Darlene Brown
Real Estate Partners Chattanooga, LLC
One of the most recognized and successful real estate sales firms in the Chattanooga area is Real Estate Partners. Darlene Brown, Gina Sakich and Adelia Mosley have assembled a team of 34 professional sales agents – 30 of whom are women. Their energy and drive have brought residential living back to the downtown area and resulted in a revitalization of local urban living. Brown serves as managing broker and co-owner of the nearly three-year-old company. Sakich is also an owner and broker and focuses on sales, while Mosley is the firm’s marketing director. Brown and Sakich are part of a successful real estate sales team that includes Belinda Winslett.
“I wanted the opportunity to streamline and simplify,” says Brown, who has more than 35 years in the industry, “to make decisions knowledgeably, but quickly, without all the procedures and processes in place that are necessary in a larger corporate environment. I think it has allowed us to adjust and respond to the market and the changing needs of our clients quickly and effectively.”
Real Estate Partners has been recognized as the number one real estate company in downtown and North Chattanooga, achieving sales records and accomplishing the largest one-day real estate sale in the city’s history with the sale of 74 condominiums in one night at Museum Bluffs Parkview.
Routinely, the partners are called upon to host visitors from outside Chattanooga because of their market knowledge and insights on the quality of life in the city.
Brown, Sakich and Mosley are active in civic affairs, as well, taking a hands-on approach in the mentoring and professional development of women, particularly those interested in pursuing careers in real estate. Their pioneering efforts in real estate have led to the successful marketing of numerous landmark properties in Chattanooga, including the historic Loveman’s Building at 800 Market Street, which was successfully redeveloped into Chattanooga’s first urban condominiums, paving the way for numerous other successful ventures.
“I surround myself with like-minded women and women who have strengths and talents in areas and fields other than my own,” Brown says. “That took away some of the trepidation I had about a business start-up. Empowerment, accountability and responsibility are key. ‘Partners’ is more than our name – it is our business philosophy, and this company would not exist without the hard work, dedication and talents of my partners.”
Kim Campbell
Chattanooga Closet Company
When Kim Campbell started the Chattanooga Closet Company in 1998, she relied on the advice of experienced friends and the staff of the Small Business Development Center. With an office in her home, $20,000 in capital, donated warehouse space and a used van, she had also done her homework.
“When I went out to speak to the owners of other closet companies, they were generous with information,” she says. “I am not one to reinvent the wheel – I looked at how I could implement my business model and be successful in Chattanooga. It began when my sister-in-law and her husband moved to Nashville and had their closets done. I looked at her house and said, ‘I can do this!’ Then, the pieces fell together.”
The foundation for a successful business, advises Campbell, is the solid relationship between the service provider and the customer. Since its inception, the Chattanooga Closet Company has experienced phenomenal growth, and even in difficult times the venture has continued to operate successfully.
“I think it is true for any business, but particularly so for women, that we are relationship based,” says Campbell. “Our business is very personal – we are working with people in their homes. We look at the full service we provide, from the time the telephone rings until we walk out of the house, leave a small gift, and follow up with a survey. We have succeeded because of repeat business, and our customers are people we get to know and take care of. We build customer loyalty for a lifetime – just this week we had half a dozen repeat customers come back.”
Ann Coulter
Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson
A founding partner of Kennedy, Coulter, Rushing & Watson – a strategic planning and communications firm that provides services for companies and communities – Ann Coulter has served as Chattanooga’s director of economic and community development and executive director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency. From 2000 to 2005, she served as executive vice president of the RiverCity Company, Chattanooga’s private nonprofit downtown development firm. Coulter also authored the strategic plan for the $120 million revitalization of the city’s riverfront, which was concluded in 2005.
Twelve years ago, Coulter and six other local leaders founded the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute, an organization dedicated to the advancement of women in leadership positions across a broad spectrum of endeavors that today has more than 100 members. “Although business is an important component of the Institute’s work, it includes civic involvement, nonprofit or for-profit companies, government and more,” explains Coulter.
“Barriers have existed for women in business,” she says, “and women hold some of these views, as well as men. For example, some may believe that women are not as competent as men in executive positions. So you have got to be persistent because you will bump into those attitudes – they are out there. I have never approached business from that perspective. Business is all about service and competence, working in teams with people coming together so that customers realize the value of a diverse team. Success in business depends on responsiveness, quality and service.”
Coulter’s advice for women going into business is really no different from what she would offer to men: “Be competent to sell what you intend to sell, and continue to get better at it,” she says, “and be optimistic because the environment is very competitive.”
Heidi Hefferlin
Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects
Ten years ago, Heidi Hefferlin and husband Craig Kronenberg established an architectural firm that has since garnered numerous design awards and earned a reputation for excellence. With 11 employees and projects underway with such entities as the Chattanooga Housing Authority, Alstom and an investment group working to develop a downtown hotel, Hefferlin + Kronenberg offers design expertise to a diverse clientele.
“Two things really have contributed to our success,” comments Hefferlin. “The first is the quality of our design; the second is that we are not specialized in a single segment of the market. We do industrial and institutional work, as well as custom homes and more. As a design-oriented architectural firm, all of our designs are specific to the client and the individual project. This kind of focus makes us unique.”
Networking has been a key to success for Hefferlin, as well. She says that her involvement with the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute has helped facilitate her efforts. “People do business with people they like,” she says, “and social networking for business has historically been stronger for men. So it is a challenge to get into the right circles, but getting involved in the Women’s Leadership Institute has allowed me to meet more business owners and decision makers.”
Hefferlin grew up in Chattanooga, moved away for 20 years, and then returned at the urging of family members. She recognized the potential for a progressive architectural firm, which the city’s downtown and riverfront renaissance provided. Aggressive marketing and renewing local contacts have been key components of the firm’s growth over the last decade.
Beverly Inman-Ebel
TLC, Talk Listen Communicate, LLC
For nearly three decades, Beverly Inman-Ebel has provided customized seminars, executive coaching, meeting facilitation, keynote speaking and other services to businesses through TLC, Talk Listen Communicate, LLC. Her company was recognized as a Small Business of the Year Award winner locally in 2000, and Inman-Ebel was named International Woman Entrepreneur of 2004-2006 by the World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (FCEM).
“When I started in 1981, women going into business for themselves was still a relatively new thing,” recalls Inman-Ebel. “Bankers did not want to talk to me about borrowing, and I remember a leasing agent laughing when I asked about looking at some office space. Today, the playing field is much more level, and great strides have been made with equal opportunity to borrow, but there are still some challenges.”
Inman-Ebel is currently serving a three-year term with the National Women’s Business Council, which interacts with the president, Congress, the Small Business Administration and other government entities on issues facing women in business. For those women contemplating going into business, Inman-Ebel offers, “Do it! It isn’t always easy – the hours can be long, but the rewards are tremendous. You set your own ceiling and your own floor.”
Carolyn Jones
C.J. Enterprises, Inc.
When Carolyn Jones and husband Edward G. Jones founded C. J. Health Records Consulting Service of Chattanooga in their basement in 1980, neither one of them could have envisioned the success of their company over the next 30 years. Today, C. J. Enterprises, which provides medical records technology and servicing, employs over 100 people with offices in Chattanooga; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Paducah, Ky.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Tampa, Fla.; and Atlanta, Ga.
“I didn’t have a clue,” says Jones, who learned a great deal about business while working at Motown Records in Detroit during the 1960s. “We just started this business to be together, travel and see some of the world while we made a living,” she says. “It worked out and started growing from there.”
The business landscape has changed considerably for women since the 1980s, but Jones has maintained a strong focus on basic principles. “Put God first,” she advises. “Pray about every contract you bid on and about every aspect of your business, even in hiring the right people.
Back when we started, people didn’t take women business owners as seriously as they do today. I believe some people looked at women in business like they were doing it as a hobby instead of for profit. Now there are more women-owned businesses, and men are more receptive to the idea.”
Active in the National Association of Women Business Owners, Jones sees value in such organizations and advocates membership. “They have brought more attention to women business owners and provided a lot of support,” she says. “Anyone thinking about going into business has to be prepared to work at it 25/8 – not just 24/7. Make sure that you are doing something you love and that your family will support you because they will have to sacrifice, as well.”
Eileen Mason and Evelyn Wheeler
Chattanooga Coffee Company and Chattz Coffee
“I think, more than anything, that we are grateful and amazed,” says Evelyn Wheeler, who co-founded the Chattanooga Coffee Company and Chattz Coffee along with Eileen Mason in 2002. “For two years we were working 12 hours a day trying to learn how the store should function, building relationships with people, and training our staff,” recalls Wheeler. “The reward for us is that people recognize that we have a quality product and appreciate what we have to offer.”
Mason and Wheeler first went into business together to start a travel company, which they still own, specializing in tours of the Middle East and Europe. Several years ago, they realized that a second business venture would be needed to assist in sustaining the first. Their enjoyment of coffeehouses led the two to solicit advice from business professionals. An owner of a coffee roasting company on the West Coast offered to teach them the art of roasting.
Chattz Coffee is complemented by a wholesale operation, the Chattanooga Coffee Company, which supplies fresh-roasted coffee to offices, restaurants and hotels and ships to customers around the country. Plans are underway to relocate the Chattanooga Coffee Company and Chattz Coffee to a combined retail and roasting facility at 2627 Broad Street, which will allow the public to not only enjoy great coffee, but also view the roasting process.
The owners of the Chattanooga Coffee Company and Chattz Coffee say they are grateful that their enterprise has been recognized by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce as a Small Business of the Year and nominated twice for the Best of the Best by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Maggie, Sally and Susan Moses
212 Market Restaurant
When Sally Moses was waiting tables at a local establishment in 1992, her family already had plans to open 212 Market, a popular downtown restaurant. She overheard a group of men at one of her tables discussing the future of the site where the restaurant is now located. One of them remarked that the restaurant would not be successful and that he intended to build an office building there. Several years later, the same individual brought a group of visitors to 212 Market, citing the family-owned restaurant as a success in a revitalized downtown Chattanooga.
Maggie Moses and her daughters, Sally and Susan, have committed themselves to success since their first day of operations at 212 Market. Maggie is a registered dietician and does most of the baking and bookkeeping, while Susan, as the executive chef, handles ordering and runs the kitchen. Sally handles the storefront, deals with stocking wine and sometimes “plays” in the kitchen.
“As far as being women, it may have been an advantage for us,” Sally reflects. “We didn’t take anything for granted. I am sure we all had big, hairy butterflies in our stomachs, but it has moved along well. We made a lot of mistakes, but since we have been our own bosses, we have been able to change things as we go along. When we opened, we were told that Chattanooga didn’t want our kind of food, but I guess that has been proven wrong. We instill caring and attention to detail in everything we do.”
The Moses family is proud that 212 Market was the first certified “green” restaurant in Tennessee. Local food has been served, and the staff has been recycling since the beginning. Vegetable scraps are composted and meat scraps go to the Chattanooga Nature Center to feed their endangered red wolves.
Ola Phipps
Lady Bug Exterminating Company, Inc.
In December, Lady Bug Extermina-ting Company, Inc. celebrates 28 years in business. The secret to the company’s success is really no secret at all: Ola Phipps, the company’s founder, is no stranger to hard work.
Phipps’ interest in the exterminating business began when she called a pest control company and did not receive quality service. She subsequently asked for a job and was given the opportunity to work for the company where she learned the basics of the pest control business. After working with the exterminating company for a period of time, Ola had to go into the hospital for surgery. At the same time, she requested and was denied a raise.
When she returned to servicing her customers, she realized that they had waited for her to come back and that she had developed a loyal following. “The customers all said they wanted to wait for Ola to come back and take care of them,” she says. That, along with being denied a raise, prompted her to get her own license and embark on a new adventure as a business owner.
For Phipps, the greatest challenge was one that many women have experienced. Customers who contacted her for service routinely asked when the “man” would be coming out. “I would just tell them that I am the one that will be handling their service,” she says. “Four people work with me now. My office manager, Debbie Tucker, has been with me for 21 years – and I still run a route.”
Through the years, Phipps has maintained a common sense approach to business, and she advises others to relentlessly pursue their dream. “If someone sees a career they want to pursue and they put their mind to it, work hard and be a team player, they can do anything they want to do,” she says. “Don’t give up, and if it doesn’t work out, then go on to something else. Luckily, I have never had to borrow a nickel. If I needed something, I bought it; if I couldn’t afford it, I waited until I could pay for it.”