Small biz winners: six Indiana companies receive state small business administration accolades.

PRIYA WHARTON, OWNER and president of Tri Star Engineering in Bedford, is Indiana's 2004 Small Business Person of the Year, as chosen by the Indiana office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Celebrating small businesses across the state that have survived and thrived thanks to hard work and a creative spirit has been an annual tradition for the Indiana SBA. The following small businesses and business people will be honored during Indiana's Small Business Week, June 6-12.

SMALL BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR Priya Wharton, Tri Star Engineering, Bedford

Priya Wharton switched from working for the Army to the Navy when she moved from Michigan to Indiana in 1982 to work for Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. After 15 years as a civil service engineer working on combat and communications systems, she decided to form her own company in 1995, Tri Star Engineering in Bedford, and become a contractor and subcontractor for the Navy.

Today, Tri Star employs 140 people, 67 in Indiana and the rest where major naval operations are housed, including San Diego; Washington, D.C.; and Hampton, Virginia. "We have some people in Iraq," says Wharton, who adds that their jobs and their where abouts are classified. "As a small company, we really are making a difference."

The company designs and provides technical and engineering services in radar systems, night vision, electronic warfare and satellite communications installed on ships. This newest award comes after receiving the Blue Chip Enterprise Award and the Indiana Growth 100 award.

Tri Star got off to a good start with an SBA line of credit, says Wharton, but it really took off when she applied for and received an SBA 8(a) certification lot minority and woman-owned businesses in 1997, making it easier to get federal contracts. She's a firm believer that the government needs to do more to help small businesses succeed and give them a lair share of government business. Sales last year totaled $12.7 million,

A native of India, Wharton serves on Indiana's Minority and Women Business Development Commission. "We're trying to make a difference. The state has so much to learn," she says. She thinks the state should require that 20 to 30 percent of its work go to small businesses. "The state should impose it on the prime contractors."

Working for the Navy, Wharton says she often hears the comment: "There's not a lot of water in Indiana." "I say, 'Hey, a lot of good things come out of the Midwest.'" But her lifetime to southern Indiana, Crane Naval Depot, is in danger of being cut. If it's shut down, she says Tri Star's headquarters would move to one of her other office locations.

SBA YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS AWARD Andy and Chad Baker, Indoor Signs, Bloomington

Twenty-five year old twins Andy and Chad Baker, from Nashville, Tenn., have been entrepreneuring together since they were kids. They both decided to attend Indiana University in Bloomington, and bought, placed and stocked gumball vending machines around town to help pay the steep out-of-state tuition and housing.

Just before their senior year in management they decided to drop out and start the new business. "We didn't need to fill out an application to work for ourselves," says Andy Baker But he suddenly found himself spending more time at the library than he did as a student, researching the components that go into their etched acrylic signs illuminated with LED lights, their first product

The research paid off, he says, and sales of the signs--targeted to bars, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels and convenience stores--have been brisk. That's mainly because they make the rounds at trade shows so customers can see them lit up in red, blue or green and order them on the spot, instead of deciding to buy from a troy picture in a catalog They also offer customization of the signs, something many other companies do not. Components are manufactured to the company's specifications in different locations outside Indiana and are etched and assembled here. They're sold nationwide, in Canada and in Europe.

The Baker twins' second product, already producing half its income and expected to do even better is distribution of a three-foot Drink Tower. It replaces the old fashioned pitcher at the restaurant or bar table, dispensing beer, sob drinks and iced tea. The company sold a product made in France but due to problems including its high cost and that country's "work ethic and work strikes," says Andy Baker, they will begin producing an improved model in China, cutting their costs by a third This will allow them to market at a better price point to companies like Cools and Coca-Cola, which have been only minor customers until now.

SMALL BUSINESS EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Mike Harmon, E.V.S. Ltd., South Bend 

Mike Harmon started Emergency Vehicle Seating in 1993 after a stint in the van conversion business. He acquired a patent from an Ohio company and used it to manufacture the EVS1800 HiBAC Safety Seat to transport uninjured children in ambulances and rescue vehicles. He improved on the original design to make it comply with the OSHA standard for the removal of blood-borne pathogens by eliminating the stitching and making it seamless.

"This is a patented child seat that is not available from any other source," says Harmon. "That's why the business has grown." Sales at E.V.S have grown steadily at 30 percent a year, he says, and exports have grown at about the same rate, continuing to comprise about 15 to 20 percent of total sales. Exports are primarily to Canada and England right now, but his dealer in England is getting ready to expand onto the mainland. Sales to the Middle East are also increasing.

When he was starting out, Harmon obtained a $50,000 SBA loan, one of the first companies to use the "short form" process. He used the loan to purchase equipment and was able to pay it back two to three years early. "They helped in the beginning. That's what they're set up to do."

How did Harmon succeed in exporting, and what can others learn from him? "It was finding a niche," he says. "If we were just manufacturing a seat as a seat, we probably wouldn't be doing very much exporting. It's continually looking for ways to transport children safely." Every small company needs to find that niche, he stresses, otherwise, you can't compete in the world market.

FAMILY-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR Vickie Temple, Bloomington Hardware Co.

Changing circumstances dictated the path of Vickie Temple's career, but after 13 years at the helm of Bloomington Hardware, she says, "It's the best job in the world."

Shortly after she married John Temple, whose grandfather had bought the hardware store 1928, they decided it was time to move it from its old location on the downtown square. That required money. They remortgaged both their houses, borrowed money from the SBA, and cashed in stock in order to build a 12,000-square-foot store on College Mall Road, opened in 1985. Vickie was now a 50-50 owner, with the title of secretary/ treasurer, while keeping her full-time job at Ameritech.

In 1991, leukemia took her husband's life and Vickie stepped in as president of the company. When you're laced with a loss, you become driven, she says. She wasn't going to be responsible for losing the roof over her family's head, or losing the family business. "It wasn't very long before I absolutely fell in love with it. I liked the physicalness of stocking shelves, helping people, the one-on one interaction."

The big-box hardware stores, which have led to the demise of some smaller ones, weren't around when she took over. Now that they are, Temple says Bloomington Hardware is keeping up with the competition. She's constantly trying to get the right product mix for her customer base, and discovered long ago that hers is not a store to sell housewares and Cuisinarts. "Our full-time employees give better service. We work hard on knowledge."

MINORITY SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE Gwen Jones, Sheer Elegance Draperies, Blinds and More, Bloomington

Gwen Jones, like any small-business owner, knows the importance of spreading the word about her company to attract new customers. After all she's worked hard for the last eight years to provide custom, quality window treatments, establishing solid relationships with reliable job shops that meet her rigid specifications.

But she's also aware that as the head of a black-owned business in a city that's only about 3 to 4 percent black, she has a responsibility to promote minority owned businesses in general. That's why she spearheaded the publication of a directory of African-American businesses in Bloomington last year, earning her the Minority Small Business Advocate award. The directory, featuring about 15 companies, has been distributed at the visitors' center, the convention center, to the Girl Scouts and area churches. "Our goal is to let people know we're out there. People don't know we exist. It's an inexpensive way to promote products."

At an early meeting to discuss the directory, it was suggested that a Bloomington Black Business Association be formed. Although she says that wasn't her personal goal, she joined in and helped create the organization, which now has 22 members and is a year old this month. About 70 percent of the members are business owners; the rest are professionals in need of a good place to network.

SMALL BUSINESS JOURNALIST

Marco Dominguez, WIIH Univision Indiana, Indianapolis

For his work in bringing the first Spanish language TV station, WIIH Channel 17, to Indianapolis last year, Marcos Dominguez was given the Small Business Journalist award. He came to Indiana in 1980 from Venezuela and received degrees from Vincennes University and Butler University in radio and TV production. He began operating his own TV production house in his native country in 1984, but returned to Butler to begin work on a master's degree in 1993.

Shortly after returning to Indianapolis, Dominguez was tapped as a producer for Butler's TV station, WTBU, and was later made its executive producer. When he was approached to become the station manager and on-air news personality for WIIN, he couldn't refuse.

"Univision is the largest Hispanic network in the world," says Dominguez. "We were very fortunate to bring Univision here to Indianapolis because of the fact that LIN TV, the one that owns WISH-TV, saw the need of the growing Hispanic community."

Although other Spanish channels can be accessed by cable and satellite, he says Univision is unique because it offers the only local newscasts. "When we came aboard, everybody loved it." They could now receive the same local weather, school closings and Amber alerts that other local stations offered. In addition, he says the estimated 45,000 households that tune in--originally from such places as Mexico, Argentina and Latin America--can get an all-important "10 seconds to two minutes of news" daily about their home country.