Business Times Company wins Columbia Small Business of the Year

Columbia Missourian

COLUMBIA — When the Business Times Company was announced as the winner of the 2017 Small Business of the Year, deafening cheers and whistles filled The Roof in the Broadway Hotel on Thursday.

The company, which owns the Columbia Business Times magazine, was among five finalists for the prize, which is awarded by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. The other companies included TrueSon Exteriors, AnnaBelle Events, Tompkins Homes and Development, and Harold's Doughnuts.

Last year's winner was Logboat Brewing Company.

"This is going to sound cliché, but I was so surprised," Business Times Company President Erica Pefferman said. "I had myself convinced that while we were so happy to be a finalist, but we weren't going to win because I didn't want to get anybody's hopes up."

The awards ceremony was held as a part of Small Business Week. Each finalist was presented with a plaque from the Chamber of Commerce.

Being nominated is a validation of the work put into a small business, AnnaBelle Events owner Anne Churchill said.

"I think the biggest thing is that as an entrepreneur and working for yourself, there's a lot of self-doubt," Churchill said. "This is a great thing to be able to look at and say the community really knows we are here and is as invested in us as we are invested in them."

The other finalists were Columbia Business Times's clients, which made the situation interesting, Pefferman said. 

"You want them to win because you are happy for them — they're your clients," Pefferman said. "But you also want your team to be recognized, so it was very conflicting."

Pefferman said the company, though around since 1994, has grown in the past three years from 11 to 22 employees.

"It's icing on the cake. The cake is our job," Pefferman said. "We really love what we do every day, so this is like the sprinkles on the icing on the cake."

Pefferman's friends mobbed her after the award announcement to give their congratulations. She deserved the award, friend Mary Ropp said.

"Erica Pefferman — in her personal, professional, whatever it is — she's going to build a tribe," Ropp said. "The tribe is going to follow her to greatness because she is so great and because she loves the tribe back. She gives more to the tribe than the tribe gives to her."

The award asserted what the magazine works to do, Pefferman said.

"Today, I had a lot of anxiety," Pefferman said. "What I learned is, it is a wonderful acknowledgment, but it doesn't change what we are doing everyday. It doesn't change who we are as a team. It gives an affirmation of what we are doing, but it doesn't validate who we are."

Pefferman said that the award was nice, but the real takeaway was that the Columbia Business Times will continue to pursue what it has been already been doing.

"We are going to continue to tell the great stories of Columbia," Pefferman said. "We are geeked out Columbia people. Everyone is excited and passionate about Columbia and telling those stories."

As for what's in the immediate future, as Pefferman said during the awards ceremony, "Ain't no party like a CBT party."