes that are needed to manage the family, in addition to those needed to manage the business. You cannot manage both the same way. Families factor family needs, hopes, and fears into their decisions regarding the business, and family dynamics, family ways of communicating and making decisions all can be involved with business decisions. This is the beauty of and challenge of managing a family business.”

What Does It Take?

One local couple that has been successful in making it work is Mike and Dr. Kristin Cavanah Mirda of Sunshine Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, which specializes in dentistry for infants, children, adolescents and “special needs” patients. Mike explains how they got there: “Kristin always had this vision of working at her own practice and I supported her in reaching her dream. We still separate our own businesses, but we knew we had to make it work as a couple, sort of like putting all your eggs in one basket.”

Then he adds, “We complement each other’s weaknesses well.” Kristin is the pediatric dentist and Mike is the business manager. “This way we separate Kristin’s true skills in dentistry and working with kids from the not-so-fun financial world – marketing, payroll, insurance, QuickBooks, stuff like that. I worked on the business plan, getting the money and a good deal on a commercial building in a solid location.”

Gene Sego who runs Sego’s Home Medical Equipment, along with his sister Juliann, also sees the upside of working with family. The business, founded by their grandfather as a pharmacy in Titusville in 1947, was taken over and expanded by their father, Gene Sego Sr., in 1977 and expanded into the durable medical equipment business soon after. In 1985, Gene’s wife Bonnie left her job at Kennedy Space Center to help manage the company, which they then expanded to Orlando in 1992 and Clermont in 1993.

Said Gene, “The advantage, which definitely outweighs the challenges, is knowing you can always count on your family, that they always have the best interest of the company at heart. You get to see your family on a daily basis, and learning from your family members – as Juliann and I have done from both our father and mother – is the best business course we have ever had!”

Clear Roles

The Mirdas and the Segos discovered early on that one secret of success in a family-owned business is identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the key players and then clearly defining the roles each person is going to serve. Gene Sego explained, “Juliann and I are very different, which works extremely well in business because we complement each other. We were always told, ‘When two people in business think alike, one is unnecessary!’”

In the Mirdas’ case, Mike puts together business proposals as a living; his expertise was essential in developing the plan they would take to bankers. So while Dr. Kristin (a very friendly doctor name for the kids) is the face and heart of the practice, Mike is the behind-the-scenes producer.

In the fast-growing Southeast Petro Distribution (see feature pg. 36), Mike Shah is the company president, while his wife Rashmi serves as the comptroller. He said, “In the beginning, when you’re husband and wife – mom and pop – both of us are involved in everything. But now, there are departments. If I’m doing something, that’s my side, so don’t interfere and question me too much. And if you’re doing something, I don’t want to interfere too much. That is how it works,” he laughed. “Otherwise, I don’t think a husband and wife working together can last too long.”

Planning For Growth

If a company stays small, then keeping it “all in the family” works. However, if the business grows, which most small businesses want to do, new and complex issues arise. Many large corporations that started as a family business are no longer family-controlled because it wasn’t in the company’s or the family’s best interest to continue leading them.

Paul Morin, a writer and consultant, put it this way in his CompanyFounder.com blog, “On the one hand, most senior/founder generation family business owners would like to see their progeny take part in and eventually assume leadership of the business. But the reality is that if the younger generation is not interested in working in the family business, it is of little use to force the issue. The prudent approach is to bring in professional, non-family executives and allow the younger generation to pursue their dreams elsewhere. With this approach, they may come back to the business later, with useful skills and experience that can be deployed in the family business.”

The other critical issue students of family businesses have observed is that the surest way to alienate the people that work for you is to create a company culture based on nepotism. Everyone wants to help out their family, but preferential treatment in hiring, promoting and paying based on a familial relationship versus merit is a formula for disaster. The bottom line is that non-family employees will lose motivation and the desire to be vested producers. Also, complacency can arise in family employees because they don’t face the same stiff consequences for non-performance.

Research indicates there are two main reasons non-family employees will leave a family business: growth opportunities are limited and family conflict. Without opportunity to advance many gifted and goal-oriented employees will move on.

Business leaders need to realize that every business needs a mixture of qualified people to help the company grow. Non-family employees add balance to the organization because they have an ability to view the business with a sense of emotional detachment. If given the opportunity, they can offer valuable input on how to make the company better. Failing to recognize the positive impact non-family employees have on a family business is a major mistake.

Successful Succession

According to the Family Business Institute, 88 percent of current family business owners believe their family will control their business in five years, but succession statistics undermine this belief. Only about 30 percent of family businesses survive into the second generation, 12 percent are still viable into the third and only about 3 percent into the fourth generation or beyond. According to the Institute, “Research indicates that family business failures can essentially be traced to one factor: an unfortunate lack of family business succession planning.”

One of the best and well-known examples of a local family business that has defied the odds is A. Duda & Sons, which built the community of Viera. Scott Miller (see pg. 50), who is part of the fourth generation of Duda family leadership, described the opportunity and the process that was used to expose and filter family members who wanted to work in the business. “In 1992, I was able to avail myself of the ‘Rotational Training Program’ the company set up. This is a one-year training program that exposes you to almost all the disciplines in the business.”

Miller added that retiring CEO Joseph Duda spent the last years in his leadership position ensuring the company’s transition was smooth. For their family it was more than the preservation of financial assets, but the preservation of their values and vision. Thus far it looks as though the baton pass has been very successful.

Doing What You Love

In recent years, a popular philosophy for starting businesses has followed the book Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow by Marsha Sinetar. While this approach sounds great and many family businesses, which we document in this month’s edition of SpaceCoast Business, serve as fabulous examples, career coach Dr. Marty Nemko digs deeper. “Millions of people have followed their passion and still haven’t earned enough money to even pay back their student loans, let alone earn a bare middle-class living doing what they love.”

Nemko doesn’t fault the book, rather the lack of due diligence and self-examination that is necessary to honestly identify both what you love and what you are capable of. Add to that equation going into a partnership with a spouse or family member and you may have the ingredients for a winning team or something a little more combustible. Nevertheless families continue to be the primary incubator for America’s and the Space Coast’s economic engines, so for your passion, courage and perseverance, we salute you!

Husband/Wife Team Lead Software Solutions Company

Working together for the first time has brought about a whole new dynamic in the lives of Burton and Jennifer Toole, owners of Amovius LLC, a software solutions company in Melbourne. “You really don’t ever take a break from it,” Jennifer said. “One minute, we’re talking about the kids, the next minute we’re talking about, ‘Did you sign that contract today?’ It’s kind of a constant thing.”

It’s also become something great. Because as the business has grown over the nearly two years it has been in existence, so has the Tooles’ relationship … to the point where they say it’s the best it’s ever been. Great business; great relationship – it doesn’t get any better than that for a husband and wife.

From Assistance to Partnership

“I think at first when [Jennifer] came into the business, she was here to help out,” Burton said. “Now, as it’s evolved, we’re real partners. I go to her for advice. I know where I’m weak now. I think that’s why our relationship is so good, and I know why we’re together. I’m great at some things and not at others – and she’s great at those things.”

The Tooles came to Brevard County from Atlanta, where Burton had owned a software consulting firm. They chose the area, in large part, because there are so many engineers here and because they loved the feeling of the community, believing it was a great place to raise their children.

They had one client on a six-month contract, and a three-year lease. Burton spent much of his time flying from place to place trying to drum up new sales, while Jennifer stayed home with the kids. “I was on an airplane every week. I came home (one day) and [Jennifer] was like, ‘You look horrible. You look worn out. … Is there anything I can do?’” Burton recalled. “I looked at her and said, ‘Are you serious? Why don’t you come with me into the office in the morning?’ That’s how that started.”

Blending Skill Sets

Jennifer had a background in finance, and had worked in real estate however she had never worked in a technology business. Initially, she tried to fill in the gaps, helping out with recruiting and even human resources. Because their roles weren’t clearly defined yet, there was a little “stepping on toes” that has since been ironed out as the business has grown. Over the course of their first six months, one client grew to twelve. Six months later, there were 28 clients. While initially catering to small businesses, Amovius can now claim a client list that includes companies like Philips and HP. They recently signed a deal with NASCAR to upgrade their source control system to Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server.

“Not that we’re going away from the small businesses, but we have the ability now to go after the large businesses and take on larger projects,” Burton said.

Setting Their Sights

Amovius has 35 employees, with a goal of reaching 300. Jennifer now serves as the Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Relations. Now that they have an actual sales team, Burton can concentrate more on what he does best.

“Burton has a truly unique gift of being such a visionary, being able to see and project where we’re going,” Jennifer said. “He can pick up on things and give direction faster and better than anybody I’ve ever met. He works on strategy and keeping us going in the right direction. I try to work more on the tactical type of stuff, from day-to-day (operations) to bringing in clients and business development.”

While their roles are more clearly defined now, the lanes they’re both running in do intersect from time to time. Though they’ve learned that compromise is the key, they’ve also been able to find the right balance between work and home life.

“She’s my business partner here and my wife at home,” Burton said. “I don’t want to say we’ve perfected it, but it’s gotten really good. Honestly, I think the dynamic of making sure that works makes work better because our relationship – we’ve been together 12 years – is the best it’s ever been.”

Starting with a Great Family

When they opened their first gas station in Cocoa in 1980, there was one word Mike and Rashmi Shah refused to consider: “Failure.” So they worked … and worked … and worked. For 4½ years they went without a day off, and their business began to grow and grow.

Today, the couple owns Southeast Petro Distributors. In addition to owning 130 stations they are the wholesale distributers to 250 stations, carrying all major brands throughout Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Mike is the company president, while Rashmi serves as the comptroller.

What Is the Secret?

“When you enjoy the work, work hard, and work with sincerity, I think success just follows you,” Mike explained. “That’s what has happened in our life. We are blessed, no doubt about it.”

Not only have the Shahs been able to carve out their niche in business, the fact that they’ve been able to do it together – and now both of their children are in the business as well – makes it extra special. This is especially true now that those tough days are behind them. “In the beginning, when you’re husband and wife – mom and pop – both of us are involved in everything,” Mike said. “But now, there are departments. If I’m doing something, that’s my side so don’t interfere and question me too much. And if you’re doing something, I don’t want to interfere too much. That is how it works,” he laughed. “Otherwise, I don’t think a husband and wife working together can last too long.”

The Entrepreneurial Journey

Mike met Rashmi in 1971, a year after he graduated from college in India with a degree in architecture. After a five-year stint in Africa, the couple came to the U.S. in November, 1976 and settled in Stamford, CT. Mike had two part-time architecture jobs and was working more than 70 hours a week. When Rashmi suggested they buy a business, they purchased a 14-room motel that she managed.

It wasn’t long, however, that Rashmi decided spending the winter up north was not for her. So in 1979, they bought a Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in St. Augustine. It was while running the hotel that they heard about the availability of a Shell gas station on Peachtree Street and were intrigued by the earning potential. They had planned to be absentee owners at first, but it quickly became apparent that it was going to take a lot of work to get the business off the ground.

“In the beginning, it was really rough,” Rashmi recalled. “The first six months … we wanted to go back to Africa.” Instead, they dug in their heels and went to work because to do anything else, would be to fail. And again, that wasn’t an option.

“We worked for 4½ years, almost seven days a week, from opening until 6 or 7 o’clock (at night),” Mike Shah said. “Then I would come back again late; I did not take a day off.”

The Fruits of Their Labor

All that hard work began to pay off when the Shahs bought another gas station. And then another … and another. In 1994, the Shahs were approached by BP about becoming a distributor. They had about 45-50 stations at that point, and that’s when things began to take off.

In 1998, their son Summit joined the business after graduating from Tulane. They started building a few stations a year and buying a few more along the way. Now with their daughter, Monica, also working with the company, it has truly become a family affair; something they can all take great pride in.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” Rashmi said. “We did start it together. There is sometimes an argument, but we always come back and solve the problem. Still, I love it. Everybody asks, ‘why do I still have to work?’ I enjoy working.”

So what happens when there is a disagreement? Who has the final say? Well, Mike had a good answer for that one. “In the office, at the end of the day, I have the final say,” he said. “As soon as I go home, she has the final say.”

Nahacky’s Combines a Passion and a Profession

For Dave and Lisa MacDonald, diving head first into the aquarium business all began with an ad in the back of a magazine in March of 1986: “Nahacky’s Aquarium, 312 Babcock, Melbourne, FL. We are original owners in the same location 25 years. 2,300 square feet prime commercial property with four buildings on corner of main thoroughfare also available. Owners wish to retire. Reply with SASE and financial status.”

At the time, the MacDonalds were living in Vail, CO with their two young children. Lisa was a travel agent; Dave was in the property management business, but he had a passion for fish tanks. They were looking to make a move and decided to take a chance.

In 2011, the MacDonalds celebrated their own 25th anniversary as the owners of Nahacky’s Aquarium, which is now located at 1613 S. Harbor City Boulevard (on U.S. Hwy 1). It’s the premier aquarium business in Brevard County, offering an exotic array of saltwater and freshwater fish, along with live rock and corals and an extensive pond department.

The Evolution of the Business

Though Dave ran the store much of those early years so Lisa could spend time with the kids, the business began to evolve as Lisa began spending more and more time in the shop, bringing her own unique skills to help enhance what they can offer to the customer.

A Florida Master Gardener and a member of the Aquatic Gardeners Association, Lisa has a passion for aquatic plants. She has helped them expand their pond department with a number of lilies and other plants that can help turn a pond into something special.

Dave is the fish expert who can not only give advice about aquariums, but also brings in a steady supply of fish from around the world to ensure there is something for every kind of customer – from the person buying their first tank or the fish aficionado looking for something new.

Their daughter Katie has now become a big part of the business as well, serving as the store manager and helping them develop a presence on the Internet. She also can serve as the tiebreaker on those rare occasions when there is a disagreement in the shop.

Growing Pains and Learning Experiences

While it all runs as smoothly as possible now, there were of course the inevitable growing pains along the way. After all, the MacDonalds had never run a business before, much less one that kind of works like a hardware store and a produce department – sometimes even a chapel for fish – all wrapped into one. People don’t come in to buy one thing and leave. Aquariums can become addictive, meaning customers also want help keeping their fish happy. Should a fish die, it can sometimes be like losing a member of the family.

When the MacDonalds bought the Aquarium from Tony and Helen Nahacky, Helen stayed on for a month as a consultant. After that, they were on their own. Dave soon learned that what he liked – and what sold – could be two completely different things.

Take the Diving Sea Dog, for example. Attached to an air pump (and wearing a spaceship helmet), the dog floated up and down in the tank and came in a variety of colors. “My concept of the hobby is natural – and I have yet to see a diving dog out in nature anywhere,” Dave said. “This was my first lesson. My (sales) rep brought me three or four of them and I looked at him and said, ‘That’s foolish. Who the hell is going to buy them?’ He put it up on my counter and, before he left the building, somebody bought that thing. I kind of went, ‘Oh, so that’s how it works.’”

The MacDonalds don’t just serve customers; they serve generations of customers. People who bought their first tank from the Nahackys forty years ago have turned their hobby over to their children.

From an ad in the back of a magazine to 25 years in business, the MacDonalds must be doing something right. “We stumbled into it, and it worked,” Dave said. “We learned as we went along the way.”

Caprittas Find Perfect Balance Between Work and Home Lives

When Michele Capritta thinks of small businesses she pictures the two owners yelling at each other all the time, while their poor employees have no choice but to sit and listen to it. “We’ve just never done that,” she said.

In fact, if you’re looking for the perfect model of how a husband and wife can put together their own business and make it thrive, Tom and Michele Capritta just might be one of the best examples in Brevard County.

The owners of Capritta Fine Appliance have been in business for 30 years; many of their employees have been there for 20 years or more. One of their three sons, Kevin, who started coming to the store with his mother when he was 4, now works as a salesman. Tom’s brother Patt works in the shop as well.

Building Together

The company sells high-end refrigerators, washers, dryers and other appliances as well as energy-efficient air conditioning units, in addition to a service and repair department. It’s a business Tom and Michele have built from the ground up – or maybe that should be from the garage up – all while being able to maintain the perfect balance between work and home.

“It always has worked pretty well for us because we both have different duties,” Tom explained. “Michele took care of the paperwork, invoicing and paying the bills, and I ran service calls. And we get along; we’re best friends … and married … and business partners.”

“She’s more tolerant than I am,” he joked. “She puts up with most everything I do.”

Tom started a service-technician business in his home in 1982, while still working part-time at Kemper Business Systems. The fact he was able to do both jobs at the same time was a blessing, because it meant he and his family didn’t have to struggle as much financially during those first three years it took to get the business up and running.

Everyone’s Involved

Tom, who has the final say on business matters, would work his regular job during the day and take service calls at night. Doing that, while also trying to raise a family, meant that when those calls came in, Tom wasn’t the only one hopping in the truck. “In the evenings, when he used to do the service calls, the kids and I would go with him,” Michele recalled. “We’d wait in the car and wait for him to get done. It was basically a family event.”

“It got to the point where the phone was ringing so often you’d try not to work, but you have to. We’d actually take the kids and go to a hotel for the weekend so we wouldn’t have to answer the phone. Then we finally got it out of the house to where it became a normal business.”

Building on Solid Principles

The Caprittas opened their first store in 1990. It was a Maytag Home Appliance Center. They’ve been in their fourth location, at 2565 West New Haven Avenue, for the past eight years and have been selling high-end appliances for the past four years.

Asked if they had any advice for couples just starting out in business, they came up with a couple of different ideas that not only reflect how they’ve been able to make it all work between them, but also how they’ve been able to stay in business for so long.

First, “Keep work at work. Keep your home life, your home life. And choose a boss,” Tom said. “There’s one leader. You can’t have two chiefs. Whoever it’s going to be, pick one.”

Secondly, “Have enough money to live through the first three years.”

And finally, “Make sure you just take care of the customer, and then the money will come. If you worry about every nickel and dime, charge for this and charge for that, you’re just going to run yourself crazy,” he said. “It’s just better to do the right thing and at the end of the year, you’ll say, ‘Hey, we made some money.’”

“I think that’s a good philosophy, to not worry about the money, just worry about the job and doing it right. That’s why we’ve been around 30 years.”