The Inc. 500

Company Profiles

11. Parsons Technology Hiawatha, Iowa

Bob and Martha Parsons started their software company in the basement of their nine-room home in 1984. It was a family affair. Their 5-year-old daughter, affectionately nicknamed "the mailman," stacked envelopes while their 15-year-old son answered the phone. Back in the early 1980s Bob Parson's father joked that they should be sure to take a photograph of the basement brigade in case the company ever got big.

Eight years and 250 employees later the husband-and-wife team wish they had taken that picture. Known for its customer service, Parsons develops and sells affordable software used in small businesses, homes, and churches. MoneyCounts, still the company's premier product, grew out of a program Bob had originally developed to manage the family's finances.

So, is there anything to miss about those basement days? Bob Parsons says with a smile, "I miss the looks we'd get from our neighbors when the 18-wheeler pulled up to the front door."

35. Global Mail Sterling, Va.

If Fred Smith's Federal Express revolutionized mail delivery here at home, Harry Geller and Glenn Cafritz are taking the revolution abroad.

Their company, Global Mail, arranges delivery of business mail overseas in half the time and at half the cost of U.S. Postal Service delivery. "If the letter is late or lost, we refund the money or whatever the customer wants," Geller says. How does the company do all that? It shaves off 5% to 70% of typical labor costs by plugging into a network of private mail distributors.

Global Mail started life as a small, unprofitable division of the then-$50-million Sky Courier Network. When the division went on the block, in 1987, Geller and Cafritz, then Sky Courier employees, pooled their savings and bought it. Their dream is to see Global Mail outstrip its former parent in sales. At their present rate of growth, the partners think D-day is only five years away.

70. Educare Community Living Austin, Tex.

Whenever Richard Relyea feels weighed down by the pressures of running a fast-growth company, he closes his books and takes a drive to see his business at work. "It always lifts me up," he says. Which isn't surprising, since EduCare, started in 1986, moves the disabled from overcrowded, underfunded institutions and settles them into clean, spacious community housing.

Thanks to shrinking state budgets along with a shift away from institutional care, governments around the country are trying to place more patients back into the community, which is where EduCare comes in. Relyea outfits a home, puts a full-time staff in place, and cares for patients for 60% of what it costs a state to do so.

As for the payoff to the patients, Relyea says simply, "If you treat people as if they're different, they act different; but if you tell them they're better, they act better."

99. Center For Applied Psychology

King Of Prussia, Pa.

Larry Shapiro was a child psychologist frustrated by the limits of his sole practice. Working with emotionally disturbed children, he constantly felt overwhelmed by the vast number of children in need of help (7 million in this country) compared with the handful of trained therapists. Add to that the fact that most parents couldn't afford therapy.

So in 1985 Shapiro decided to build a business around an idea he used in his own practice: games. Selling to health professionals, institutions, and parents, Shapiro makes games, toys, and books, and distributes them through mail order. Although these tools don't replace therapy, at costs ranging from $10 for books to $50 for big board games, they make therapeutic approaches affordable and thus available to more children.

Shapiro says he's definitely happier as a businessman. "A therapist always has to keep his emotions in check. In business, I can yell whenever I want to."

163. McGinnis Farms Alpharetta, Ga.

Three years after Stanley Walker founded his nursery business, a tornado leveled his main office and warehouse. Today Walker calls the natural disaster a blessing. Not only did he post record sales that year, but the experience "created a bond and a sense of loyalty" among employer, employees, and customers. One customer even sent a check for $10,000 to help pay for the cleanup.

Before launching McGinnis Farms, in 1987, Walker had been the general manager for a variety of companies. Over and over, he learned that business is less about products than about people. Putting his theory into practice, he is an open-book manager, shares decision making, and offers 100% health coverage. Twice a year the company transforms itself for Customer Appreciation Day -- complete with big top, putting green, and dunking booth. "If customers don't like a price, they can ask salespeople to sit in the dunking chair." Walker jokes, "If someone gets real wet, I know I have to change some prices."

172. J. L. Honigberg & Associates Chicago

Janice Honigberg agrees with the old saying that God -- and success -- is in the details. "We don't do anything new here," she says. "We just do a lot of little things a little better than the rest do."

Selling premium fruits and vegetables to wholesalers and supermarkets since 1986, Honigberg has found her edge in the simple promises she makes and keeps every day. She has been known to drive where truckers refuse to go: when a blizzard shut down the mid-Atlantic market, for instance, she delivered the produce herself. To growers who are normally out of touch with their buyers, she feeds key facts about customer likes and dislikes.

Honigberg, like almost 90% of the Inc. 500 CEOs, spent years under the stewardship of others. At General Foods she learned consumer marketing; later at Phibro-Salomon and then Louis Dreyfus she immersed herself in international markets and sourcing abroad. She puts it quite simply: "In each position I learned one part of the puzzle."

211. Taggart Limited Cody, Wyo.

What do a fast-food restaurant, a gas station, a mining company, and a trucking company all have in common? Answer: one owner who gets bored easily.

James Taggart admits his is a motley collection, but points out that all his companies are in "basic industries -- low profile, low status, but profitable." An example: "A Kentucky Fried Chicken located in a small town outside the metro area," he says. "It's a deal with limited buyers, but that doesn't mean it's not profitable." Taggart confesses he relies heavily on great managers to hold his menagerie together. How does he find them? Heavy emphasis on a one-to two-hour psychological test for prospective hires. He adds, "Every time we've tried to discount the test, we end up regretting it."

Before launching his own company, in 1986, Taggart worked as an investment banker. Frankly, he says, "I got sick of doing deals for other people, and I hated wearing ties." As good a reason as any to start a company.

243. Ergodyne St. Paul, Minn.

Friends might have wondered if Tom Votel had lost his mind the day he agreed to take over his dad's company. Bankruptcy was a breath away, almost every employee had either quit or been fired, and after two years spent peddling its wares, Ergodyne still didn't have one customer. "All that was left was a stockroom clerk, a secretary, and me," Votel recalls. That was six years ago. Today Ergodyne nears sales of $30 million and is the largest producer of safety equipment for repetitive stress disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome.