Editor's Welcome

by David Reed

May 15,2009

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job last year was to announce the winners of the inaugural Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards.

Socket President George Pfenenger was the Entrepreneur of the Year, Adam Guy was the Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Brock and Brant Bukowski were Serial Entrepreneurs of the Year, Paul Sturtz and David Wilson were Best Marketers of the Year, Kevin Keegan was Next Year’s Entrepreneur and Nick Peckham won the Career Achievement in Entrepreneurship.

The judgment of the judges was reinforced by the continued success of all of these entrepreneurs. That’s particularly true with Keegan; his high-tech business, Equinosis, recently moved into the MU Life Sciences Business Incubator. Socket continues to move in on the territory of larger competitors in Missouri and the Bukowski brothers have vastly expanded their company, the VA Mortgage Center. Peckham was a finalist for the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year, and the Sturtz-Wilson brainchild, the True/False Film Festival, was more popular than ever this year.

On a sad note, the luncheon speaker for the event at the Tiger Hotel, ABC Labs founder Charles Gehrke, died in February at age 91.

On Friday, I was involved in the judging for the Second Annual Entrepreneurship Excellence Awards. The winners will be announced during a banquet on Wednesday.

Because of the success of the inaugural event we decided to expand the program this year.

David Keller, president of The Bank of Missouri and sponsor, came up with the idea of adding an educational component to the event and linking the CBT awards with the Small Business Administration awards. That way, the local winners will be eligible for enter the competition for regional and national SBA awards.

A series of free educational programs will take place before the awards ceremony (details are in the advertisement below).

I went on KFRU’s early morning show last week to promote the event, and host David Lile asked me a simple question: Why is the CBT a sponsor for this event?

Sometimes the simplest open-ended questions are the hardest to answer. I explained that the CBTs mission, along with being a source of timely, comprehensive business news and a conduit for exchanging information and ideas, is to promote local businesses.

We love to profile interesting businesses and share their stories, which often provide valuable lessons for other members of the business community. I talked about how, considering the high failure rate for small businesses, all successful owners deserve recognition. That’s particularly true in these difficult economic times.

I really hope many of you come to the seminars and reserve a table for the awards banquet. I believe you’ll also find Entrepreneurial Excellence Week to be a rewarding experience.