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Black History Month SBA Success Story
Topp Knotch was certified in March 1998 as an 8(a) firm to provide professional, administration, clerical and administrative office support staffing solutions and staff augmentation services. This dynamic company was was founded in 1995 by Diedria Joseph, an African American woman from New Orleans, La.
In February, 2000, the company received its first contract in the amount of $325,000 to provide office support to the Veterans Administration Medical Center. Later that year, Topp Knotch Personnel received another contract valued at $275,000 to provide data entry processor staffing to the USDA National Finance Center. In March, 2002 the company received a contract from Lockheed Martin valued at $870,000 to provide support staff for the Mailroom and Help Desk.
Since its inception, Topp Knotch Personnel, Inc. has employed over 10,000+ employees that are proficient in such industries as Medical Billing, Data Entry, Medical Clerk, Mailroom Support Staff, Temporary Help services, Systems Administrators, Facilities Support Services, Human Resources and Nurses.
Topp Knotch has expanded and established offices in Houston, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Conroe, Texas.
The company has extended its offerings, not only specializing in contract and direct hire staffing solutions, but also offers drug testing and background check services; skills testing & assessment; on-site management; vendor management; purchasing and procurement; and payroll services.
In 2011, Topp Knotch Personnel was featured as one of the “SBA 100” success story companies that have created at least 100 jobs since receiving SBA assistance.
Company Name: Topp Knotch Personnel, Inc.
Contact: Diedria B. Joseph, President; diedria@tkpsi.com
Address: 401 Whitney Avenue Suite 312
New Orleans, Louisiana 70058
Phone Number: (504) 376-8770
http://www.tkpsi.com
SBA loan helps Total Woman wardrobe women for success
Total Woman originated on the North shore in Covington in 1979 and expanded its operation to Uptown New Orleans on Magazine Street nearly 10 years ago. Cindy Molezion Conde is the chief executive officer of Total Woman. Conde was born in New Orleans in 1959 and studied Art at the University of New Orleans in the late 70s. She got her first job at First NBC bank in 1981. Her banking career ended in when she resigned from First Bank & Trust as the President in Marketing 27 years later. “I decided that it was time for me to dedicate my skills and talents to managing my own business and I began to research opportunities to purchase an established business,” Conde said.
Through a group of local business brokers Conde was made aware of Total Woman being for sale and she began the process of negotiating with the previous owners in January 2008. On April 30, 2009, with the help of a $210,000 U.S. Small Business Administration loan through First NBC Bank, Conde closed on the purchase of Total Woman and successfully transitioned ownership of the business without disruption.
While clothing women in New Orleans and the surrounding markets for over 30 years Total Woman offers a mix of classic and fashion forward clothes to women of all ages. The Total Woman customer is a college student, a young mom, the professional career woman and the retiree.
“We wardrobe a woman from work to play and from night to day,” Conde said. “We teach women how to interchange their wardrobe to create many different looks.”
Total Woman’s goal is to give every customer a fun and comfortable shopping experience that empowers them with confidence and shows them that every woman has the right to feel beautiful. Total Woman customers trust that they will seek out new designers and bring them the best that fashion has to offer to keep them on trend while knowing that what we bring to the store is not in today and out tomorrow.
Total Woman is located in the heart of the shopping district on Magazine Street. Sales have grown steadily over the past few years since the acquisition of Total Woman in April 2009. The staff strives each day to develop new strategies to build on their client base by identifying and targeting similar client profiles. Total Woman improved those efforts significantly with social media through Facebook and Twitter, internal email marketing with promotional offers, with its website presence as well as with print marketing in local magazines such as the New Orleans Magazine and the St. Charles Avenue Magazine.
Giving back through Community Service is also important to Total Woman. The company partners with various non-profit organizations throughout the New Orleans and with various fundraisers such as the New Orleans Mission, Children’s Hospital, NDF, SPCA, The Children’s Museum, NOCCA, and more.
“The role of the Small Business Administration and the significance and impact it has had in my life over the last few years is enormous. Without the instruction, guidance and training it offered me through the local Urban League of New Orleans Office and the funding facilitated through First NBC Bank for my acquisition of Total Woman, I would not have been afforded the opportunity for entrepreneurship.” said Conde.
After almost three and a half Total Woman is continuing to see growth and progress and Conde plans to build the company’s brand and expand operations into other markets.
St. Martin Brown & Associates- New Orleans, LA
St. Martin Brown & Associates, LLP is a design, planning, and project management consulting firm formed in December 2005 by Joseph St. Martin and Deron Brown. Together both Brown and Martin have over twenty years of combined expertise in planning and architectural design in projects ranging from $50K to over $400M. The company is recognized in the design of a range of building types including department of defense, adaptive reuse, frisked based operation terminals, casinos, churches, convention centers, entertainment/themed projects, resorts, hotels office buildings, and recreational facilities.
The company’s mission is to achieve excellence in design through the orchestration of a highly skilled professional team working together to communicate and express our client’s needs and visions making them reality. Awards and Designation include: Official Architecture Firm of the New Orleans Saints; the 2009 Excellence in Construction of the New Orleans and Bayou Chapter of ABC and ; Reinventing the Crescent 2008 ASLA Honor Award in Analysis and Planning.
Mr. St. Martin is the CEO of St. Martin Brown & Associates, LLP. His career expertise has afforded him the extensive knowledge in urban planning, historical restoration, damage inspections, emergency planning and management, and community based design. In 2005, St. Martin Brown & Associates was selected to lead the recovery planning process for 4 of the city’s most devastated planning districts. The area comprised over 75% of the city’s landmass. Over the years, with the assistance of its Small Business Administration certification as an 8(a) firm, Joseph has been able to evolve the firm from a two person operation to now over 10 employees. With continued growth in the design and management field St. Martin Brown is providing support staff to manage the $1.8 billion School rebuilding program as well as the multibillion City of New Orleans Federal Grants Management program.
Recently St. Martin Brown was selected by ESPN to lead a new inspirational makeover series for high school athletic facilities around the country. The pilot episode for ESPN “Rise Up” was shot here in New Orleans at McMain Secondary School. On the show, St. Martin Brown and Associates, LLP rebuilds the damaged athletic facilities at McMain Secondary School. The show was very inspirational and breathtaking causing some of the coaching staff and parents of the students to shed tears because they finally felt someone cared about them. The show was so well received the network decided to create a full series. St. Martin Brown is currently under contract to manage and oversee there seasons totaling 20 episodes. Season One is currently underway with episodes being shot in Chicago, Ohio, Boston and Seattle. The one hour long episodes are set to air on ESPN 1 beginning September 13, 2011 thru October 4, 2011 and will run each consecutive Tuesday night at 7:00pm ET, 6:00pm CT.
Mr. St. Martin said “I love helping other people especially when they need help” Mr. St. Martin also finds time to provide back to the local community. For the last three years he has served as a commissioner for the Audubon Commission. He is also a board member of the newly formed (C.L.A.S.S.) Fannie C. Williams Charter School and LSU School of Architecture Professional Advisory Board.
