Seven area businesses win Fuse awards for innovation

Annual awards also honor entrepreneurship and community service

By Bethany Nolan 331-4373 | bnolan@heraldt.com
October 26, 2007

Local business leaders gathered Thursday for the third annual Fuse Business Innovation Awards, where seven innovative and entrepreneurial “brands to watch” were honored.

“Innovation is key to the success of the local economy, and much of it happens at the small business level,” emcee Keith Kline with Ivy Tech Community College said. “You’re the backbone of the community’s economy.”

Rebecca Ryan with Next Generation Consulting was the featured speaker. Her company has collected information from 20- to 40-year-olds about what they’re looking for in the workplace.

And that, she told attendees, is a work-life balance.

Instead of asking upfront about pay, more younger people in the workplace are interested in a company’s vacation policy, she said.

Talking about her own life when she learned her father was terminally ill, she offered an example given her by a hospice nurse.

Each of us have five balls in our life, she said. One is rubber, the other four are glass. The rubber ball represents your work. If you drop it, it will come back. But the other four balls — representing your family, friends, health and integrity — will shatter if they’re dropped.

“You need to pay attention to those glass balls,” she said. “You need to pay attention to your employees.”

Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan declared that each small business that locates in Bloomington adds to the “unique flavor” of the city.

The Fuse awards are co-sponsored by the South Central Small Business Development Center and inVenture, Bloomington’s technology business incubator.

And the winners are ...

• Bill & Gayle Cook Entrepreneur of the Year: Walnut Grove Spring Water. This award is given to a company that exhibits growth and sound management, is at least 5 years old and has fewer than 50 employees.

• Entrepreneurial Growth Award: Option Six Inc. This award is given to a business that has demonstrated 30 percent or greater revenue growth during the past two years combined, is at least 2 years old and has fewer than 50 employees.

• Innovative Business of the Year: Hanapin Marketing LLC. This award is given to a company that has changed an industry or consumers’ lives, is at least 2 years old and has fewer than 50 employees.

• Microenterprise of the Year: Spectrum Studio Inc. This award is given to an individual who represents the characteristics of an entrepreneur, including creativity, initiative and vision; exhibits stable growth and enterprise; has fewer than five employees, is at least three years old and was started with less than $35,000.

• Community Service Award: T.I.S. Group. This award is given to a company whose volunteer and/or pro bono work has enriched the community.

• Social Entrepreneur of the Year: WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology. This award is given to a nonprofit organization that exhibits innovative thinking, sound management and impacts the community; is at least 5 years old and has at least three full-time employees.

• Small Business Advocate of the Year: Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association. This award is given to a group that supports small business and works to improve conditions for entrepreneurs.