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Small Business Standouts Receive RecognitionChamber Names Finalists for Small Business of the Year AwardThe U.S. Chamber has selected seven regional finalists for its Small Business of the Year Award. One of them will receive the award during America's Small Business Summit 2008 in Washington, D.C., April 16-18. The regional finalists and the 55 Blue Ribbon award winners will also be honored at the summit.
The Small Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Sam's Club, recognizes a business for demonstrating excellence in financial performance and business history, staff training and motivation, community involvement, customer service, and business planning.
Businesses with fewer than 250 employees and gross revenues of less than $10 million are eligible.
Northwest
Gracewinds Perinatal Services, Inc. Gracewinds Perinatal Services, Inc., provides childbirth education; massage, acupuncture, and doula services; and lactation counseling. Since opening in 2002 with six providers, Gracewinds has grown to 33 subcontracted providers and three employees, all of whom are fully credentialed. Gracewinds currently contracts with several Seattle area hospitals to provide education and lactation consultation.
Gracewinds' on-site retail store, The Peapod Birth and Book Store, features products from women-owned businesses, which account for 30% of the store's inventory. CEO Christine Wallace also founded a nonprofit group, Northwest Enterprising Moms, to promote business
development and education for local business owners who are mothers. Distinctions:
 Western
Tredway, Lumsdaine & Doyle LLP When the Tredway, Lumsdaine & Doyle LLP law firm was established in 1961, it had one attorney and one employee. Today, the firm has three offices in Southern California.
In 2007, the firm reached out to its customer base through newsletters and legal updates. It also revamped its Web site and three blogs, including its award-winning California Estate Planning blog.
Tredway also operates a speakers bureau for community groups and organizations interested in learning about employment and harassment issues and plans to expand this service to cover other topics.
Distinctions:
Southwest
Mammen Glass & Mirror, Inc. Mammen Glass & Mirror, Inc., has carved out a niche for itself as the first independent company to produce heat-treated, or tempered, glass in the Dallas/Fort Worth market and the first company in the area capable of producing curved glass. The company is now expanding into the laminated glass industry. Mammen's primary customers include home owners, builders, and store fixture manufacturers.
Founded as an auto glass company in 1956, this third-generation family-owned business offers employee bonuses, nominates employees for national recognition, and encourages and helps them write articles for trade publications.
Distinctions:
Eastern
Seconn Fabrication Seconn Fabrication is a precision sheet metal fabricator that has designed racks for Starbucks, light fixtures for Target, and custom parts for more than 200 other firms.
Borrowing $250,000 from his father-in-law in 2003, Marelli started the business with just four employees and a rented 5,000 square-foot space. Now the company has 66 full-time and six part-time employees, $5.5 million in machinery, and has plans to almost double its current 35,000 square-foot manufacturing facility. Seconn Fabrication is on pace to become the largest sheet metal fabricator in New England by 2010.
Distinctions:
Great Lakes
Abstract Displays, Inc. Abstract Displays, Inc., is a designer and producer of displays, graphics, banners, and structures for trade shows, sales and marketing materials, and corporate events. Just months after starting the business in 2001, Carla Eng was diagnosed with cancer. The Engs scheduled treatments around work and moved forward with their business plan, which was built on a philosophy of reinvesting profits into additional staffing, equipment, and technology.
Abstract Displays outgrew three warehouses within its first five years and has experienced a 941% increase in sales revenue since it opened. Last year, the Engs purchased a 39,000 square-foot facility and now have 17 full-time employees.
Distinctions:
Midwest
 Location: Burnsville, MinnesotaPresident and Owner: Darlene Miller Web site: www.permacindustries.com Permac Industries At a time when manufacturing jobs are being lost to offshore producers, Permac Industries continues to find new customers and increase sales. The company, which manufactures precision machine parts for a wide range of industries, doubled the size of its plant in 2007 and increased profits by 15%.
Led by Darlene Miller, a former Permac sales representative who took over the company in 1994, Permac has grown from a simple screw machine shop into a state-of-the-art precision machining company. Permac prides itself on being "the cleanest shop in town"
and invites customers to tour its manufacturing facilities. Distinctions:
Southeast
Bayshore Solutions Bayshore Solutions provides Internet development, marketing, and hosting for such companies as Carnival Cruise Lines and the Carlyle Group. The company started with three employees and a marketing plan to sell three-page Web sites for $500 each. As Internet use exploded in the late 1990s, Bayshore expanded into Web hosting and began building larger Web sites priced as high as $50,000.
The company moved forward on an initial public offering, raised millions of dollars in angel investments, and opened six offices before the Internet bubble burst in late 2000. After a new CEO and a new business plan were put into place, Bayshore Solutions experienced a strong recovery, posting gross revenue profits of $4.7 million in 2006.
Distinctions:
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