Enlightened
Inc.
Company description: IT consulting firm
Founders: Antwanye Ford, 38, Andre Rogers, 37, and Thomas
Spann, 38
Year started: 1999
Location: Washington, DC
2003 sales projections: $5 million-plus
The old saying "Three's a Crowd" doesn't apply
to Washington, DC-based IT consulting firm Enlightened Inc. Founded
by three friends who met at George Washington University, three is
the number that makes Enlightened thrive. In 1999, president
Antwanye Ford, vice president Thomas Spann and vice president Andre
Rogers took a leap of faith from corporate jobs to start a
business.
With government contracts a major part of their business,
Enlightened had to adapt when the government restructured after
9/11. Contracts were put on hold and agency funds redirected as
more than 20 federal agencies collapsed into the Homeland Security
Department, leaving Enlightened in the lurch. "It's forced
us to be structured about managing the company," says Ford.
"We don't take as many chances as we did before." A
focus on current customers and investigating opportunities in the
commercial sector are getting them through hard times.
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It's the ability to adapt, focus and grow that sets
Enlightened apart from its competition. "We don't let the
grass grow under our feet, "says Rogers. "We're able
to take the ups and downs." With 2003 sales projections
expected to be more than $5 million, Enlightened is seeing the
light. -Amanda C. Kooser
Success
Secrets
Entrepreneur: What is the work environment like at
Enlightened?
Antwayne Ford: We try to keep a very professional
environment in the way we carry ourselves, the way we try to dress,
the way we like the look and feel of the offices. On the other
hand, we joke with each other and the staff all the time. It's
an environment where people feel very comfortable with each other.
We value our relationships with our employees.
Entrepreneur: Who are your entrepreneurial role
models?
Ford: One of mine is my parents. They owned their own
upholstery shop. After school I went to the business and went
upstairs. It was just the two of them, a mom-and-pop-type
environment.
Thomas Spann: I had two influences: My aunt Barbara
Stokes, when I was very young, owned a daycare. I actually was able
to see early on what it took to run a small business and some of
the challenges. More as an adult I was fascinated by the story of
Reginald Lewis and how he was able to get to point where he could
buy Beatrice.
Andre Rogers: My father had a landscaping business, so
that gave me the insights. I think that was where the bug kind of
hit me. I was fascinated about growing the business and how he
could grow the business and make it work better. That translated
even when I had a paper route. I had one of the largest paper
routes in the country.
Entrepreneur: What does the future hold for
Enlightened?
Rogers: The future is very bright. This environment is going
to weed out the men from the boys. We came to that conclusion last
year that we were going to survive, no question about it. Right now
we are making structural headway, maintaining relationships in the
commercial sector. I'm salivating over telecommunications
turnaround.
Beverly Hills Teddy Bear
Co.
Company description: Plush toy licenser and
manufacturer
Founder: David Socha, 34
Year started: 1994
Location: Santa Clarita, California
2002 sales: $20 million
In his youth, David Socha imagined himself as a professional
hockey player. Little did he know he would head up a
$20-million-per-year plush-toy company securing licenses with the
likes of The Coca-Cola Co. and Universal Studios, and producing
product tie-ins with the movie Babe or Nickelodeon's
Dora the Explorer TV series. But flexibility and change are
nothing new to Socha.
In 1994, when this Santa Clarita, California, entrepreneur
realized that a hockey career was not in his future, he started a
mail order catalog business to peddle specialty teddy bears. His
business hit hard times, but with some ad time on a local radio
station and a piece on the local morning news, business
skyrocketed-and gave Socha the opportunity to make teddy bears for
celebrities like Kevin Spacey and Steven Spielberg. Socha heard
opportunity knock again when he began to get requests for a wider
variety of plush toys. That led him to licensing, which has
propelled the company's double-digit growth for the past four
years.
Socha knows he's in a market with a few Goliaths, but
he's proven that his company is a force to be reckoned with.
"We can turn on a dime. We've gotten orders [where] we may
have been the third choice, but because [we'll] jump on a plane
and go to the manufacturing facility in China or meet with a
customer in Dallas," he says, "our company has gotten the
reputation of getting the job done no matter what."
-N.L.T.
Success
Stories
Entrepreneur: What has been the biggest challenge in
getting the company up and running and in running it day to
day?
David Socha: I don't want to make it sound too negative.
But there are people out there who don't have the same
integrity or morals and ethics that many people in the business do,
and I think it's a matter of being aware of those people and
protecting yourself from the harm that can come from someone
who's out to hurt you. [It's] being on your toes.
It's a constant battle, not only with our competitors, but
even with people we do business with to make sure that you get in
business with the right people. And I would say the biggest
difficulty is watching out for the people who want to take
advantage of you.
Entrepreneur: Coming into this industry, how do
you compete with the bigger companies?
Socha: Really, we win a lot of jobs and a lot of contracts
by default. If I could give small businesses one recommendation,
it's to always be nimble on your feet.
Entrepreneur: Was it that reputation that got you
in the door with those initial meetings with, say, Coca-Cola?
Socha: It probably took us three years to get Coca-Cola to
consider us. And that's a part of just being faithful and
knowing who you want to be in business with. That was one we said,
strategically, they're the biggest brand in the world. We want
to do something with them. So every few weeks, every few months,
[we would] just call up. It's truly just the follow-through and
the tenacity to not take no [for an answer].
Handango
Company description: Mobile software publisher and platform
technology
Founder: Randy Eisenman, 28
Year started: 1999
Location: Hurst, Texas
Randy Eisenman wants to make one thing very clear: He is not a
millionaire. That title is about his business, not him personally.
As founder and president, he has shepherded mobile software
publisher and platform Handango to multimillion-dollar sales and an
impressive 30 percent quarter-on-quarter growth over the past three
years. The only millions he's counting are the more than 6
million customers the Hurst, Texas-based company reaches every
month.
Nobody is born an entrepreneur, but Eisenman took to it at a
young age, opening a fitness-training business in his house at age
16. He got his brokerage license at 19 and headed the VC investment
division of Q Investments before putting his money where his mouth
was and starting Handango in 1999 at age 23, with $18 million that
he'd raised. "Going on business trips, I couldn't even
rent a car. I was too young," he recalls. The tech downturn
could have taken Handango out of the game like so many of its
competitors, but Eisenman led the company through with financial
discipline (including working on $39 card tables) and hard work,
mixed with a dedication to fun.
That determination has helped Handango partner with industry
heavyweights Microsoft, Nokia and Palm and create a growing
international presence. Says Eisenman, "We live and breathe
our mission, which is to create and shape and dominate this
industry and to have fun doing it." -A.C.K.
Success
Secrets
Entrepreneur: Where did Handango get its name?
Randy Eisenman: After running the business for about a year,
I hired a professional management team. We had been doing business
under the name of GoPDA and PalmCentral, so we decided that we
needed to unify under one brand. We literally had presentations
from six or seven marketing firms and probably looked at over 2,000
different names. When Handango was presented to us, we said
that's the one. We thought it was a fun-sounding name and it
implied something in the handheld market.
Entrepreneur: What is the work environment like at
Handango?
Eisenman: You've never seen anything like it. It is a
blast. It is completely open so the 70 or so employees all sit out
in a giant room together. There are no offices. I sit out in the
middle. It is intense and laid back at the same time; it is very
collaborative and team-oriented. It is very fun. There's the
ping-pong table, there's the foosball table, there's the
masseuse that comes to the office on Fridays to give everybody a
massages that wants one. I'm in jeans and a T-shirt today.
Entrepreneur: Who are your entrepreneurial role
models?
Eisenman: My parents have been running a family business
that was started in 1950. I look up to them for the kinds of people
they are and the way they live their lives and their values and
priorities. Business-wise the thing I admire most about my parents
is how they treat their employees. It's an absolute family in
their business, and they have unbelievable loyalty with their
employees. That is what sets their business apart, and hopefully a
little of that has rubbed off on me.
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