January 8, 2016 UBJ

JANUARY 8, 2016 | VOL. 5 ISSUE 2

RUFF ROADS BringFido.com’s Melissa Halliburton wants to make travel easier for you and your best friends - pg. 10

Growing Middle Market Manufacturing.

Many businesses miss out on available tax credits and incentives related to their existing business operations.

Working with hundreds of companies in greater Greenville, the CPAs at Cherry Bekaert know how to help you by making sure you don’t miss any overlooked benefits.

Mark H. Cooter Managing Partner, Greenville 864.233.3981 | mcooter@cbh.com Greenville Office 201 West McBee Ave., Suite 200 Greenville, SC 29601 cbh.com

The manufacturing and distribution sectors are key industries for Cherry Bekaert, as we focus on guiding growth through innovation. With a seasoned team of manufacturing-focused tax and accounting professionals, we work with clients to provide innovative solutions to minimize manufacturing tax liabilities, maintain regulatory compliance and develop growth strategies that will position their businesses for future success.  Assurance

 Transaction Advisory

 Tax Planning & Compliance

 Business Valuations

 State & Local Tax Consulting

 Expense Reduction Services

 International Tax

 Cost Segregation Studies

 Credits & Incentives

 Risk Advisory

 Personal Property Tax

 Transfer Pricing Studies

Atlanta | Charlotte | Greenville | Hampton Roads | Miami | Raleigh-Durham | Richmond | Tampa | Washington D.C.

01.08.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

| FINANCE | 3

Lima One to double Greenville office, expand to 11 states

|

29601

|

864.561.4031

|

info@parkplaceonhudson.com

www.parkplaceonhudson.com

over-year loan volume growth for 2015, and as a result plans to double its Upstate workforce in the coming year to meet demand, according to company founder and CEO John Warren.

The hard-money lender made its name in 2010 by offering loans in the buy, rehab and flip market and longer-term loans for rental income investors after post-2008 regulations made it difficult for banks to lend against non-owner-occupied properties. The company recently launched its second product, a 30-year loan product for the $1.5 trillion rental homes market, spanning 14 million rental homes.

The company has gradually expanded across the country, up to 39 states from 27 last March, with plans to reach 49 by the end of the second quarter.

Each state has different licensing requirements and procedures, he said, which has been a limiting factor to immediate expansion thus far.

“We continue to get great feedback from both of our products. … I think the main thing right now is our focus on just making the real estate investors aware of the markets we’re currently in,” said Warren, who served with the Marine Corps before returning

Greenville, SC

Lima One Capital reported 175 percent year-

to the workforce. “As we strong,” and varies state expand, we’ve hit the West to state. One difference Coast with Washington from when he started with home flipping, he State, and we’ll be in Nevada and California by said, is where the profit quarter two.” comes from.

Warren plans to hire “Five years ago, the more than 40 people in vast majority of our addition to the 37 to clients were purchasing 40 current Upstate emforeclosures, and they ployees, most of whom were making their profit mainly on the actual will be underwriters with a handful of inside value of the acquisition,” sales and business develhe said. “Today most of our clients are puropment staff. chasing at MLS … and “We hire people based on core values, and then then their profit is core competencies, so we coming from the actual construction, don’t necessarily look for industry experience first,” which leads to higher said Warren. “We’ve had values and leads to more Lima One Capital founder and CEO John Warren construction overall.” great success hiring local Journal File in the Upstate with either Lima One was recent college grads or founded in Atlanta in graduates.”

2010, but moved its headquarters to Greenville Despite dwindling foreclosure inventory, Warren shortly after. The company operates offices across said the company’s fix-and-flip product is “still going the country. |

aboncimino@communityjournals.com

104 S. Hudson Street

ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFF

xperience in old Greenville. ience in Greenville’s coveted West End District? A place at once steeped in the

thoroughly forward-thinking in its conception and vision for the future. A place

s storied downtown setting, and also points the way to a dynamic, one-of-kind-

best of both worlds: a rich heritage and a modern living experience, all bound

igned, original townhomes.

A new living experience in old Greenville.

GRANITE COUNTERTOPS | HARDWOOD FLOORS | GARAGE PARKING NEARBY PARKS & RECREATION | OUTDOOR LIVING SPACE | KROC CENTER MEMBERSHIP

www.parkplaceonhudson.com 104 S. Hudson Street | Greenville, SC | 29601 864.561.4031 | info@parkplaceonhudson.com

What if there was a vibrant, new living experience in Greenville’s coveted West End District? A place at once steeped in the history and charm of old Greenville, and yet thoroughly forward-thinking its conception and vision for the future. A place that celebrates all that has come before in this storied downtown setting, and also points the way to a dynamic, one-of-a-kind-lifestyle that’s altogether unique.

This is the best of both worlds: a rich heritage and a modern living experience, all bound together by a collection of 24 thoughtfully designed, original townhomes.

Renderings and Plans presented are illustrative and shall be used for general information purposes only. Actual layout, room dimensions, window sizes and locations and steps to grade vary per plan and are subject to modification without notice.

4 | THE RUNDOWN |

TOP-OF-MIND AND IN THE MIX THIS WEEK

UBJ

|

01.08.2016

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 2 Featured this issue: 3 6 13

Photo provided/SCE&G

Lima One eyes expansion Brewery to transform former cotton warehouse Good to Great lessons from Dabo

MONEY SHOT: South Carolina Electric & Gas Company, a subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, and its partners placed the 2.4-million pound CA01 module that will house a number of major components in the first of two new nuclear plants at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield County. Fluor Corporation recently won a contract from Westinghouse to manage the construction workforce at the two plants, as well as two units at a plant in Georgia. See our story on page 16.

WORTH REPEATING

TBA

“Part of it is having a great space in a great part of town.” Page 6 “There’s a thousand different factors that could cause this to fall flat on its face.” Page 7 “You have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow, change.” Page 13

Word is a major building in downtown Spartanburg is in due-diligence phase preceding a potential redevelopment contract, four years after earlier restoration plans fell through.

VERBATIM

On Greenville County’s plans for 2016 “We’ll be looking toward the future trying to ensure that we’re planning and growing in an orderly manner.

That’s sometimes difficult, but it’s happened fairly well for Greenville.”

Greenville County Administrator Joe Kernell, on the goals and challenges the county faces in 2016. Read our extensive interview with Kernell in this week’s Greenville Journal.

01.08.2016

|

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

upstatebusinessjournal.com

Greenville-grown startup Aunt Fannie’s packs up for Portland ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFF

aboncimino@communityjournals.com

MBAe ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION

Greenville startup Aunt Fannie’s, creator of FlyPunch, a nontoxic fruit fly pesticide made from natural ingredients, is moving its Greenville headquarters to Portland.

Greenville “has treated us very well, but to support the longer-term growth of the company, Aunt Fannie’s is relocating to Portland, Oregon,” CEO Mat Franken said in an email.

Franken founded the company in Greenville in 2013.

Neither Franken nor a representative from the company could be reached for further comment by press time.

Franken said in the email that the relocation will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2016. “We’re excited about the opportunities this move opens for Aunt Fannie’s, and we are already being very well received in the Portland community,” Franken said.

Aunt Fannie’s Inc. was recognized last year by research group New Hope Natural Media and SterlingRice Group in their annual NEXT Forecast competition. Aunt Fannie’s won first place in the Beauty and Natural Living category.

| STARTUPS | 5

One year of transformation Recent additions to the company’s board of directors include the former VP of United Natural Foods Inc. JJ Cantrell, former International Trade Administration chief of staff Adam Wilczewski, former Talbots interim COO and CFO David Charne, former Kashi product innovation lead Jeff Grogg, BevNET Editor in Chief Jeffrey Klineman, former Kashi Director of Operations Mark Haas, former president of Albert’s Organics Barclay Hope and the founder and former CEO of Mrs. Meyers Clean Day, Monica Nassif.

The Full-Time Clemson MBAe is designed for individuals who want to launch a startup, owners of existing small businesses seeking to expand their entrepreneurial knowledge and recent graduates who have decided not to pursue careers in corporate settings. APPLY NOW FOR 2016!

Stay in the know.

Upstate Business Journal

@UpstateBiz

TheUpstateBusinessJournal

www.clemson.edu/mba

Ln

nro

eS

t

t Pa

ne f Li Huf

ton

ing

lair

St C

St

St d

ett R

aml

E Br

Legacy Charter School

The all-new GLC A midsize SUV that’s all lean muscle. starting at $38,950

Ceda

r Ln

ash WW

Ct

Monaghan Mill

GHS Swamp Rabbit Tra il

Ale Project has landed. The startup’s owner announced he will set up his brewery in a former cotton warehouse at 1320 Hampton Avenue Extension in Greenville.

The 9,000-square-foot space near the Greenville Health System Swamp Rabbit Trail already features sturdy wooden pillars and exposed brick. It will house a tasting room with roll-up doors, a stage for live music and brewery space, said brewer and owner Shawn Johnson. After renovations, roughly 6,500 square feet will be used, he said.

In addition to the 49-seat indoor tasting room, the brewery will offer approximately 2,000 square feet of outdoor seating. The industrial metal façade will soon be removed and replaced with a modern mix of wood and metal, he said.

lvd sB

Upstate fledgling brewery Birds Fly South

so ter

ve nA

amorris@communityjournals.com

t

nS

Swamp Rabbit Grocery & Cafe

to mp

APRIL A. MORRIS | STAFF

Buncombe Rd

Ha

Brewery aims for fall opening

Johnson’s brewery focuses on farmhouse-style beers created using open fermentation and barrel aging. Part of the building’s second floor will be removed, creating upstairs access so customers can look down into the barrel storage room and brewery space, Johnson said.

Work on the building is set to begin in February with an anticipated opening date between August and October, he said. Until then, Birds Fly South will be participating in multiple events, including a tasting fundraiser for its glassware at the new location in late January, he said.

01.08.2016

o lli eH Pet

Birds Fly South lands in Hampton Avenue space

|

UBJ

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

Mo

6 | BEER |

01.08.2016

|

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

upstatebusinessjournal.com

| MANUFACTURING | 7

Founders of packaging manufacturers tForm bootstrap $500K Anderson entrepreneurs plan to expand manufacturing startup ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFF

Founders of Williamston, S.C.based manufacturing startup tForm plan to bootstrap their way to success and hire up to 50 people over the next three years with a combined $500,000 in funding to kick off 2016.

The company manufactures custom plastic items for the medical, automotive and electronic component industries using a method called thermoforming. The team plans to disrupt the long-opaque industry – pegged between $7 billion and $10 billion – by delivering orders in just a third of the

“This is an opportunity to see a company grow from the ground up. If you fall, there is no net.

It’s thrilling.”

Harv Rettberg, co-founder of tForm time and offering standardized, instant-quote pricing.

Bootstrapping instead of raising outside funds means more independence, but can also mean fewer safety nets. The trade-off is worth it, for now, said co-founder Ben Moore, a previous design and engineering contractor for around 60 manufacturing firms in the

Harv Rettberg (left) and Ben Moore, co-founders of tForm

WHAT IS IT? Thermoforming: A manufacturing process in which a plastic sheet is heated until pliable, molded to a specific shape and trimmed to create packaging Examples of tForm custom products:

Medical tray

CARLTON MOTORCARS www.CarltonMB.com

(864) 213-8000 2446 Laurens Road, Greenville, SC 29607

Ashley Boncimino / staff

aboncimino@communityjournals.com

Dunnage tray

Upstate. “There’s a thousand different factors that could cause this to fall flat on its face,” he said. “I got to see every type of manufacturing that the Upstate offers. … We’re angled toward a service for smaller vendors, maybe even prototyping.”

According to Moore, most small- to medium-sized thermoform runs take three months of tedious back-andforth exchanges to get through the design of the packaging, price quoting, the actual manufacturing and delivery of the order. Moore’s self-run market research showed it took 11 days to get a quote back, the same quote Moore claims to do in a fraction of the time using design partners and customer-facing instant quoting software.

For small or medium runs, “packaging can kind of come at the end … and they might not want to wait three months for packaging,” said Harv Rettberg, a tForm co-founder alongside Moore and Mark St. Denis, all past coworkers at Champion Aerospace in Pickens County. “It’s phenomenally transparent. … We’ve touched many

Electronics tray

local customers that are interested in this kind of packaging, and they have given us a very favorable idea that they would do business with us.”

Moore said the company already has several customer project orders on the books, and hopes to be fully up and running by the end of January. He plans to hire around 15 employees during 2016, and up to 50 employees across everything from management to engineering over the next three years. Moore also expects to soon fill up and outgrow the company’s current 6,000-squarefoot building in Williamston.

Moore graduated from Greenville’s Founder Institute Program in 2015, which was co-directed by Upstate Business Journal Publisher Ryan Johnston. Program graduates, directors and mentors participate in a Shared Liquidity Pool of equity formed from each cohort’s graduating companies.

“This is an opportunity to see a company grow from the ground up,” said Rettberg, a previous director of both sales and engineering. “If you fall, there is no net. It’s thrilling.”

8 | RETAIL |

UBJ

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

|

01.08.2016

Caviar and Bananas plans gourmet concept for downtown Greenville SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF

sjackson@communityjournals.com As Caviar and Bananas builds out its retail space near the newly

After the game when the roar is gone and the stadium goes dark…

Blue Ridge Security keeps watch over Howard’s Rock.

We don’t sell systems, we create security solutions.

Go Tigers!

A subsidiary of Blue Ridge Electric Co-op

1-888-407-SAFE (7233) blueridgesecuritysolutions.com

opened Aloft Hotel in downtown Greenville, new details of the gourmet market and café are emerging.

Owners Margaret Furniss and her husband, Kris Furniss, plan a May 2016 opening. Margaret Furniss recently sat down with UBJ to discuss plans for the new store.

The concept for Caviar and Bananas began in 2008 when the couple opened the first Charleston location.

Instead of opening a restaurant and being tied to it 24 hours a day, they decided a gourmet kitchen concept would give them the lifestyle they wanted. They liked the Charleston area and relocated from New York.

Today the Furnisses have two locations in the Charleston area (a third is in progress at the Charleston airport). Furniss said they decided on the expansion to Greenville becausethey want to remain “very involved” in the operation, and it’s within driving distance to Charleston. Also, Greenville is “hitting its stride” and the location at ONE downtown felt like a good pedestrian area, she said. Future plans include expanding into additional secondary markets throughout the South.

In the Caviar and Bananas Greenville location, expect to see a lot of prepared foods and grab-andgo items. We do “really good food from scratch, every day,” said Furniss.

“It’s like having five different restaurants wrapped into one.”

Sandwiches, salads, sushi, artisanal

cheeses, chocolates, caviar (of course) and charcuterie are some of the items that will be available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will also be served along with a weekend brunch. A bar area will serve as an espresso bar by day and a wine bar by night.

Furniss said the store also plans to host five or six special events per year.

Vegan dinners and wine tastings are just a couple of ideas so far. Caviar and Bananas also plans to offer delivery, gift baskets and catering.

Caviar and Bananas will also have a curated retail section, similar to a European market, which will feature “the best of the best, from ordinary to extraordinary.” Expect to see items like specialty crackers and spreads, pastas, coffees and more. “We’re taking what we learned in Charleston and will be bringing it to Greenville,” Furniss said.

Hiring is underway now for managers and chefs. Furniss said she plans to employ approximately 45 people in Greenville.

01.08.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

Cowork space Textile Hall set for West Greenville

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

| WORKPLACE | 9

PROFESSIONAL CLIENTS DESERVE PROFESSIONAL RESULTS!

ASHLEY BONCIMINO | STAFF

Beard said the name reflected the area’s industrial history as well as the goal of the space to build collaboration The Village of West Greenville and community connections. is growing again, this time with a “One of our goals for Nasha Lending 2,700-square-foot coworking space is fostering entrepreneurship, and that harks back to a textile past. one of the ways we can do that is by The project is the second phase of fostering relationships,” she said. “We Mill Community Ministries’ plans for want to make sure we’re West Greenville, which bringing in people from began with the recently the community … and opened Mill Village celebrate the area that we Market and offices, and are in.” will continue with a bike Mill Community Minrepair “kitchen” Village istries currently leases Wrench in April. space from developer Cliff Dubbed Textile Hall, Carden, who is now renoGreenville’s newest vating the building Beard cowork will house 27 inbetween Lois and Perry dividual desks, an enavenues along Pendleton closed conference room, Street for the coworking community space, a space. Textile Hall, mezzanine area, a work Mill Village Market and bar accessible from both Village Wrench are all inside and outside, and a funded by the same fiveroll-up garage door for fair year corporate grant, weather. The organization though Weidenbenner will offer desk rentals and would not disclose the Weidenbenner drop-in memberships particular company. for varying lengths of Weidenbenner said half a dozen time similar to other cowork models. people have expressed serious interest Slated to open in April, leaders in becoming members, and said hope to curate the cowork communicompanies might even use one memty to include a “mission-minded” bership to cycle several employees blend of for-profit, nonprofit, entrethrough in order to boost a diversity preneur and even large corporation of skills and backgrounds. representation. The idea is to build a “Part of it is having a great space in “collaborative workspace for the a great part of town,” he said. “Another greater good,” said Mill Community part is a diversity of users.”

Ministries Executive Director Dan Weidenbenner. “The diversity of users For more information for this will be key. … This is so much more than nonprofits.” millcommunity.org/the-hub Nasha Lending Director Taylor

aboncimino@communityjournals.com

Join Our List of Satisfied Professionals • 223 E. Earle Street - $565,000 - North Main Area • 118 Cureton Street - $379,500 - Augusta Rd Area • 111 Pinehurst Drive - $423,000 - North Main Area • 900 N. Main Street Unit 47 - $165,000 - North Main Area • 12 Buckingham Road - $310,000 - Gower Estates • 302 Arlington Avenue - $437,500 - Downtown • 420 E. Seven Oaks Drive - $579,000 - Chanticleer • 12 Windsor Drive - $275,000 - North Main • 10 Coventry Lane - $240,000 - Dellwood • 1 Coventry Lane - $260,000 - Dellwood • 6 Sleepy Orange Circle - $420,000 - Parkins Mill Area • 110 Lowood Lane - $690,000 - Chanticleer • 12 Phillips Lane - $331,000 - Augusta Rd Area • 123 Stephens Lane - $232,500 - Dellwood • 24 Edge Court - $240,000 - North Main Area • 12 W. Mountainview Avenue - $615,000 - North Main Area

D L SO

BUYSELLGVL.COM THOMAS CHEVES STEVE MUSSMAN 864.201.0006

864.316.6569

tcheves@cbcaine.com

smussman@cbcaine.com

JAMIE OUZTS 864.617.5307

jouzts@cbcaine.com

THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THE BUSINESSES

FOUR-LEGGED

LODGING With more than a million users and 100,000 listings, BringFido.com’s founder Melissa Halliburton has built a thriving business out of finding pet-friendly places SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF

sjackson@communityjournals.com When Melissa Halliburton, then a recent

the wedding was held wasn’t pet-friendly, so I thought, “No big deal, I’ll just book another hotel nearby.” I ended up calling every hotel in the area and finally found one an hour away. I was so frustrated. I talked about my experience and my new business idea with several of my friends from MIT who encouraged me to pursue it.

MIT graduate, attended a wedding in 2005 and had difficulty finding pet-friendly accommodations nearby for herself and her ever-faithful traveling How did you take your idea from there and companion, Rocco, she knew she had stumbled onto build a business? her new business venture.

For the next year, my friends and I called every Today, Halliburton is president and founder of hotel in the country to get their pet policies and build BringFido.com, a Greenville-based online doga database. My brother helped build the back-end centric travel directory offering reviews, information booking engine. BringFido.com was the first site and online reservations to more than 100,000 ever to do pet-friendly bookings exclusively. hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, vacation rentals, restauWe started getting reservations the first day, so I rants and attractions across the world. knew I was on to something. The site UBJ recently sat down with Halliwas totally different, of course, than burton and her husband, Jason, who it is today. We started with U.S. hotels serves as COO, in the company’s “I definitely think it’s only. After that, I started adding inheadquarters on Commercial Drive ternational hotels and then started in Greenville, where BringFido.com easier to travel with adding attractions and restaurants a pet now, but there’s because if you’re traveling with your practices what it preaches with a bring-your-dog-to-work policy for still more to do. Of the dog, you don’t just want to leave them its 35 employees, a dog run out 100,000 places we in the room the whole time, you want back and special doors and security have in our database, to take them to do stuff, too. So it so pets don’t dart out the door when really just grew from there. We added they shouldn’t. Halliburton talked we could probably more and more content over the past have a million.” about how the company got started, 10 years. Now we have more than what’s happening now and plans for 100,000 places where you can bring the future. your dog worldwide.

How did it all start?

What brought you from Boston to Melissa Halliburton, A few years after I graduated with Florida to Greenville? founder and president, a business degree from MIT, I adopted I really started the company when BringFido.com a dog [Rocco] and was traveling back I moved from Boston to Florida after and forth from California to Boston graduating. I lived in Florida for a few and around New England. Every time, years and met my husband there.

I would have to call each hotel to find When we got pregnant, we thought out what their pet policy was. Even some of the bigger maybe Florida was OK for younger people and older hotel sites might have a pet-friendly icon but no people but maybe not so much for families. I had details on what that meant. And it wasn’t necessarvisited Greenville in the past and found it was ily the most up-to-date information. There was no charming. At the same time, I took an online quiz transparency to the hotel’s pet policy. on where my ideal place to live would be and it told I was in a wedding in the Cape and the hotel where me I should live in Greenville. My husband is from

UBJ

|

01.08.2016

Tennessee and Greenville is closer to his family, so it seemed like a perfect fit.

We also decided we wanted to bring our call center in-house and start hiring employees to staff it. We had previously used a Travelocity call center that was based in India but had customer complaints on their service. Greenville offered a low cost of living and great people, so we just decided to go for it and moved here without knowing anyone.

How often is the information on your site updated?

It’s updated daily and each hotel is called once a year. Hotels that are booked frequently are updated pretty much any time a booking is made. We have a team of K-9 concierges who will call the hotel and make sure you are assigned to a pet-friendly room when a reservation is made on our site. That’s important because there are a limited number at most hotels.

Because our information is kept up to date, we offer a pet fee guarantee, so whatever amount is listed on the site is what you pay. If the hotel charges something different, we will reimburse our customer.

How do you keep vacation rental info current?

We have about 10,000 vacation rental properties now. We just partnered with Airbnb so we are currently loading all of those properties into our database. It’s still a manual process to contact each property and find out their exact pet policy. Vacation rentals are super popular with dog owners because you can get amenities such as a fenced yard that you can’t get in a hotel. I expect to see that area of the business continue to grow. >>

Photos by William Crooks

10 | ENTREPRENEUR |

|

THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THE BUSINESSES

upstatebusinessjournal.com

>> What about the industry? Do you see more hotels accepting pets?

It’s definitely increasing. There are a few hotel chains such as Aloft, La Quinta, Motel 6, Kimpton and Loews that are pet-friendly. Some chains leave the decision up to the individual hotel location.

When we first launched the site, there were about 10,000 hotels that allowed pets. Now, there are about 20,000, so it’s about doubled in the past 10 years.

Where does most of your revenue come from?

Our model is basically a travel agency model where we get a commission from the hotel when someone books a room. The customer pays the same rate as they would if they booked elsewhere. We do get some ad revenue but it’s not a huge part of our business.

We also work with vacation rental companies and other partners such as pet-sitting businesses where we get a referral fee.

What’s the most unusual request you’ve ever had?

We had a woman who wanted her cat, not just her, to have a view of the Grand Canyon. We get some requests for exotic animals like owls and snakes. We just put a new property on the site near the strip in downtown Las Vegas that has facilities for horses, and we do accommodate all types of animals, even though our focus is 95 percent dogs. We also have cus-

tomers who need assistance with moving, and we offer hurricane assistance [for pet-friendly hotels when evacuating] and have a relationship with the Red Cross for the U.S. Talk a little about your book, “Ruff Guide to the United States.”

We self-published the book last year and sell mainly through Amazon and through shelters. About three weeks after I found out I had cancer, my dog Rocco died of cancer, so it was not a great year. As I was going through treatments, we adopted another dog, Ace, and realized that as our new company mascot, he hadn’t traveled anywhere yet. I wanted to share those experiences I had with Rocco, so we went on a road trip across the country. The book is a compilation of some of the best places we went as well as input from our customers. It’s a good bucket list for dogs.

Provided

01.08.2016

Beyond the website, what else do you do?

We have the website, our mobile app, our call center, the book and pet amenity kits. The pet amenity kits include treats and other pet-friendly items that are distributed through hotels all over the country. We’ve also just partnered with the new Aloft Hotel here in Greenville and will be hosting a monthly Yappy Hour at the hotel beginning Sunday, Feb. 21.

| ENTREPRENEUR | 11

Have you achieved what you set out to do?

I definitely think it’s easier to travel with a pet now, but there’s still more to do. Of the 100,000 places we have in our database, we could probably have a million. When we go on trips, we always find places that we haven’t discovered yet.

Is there anything you would do differently?

I don’t know that I would change much. I liked that I was the only employee for the first five or six years. We’ve never invested any money for marketing; the company’s grown organically. As a family company, we get to make all of the decisions – right or wrong.

What’s next for BringFido.com?

We’re doing a really big website redesign right now that will make it more mobile optimized. More than 60 percent of our traffic comes from mobile devices, so that’s really important. We’re rolling it out in phases – our back end will be up in January, but customers won’t see a change until spring. We are also working on a company loyalty program to encourage customers to use our website.

What are you most proud of?

We have over a million users on the site now and that was a big milestone, as was 100,000 places.

People come up to me and tell me that they love BringFido.com so much and that it’s helped them travel with their pets. It makes a difference for people, and that’s what I set out to do.

12 | DIGITAL MAVEN |

UBJ

THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF BUSINESS

|

01.08.2016

Escape the email stranglehold The right communication and project management tools are out there – if you can get your people to use them number of users or projects.

In others, you can get a slimmed-down feature set but unlimited usage. Slack, for instance, is free for 10,000 messages a month. You can have as many users or channels as you want up to that point. Sounds like a lot, but you could hit it sooner than you think.

By LAURA HAIGHT president, portfoliosc.com

That little badge next to the email icon is a constant reminder of failure, metaphorically blasting raspberries at us as the unread count ticks up. For small businesses and nonprofits, the email problem is multifaceted, encompassing productivity losses and security risks.

While there is no perfect email application that will tame this problem, a number of collaborative tools offer new ways to work.

Slack, Trello, Asana, Basecamp and Evernote are a few of the top titles among a crowded field of collaboration platforms that can help break the stranglehold of email.

Some, like Basecamp and Asana, layer in project management features like task assignment and management, calendaring and tracking. Some are more visual, like Trello, which will appeal to linear thinkers who like to visualize progress. All are mobile with feature-full apps that maximize the capabilities of smartphones and tablets.

Slack has a slick user interface and offers a lot of application integrations so users can start a Google Hangout directly from Slack simply by typing “/hangout.” Or similarly start a conference call with Uber Conference.

With no single player offering the whole enchilada, it may be, as many bloggers have suggested, that the perfect world is to combine a communication platform and a project management platform to cover all your bases.

But these platforms must be expensive, right?

Nope. In fact, for small businesses, there’s a great opportunity to use big-company tools at small or startup prices. Each has a free level. In some cases, you get all the options and features but a limited

themselves and their bosses. Tools we feel comfortable with contribute to a feeling of competence on the job. Change a tool, rock my world.

Even for a small business, start with a pilot program. Remember, a pilot’s purpose is to identify the problems with a new system and develop solutions. So it is important the pilot team be representative of your staff (i.e. they aren’t all the geeks or under 30s).

Talk about the project, including (maybe especially) things that are presenting challenges. It’s important that staff can see that you understand that there may be bumps in the road.

All implementations have them. Accept it, work through them, move forward.

But also highlight the good things. Your pilot team members need to be both problem-solvers and ambassadors. Get them to talk about how much time they saved. How they are extricating themselves from the grip of email. Across the company, talk up the successes.

Facilitating change Few barriers to entry, configurable, integrated with other tools, and features real-time communications and archiving to get you out of email.

With all that, why isn’t every business jumping in? Well, many have. But there is a hurdle to overcome: adaptation.

I’ve been involved in several implementations of this type and tested dozens of platforms with clients and collaborators.

People may hate email, but it is hard to pry them away from the application they have used the longest and, they think, understand the best.

Many times, once the transition is theoretically completed, staff start to fall off and go back to using the old tools (if they still exist).

And since no one is suggesting you’ll never need to use email again, that’s a real risk.

If you are thinking that this doesn’t happen in your business, check out the last new system, service or software you implemented to see how many staffers have fallen back on old processes.

Getting people to adapt to something new has nothing to do with what the business wants – increased productivity, quicker results, more time on task, etc. It has to do primarily with what the user wants to do and how much confidence they have in

Tools we feel comfortable with contribute to a feeling of competence on the job. Change a tool, rock my world.

Analytics can help you quantify improvements.

How much email was the pilot team wading through before the test vs. how much after? Find ways to make improvements tangible. A standard metric is that a meeting of more than two people takes 5-7 email exchanges between the entire group to schedule. That can be dramatically improved in a real-time communication environment. Potentially, using an integration client, the meeting could happen immediately. That’s real time that’s been saved and possibly days gained on project completion.

Moving technology forward in your business isn’t a matter of finding the right tool. There are many out there. The challenge is making sure that your efforts aren’t doomed before they even start.

GREENVILLEJJOOUURRNNAALL GREENVILLEJ

UNTER BEHIND THE CO

athome FALL 201

AT READ ONLINE GREENVILLE JOURNAL.COM

$1.00

DECEMB

ER 18,

Southern Exposure

Health BRING IN THE WITH A FRESH YEAR PERSPECTIV E

GREENVILLE COUNT Y MUSEUM OF ART SHOWS THE ICONIC WORK OF WILLIAM HALSEY

TOWN_JAN_

Cover.indd

2015 10:59

AM

1

£ TICKETS TO

THE NATIONAL CHAMPION SHIP!!

ANGE Christmas Dreaming of an OR You can get to the

big game – if you

t.

Get Market Repor

Aerial yoga instructor Kelly VanLeeuw en encourag es clients to have a confident mindset about what they can achieve.

way to get all the home Your new favoriteyour neighborhood. market news for

TOWNC

JANUAR Y 2 016 AROLIN A.COM

12/14/15 4:28 PM

ISSUE

51

Afte Horizon r 40 years, Reco the gr rds stays in Greenv oove as a ille inst itution

communityjournals.com

0 have a spare $14,00

te.com marketreport.allenta

a

10/1/15

£ Drone w/HD Camera ✔ ✔ Nook Glowlight £ ✔ Pie Face Game £ ✔Jedi Master Lightsaber £ ✔ Remote Control R2 D2 £

You better not pout:

Peak Place NC

Coffee Maker Canceling s In-Ea r Headphone

✔ £ Noise

New Shape of

2015 | VOL. 4

FOR RECORTDHE S

✔Yeti Rambler Tumbler £ ✔DIY Home Brewing kit £ ✔Wi-fi Enabled £

the

DISCOVER THE FACETS OF BLACK MOUNTAIN,

u n i t y c o m m n a l s j o u r o n i c at i p u b l

FOR HOME DELIVERY CALL 864.679.1200

2015 • Vol.17, No.51

Dear Santa, All we want for is...

Christmas this year

5

IES LOCAL COMPAN ATE SOUTH SOME OF UPST LE BEHIND AND GET A SEE THE PEOP ST LOCAL BUSINESSES WHY. FINE WHO, HOW AND CAROLINA’S NES LOOK AT

December 18, OURNAL.COM • Friday,

See story on page

17

01.08.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

MOVERS, SHAKERS AND DISRUP TORS SHAPING OUR FUTURE

| INNOVATE | 13

Good to Great to Guts Getting down to business with Dabo Swinney and the Tigers

By MATT DUNBAR Managing Director, Upstate Carolina Angel Network

The arrival of the new year is a common time to reflect on lessons learned from the prior 12 months and to incorporate those lessons into planning and goal setting for the year ahead. It’s also a time to watch playoff football.

As I’ve listened to Dabo Swinney talk about his approach to coaching his team and building his program on the way to this year’s college football playoffs, I’ve often been struck by how his quotable pearls of wisdom would serve any team well, from sports to business – including startups.

So as the Clemson Tigers prepare to play for a national championship, here are a few startup lessons for the new year from an unsuspecting startup coach who’s proven he can take a team from good to great.

Get the right people on the bus I haven’t heard Dabo quote this phrase, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s a student of the classic Jim Collins management book “Good to Great.”

There are many parallel lessons from the book and Dabo’s coaching philosophy, but perhaps the strongest is the idea that building the right team of people is critical for success. From players to coaches to staff, Dabo has demonstrated a laser focus on attracting and retaining people on his bus who have the combination of skill, commitment and character necessary to build an enduring organization.

He’s also been disciplined in escorting people off the bus when they haven’t met the standards of the organization (witness the recent player suspensions for the Orange Bowl). Startups should keep this lesson in mind from Day One through employee 10 and 100 and beyond.

Do the common things in an uncommon way This is another phrase that’s not original to Dabo (see George Washington Carver), but he frequently repeats the refrain to remind his team and staff to pay attention to details and to bring disciplined consistency to the day-to-day grind of their work.

Startups that execute well on seemingly mundane things like communications, presentations and customer service will gain the confidence of the market and investors (and, of course, the uncommon parts also have to be very good to keep their attention).

Bloom where you’re planted Many times entrepreneurs are quick to look for the next new idea or market at the expense of bringing focus and follow-through to current products or services. Or they face inevitable setbacks and allow discouragement to stand in their way.

Dabo’s sage advice is to commit to giving your best regardless of what circumstances you find yourself in. You never know who is watching and

what opportunities may emerge – new customers or partners or investors – from your dedicated commitment to excellence in your current situation.

Campus Rush. “I want to get to the top. I want to be the best. But I want to do it the right way and to enjoy the whole deal.”

Don’t be afraid to fail, and don’t fail to learn Dabo’s quotes on this point from two recent articles stand on their own as great examples for startups: “I just work hard. I’m not afraid to fail. I don’t know everything, but I’m always trying to learn and get better,” he told USA Today. He went on to tell The State: “Those great businesses out there, those great programs, they don’t plateau. … You have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow, change.”

You don’t change just to change, but you have to always challenge yourself each and every year to say, “OK, well, this may be how we’ve done it, but is it the right way?”

The fun is in the winning If you’ve paid any attention to Dabo, you know he knows how to “enjoy the whole deal” and how to celebrate with his team. From dancing to pizza parties, Dabo invites his team and partners to celebrate the successes their hard work has produced. Amidst the stress and strain and grind, startups should take time to celebrate successes large and small.

Never settle for satisfaction In addition to “Good to Great,” Dabo may also be a student of the important works on “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen.

This Swinney quote sounds like an important application of his management theory: “You can’t be satisfied, because just as soon as you think you’ve arrived and you’re satisfied, the next thing you know you’ve plateaued and you’re on the decline,” he told The State. “Now you’re not paying attention to the little things. You don’t have the sense of urgency because you’re fat and happy. Then it’s death.”

In the fast-paced world of startups, resting on laurels is a recipe for disaster. “Am I happy where the program is? You better believe it.

Very, very happy. Am I satisfied? Not even close,” Swinney told the Sports Illustrated website

Bring Your Own Guts (B.Y.O.G.) Last but not least is perhaps the most famous – and perhaps most profound – Daboism of all. Startups are not for the fainthearted. Investors can give you money and advice and engineers can give you products and technologies – but to survive the valley of death and grow a successful startup, entrepreneurs better bring their own guts.

To all the startups out there – and the Tigers – here’s to a championship year in 2016!

“Those great businesses out there, those great programs, they don’t plateau. … You have to constantly reinvent, reinvest, reset, learn, grow, change.”

Dabo Swinney

14 | ON THE MOVE |

UBJ

PLAY-BY-PLAY OF UPSTATE CAREERS

HIRED

HIRED

APPOINTED

HIRED

|

01.08.2016

APPOINTED

Tracy Ryan

S. Nigel Platt

Garrett Scott

Pamela Falvey

Tim Brett

Named director of sales and marketing for Liquid Catering and The Old Cigar Warehouse. Ryan most recently served as events manager for The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts in North Carolina. She has also managed a restaurant in Gainesville, Fla., and served as director of catering and sales for a hotel.

Named animal curator at Hollywild Animal Park. Platt has served as executive director at Safe Haven and Educational Adventures in Greenville for eight years. He has also worked as a herpetologist at the Toledo Zoo in Ohio, an animal curator at the Mesker Park Zoo in Indiana and a general curator at the Greenville Zoo.

Named a member of the Clemson University Board of Visitors. Scott specializes in industrial brokerage for Colliers International and has more than 27 years of experience in industrial real estate. He will serve on the marketing committee of the board.

Named assistant general manager at Halls Chophouse Greenville. Falvey has more than 20 years of restaurant management experience. She most recently served as general manager at Breakwater Restaurant. She has also served as general manager of Rick Erwin’s Nantucket Seafood restaurant.

Named to the Renewable Water Resources board of commissioners. Brett was appointed by Gov. Nikki Haley and will serve until December 2016. He is a former state legislator and current owner of public affairs firm BrettSC. He also served on the congressional and gubernatorial staffs of Carroll Campbell.

AUTOMOTIVE Thomas Norris was nominated for a 2016 TIME Dealer of the Year award.

Norris is president of Toyota of Easley.

Norris is one of 50 dealer nominees

from across the country for the award.

He founded Toyota of Easley in 1980.

ENGINEERING David Topham of KTM Solutions

Inc. passed the professional engineering examination and received his professional registration to practice engineering in South Carolina.

HOMEBUILDING The Home Builders Association of Greenville elected Joe Hoover of Hoover Custom Construction as president of the organization. Also >>

We’ve already met your next employee.

Ginny Beach, Ana Davis, Drew Brown, Julie Godshall Brown

Godshall Professional Recruiting and Staffing specializes in executive recruiting, career placement and consulting for businesses and job seekers in South Carolina. Our team of recruiters brings a combined 170 years of experience placing candidates in the financial, technical, healthcare, and professional industries. Let us find the perfect fit for your employment needs.

Professional • Finance • Technical • Healthcare sccareersearch.com • 864-242-3491

GODSHALL Professional Recruiting Staffing Consulting

01.08.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

THE FRESHEST FACES ON THE BUSINESS LANDSCAPE

Open for business Cedar Pete’s Car Wash recently opened at 108 Cedar Lane Road, Greenville. The business offers express exterior wash, full-service wash, detailing, engine cleaning and carpet cleaning. For more information, visit facebook.com/cedarpetescarwash.

Photo provided

| NEW TO THE STREET | 15

IRS New Year’s Surprise On December 29th, the IRS issued a notice which came as a surprise to many employers. The IRS announced an automatic extension of the due dates for the 2015 reporting requirements for the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The due date for furnishing forms to individual employees has been extended from February 1, 2016 to March 31, 2016.

The due date for filing forms with the IRS has been extended from February 29, 2016 to May 31, 2016. If filing electronically, the due date has moved from March 31, 2016 to June 30, 2016.

As a reminder, the Affordable Care Act requires ALL employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to report what health coverage, if any, that the company provided to full time employees during 2015. Applicable Large Employers are required to report this information to both the IRS and any full-time employees that were employed during the year. There is transitional relief for employers between 50-99 employees, but this only applies to coverage, not reporting requirements.

LEE YARBOROUGH

CONTRIBUTE: Know of a business opening soon?

Email information to bjeffers@communityjournals.com.

>> elected as officers on the board of directors are president elect Bob Barreto of GBS Building Supply, and vice president James Speer of Carson Speer Builders. Ben Moseley of Heirloom Stair & Iron, Alan Wilson of Clark’s Termite and Pest Control, Matt Shouse of LS Homes, Matt Ruth of Mobius Construction, Thomas Dillard of Dillard-Jones Builders and Bill Kane of Ryan Homes were elected as members of the board.

HR The Greenville Society for Human Resources Management honored GHS with the Diversity and Inclusion Large Business Award. The award is presented annually to an organization that ranks above average in four key areas: CEO commitment to diversity and inclusion, human capital, corporate and organizational communication, and supplier diversity.

CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions & award winners may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

Although this feels like a gift from the IRS, it is important to continue to stay on task. The extension was granted because the ACA is a complex law with complicated reporting requirements. The Forms 1094 and 1095 require detailed information on the employees and use codes to convey the information.

This extension gives you some breathing room but not full relief.

Use these best practices to help guide you during this time: • Be prepared. Take this extra time and review your filings. Contact your PEO or payroll company and inquire about their progress. The ultimate liability falls on the individual company even if a payroll provider or insurance agent is completing the report. Make sure you understand the final forms.

• Don’t stall. Although it is a relief to have extra time, try to complete the reporting requirements as soon as possible. Do not wait until the final hour. Employees will need their 1095-C in order to complete their individual tax returns. The sooner they receive the form, the better.

• Inform employees. Many employees are not aware that they will need both their W-2 and 1095-C in order to complete their taxes for 2015. Send notice of this to your employees and also inform them of the extension as this will affect their personal tax returns.

Do not let this extension make you lose your focus. The best advice is to continue on your path to ACA reporting compliance as if this extension was never granted.

THE INBOX Stay in the know with UBJ’s free weekly email.

Sign up today: UpstateBusinessJournal.com

669 N. Academy Street, Greenville, SC 864.679.6055 | 800.446.6567 | www.propelhr.com

16 | THE FINE PRINT |

BUSINESS BRIEFS YOU CAN’ T MISS

NOSE DIVE $10 WEEKDAY LUNCH

UBJ

|

01.08.2016

Fluor awarded nuclear constuction contracts Westinghouse Electric Company awarded Fluor Corporation two subcontracts to manage the construction workforce at two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant projects in Georgia and in South Carolina.

As a subcontractor to Westinghouse, Fluor will manage the majority of construction labor at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 near Waynesboro, Ga., and at two additional nuclear electric generating units for SCANA/Santee Cooper at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Fairfield County, S.C. “We look forward to working with Westinghouse as one team to complete the construction of these two U.S. nuclear mega-projects,” said David Seaton, Fluor’s chairman and CEO. “These projects reconfirm our commitment to the nuclear power industry and are in line with our strategy to expand our construction footprint.”

Ten at the Top completed busy 2015 Ten at the Top (TATT) completed its busiest year since the organization was incorporated in 2009.

During 2015, TATT conducted 102 regional forums, meetings, presentations, workshops and programs with more than 3,250 participants from across the Upstate region.

“There are a lot of businesses and organizations doing great things to make the Upstate a leading place to live and do business,” said TATT Executive Director Dean Hybl. “Through Ten at the Top, organizations and leaders from across the region are connecting with others working on similar issues with the goals of minimizing duplication, increasing collective capacity and growing collaboration and regional networks.”

Since 2010, TATT has conducted 520 regional engagements with more than 26,000 total participants. The previous high mark for engagements during a year was 97 set in 2013.

TATT currently leads 24 task forces and committees where stakeholders from across the region are working together on regional opportunities to address issues including workforce and skill development, transportation and infrastructure, senior needs, education, air quality, child well-being and community vibrancy.

Realty office moving to Nebraska National Land Realty has restructured its operations and is moving its headquarters from Greenville to Omaha, Neb., following a merger with Land Pros Realty.

“We want to serve land sales and investment customers nationwide, so it makes sense to us that we locate our corporate offices in the heart of the country,” said Jason Walter, CEO of National Land Realty. “Our goal is simple: to become the largest land brokerage in the country. To do that, we have our eyes set on every geographic region.”

National Land Realty is a full-service real estate brokerage company specifically focused on land sales from timberland, farmland, hunting estates, plantations and residential estate properties. The company was founded in Greenville in 2007.

Artists’ Guild raises $18,000

116 South Main Street, Greenville SC 29601 | 864.373.7300 TheNoseDive.com Lunch and Dinner, Monday - Saturday | Sunday Brunch

Artists’ Guild of Spartanburg raised more than $18,000 at its recent Artists Going Live fundraiser to aid visual arts in the community.

The guild will use the funds for hosting collaborative events for professional artists to mentor aspiring artists.

The organization plans to create a platform for artists to share knowledge about creating, presenting and promoting themselves and their works. It also plans to use fundraiser proceeds to assist outreach programs for educational institutions in the region.

“This fundraiser was a very worthwhile and needed event for the guild,” said Artists Going Live Committee Member Brandi Dice. “The amount raised goes to show just how much support we have for the arts in our community.”

ipso creative.com

18 | #TRENDING |

INFORMATION YOU WANT TO KNOW

UBJ

OVERHEARD @ THE WATERCOOLER > Amy Richardson “Way to go Todd!! Proud of your passion, you will make things happen!” > Zach Hines “Nice job Todd Horne!!”

The top 5 stories from last week’s issue ranked by shareability score

>> 1,215

1. The Spartanburg Chamber’s new leaders have big plans for harnessing the city’s growing millennial base

RE: $4.9 DUKE-PIEDMONT DEAL GETS FTC APPROVAL

2. Upstate pulls in $1.3B in investment in 2015

RE: GIGABIT INTERNET: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

3. 7 new cottages coming to Village of West Greenville

RE: WHAT’S GREENVILLE’S PITCH?

> Karla Cherry Starks “Congrats to both of them. I remember Todd Horne when I worked at the Chamber as a great volunteer.” > Crystal Pace “These are the stories we need to tell, Spartanburg!!! Excited for the future of our city. #proud” > Mary Holmstrand “Congratulations to Todd! The Chamber is fortunate to have such a dedicated young man on board!” > Gary Daniels “About time.”

> Matthew Smith upstatebusinessjournal.com “Hey John, I’d love to talk more about this with you if you like. We’d also love to have you come to CoWork and discuss the ideas with us.

We’re hell bent on creating a rock solid brand for the city that’s worth sharing and doesn’t compare us to other Greenvilles but is the mark of a stand alone city that we all dearly love.

Robert Hughes, Nancy Whitworth and I have all been talking about this very issue. It’d be fun to discuss in more detail!”

>> WEIGH IN @ THE UBJ EXCHANGE Got something to offer?

Get it off your chest.

>> CONNECT WITH US We’re great at networking.

We’re looking for expert guest bloggers from all industries to contribute to the UBJ Exchange. Send posts or blog ideas to eprice@communityjournals.com.

LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/ UPSTATE-BUSINESS-JOURNAL FACEBOOK.COM/ THEUPSTATEBUSINESSJOURNAL @UPSTATEBIZ @ashleyboncimino

@ssimmons830

@SJackson_CJ

@jerrymsalley

@BenDavidJ

@clandrum

@amorris_CJ

>> 171

> Maureen Callahan “Evil Duke Energy poisons us and then raises our rates 5% to cover their fines.”

> @thekenworth “They just came by our house last week.

Never been so excited to see a salesman at the front door.” > Josh Lonon “These guys.”

01.08.2016

BIZ BUZZ

Distilled commentary from UBJ readers

RE: THE SPARTANBURG CHAMBER’S NEW LEADERS HAVE BIG PLANS FOR HARNESSING THE CITY’S GROWING MILLENNIAL BASE

|

have big plans Spartanburg Chamber The new leaders of the millennial base - p. 10 to harness the city’s growing

JANUARY 1, 2016

| VOL. 5 ISSUE 1

ard Of The Gu Changing

DIGITAL FLIPBOOK ARCHIVE >> The layout of print meets the convenience of the web: flip through the digital edition of any of our print issues at >> upstatebusinessjournal. com/past-issues

>> 89 >> 88 4. 4 New Year’s resolutions for a healthier workplace

>> 66 5. GSP reports 3-year monthly passenger record for October, November

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR EMAILS Follow up on the Upstate’s workweek in minutes.

Subscribe to our emails & receive The Inbox – our weekly rundown of the top 10 local biz stories you need to know – as well as breaking news alerts. It’s the best way to stay informed on the go. >> upstatebusinessjournal.com/email

ORDER A PRINT SUBSCRIPTION Style & substance are not mutually exclusive.

Our print issues look great in waiting rooms, lobbies and on coffee tables (where they age well, too). Order a year of UBJ in no time, and we’ll deliver every week. >> upstatebusinessjournal.com/ subscribe

UPSTATEBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM

01.08.2016

|

upstatebusinessjournal.com

DATE

EVENTS YOU SHOULD HAVE ON YOUR CALENDAR

| PLANNER | 19

EVENT INFO

WHERE DO I GO?

HOW DO I GO?

Quick Jobs with a Future Open House

Greenville Technical College Buck Mickel Center 216 S Pleasantburg Drive Greenville, 9 a.m.-noon

Cost: Free Register: bit.ly/quick-jobs-jan2016

1/13

NEXT Capital Series: Understanding Private Equity

NEXT Innovation Center 411 University Ridge, Greenville 4-5:30 p.m.

Cost: Free Register: bit.ly/next-dec2015

Thursday

Tech N Tinker Networking event for everyone interested in technology no matter the level of expertise

Growler Haus Spartanburg 113 N. Church St., Spartanburg 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Cost: Free Register: bit.ly/tech-jan2016

Doing Business Better: Learning LinkedIn Speaker: Lindsey Stemann, vice president of Intero Advisory

Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce 105 N. Pine St., Spartanburg 8:30-10:30 a.m.

Cost: $20 Chamber members, $40 nonmembers Register: bit.ly/dbb-jan2016

Tech After Five Networking for tech entrepreneurs

Pour Lounge 221 N. Main St., Greenville, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Cost: Free Register: bit.ly/taf-jan2016

FYI Friday with Todd Horne and Allen Smith Spartanburg’s Community Vision Plan

Spartanburg Marriott 299 N. Church St., Spartanburg 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

Cost: $15 Chamber members, $25 nonmembers Register: bit.ly/fyifriday-jan2016

Tuesday

1/12 Wednesday

1/14 Wednesday

1/20 Friday

1/22

CONTRIBUTE: Got a hot date? Submit event information for consideration to events@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

ART & PRODUCTION

IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

JAN. 22 THE MARKETING AND BRANDING ISSUE Getting the word out on local businesses.

ART DIRECTOR Whitney Fincannon

PRESIDENT/CEO

Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

UBJ PUBLISHER

ADVERTISING DESIGN Michael Allen

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Kristi Fortner

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE STORY IDEAS:

STAFF WRITERS

EVENTS:

DIGITAL TEAM Emily Price, Danielle Car

MARKETING & ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES Nicole Greer, Kristi Jennings, Donna Johnston, Annie Langston, Lindsay Oehman, Emily Yepes

DIRECTOR OF EVENTS & ACCOUNT STRATEGY

1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont office Center on Villa.

>>

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a “corporate gateway to the city.”

In 1997, Jackson and his son, Darrell, launched Jackson Motorsports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate planning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an auditorium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motorsports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expanded into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 years By sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and according to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit.

After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto industry in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Greenville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back upstairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

>>

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

also one of the few marketing companies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile application for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson marketing Group when larry sells his partnership in Detroit and lA 2003

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by BtoB magazine 4 years running

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-prof non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th anniversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retirement, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son, Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports Group employee base reaches 100 people

2008 2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation with Creative spirit Award

pro-bono/non-proFit / Clients lients American Red Cross of Western Carolinas Metropolitan Arts Council Artisphere Big League World Series The Wilds Advance SC South Carolina Charities, Inc. Aloft Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY nit inVolVeMent nitY in olV inV olVe VeMent & boarD positions lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board,

Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board

eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

AS SEEN IN

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Anita Harley, Jane Rogers

Jerry Salley jsalley@communityjournals.com Ashley Boncimino, Sherry Jackson, Benjamin Jeffers, Cindy Landrum, April A. Morris

jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years 1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

1988

Holly Hardin

CLIENT SERVICES

MANAGING EDITOR

UBJ milestone

OPERATIONS

Ryan L. Johnston rjohnston@communityjournals.com Susan Clary Simmons ssimmons@communityjournals.com

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

UBJ milestone

ideas@upstatebusinessjournal.com events@upstatebusinessjournal.com

NEW HIRES, PROMOTIONS, AND AWARDS: onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com UBJ welcomes expert commentary from business leaders on timely news topics related to their specialties.

Guest columns run 700-800 words.

Contact Executive Editor Susan Clary Simmons at ssimmons@communityjournals.com to submit an article for consideration.

Kate Madden

UP NEXT

Order a reprint today, PDFs available for $25. For more information, contact Anita Harley 864.679.1205 or aharley@communityjournals.com

DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA

JAN. 29 QUARTERLY CRE ISSUE The state of commercial real estate in the Upstate.

FEB. 19 THE TRANSPORTATION ISSUE Getting around in a growing region.

TWITTER: Follow us @UpstateBiz FACEBOOK: TheUpstateBusinessJournal LINKEDIN: Upstate Business Journal

publishers of

Got any thoughts? Care to contribute? Let us know at ideas@ upstatebusinessjournal.com.

Copyright ©2015 BY COMMUNITY JOURNALS LLC. All rights reserved. Upstate Business Journal is published weekly by Community Journals LLC. 581 Perry Ave., Greenville, South Carolina, 29611.

Upstate Business Journal is a free publication. Annual subscriptions (52 issues) can be purchased for $50. Postmaster: Send address changes to Upstate Business, P581 Perry Ave., Greenville, South Carolina, 29611. Printed in the USA.

Circulation Audit by 581 Perry Avenue, Greenville, SC 29611 | 864-679-1200 | communityjournals.com UBJ: For subscriptions, call 864-679-1240 | UpstateBusinessJournal.com