Patrick
07-14-2004, 12:50 PM
Well, Bricktown continues to diversify in its tenants and I think that's good. A growing company in Bricktown is relocating their offices to the upper floors of the Miller Jackson Building on the canal. I think this is great news. I think a great mix of clients is what Bricktown needs. I've always envisioned offices or loft apartments in the upper floors of the warehouses, with restaurants and retail at canal and street level.
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Anyways, here's the article:
"City company grows at fast pace
By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman
One of the nation's fastest-growing private businesses has made its home in Oklahoma City's flourishing Bricktown entertainment district, but it is neither restaurant nor national retail chain.
If Long Wave Inc. has an unfamiliar ring to it, perhaps it's because it has quietly grown from a tiny office in the Glass building at 120 E Sheridan to an office suite of nearly 5,000 square feet.
Long Wave was recognized last year as a member of the Inc. magazine 500 for its 387 percent growth in the previous five years, one of only two Oklahoma businesses to make the list. It was honored in April as a member of the magazine's Inner City 100, which recognizes the 100 fastest-growing companies in the nation's inner cities.
Phillip C. Miller, the company's founder and president, said Long Wave will be recognized again when the Inc. 500 is released in October. Its revenue grew from $2.2 million in 2002 to about $5.5 million last year, Miller said.
It has grown from one person in 1995 to 90 employees today, 50 of whom work in Oklahoma. Later this year, Miller said Long Wave will move to the Miller Jackson building along the Bricktown canal and expand its office space to nearly 10,000 square feet.
"The company is doubling in size every year," Miller said. "Our revenue in 2004 is going to be close to $10 million. I told the people inside the company that our goal is to make it five years in a row. When you make it five years in a row you go into the Inc. Hall of Fame. This year there are only four companies that made it five years in a row, and we have a real good opportunity to make it."
Long Wave is a high-tech government contracting business that deals in very low frequency radio communications between U.S. Navy airplanes and submarines operating throughout the world. It services a Naval unit at Tinker Air Force Base that flies E-6B aircraft used to communicate with submarines by trailing long antennas out the back.
Long Wave does what is known as propagation analysis for the Navy, assessing the effectiveness and range of the very low frequency VLF radio signals the aircraft emit.
A former program manager for the giant defense contractor Rockwell International before starting what he called a "one-man government contracting business," Miller founded the company in his Dallas home in 1995. He won the contract to service the Navy's unit at Tinker, and that brought him to Oklahoma every few weeks.
Soon, Miller began making the commute to Oklahoma City every week, then three times a week. That led him to rent an apartment near downtown, although he and his wife of 33 years, Billie, still maintained their home in Dallas.
"I would have clothes at both places and just drive back and forth," Miller said. "We started having some people work out of my apartment. Pretty soon I had two, three, four, five, six people working out of my apartment. I was living in one bedroom, and in the other bedroom and the living room, we had people working. I said this was crazy. I've got to have an office."
Miller rented a small office in Bricktown.
"The reason we moved to Bricktown is Bricktown happens to be a HUBZone," he said. "It's a really good program.
"The HUBZone program is the only preference program that doesn't depend upon who the owner is; it depends upon where the business is and where the people in the business live."
Miller said Long Wave bid on six federal contracts three years ago and won them all. It has since expanded its focus beyond low frequency communications radio signals to include other military communications and information technology services.
Along the way, Miller and Long Wave have received assistance from Lynda Speller, program manager of the procurement technical assistance center at Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City. She said Miller's background working for Rockwell helped him in building his business.
"He finds key people who are highly talented," she said. "They are able to put together strong proposals that address the needs. Phil is easy to work with, very unassuming, but he gets the job done."
Speller said Miller's "entrepreneurial spirit" has led him into some different areas. For instance, in July 2002 he bought a small software company called DocSoft that maintained an office in the Glass building. DocSoft has grown from three people to 10 under Miller's ownership.
Last year, he founded South 20, a company that is producing high-quality wood shingles from wood harvested in South America.
Miller, 55, was a recent finalist for the 2004 Southwest Area Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and was one of only two Oklahomans who were award finalists.
"He does think outside the box," Speller said. "He's willing to look at diversification into other fields, and to survive in business today, you have to keep an open mind."
Despite the fast growth and recognition that has come along with it, Miller said he has no desire to take Long Wave to publicly owned status by selling stock.
"I'm absolutely convinced that's a bad thing to do," he said. "I worked for a big company for 20 years. In any big company, they are only interested in the bottom line, making their numbers every quarter, the stockholders, all that kind of stuff. That's all they're interested in, and it's awful.
"With me, if I don't make my quarter, I don't care. It's more important to do the right thing for the customer than to make the quarter. And, oh, by the way, when you do that, you end up making more money."
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Additional insert:
All about HUBZones
HUBZones are defined as historically underutilized business zones. The Small Business Administration's HUBZone Empowerment Contracting Program stimulates economic development and creates jobs in urban and rural communities by providing Federal contracting preferences to small businesses.
HUBZone qualifications: A qualifying business must be a small business by SBA size standards; its principal office must be within a HUBZone, which includes lands on federally recognized Indian reservations; it must be owned and controlled by one or more U.S. citizens; at least 35 percent of its employees must reside in a HUBZone.
Oklahoma HUBZones: Many areas of the state qualify because of high unemployment rates, average income or because it is defined as Indian reservations, according to the Small Business Administration Web site at www.sba.gov. In Oklahoma City, certain areas of the city determined by census tracks have been defined as HUBZones.
For more information: Contact Lynda Speller, program manager of the procurement technical assistance center at Metrotech Technology Center in Oklahoma City at 605-4792.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, here's the article:
"City company grows at fast pace
By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman
One of the nation's fastest-growing private businesses has made its home in Oklahoma City's flourishing Bricktown entertainment district, but it is neither restaurant nor national retail chain.
If Long Wave Inc. has an unfamiliar ring to it, perhaps it's because it has quietly grown from a tiny office in the Glass building at 120 E Sheridan to an office suite of nearly 5,000 square feet.
Long Wave was recognized last year as a member of the Inc. magazine 500 for its 387 percent growth in the previous five years, one of only two Oklahoma businesses to make the list. It was honored in April as a member of the magazine's Inner City 100, which recognizes the 100 fastest-growing companies in the nation's inner cities.
Phillip C. Miller, the company's founder and president, said Long Wave will be recognized again when the Inc. 500 is released in October. Its revenue grew from $2.2 million in 2002 to about $5.5 million last year, Miller said.
It has grown from one person in 1995 to 90 employees today, 50 of whom work in Oklahoma. Later this year, Miller said Long Wave will move to the Miller Jackson building along the Bricktown canal and expand its office space to nearly 10,000 square feet.
"The company is doubling in size every year," Miller said. "Our revenue in 2004 is going to be close to $10 million. I told the people inside the company that our goal is to make it five years in a row. When you make it five years in a row you go into the Inc. Hall of Fame. This year there are only four companies that made it five years in a row, and we have a real good opportunity to make it."
Long Wave is a high-tech government contracting business that deals in very low frequency radio communications between U.S. Navy airplanes and submarines operating throughout the world. It services a Naval unit at Tinker Air Force Base that flies E-6B aircraft used to communicate with submarines by trailing long antennas out the back.
Long Wave does what is known as propagation analysis for the Navy, assessing the effectiveness and range of the very low frequency VLF radio signals the aircraft emit.
A former program manager for the giant defense contractor Rockwell International before starting what he called a "one-man government contracting business," Miller founded the company in his Dallas home in 1995. He won the contract to service the Navy's unit at Tinker, and that brought him to Oklahoma every few weeks.
Soon, Miller began making the commute to Oklahoma City every week, then three times a week. That led him to rent an apartment near downtown, although he and his wife of 33 years, Billie, still maintained their home in Dallas.
"I would have clothes at both places and just drive back and forth," Miller said. "We started having some people work out of my apartment. Pretty soon I had two, three, four, five, six people working out of my apartment. I was living in one bedroom, and in the other bedroom and the living room, we had people working. I said this was crazy. I've got to have an office."
Miller rented a small office in Bricktown.
"The reason we moved to Bricktown is Bricktown happens to be a HUBZone," he said. "It's a really good program.
"The HUBZone program is the only preference program that doesn't depend upon who the owner is; it depends upon where the business is and where the people in the business live."
Miller said Long Wave bid on six federal contracts three years ago and won them all. It has since expanded its focus beyond low frequency communications radio signals to include other military communications and information technology services.
Along the way, Miller and Long Wave have received assistance from Lynda Speller, program manager of the procurement technical assistance center at Metro Technology Center in Oklahoma City. She said Miller's background working for Rockwell helped him in building his business.
"He finds key people who are highly talented," she said. "They are able to put together strong proposals that address the needs. Phil is easy to work with, very unassuming, but he gets the job done."
Speller said Miller's "entrepreneurial spirit" has led him into some different areas. For instance, in July 2002 he bought a small software company called DocSoft that maintained an office in the Glass building. DocSoft has grown from three people to 10 under Miller's ownership.
Last year, he founded South 20, a company that is producing high-quality wood shingles from wood harvested in South America.
Miller, 55, was a recent finalist for the 2004 Southwest Area Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and was one of only two Oklahomans who were award finalists.
"He does think outside the box," Speller said. "He's willing to look at diversification into other fields, and to survive in business today, you have to keep an open mind."
Despite the fast growth and recognition that has come along with it, Miller said he has no desire to take Long Wave to publicly owned status by selling stock.
"I'm absolutely convinced that's a bad thing to do," he said. "I worked for a big company for 20 years. In any big company, they are only interested in the bottom line, making their numbers every quarter, the stockholders, all that kind of stuff. That's all they're interested in, and it's awful.
"With me, if I don't make my quarter, I don't care. It's more important to do the right thing for the customer than to make the quarter. And, oh, by the way, when you do that, you end up making more money."
-----------
Additional insert:
All about HUBZones
HUBZones are defined as historically underutilized business zones. The Small Business Administration's HUBZone Empowerment Contracting Program stimulates economic development and creates jobs in urban and rural communities by providing Federal contracting preferences to small businesses.
HUBZone qualifications: A qualifying business must be a small business by SBA size standards; its principal office must be within a HUBZone, which includes lands on federally recognized Indian reservations; it must be owned and controlled by one or more U.S. citizens; at least 35 percent of its employees must reside in a HUBZone.
Oklahoma HUBZones: Many areas of the state qualify because of high unemployment rates, average income or because it is defined as Indian reservations, according to the Small Business Administration Web site at www.sba.gov. In Oklahoma City, certain areas of the city determined by census tracks have been defined as HUBZones.
For more information: Contact Lynda Speller, program manager of the procurement technical assistance center at Metrotech Technology Center in Oklahoma City at 605-4792.