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Success Stories

Picture of Robert Magbee

In 1954, in Atlanta, two brothers founded Magbee Contractors Supply, a small family-owned business that specializes in providing building material and products to professional builders. Over the years, as the city of Atlanta grew, the company grew from a two-person operation into a large regional supplier that currently employs more than 185 workers. Magbee’s success and growth has not come without its share of challenges and setbacks. 

 In 1992, Robert Magbee, a son of one of the founders, became the CEO. Magbee continued to grow the business until the great recession caused the housing market to crash. Revenue started dwindling as fewer houses were being built. As a former accountant, Magbee knew he had to find a way to reduce expenses and free up cash flow. Despite his company’s track record of success and established relationships with area lenders, he was denied several working capital loans. “The recession made us as risky as a startup in the bank’s eyes and they would... Read More

Kevin Boykin opened Path-Tec, a medical logistics company that specializes in the packaging, transport and tracking of laboratory specimens, in 2005. With the guidance and support from the Columbus office of the Georgia SBDC, he has grown the business from operating out of a cramped rental storage unit to owning a 130,000 square-foot facility that now employs more than 150 people.

After developing the entrepreneurial bug and hearing customers complain about rising laboratory costs and testing errors, he knew his vison for better products and services would work. Kevin leveraged more than 20 years of experience in the medical field that includes sales, manufacturing and laboratory operations, along with his can-do attitude and a desire to meets the needs of the market that were not being addressed to launch the business.

Along the way he has received immeasurable support from his local SBDC office, ranging from basic business idea development counseling, to access to... Read More

Family picture

Encouragement from family, friends and faith prompted James Sasser to turn his dream of entrepreneurship into a reality. That dream birthed GovStrive, a HUBZone certified business located in Dublin, Georgia. This family owned and operated company was founded by James and his wife Jennie in January 2014. “As an entrepreneur, starting GovStrive was an opportunity to break from corporate America and build a company with a vision that I believed in – to do meaningful work with great people,” James expressed.

Using his more than fourteen years of top-tier professional services consulting experience, James has built a company which currently employs 43 dedicated employees and draws from an even larger community of partners and contractors to provide a wide range of Federal HR consulting and advisory services. James was familiar with SBA and its mission, but it wasn’t until he started GovStrive that he realized the myriad of resources SBA had available. After... Read More

Woman standing by office doors

Demetrica Berry, known by her friends as Deme, founded Berry Technology Solutions in 2005. BTS is a Georgia women owned small business that specializes in enterprise IT data solutions.

After more than a decade of working as a traveling senior IT consultant with one of the largest firms in the world, Deme wanted a job that was just as rewarding, but allowed her to spend more time with her family. Frustrated by not being able to find the work-life balance she wanted in her current role, she decided to make the “perfect job.” After much prayer and encouragement, I knew I could do the work I loved and still be able to enjoy my family,” Deme triumphantly exclaims.

Stepping out on faith, she founded the company while sitting at her kitchen table in the southern Atlanta suburb of Newnan. What started as an idea, borne out of frustration, has grown from a one-person, at-home operation into a corporation that employs 38 full-time employees and 10 independent... Read More

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