March 29, 2024

Small Business 2014

It's a growth environment for women entrepreneurs in Florida

Florida ranks as the 6th-fastest-growing state for women entrepreneurs.

Inside the Contour Day Spa, LuLu Cosmetics sells a full line of makeup products made without perfumes, fillers or parabens under the name LuLu Cosmetics. The company originally launched in 2004 in a small spa called Pamper Me in Plantation. It represents an evolution into retail for Carola Seminario, a native of Peru and formerly a national makeup expert for Chanel and an international expert for Revlon's Marcella Borghese line.

In addition to the store inside Plantation-based Contour, Seminario sells her Lulu Cosmetics through her website, at trade shows, conferences and in Flamingo Beauty Supply in Miami, where they are marketed to distributors for stores and spas in South and Central America. Seminario says she named the makeup line after the nickname for her daughter, Luciana.

Like most entrepreneurs, Seminario she has learned from experience and mistakes. "When I first started, I had 200 colors of eye shadows, and now I have 18 colOrs. Little by little I have learned to manufacture with better quality and narrow the choices." Today, the Lulu cosmetics line includes makeup products, skincare items and candles. The best sellers, she says, are her lipsticks, baked mineral powder and concealers.

Seminario, a licensed esthetician and makeup artist, says she also offers makeup instruction and application. A single mom, Seminario says the business generates enough sales to support her family, with an average ticket between $80 and $300. "Customers usually come back because they like the feel of the makeup," she says.

Fanit Panofsky, owner of Contour Day Spa, one of the largest free-standing day spas in the country, says she has been impressed with Seminario's customer following. "People come from all over to buy her makeup and have her put it on. She also sells a lot online — UPS is here all the time. But what's important is that people like her product. She has a lot of repeat business."

Mettron Contracting's handiwork is both visible and invisible throughout the campus of Florida A&M University. Tallahassee-based Mettron has provided plumbing, fire lines or underground utilities work everywhere from the multipurpose center to dorms to sports fields. In some instances, Mettron has worked as the subcontractor; in others it serves as the primary contractor. Over the last three years, it has served as construction manager in a joint venture for the remodeling of the $10.5-million Gore Educational Complex.

Sharen Parrish Hannah, president, and her husband, Caleb, vice president, founded Mettron Contracting, a certified minority-owned business, 12 years ago. Hannah, a civil engineer and attorney, says her husband works at job sites while she runs the administrative side of the business, overseeing project management and safety and quality control. The company survived the recession that wiped out some of its competitors by preparing for the downturn and rightsizing in advance. Fortunately, she says, some prerecession projects provided work during the slowdown for her small crew. Hannah isn't convinced the recession is completely over and projects that the economic rebound will take hold this year in Florida's construction industry.

In late 2013, Mettron had four ongoing projects for Florida A&M and the city of Tallahassee. Those included the university's new pharmacy school and its new 800-bed dormitory, both multimilliondollar projects. The challenge for the company, Hannah says, is staffing and keeping the workflow consistent. "We always have a ready supply of laborers. The issue is trying to make sure when a project is ready you are ready." The company has several possible large projects that could come through this year, including one for the Department of Transportation in the Orlando area, where the firm recently has reopened an office it closed in 2008.

Before the economic downturn, Hannah says the company had revenue of more than $2 million and dozens of projects, including site work and utilities for Windsor Park Office Plaza in Orlando and the Florida A&M University Development Research School. Mettron nearly hit the million-dollar mark again in 2013 and hopes to see revenue rise this year.

Derek Wallace, chairman of Construct Two Group in Orlando, a construction management firm that Mettron has subcontracted work from, says what distinguishes Mettron "is that if anything unforeseen comes up, I know they can handle it. No project goes perfect, but with them, I feel confident they will get to the finish line on time."

The idea to launch Encompas Unlimited, which makes and sells endoscopy products, started with Marybeth Flynn's mom, Mary Elizabeth, an emergency room nurse who spent more than a decade working in hospitals. Mary Elizabeth designed her first product in 1977 — an instrument rack to hang endoscopes straight on a wall. The instruments allow physicians to see inside a person's upper gastrointestinal tract. More than three decades later, the hanging rack continues to be a top seller in the Encompas product line.

Flynn, who has been at the helm for nearly two decades, says the last few years have been challenging for the Sarasota company due to increasing global competition and changes in health care. She differentiates herself, she says, by offering great customer service, shipping on demand and by touting her company as woman-owned and her products as latexfree and made in the U.S.

"A lot of our customers have been with us for 30-plus years," Flynn says. "They know we make a quality product and have never had a problem. They know they can depend on us." Flynn says she has decided to keep her business relatively small and focus on customer service. "So far, we found by doing that people will be loyal to you." The company generates more than $1 million a year in sales and has five employees, she says.

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