Top Women Owned Businesses - 2011

Page 7

TOP WOMEN OWNED BUSINESSES

$0-$1.49 MILLION

Doreen Bolhuis Gymco inc. president and Ceo

$0-$1.49 MILLION

D

oreen Bolhuis turned her passion for athletics into a successful business venture that turns 31 years old this

year. Bolhuis earned a degree in education from Central Michigan University, where she majored in physical education and minored in recreation. She then taught and coached gymnastics in the East Grand Rapids school system. In 1977, she founded OAK Gymnastics. Just three years later, she started Gymco Inc. Today, her company has 18 employees and sports-and-fitness sales that reach nearly $1.5 million each year. Bolhuis has been so successful with Gymco that she started two spinoffs related to her core enterprise: Fitsmart Productions and Motion Evolution.

The Centerline, Mich., native is a wellknown businesswoman in the region, with a commitment to volunteer activity. Her board memberships include the Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center, Inforum, the Huntington Bank Women’s Advisory Board and the East Paris Business Association. The GR Chamber chose Bolhuis as its Small Business Person of the Year in 2004, and she was a finalist for the same honor at the state level that year. Her firm has been named one of the region’s Best and Brightest to Work For for five consecutive years. This year marks the third time Bolhuis has been honored by the Business Journal for her business acumen. Her first award came in 2005.

Kimberly L. Downey Complete investigations LLC Admirroration LLC and Admirroration Franchise management president

$0-$1.49 MILLION

K

imberly Downey is on the case. The founder of Complete Investigations LLC in 2004 and licensed private investigator operates a business that offers services in insurance fraud investigations, pre-trail investigations, surveillance, background profiling, interviews, missing persons, witness location and cellular phone forensics. The Central Michigan University graduate has majors in sociology and criminal justice — with a social work emphasis — and has shown her entrepreneurial versatility by operating Admirroration LLC and Admirroration Franchise Management. Founder of both companies in 2008, Complete Investigations was generating

more than $500,000 in revenue within its first three years, becoming a WBENC certified minority business owner in 2007. Admirroration LLC operates as a local multi-level advertising forum for Grand Rapids businesses. The franchise management function was created on the same business model. Franchises are sold and

managed within the company. Admirroration has successfully created multimedia advertising networks within communities by installing “smart” advertising mirrors within high-traffic businesses. Once the mirrors are installed throughout a community, Admirroration enables local businesses, advertisers and brands to target millions of consumers daily with a 65 percent recall rate. Admirroration manages eight franchises in five states. The franchises were sold in less than two years from inception while Downey continued to operate her two other businesses. She has been featured in publications nationally and in Europe.

Grand rapids Business Journal supplement Top Women oWned Businesses 7

2011 TWOB Supplement.indd 7

2/22/11 5:10 PM


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