Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce 2015 Small Business Awards
1-20 employees: The Crash Pad won, while EBS Consulting LLC and Learning RX of Chattanooga were finalists. 21-50 employees: Summit Physical Therapy won, while Southern Honda Powersports and TransCard, LLC were finalists. 51-200 employees: Card Monroe Corp won for 51-200 employees. Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough PLLC and Preferred Care at Home of Chattanooga were finalists. Nonprofits: Chambliss Center for Children won, while Chattanooga CARES and Northside Neighborhood House were finalists.
Back when they were physical-therapy students, Dan Dotson and Kevin Kostka knew they wanted to own a joint clinic for their specialty.
It took some time, though. They started with house calls after graduating from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Eventually, in 2008, the duo opened Summit Physical Therapy in their hometown.
On Wednesday, their practice, which has grown to 21 employees, won one of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce 2015 Small Business Awards.
Dotson, 37, and Kostka, 36, started work with geriatric patients. They have since moved into sports medicine, something for which they always had a passion. Their clinic sees about 520 patients a week.
The founders grew up in Chattanooga and have strong local ties, factors they believe contributed to their win.
"We really feel proud that we were home-grown," Kostka said.
Launching a successful practice -- which includes speech, occupational and physical therapists -- took not just health care skills; the two went through business leadership training for a year, traveling back and forth to Clearwater, Fla., they said.
Their university training taught them how to be therapists, not business owners, Kostka noted.
"We put a lot of time into being better executives," Dotson added.
The Chamber's annual Small Business Awards attracted more nominations and applications than any year in the past, said Amy Brant, who headed the committee that selected finalists and winners.
Wednesday's awards celebration had more than 1,300 attendees. Also, about 260 companies had booths at a joint event adjacent to the awards luncheon, EXPO Chattanooga, which is the area's largest tradeshow for local companies, according to the chamber.
To qualify for a Small Business Award, companies had to have been under their current ownership in the Chattanooga area for at least three years, shown exemplary success within their industry and display a high level of community involvement and corporate citizenship. They also had to be chamber members.
Contact staff writer Mitra Malek at mmalek@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6406. Follow her on Twitter @MitraMalek.