Small Business winnersThe Tennessee Small Business Development Center on Wednesday named its Chattanooga small business winners.Small business person of the year:John "JJ" Jerman, president and founder of Office Furniture WarehouseRising star businesses:Balance by Denise Collins and Melanie FergusonDecoPrint by Chris GonzalezHeaven and Ale by Joe and Kathryn Winland
The small business of the year isn't so small, not when you consider the thousands of tons of used furniture it keeps out of landfills by reselling tables, chairs and other pieces.
Office Furniture Warehouse won top honors from the Tennessee Small Business Development Center on Wednesday.
John "JJ" Jerman founded the Chattanooga company in 2008 in an old used car lot and gas service station, after moving here from Atlanta the same year.
"I knew no one," Jerman told a crowd at the Wednesday morning event that honored him. He joined the local chamber of commerce right after getting to town.
"My Rolodex grew pretty quickly from there," said Jerman, who is also the company's president.
Office Furniture Warehouse, which also won a Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's small business of the year award in March, provides asset liquidation of commercial and healthcare furniture. From there, it refurbishes the items for sale. The company plans to launch an international division to get hospital beds and stretchers to developing countries.
"Our business isn't real sexy," Jerman said. "We don't do 3-D printing. We don't have an app."
But Office Furniture Warehouse is one of the largest pre-owned furniture dealerships in the Southeast, according to literature from the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.
Wednesday's event, which is part of Startup Week Chattanooga, also honored three Chattanooga businesses considered to be rising stars: Balance, DecoPrint and Heaven & Ale.
Balance has a mission of creating confidence and awareness in children by offers offering art and yoga classes to them. Denise Collins and Melanie Ferguson, who are teachers by nature and trade, started offering the classes in a church in autumn 2013. The program was successful enough for them to move to a studio on Peak Street this past spring.
DecoPrint, which launched in 2012 and has a staff of five, specializes in decorating glass bottles and custom glassware for restaurants and the liquor and beer industries. Owner Chris Gonzalez started decorating glass in the early 1980s.
"Printing high-quality decoration on glassware is not an easy skill and only experienced craftsmen can provide quality decoration that lasts," said Sharyn Moreland, the business development center's director.
Joe and Kathryn Winland opened Heaven & Ale on the North Shore in July 2013. The couple loves the tasting-room experience typical in the wine-making scene, Moreland said. So they decided to adopt it for the craft beer industry. Their craft beer tasting room offers Chattanooga's widest range of on-tap craft beer to go, according to company literature.
Staff at the Tennessee Small Business Development Center consults with about 500 budding business clients a year.
"There are always those that really stand out above the rest," Moreland said.
Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406.