Entrepreneur 2006 Finalists

Entrepreneur 2006 Finalists

15 FINALISTS by Isabelle Gan | Staff Writer

For the past eight years, the Review editors and staff have evaluated the performance and stories of the best entrepreneurs in the Sarasota-Manatee area. This year, that job expanded to finding the top entrepreneurs from Tampa Bay to Naples.

Selecting the final 15 (five from each region) was based on several factors: 1) The financial performance and employee growth of each entrepreneur's company over the last three years. 2) The details of that growth, what we call the "wow" factor: How did they do it? What kind of challenges did the entrepreneur overcome? What were the conditions of the individual's industry and the economic climate in which he opeerated?

Over the next week, the Review will continue to pare down the list. In next week's issue, we will name an overall winner and three regional winners from each area. Here are the top 15, listed alphabetically:

Tampa/St. Petersburg

Dean Akers

CEO, Ideal Image

2005 revenues: $25 million ($35-40 million when including franchise partners).

Akers took over as CEO of Ideal Image in 2004. The company, founded in 2001 by chiropractors Rick Mikles, his wife, Angela, and Joe Acebal, is aggressively trying to occupy a significant portion of the $2.5 billion laser hair removal market. Under Akers' watch, the company has grown from four clinics to 29. This year, he plans to open 100 locations. By 2007, Akers aims to increase locations owned by the company to 40% of its clinics. Next up after that: preparing for a possible IPO in 2007.

Geoffrey Dyer

Owner, Lifestyle Family Fitness

2005 revenues: $55.3 million.

Dyer has come a long way from his early days as a 22-year-old Oklahoma City fitness trainer in the 1970s. Back then, the Australia native was attracted to the fitness industry because of his own experience as an overweight teenager. He had improved his lifestyle through proper diet and exercise. A decade later, he moved to Florida and in 1982, he was given the chance to start his own business when a member of the health club he worked for offered him financial backing to start his own gym.

He opened his first fitness club in Lakeland. Two decades later, his business has become Florida's largest privately owned fitness chain, running 28 clubs in the Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Orlando and Sarasota areas.

Ian MacKechnie

Founder, Amscot

2006 revenues: $85 million.

MacKechnie was looking for a new opportunity after he sold his Tampa bakery company in the late 1980s. He saw the demand for convenient financial services after observing his employees cashing checks at a nearby convenience store. Seeking to capitalize on that niche, he opened the first Amscot store in 1989, setting it up as a financial services center with features including check cashing and money orders.

Today, the company has 117 locations throughout 14 Florida counties. There are 39 more locations scheduled to open this year, as the chain opens about one new store every 10 days, mostly around Interstate 4 interchnges.

Ajit Nair

CEO, Pro V International

2005 revenues: $10 million.

Nair has high ambitions for Pro V International, a start-up technology company that has grown exponentially since he founded it in 2003. The company hooks up computer systems and works on other computer-related projects for a variety of companies, mostly in health care, retail and manufacturing industries. Nair is known for his hand-on approach and being accessible to clients. Nair, a native of India, is projecting to grow his company to $16 million in revenues this year and go public within five years.

Mark Swanson

Investor, Tampa

2005 revenues: $5.7 million

(four separate companies).

Swanson has opened a business almost every year since he moved to the Bay area. In 2001, he started Bacchetta Bicycles, a company that has become one of the most successful US-based bicycle-manufacturing firms for high end bikes. It has more than 100 dealers, is generating about $150,000 a month in revenue and a 10% profit margin. In 2002, Swanson's neighbor asked for help in a business venture, an enterprise that would ultimately become Perk International, a promotional products firm. Swanson has become chairman of that company, which grew from $400,000 in sales in 2002 to $3.5 million in 2005. A year after starting Perk, he became involved in the formation of an IT security company and his latest venture is Telovations, a reseller in the (VoIP) Voice over the Internet Protocol industry.

Sarasota/Manatee

Steve Herrig

CEO Progressive Employer Services

2005 revenues: $29.2 million.

With its rapid growth through acquisitions and direct sales, Progressive Employer Services has doubled its business in the past year, making it one of the Top 10 of its kind in the state and one of the Top 20 in the country. As CEO, Herrig has guided the company through challenging times. Last year, the company made a big acquisition, buying Tampa-based Sunwest PEO of Florida, giving Progressive 525 more worksite employees.

Paul Mattison

Owner, Mattison's

2005 revenues: $7.4 million.

Mattison started his restaurant empire in 2001 when he opened Mattison's American Bistro and Catering Company in downtown St. Petersburg. In the next five years, he expanded quickly, starting Mattison's City Grille in downtown Sarasota, Mattison's Steakhouse at the Plaza on Longboat Key and Mattison's Siesta Grille on Siesta Key.

At the same time, Mattison grew his Longboat Key-based catering company, which grosses about $2 million annually. His newest enterprise is Mattison's Culinary Outfitters, a Longboat Key custom kitchen design center that offers kitchen products and appliances. He has expressed interest in expanding that business into a culinary supermarket, akin to what Circuit City has done for electronics.

Michael Miller

President and CEO, Waterford Companies

2005 revenues: $117 million

(2005 Entrepreneur finalist).

Even in a slowing market, Miller has continued to preside over significant growth at the Waterford Cos., largely because of his visionary style of management. Six years ago, recognizing the looming scarcity of developable land and the coming residential boom in Florida, Miller decided to shift his company away from its emphasis into commercial development and into the high-density condo business. That decision has paid off, making the 18-year-old company among the fastest growing development companies in the area.

Revenues have almost tripled since 2003, largely because of projects such as the Waterford on Venice Island, a 96-unit condominium on Venice Island and a proposed 73-acre multifamily project at Laurel Road and Knights Trail near Interstate 75.

Britt Williams

President, Bruce Williams Homes

2005 revenues: $101.4 million.

Williams is a second-generation homebuilder who runs Bruce Williams Homes with his brothers, Marshall and Reace; his father, Lloyd Williams, founded the firm. Since taking over the business in 2000, Britt Williams has led the company through a tremendous growth period. In 2004, the Manatee Home Builders Association named the company its Home Builder of the Year. It is one of the fastest growing private companies in the Gulf Coast, with revenues increasing by more than 87% in the last two years.

John Williams

President, Gould & Lamb Healthcare Consultants

2005 revenues: $19.8 million

(2005 Entrepreneur finalist).

John Williams heads Gould and Lamb, an industry leader in what's known as the Medicare Set Aside industry; the company has an estimated 35% of the national market share.

Williams joined the company in 2001 when his mother and stepfather, Janice and Mike Gould, offered him a job with their life-care planning consulting business. Back then, the company earned annual revenues of about $400,000. Williams is projecting another high growth year in 2006. The company has reported an increase in its referral volume by 65% in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2005. 

Lee/Collier/Charlotte

Steven Camposano

President, High Velocity

2005 revenues: $4.9 million.

Camposano is on track to fulfill his ambitious target: $60 million in revenues by 2015. His company, which provides hurricane shutter consulting, design, engineering, manufacturing and installation, grew its revenues 172% last year. This year, company officials estimate revenues will reach up to $10 million.

When Camposano started the company in 2001, he introduced his idea for an accordion shutter, a design that was sturdy enough to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds but could be manually operated by a homeowner. Recently, the company patented the first-ever motorized accordion shutter, which it says can easily wrap around building curves and large areas.

Dr. Daniel Dosoretz

CEO, Radiation Therapy Services

2005 revenues: $227 million.

Dr. Dosoretz is relying on the most up-to-date radiation technology to grow Radiation Therapy Services, owner of the 21st Century Oncology treatment centers. Last year, for example, the company spent $16 million to install several next generation radiation therapy machines, called steteotactic radio surgery systems, in its centers along the Gulf Coast and in Las Vegas. The company has lined up $100 million in financing for the next seven years to fund more upgrades.

Dr. Dosoretz is hoping that by providing the best and the newest equipment, the company will continue on its pattern of growth. So far, his strategy has been working. The company is the largest operator of radiation treatment centers in the United States; it owns 56 free-standing centers and 12 hospital-based treatment centers in 14 states.

Todd Gates

Co-founder, President and CEO,

Gates Mcvey

2005 revenues: $150 million.

Gates started out as a young stucco laborer in Naples in the early 1980s and worked his way up into the entrepreneurial world. In 1993, he started Gates Building Systems, a general contracting firm specializing in commercial projects. Business in Naples was so good that he decided to expand and start Gates McVey Builders in 1995 with partner James McVey. The company specializes in commercial construction, including hotels, office buildings, shopping centers, restaurants and medical facilities. He has continued the branching out philosophy, opening a development and mortgage firm as well as a subsidiary that converts hotels into condominiums.

Brian Stock

Owner, Stock Development

2005 revenues: $1.88 Billion.

Stock has lofty ambitions for Stock Development, a firm that has already seen extraordinary growth the past three years: He continues to expect at least an annual 25% growth rate for the company. Stock, who started the company in 2001 with his father, K.C. Stock, runs the day-to-day operations. Stock Development has generated this rapid growth by controlling virtually every step of the home buying process in communities it develops, from sales to construction, mortgages, title insurance and interior design.

Among the company's recent high-profile jobs is the Murdock Village Redevelopment project in Charlotte County.

Jerry Williams

Chairman President and

CEO, Orion Bancorp

2005 revenues: $101 million.

In 1987, Williams was a member of a small group that purchased the former First National Bank of the Florida Keys in Marathon. Seven years later, he acquired controlling interest in the bank and expanded the franchise to Southwest Florida with the establishment of Gulf Coast National Bank.

In 2002, the two financial institutions were combined under the Orion name. Orion Bancorp is now the largest privately owned, independent bank holding company headquartered on the west coast of Florida. It operates 18 branches in Collier, Lee, Sarasota and Palm Beach counties as well as maintaining a presence in its first home, the Keys.