Entrepreneur defies the odds, creates haven for employees-as-family JON BUTTS admits that “everyone thought I was crazy” for walking away from what had been a well-paying and stable job in the middle of a recession. He started his own company, Muscle Up Marketing, in 2011 with $1,000 and no outside investors. A non-compete agreement with a former employer forced him to drive 130 miles a day roundtrip and build his business out of the back of his wife’s cousin’s insurance company. “On paper, all the odds were against me,” says Butts, who earned a logistics degree in 2004. It required strength to survive, let alone thrive. That initial $1,000 investment has paid off handsomely. The Roswell, Georgia-based company, a full-service agency specializing in direct marketing campaigns for gyms and other member-based businesses, ranked 40th on the Inc. 5,000 list of fastest-growing companies in 2015 after achieving 5,967 percent sales growth over a three-year period. “Of those 39 ahead of us, I highly doubt there are any that started with only $1,000,” Butts says. The company also won its category in the 2016 Top Tigers awards presented by the Harbert College to the fastest-growing companies founded, owned, or led by Auburn alumni. The company has also earned a spot on the “Best Places to Work” list compiled by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Butts says much of the company’s growth has resulted, to a large extent, from its laser focus on valuing its employees. He puts these values into action by treating
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the office to lunch every other Friday, and allowing partial telecommuting so employees don’t have to neglect family. “I really look at my employees as my second family,” he says. “Not having an employee quit in over four years is an amazing feat in this day and age. I believe it shows that I truly invest in people and strive to provide them the best environment to help them flourish.”
Jon, (center), with Dean Hardgrave and Kevin Harrington of Shark Tank.
not working, Ken “lives and breathes” his guitars and enjoys watching his son’s travel baseball team.
Ashley Wurst Barba
Heather G. Boozer (’08,
human resources management) provides business counseling in the Small Business Development Center at The University of Alabama-Huntsville. “Entrepreneurship is my passion,” she says. “It gives the world character. Without entrepreneurs, the business world would lack innovation, growth, and culture.” Heather helps small businesses navigate a host of issues, including business plan development, accounting and financial analysis, human resources, marketing, and social media. She also owns Inspiring Awe Events, an event planning company. She and her husband, Justin, also a 2008 Auburn graduate, have two children: Lily, who is 6; and Easton, who is 3.
(’08, marketing) passed the CFP exam in March 2016 and has embarked on a new career in financial planAmy Canafax Acevedo (’05, accounting) mar- ning as an associate with TrueWealth in ried Adrian Acevedo in Cabo San Lucas, Atlanta. Mexico, in January 2016. They incorporated their favorite sports teams—the Auburn Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers—into their wedding. “At the end of his vows, my husband yelled, ‘War Eagle!’,” she says. Amy also earned a promotion to director of managed services for Southern California for Robert Half Technology in April. Brent Barker (’04, finance) serves as senior product analyst for HCA Healthcare in Nashville, Tennessee. He was married in June of 2015 and enjoys listening to live Sarah J. Brierley (’03, business administramusic at any of Nashville’s “amazing music tion) works as fleet services manager for venues.” Georgia Power Company in Atlanta.
Ken Armstrong
(’02, management information systems) serves as delivery lead and senior solution architect for Rego Consulting near Atlanta, Georgia. When he’s
Brett Barnett (’02, management information Owen Brown systems) serves as PMO manager for FIS Global in Orlando, Florida. He enjoys visiting Disney World and Universal Studios with his family.
(’06, accounting; ’07, MAcc) serves as an assistant professor of accounting at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He and his wife, Erin, who earned a pair of accounting degrees from the Harbert Col-
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