Chris Runyan doesn’t see himself as a gamer, but as a perseverant entrepreneur. And because of that, he is among the Connecticut small business owners who have managed to separate themselves from the pack.
Runyan was one of the nine honorees from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2013 Connecticut Small Business Week award winners last month, recognizing the efforts of those who have been a model of success through the challenges small businesses face every day.
“I went into what seemed like every bank in the state with a presentation and, for whatever reason, each one rejected me,” said Runyan, owner of six Game X Change videogame stores in the state. “But I learned from and understood those rejections.”
Runyan was named the 2013 Small Business Person of the Year among award winners like Subway franchisee Michael Thomas, the Veteran in Business Champion; Wallingford-based APS Technology President William Turner, the Exporter of the Year; Burlington-based Renaissance Farm founder Eric Grabowski, the Young Entrepreneur of the Year; and online advertiser CLICROI founder Nelson Merchan, the Home-Based Small Business Champion of the Year.
After leaving a corporate job with a telecommunications provider in 2003 for a myriad of other ventures, Runyan started building up a business plan for a move to Connecticut from Arkansas through working with friend and Arkansas Game X Change owner, Mike Hutquist.
“I saw pretty closely how Mike was able to grow his stores, but there wasn’t much of an opportunity to buy in locally,” Runyan said. “So I talked to Mike and asked if I could take the opportunity with me, and he agreed.”
Runyan struggled at first to find financial assistance to give his business plan some traction until coming in contact with the Connecticut Community Investment Corp. — a leading lender for Connecticut’s SBA.
“Once I was able to get in contact with a company like CTCIC and then the SBA, they were able to see and take my business plan for face value,” Runyan said.
Runyan opened his first store in Orange in 2010, which just two years later was ranked sixth in revenue out of every Game X Change branch in the country. Since then, Runyan has created more than 40 jobs through opening five more branches in Bridgeport, Wallingford, Waterbury, Branford, and Hamden.
“My real estate background helped a lot in finding the right location for my stores,” Runyan said.
Right up the street from Runyan’s Orange location is a West Haven Subway, owned by Michael Thomas, a veteran of the U.S. conflicts in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Thomas is the founder of ArchAngel Ventures LLC, a business consulting firm that helped him form a business model that creates employment and training for franchise opportunities for veterans and other employees.
“After looking at a bunch of different franchises in the area, it occurred to me that Subway and its online training program were ideal for workers with a military background,” Thomas said.
Veterans make up about 30 percent of the workforce at Thomas’s West Haven Subway, but his main initiatives remain with setting up fellow veterans and entrepreneurs for future success.
“One of my major goals is to create a robust veteran network, so that those of us who have recently transitioned into working life can help those that are just beginning to make that transition themselves,” Thomas said.
APS Technology, a leader in measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technology in the gas and oil industry, has prospered in its Wallingford location.
“Our area is highly specialized, and you don’t see a lot of turnover, for example, because people aren’t really leaving here for the competition,” said Denis Biglin, APS senior vice president. “There is definitely a plus to being here in Connecticut.”
APS maintains field operations in Houston, Dubai, and China, and now has 293 worldwide employees, up from154 just three years ago.
For its continued growth in exporting goods and growth in the country’s job market, the company was recently awarded the President’s “E” Award for Exports.
“We had outstanding exports last year, but it’s really the experience of our personnel that helps to separate us,” Biglin said. “MWD was developed here in Connecticut in the 1970s, and a lot of our engineers participated in that development.”
Amidst local competition in Burlington, Eric Grabowski, 29, has set up his flower and produce venue Renaissance Farm with only three full-time and three part-time employees.
“There is a great deal of competition within the vicinity of our market,” Grabowski said. “But what makes an entrepreneur successful in business is his or her ability to put in the long hours required to make their company grow.”
Grabowski credits his success to the trial and error process of a small business owner. On the other side, Grabowski said he recognizes the importance of customer service, adaptability, and attention to detail.
“With only three full-time staff members, we all must be able to meet the demands of all aspects of the business,” Grabowski said.
Nelson Merchan says he has focused only on the positives that come with owning his own business since founding CLICROI, an online advertising company, in 2006.
“I don’t see a challenge, I only see a benefit,” Merchan said. “It’s all about the leadership. If you don’t become complacent and continue exploring, there is a lot of freedom and room to succeed.”
Through the challenges that come with owning a home-based business, Merchan has found customers all throughout the country, from New York to California.
“The big concern in my mind now is how to move to the next level, and that should be on every small business owner’s mind,” Merchan said.
Whether it’s drilling for oil or trading in video games, separating award-winning small businesses from the competition rests upon the same sentiment: making the most of any opportunity.
“Part of it is luck; part of it is you make your own luck,” Runyan said. “But the bottom line is it’s me, and the model we have, and we are going to keep improving our system and our environment here.”
