GAINESVILLE – The annual “Entrepreneurs: Masters of Innovation” celebration honored seven individuals Wednesday morning at the Brenau Downtown Center.
The eighth iteration of the event started by Featherbone Communiversity founder Gus Whalen continues its effort to showcase local individuals who create and propagate local businesses.
The seven honorees are listed below with a brief description of how they earned the distinction of being named a Master of Innovation, as well as a brief comment from the message they shared with the audience and a link (where available) to their business website.
Clay Adams of Rustic Trades Furniture. Adams said as newlyweds looking to furnish their new home but having little money, he decided to use his limited carpentry skills to build his bride a dining room table as a wedding present.
He said he created a blog to document his efforts at building the table and allow friends and family members watch his progress. “As a result of that blog, it went viral, business started from there.”
Demand has grown steadily since that event a decade ago but Adams continues to rely on the internet to grow his business. “They (buyers) have to find you first…that’s the importance of social media…it’s important to represent a great brand and a story…something that really connects with the emotional aspect to the customer.”
Pap Datta of Left Nut Brewing Company. Datta says his business also started as a hobby. After 30-years in the corporate world of technology, Datta says one day, while on a business trip, he learned something that shook his world.
He said while touring a micro-brewery he was told, “’You know, you can make beer at home.’ I went. ‘Wow!’” That seminal moment led to Datta leaving the corporate world in 2013 and embarking on an effort to open his own micro-brewery.
He confided that Gainesville was not his first choice of locations, but frustrations with his effort to build in north Fulton County and an invitation from the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce to consider Hall County led to Gainesville being his decision.
Datta advised the audience, “When you open your own business you’re going to work harder than you ever worked before; you’re going to work longer hours; you’re going to worry more…however, at the end of the day you're wanting to get up the next morning (and do it again) because it is yours.”
Jack Frost of Memorial Park Funeral Home. Frost credits a traveling salesman trying to sell him a cemetery plot for helping him decide to leave the low-paying job he had in a flour mill and begin selling funeral services.
Frost said in his career he has owned more than 100 cemeteries and funeral homes across the southeast. In 1988 he decided to sell them and eventually move to Gainesville, where he purchased what he described as,“a place not to be desired,”: Memorial Park.
Extensive renovations followed and today Memorial Park is a leader in funeral services. In 2008 he opened Memorial Park North on Thompson Bridge Road, followed by Memorial Park South in Flowery Branch and plans to open Memorial Park Braselton later this month.
Frost says hiring the right people is his greatest challenge. “The key to our business is personnel…our business is a sensitive business, one dealing with death. We had to have people that knew how to talk and respond to people that were there in a matter of stress at a time of death.”
Wes Hunt of Homestar Financial. Hunt founded Homestar in 2002 when the economy was strong, but soon came the Great Recession of 2008, a time that tested and tempered lending companies worldwide.
Homestar survived and today employs 600 people in a dozen states. Hunt says that through the tough times, as well as during the times of prosperity, his team never lost sight of an important fact: “We deal with data, we deal with documents but we also deal with people’s lives. That’s something we can’t ever forget.”
Hunt said, “Behind the paper that we’re looking at is an individual who is waiting to close on a new home or a child that’s waiting to spend their first night in their own bedroom.”
Angel Retana, restaurateur.
Retana started his career in food service by washing dishes. He then was able to purchase a truck and began selling tacos from the vehicle. Today he owns the Gainesville Seafood Market, El Carreton Taqueria and Fajitas Mexican Restaurant. He is also very active in the Boys and Girls Club of Hall County and with the Northeast Georgia Medical Center.
Retana says a big part of his business philosophy is giving back to the community. “Giving back is just part of business; it’s good business.”
James Southard of SouthCo & Associates. In 2014 Southard was a student at UNG and worked part time in a warehouse for a company that sells tools. Soon afterwards he decided to go out on his own, and according to his press bio, did so “on a shoestring budget and a lot of heart.”
Today Southard’s startup is a multimillion-dollar diverse tool supplier and professional installation organization. Recenty Southard added “Restroom Stalls and All” and “Hardware Doors and More” to his stable of subsidiary companies.
Southard’s told the audience his motto has been: “Be stubborn with your goals but flexible with your methods.”
Dixie Truelove of Truelove Dairy. Truelove says she and her brother took over operations at the dairy business started by their father and uncle in 1954.
She related her childhood memories of how a small dairy farm was operated decades ago compared to how it is operated today. Her descriptive account of how “product purity” has improved since her youth had everyone chuckling.
Truelove said of milk collected into large metal cans when she was a child: “It sat outside in the sun, with the flies buzzing around.”
“Today the milk is cooled to 37-degrees immediately after milking; the truck is refrigerated that comes to pick it up, and really, until you open the jug in your home, nobody has touched it. Milk is always in some enclosed environment before it ends up in your home.”
As to operating a business with her brother, Truelove says there can be disagreements and tension, but, “the one thing about family is they always show up.” She said that kind of loyalty is the strength of her business. “There’s more positives than negatives about working with family.”
