Like Nobody’s Business: Thirty-four individuals stand out as model Entrepreneurs of Excellence

by

In the realm of entrepreneurship, the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary, and the entrepreneur is the alchemist, the person who creates through seeming magic. They transform dreams into reality, ideas into innovations, and challenges into opportunities.

With unwavering determination, they carve their path through the uncharted, shaping the future with every step they take.

Fort Worth Inc.’s 2023 Entrepreneur of Excellence is a portrait of such people who jumped head first into their dreams. For many, it was a leap of faith.

These 34 entrepreneurs are in commercial and residential construction, consumer and durable goods, health care and life sciences, hospitality, private equity, professional services, real estate, and three who lead up-and-coming companies.

This is Fort Worth Inc.’s seventh annual Entrepreneur of Excellence edition. As in past years, applications were judged independently of the ownership and staff of the magazine. The judges — business leaders from across the region — reviewed each application confidentially, based on sales and profit growth, best practices, ethical business practices, innovation, perseverance, and community involvement. The judges made their decisions this summer, choosing finalists and winners in each of nine categories. Financial performance data in the applications is confidential and not made available to the magazine staff for use in the biographies in this issue.

The category winners’ identities were kept secret until they were revealed Nov. 16 at a gala dinner at the Fort Worth Club. There was no cost associated with applying for, or being considered for, this award.

Eligibility criteria included ownership, co-ownership, or lead of a privately owned business in the Greater Fort Worth area, at least two years in business, and $2 million in annual sales, except for the Up-and-Coming category for businesses that don’t quite meet the annual sales threshold.

Whitley Penn is Presenting Sponsor, TCU Neeley School of Business is Gold Sponsor. Texas Capital Bank is the Platinum Sponsor, and Justin Boot Co. is Boot Sponsor.

COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION

CATEGORY WINNER

Brett Young and Casey Corey

Ultimate Tool and Safety

In 2020, Brett Young led a small group of local investors to acquire Ultimate Tool & Safety, an all-in-one supplier of tool and safety products and services for the electric utility industry, from its founders.

In the 2 ½ years that followed, Young and partner Casey Corey, the vice president of sales, have grown revenue by 299% and equity by 104%. The company is on track to meet its 2023 goal of $20 million in revenue.

Young’s journey here began with a decision to pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition.

“I quickly found and closed on UTS by scraping together cash from friends,” Young says. “Then the hard work started. I was leading an over-indebted business at 27 in an industry I knew nothing about. Luckily, I met Casey and convinced him to join as an equity partner.”

While growth came quickly, it “brought new problems.”

“Our growth consumed $2 million of capital in 2021,” Young says. “Our bank cut us off. We struggled for six long months trying to service customers, struggling to pay vendors, until we found a bank to support us.”

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Indu Sanka

Red Elephant

Twelve years of corporate America and the feeling of being unfulfilled were enough for Indu Sanka. Sanka, who has an MBA from SMU and is the mother of two children, purchased a small retail print shop six years ago, but it wasn’t long before “I found myself on a sinking ship.”

“The initial years were incredibly challenging,” she says. “As a first-generation immigrant without a support network of established family or friends, building a business, and finding the right partners to put the infrastructure in place proved to be daunting. It took considerable time and effort to assemble the right team of employees and vendor partners.”

Red Elephant, she says, has demonstrated exceptional sales, profit, and equity growth, combined with financial balance and workforce stability in the last five years. With the exceptional growth it has seen, the company made it onto the INC 5000 list in 2022.

Red Elephant has expanded from five employees at the time she purchased the business to 40 today.

Jonathan Gaspard and Sonny Menon

Restoration Roofing

Jonathan Gaspard recently endured the hardest of his days at Restoration Roofing, a business he founded in 2004.

Gaspard, who brought on Sonny Menon as a partner in 2021, says the company was defrauded of $2.5 million by an individual who has been successfully prosecuted by the state and sent to live for a while at one of Texas’ prison facilities.

“We absorbed that in 2022,” Gaspard says. “We had a drop of revenue due to this individual as well to less than $8 million [in sales] for the year of ’22.”

“However, we have come out of the slump dynamically with a new and improved team.”

The company has approximately $40 million in contracts through 2024 and is looking to be $100 million in annual sales by 2027, Gaspard says.

“Our vision is to be a premier contractor in the private and public sector, and an innovator among our peers in the industry,” Gaspard says.

CONSUMER AND DURABLE GOODS

CATEGORY WINNER

John Clay Wolfe

GiveMeTheVin.com

John Clay Wolfe says he is “possessed” of two things: an indomitable entrepreneurial streak and a sharp wit that would get him into “trouble on a regular job.”

“So, self-employment works out well for everyone,” he likes to say.

He has cracked the code on buying and selling cars through GiveMeTheVIN.com. Since 1996, he has bought more than 518,500 cars — and counting. Over the past three years, the company has generated revenues of more than $5 billion. 

Selling your car is apparently so easy you can do it in your underwear.

Wolfe, an EOE winner in his second try, has a vision to buy and sell 100,000 cars a year.

“Everything it takes to accomplish that is the daily decision-making,” he says.

Givemethevin, headquartered in the more centrally-located North Richland Hills, has more than 150 employees.

Wolfe has hosted a nationally syndicated radio show for more than a decade. He can be heard on more than 60 radio stations from coast to coast each Saturday. That’s where Givemethevin began. Living in Vernon, he began purchasing vehicles from customers on-air.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Stephen Gilchrist

Gilchrist Automotive

Gilchrist Automotive has experienced strong growth in units, revenue, and profits over the past three years. Gilchrist has grown from No. 132 in the Top 150 New Vehicle Dealers in the nation in 2020 to No. 99 in 2022, retailing 7,444 new vehicles the first year and 8,922 in the most recent 12 months.

This growth has yielded an 176% increase in revenue from 2020 to 2022, to almost $1 billion.

“This growth is also attributable to the attraction and retention of the best talent in North Texas to be part of our team,” says Stephen Gilchrist. “I have created an entrepreneurial environment within our dealership group that fosters experimentation and innovation in how we manage our stores and how we go to market.

“I believe that what sets us apart in our industry is that I allow our general manager/managing partners the latitude to set up processes within their stores to control their destiny. They can seek out new technology, vendors, and practices to improve their business.”

Cameron Kirkpatrick

Wyreline Transformation

Cameron Kirkpatrick established Wyreline Transformation in 2018, founded on a handshake agreement with its first customer. In 2019, the company raised additional capital to expand its wireline asset base, and then in 2021 it acquired distressed assets that doubled the size of its business.

Today, Kirkpatrick, a Tarleton State University graduate, says Wyreline has enjoys a portfolio of 18 wireline units servicing customers across multiple locations with a team of more than 100 employees who generate $50 million in annual sales.

Correspondingly, in 2022, Wyre’s revenue increased by 136% year over year, and gross profits increased 173%.

Says Kirkpatrick: “Our vision of being thought leaders in wireline services is more than just words — it's a way of life. We strive to be innovative and provide solutions that set us apart from our competition. Our commitment to this vision is reflected in every aspect of our organization, from the way we conduct ourselves to the way we interact with our clients. Whether it's developing cutting-edge technologies or finding creative solutions, we believe in pushing boundaries and challenging ourselves.”

HOSPITALITY

CATEGORY WINNER

Tim Love

Love Management

Tim Love was introduced to food through his father’s 1-acre garden at home in Cookeville, Tennessee.

“I didn’t really know anything about it, just that it was something I had to do,” Love says.

As a first-year college student, he applied to be a bartender, host, and server to help with bills. The restaurant offered him a job making salads.

“I told them I didn’t know how to cook, but once I started, I realized I knew so much

about the food — I just didn’t know how to cook it.”

Suffice to say, he learned.

Today, his brand is Chef Tim Love, and he’s president of Love Management’s 18 concepts, all of them designed to achieve its mission: "To cultivate an extraordinary food and beverage experience through multiple channels and price points, high levels of fun, and tremendous hospitality.”

Love has helped reshape the 21st century Stockyards, not to mention the industry itself, with five new concepts in the past two years.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Trevor Armstrong and Larry Auth

Game On Sports Complex 

Trevor Armstrong and Larry Auth developed a second sports facility on the far West Side in 2015 on adjacent property they had acquired while making the original purchase of Game On Arena Sports, an indoor soccer arena.

This new, expanded Game On Sports Complex would step out of its indoor soccer lane to become “The Home of Athletic Potential,” providing Fort Worth recreational athletes of all ages with access to world-class facilities, training, and leagues.

Armstrong and Auth have more than 60 years of combined experience in hospitality management. They met through networking in downtown Fort Worth 15 years ago and discovered a mutual passion for athletics and a shared vision to combine that passion with their know-how and expertise in the hospitality industry.

“The sports facility industry is uniquely challenging,” they say. “We place a great deal of emphasis on our partner relationships, making every effort to encourage and grow mutual long-term success which adds greatly to both the athlete and family experience as well as the year-round stability our business requires.”

David “Rex” Benson

Ol’ South Pancake House

The venerable Ol’ South Pancake House, the legendary dining spot that has sat perched on University Drive, serving up its class Southern-style cuisine, for more than 60 years, has expanded in recent years under David “Rex” Benson.

In the 11 years since Benson has taken over the Ol’ South, sales have grown at that location from $3 million to $5.7 million a year. Add to that a second location in booming Burleson, and those figures grow more than $8 million, serving 8,000 guests a week in a 24-hour, 365-day operation.

This is a family venture for Benson, who at the age of 5 appeared in Ol’ South commercials.

Off at Texas Tech University as a full-time student, he co-owned his first restaurant at the tender age of 19.

When he assumed control of the Ol’ South in 2011, he embarked on reformed, revamping the menu, embracing digital point-of-sale systems, and implementing digital inventory management solutions.

He has a vision, too: Benson has a plan to expand to multiple locations across North Texas.

Health Care & Life Sciences

CATEGORY WINNER

Robin Carson

Carson Hearing Care

Robin Carson had been an audiologist for 15 years or so when she suddenly became that technician.

“I was that technician who had an entrepreneurial seizure,” she says. “I decided to go into business for myself. I quickly learned to surround myself with people that have my weaknesses as their strengths but still share the same goal.”

Within the first 12 months of opening in 2013, Carson Hearing Care grew into a $1 million practice. It hasn’t stopped growing. That its financial health has excelled is evidenced by its going from one doctor to four.

The industry standard for patients who return to their first hearing provider is 43%, Carson says.

“Our rate is nearly double that average because of our care, the trust that patients have in the practice, and the providers,” Carson says. “I choose to lead my practice with love, both with my team and with my patients. Our team looks for opportunities to be remarkable in our care and to turn our patients into raving fans as a result of building deep relationships.”

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Trevor Theriot

ManaMed

ManaMed, a medical supply company serving all 50 states, has brought to the marketplace innovative products that capture market share while delivering tools to improve and sustain quality of life for customers and patients.

The company has eight patents and six others pending.

Its PlasmaFlow device was the first prescription-only FDA portable sequential device that helps prevent blood clots. The patented "Step-Up Technology" is changing the gold standard of blood clot prevention after surgery.

The company is led by founder and CEO Trevor Theriot, who has a track record of increasing sales and growing the net revenue bottom line while spearheading the development of innovative ideas that drive productivity and ease costs.

He is a champion of social media tools and technologies, with a multiplatform approach to creating and implementing successful social media programs.

Theriot, a former football player at UCLA, is a native Californian who got to Texas as fast as he could.

ManaMed was a member of the Inc. 5000 in 2021 and ranked No. 137 in the Southwest in 2022.

David Woolsey and Ramon Cazares

Integrated Ultrasound Consultants Inc.

Integrated Ultrasound has exhibited sales growth every year since 2012, says David Woolsey, president and CEO. “We have managed to maintain a profit in every year since 2012 except in 2018, where we experienced a 14% decrease in revenue. We have never required any outside investment to this date. Our year-to-year revenue increases have been anywhere from 5% to 165%.”

Integrated Ultrasound Consultants is a company founded and operated by sonographers with a mission to offer comprehensive ultrasound and temporary radiology staffing services.

The company was founded by Woolsey and Ramon Cazares in 2012.

Woolsey was a co-founder of D2 Imaging in 2000. Cazares was an employee. The business succeeded and was sold in 2008.

“Fast-forward to late 2012, after leaving a national ultrasound systems manufacturer, we found ourselves ready to jump back into providing the best, most reliable ultrasound services to the facilities of the DFW area and their patients,” Woolsey says. “I had heard from many of my former clients and area facilities of different companies overpromising and underdelivering in regard to providing ultrasound services 24/7.”

PRIVATE EQUITY

CATEGORY WINNER

Russell English

Trailhead Exploration

Trailhead has grown from a minority investor in other operators' wells into an operator generating meaningful investment project returns with increasing scale. Gross revenue from crude and natural gas production has grown from $68,000 for 2019 to more than $23 million in 2022.

“Despite severe headwinds faced in the foundational years, we have carefully and steadily grown our employee count from three to eight, without any workforce reduction through the pandemic,” CEO Russell English says.

Russell, who has an MBA from TCU, began his career in the land department at XTO Energy in Fort Worth. With XTO’s move to Houston, “I determined it was time to scratch my entrepreneurial itch,” he says.

Silver Hill Energy Partners of Dallas, which had built an operating company in the Permian Basin, provided initial G&A funding. Silver Hill accomplished an “outstanding exit result” in 2016. The company also raised a “substantial private equity commitment” from Old Ironsides Energy.

“After carefully navigating the pandemic, we are now well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity with industry resurgence and domestic and global growth.”

CATEGORY FINALIST

Frank Starr

Crimson Energy Partners IV

An Enid, Oklahoma, native, Frank Starr had intended to go to law school one day until he realized he had no real driving enthusiasm or conviction for it.

“So, I began working and ended up roughnecking in the oil patch,” he says, “and fell in love with the industry.”

He returned to school at the University of Oklahoma to pursue a degree in petroleum engineering. He began a career with Champlin Petroleum, which later became Union Pacific Resources, where he stayed for 17 years.

Serendipity intervened in the form of a meeting with a “high net worth individual,” he recalls.

“I mentioned that I had always wanted to start my own company. He encouraged me to put a business plan together, and he would back me if he liked it.”

Crimson Energy Partners sprang to life in 1998. In the 25 years since, Starr has built and sold four companies, Crimson Energy Partners I-IV.

“We are now beginning our new adventure in building Crimson V and will be working on our own equity capital raise.”

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

CATEGORY WINNER

Lisa Hall

Bene-Marc Sports Insurance

Lisa Hall lives by a mantra: “Life is not about how you survive the storm, but how you dance in the rain!”

As a youth sports and special events insurance company, Bene-Marc Sports Insurance was uniquely — and negatively — impacted by COVID-19 timeout.

More like a 14-monthlong tsunami, as Hall, the president and CEO, recalls it.

Although Bene-Marc lost 52% of its profits in 2020, all employees — the Bene-Martians, as they’re fondly known — retained their jobs, insurance benefits, and matching 401(k).

“Not only did Bene-Marc survive, but truly begin to thrive as our faithful clients started purchasing insurance once again,” Hall says.

Bene-Marc was founded by Hall’s father, Wally Kemp, in 1973. After witnessing a soccer teammate of Hall’s suffer a compound fracture, Wally wondered who would pay for the injury. He jumped into an untapped market — sports insurance.

Bene-Marc grew as nationally recognized sports insurance company that insured 42 of the 50 states in youth soccer; 175 universities, including TCU and University of Texas; multiple K-12 high schools; and youth camp, clinic, leagues, and tournaments in all 50 states.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Craig Barnes and Jean Marie Alexander

Shield Engineering Group

In 2018, Shield Engineering Group, a civil engineering firm, developed a five-year financial plan.

“Our sales growth has been so tremendous that we surpassed our five-year goal in only four years,” says Craig Barnes, president of the company.

The Shield group has been overachieving for a long time now, starting with opening the firm during the one of the world’s great economic downtowns. Barnes, who had just been laid off, joined with Jean Marie Alexander, the chief operating officer, to open the firm in 2009.

In those 14 years, the team has grown from two — Barnes and Alexander, a UT Arlington alum — to 50 employees.

That five-year plan, of course, coincided with the unexpected interruption of the pandemic. However, the virus did nothing to deter the Shield group.

In 2020, “we were able to keep our company running with the same workforce, while maintaining our sales and profit goals,” Barnes says.

Shield Engineering Group is also a regular on the MAVS100, a list of recognized 100 fastest growing UTA alumni-owned or UTA alumni-led businesses.

Anna Summersett and Benson Varghese

Varghese Summersett

Managing Partner Benson Varghese fell in love with criminal law early in his career. He left the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office to hang a shingle. His prosecutor wife joined him soon after.

In the past three years, the firm has enjoyed a 120% increase in revenue and a 100% increase in staff. It has achieved this kind of growth through a robust multimedia presence centered around education and empowerment, including hundreds of informative blogs on several websites, a comprehensive and educational YouTube channel, and podcasts engaging community leaders in the legal space.

The firm has also added the practice areas of family law and personal injury.

In the first quarter of 2023, the firm boasted a more than 100% increase in revenue from the same time in 2022, and projections show a minimum 50% jump by year’s end, the firm says.

Pursuing new practice areas hasn’t curbed the growth of Varghese Summersett’s original mission. The Criminal Law Group continues to swell with five of its highest grossing months occurring in the last six months.

REAL ESTATE

CATEGORY WINNER

Craig Cavileer

Fort Worth Heritage Development

Craig Cavileer is the majority owner of Fort Worth Heritage Development LLC, focused on the Stockyards Historic District development with its 7-acres, Hotel Drover, Hyatt Place, the Stockyards Hotel and H3 Ranch, as well as Cowtown Coliseum, and other retail.

There was much angst and concern over a developer’s plans for the venerated Stockyards, but the time-honored site has experienced a reawakening in Cavileer’s development plans.

The company has invested $250 million into the Stockyards and intends to invest another $750 million over the next five years.

The Fort Worth Stockyards enjoyed an average of three million visitors prior to the opening of Mule Alley in 2021. Since Mule Alley opened its doors, including Hotel Drover in 2021, visitors to the Fort Worth Stockyards has grown to more than 8.5 million annually.

“We have far exceeded all expectations in terms of GDP in the District, and our retail and restaurant partners have shared in the success with their top-performing venues,” Cavileer says.

Revenues and profits from 2021-23 are all higher year over year.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Jessica Miller-Essl and Susan Miller Gruppi

M2G Ventures

M2G Ventures is a commercial real estate private equity and advisory development company based in Fort Worth led by sisters Jessica Miller-Essl and Susan Miller Gruppi, who serve as founders and co-presidents.

“M2G Ventures is proud to have experienced strong sales growth year over year, resulting in profound impact throughout DFW and Central Texas,” say Miller Essl and Gruppi, both TCU Neeley School of Business graduates.

In a difficult environment the past two years, M2G has acquired and redeveloped more than 2.68 million square feet, representing more than $290 million in capitalized value.

In 2023, M2G is raising its first fund designed to provide M2G and its investors the ability to execute its best-in-class strategy on a larger, more efficient scale with a more opportunistic approach.

“As we look toward the future, while others may see challenges, we see opportunity. We believe the market will create opportunities for nimble and entrepreneurial groups like ourselves who can move swiftly, strategically, and opportunistically to take advantage of the dislocation of the 2022 market.”

Ty Williams and Carmen Williams

RJ Williams & Company Real Estate

The husband-wife led RJ Williams & Company Real Estate is headquartered in Fort Worth, with an office in Las Colinas, and an expansion team in Houston.

“Year over year, we continue to see sales grow,” says Ty Williams. “We continue to uptrend in overall sales price as well as our listings continue to give our clients a solid return compared to some of our competitors.”

Ty Williams and Carmen Williams founded the agency in 2016. They named it after Ty’s late father, Ray J. Williams.

Ty’s father had a mantra: “Take care of people, and people will take care of you.” It was adopted by the agency.

“Throughout my entire life, I have learned the hard way that mistakes lead you to opportunities for growth. I have worked hard to stay true to my values and my beliefs throughout the years.

“We both came from the retail industry and learned quickly that creating loyalty and a positive culture was a very important cornerstone in our business. We learned that building genuine relationships would lead to success.”

RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION

CATEGORY WINNER

Christine Figley

West Fork Landscaping

Through acquisition, Christine Figley entered the landscape space in 2017 with a vision to “flip the script.”

West Fork Landscaping is a full-service landscaping company providing design, soft and hardscapes, installation, and maintenance for all landscaping services.

“I had a well-established vision with it performing 70% commercial installation and 30% regular maintenance,” she says. “My vision was to flip the script and work toward a larger percentage of regular maintenance. Changing the source of revenue would provide a more stable revenue stream and create a stronger workplace for good teams.”

The company put in place more infrastructure to handle the projected growth, which included personal and leased trucks. The company also opened West Fork Garden Market, a retail store.

“This investment has paid off as we have seen a 40% increase in revenue for the first four months of 2023 compared to 2022,” she says.

Since the first year following acquisition, Figley says revenue has increased 165%, and profit has increased an average of 57% the past three years.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Ginger Curtis

Urbanology Designs

Ginger Curtis came out of grueling chemotherapy treatments in 2015 with renewed life and a vision to build a luxury interior design firm.

What she lacked in formal training — she had none — she more than made up for in sheer will and a natural entrepreneurial streak.

In less than a year, she had enough business to hire her first employee.

The firm “did not finish 2022 where we thought we would,” but …

“We started out 2023 strong and on pace to have a record year in sales, forecasted above $3 million,” Curtis says.

Out of the firm’s offices in a reimaged fire station in North Richland Hills (which Urbanology renovated) are two other enterprises. Urban Design Works oversees the leasing of executive offices to local entrepreneurs in the building, which also has leasable venue space.

In 2022, Curtis further expanded the Urbanology brand to start Urbanology Properties, which will offer luxury short-term rentals across the nation. The first investment property in the portfolio launched in October 2022 in Weatherford, Urbanology Cottage.

Bryan Braswell

Braswell Homes

Bryan Braswell’s life in construction began at age 14, working on a remodeling crew. Today, he has grown his own company into one of the largest homebuilders in Fort Worth, a dream 22 years in the making.

It all happened very much on-the-fly. Braswell, then 20, had a roofing business when a friend asked him to build a house. That wasn’t exactly in his forte.

“I didn't really know what I was doing, so I read some books," says the Arlington native. "I built him a house, and we did it really cost-effective. Then we built five houses over the next year and a half and sold them all."

Impromptu acts of creativity often produce the most authentic and beautiful art.

Or, in this case, a business.

“We have enjoyed continual growth from 2011 with an expanding employee base of highly talented workers,” Braswell says.

Part of the reason his business is healthy today is because of the turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis.

“That was one of my greatest learning periods for my life, and it has shaped me,” Braswell says.

UP-AND-COMING

CATEGORY WINNER

Lindsay Jones

The PlaySpace

Lindsay Jones launched The PlaySpace in 2017 to fill the critical, unmet need for creative, play-based, drop-in child care in the Greater Fort Worth area.

Hers was among those businesses the most roughly treated by pandemic shutdowns.

She pivoted, temporarily hiring teachers and reimagining the school’s physical space to offer “learning pods” — staff-led small groups that facilitated online learning.

The PlaySpace persevered and rebounded from the losses.

"The PlaySpace is on track to have our most profitable year yet,” Jones says of 2023.

The PlaySpace is about to open its third location later this year, and she says potential for growth is in its favor with the company’s unique position as the only drop-in play care facility in the area.

“I am proud to maintain a stable and loyal workforce,” she says. “The child care industry has a notoriously high turnover rate, which I mitigate by offering competitive wages, flexible schedules including evening and weekend hours, free child care, and free training opportunities.”

Before founding The PlaySpace, Jones was a speech-language pathologist at Cook Children’s Medical Center.

CATEGORY FINALISTS

Katy Kothmann Abraham

Construction Cost Management

In 2012, Kathy Kothmann Abraham acquired the company her father, Keith, founded in 1979.

She set out to her own mark in a male-dominated industry. And she has.

Since her ascent, Construction Cost Management has experienced over 500% in revenue growth, she says, in part because of certifications that have opened a multitude of opportunities to work on federal contracts.

Construction Cost Management provides cost estimating and construction consulting to a broad base of professional architectural and engineering firms across the U.S.

When public tax dollars are used to complete construction projects, companies such as CCM are hired alongside the design firm to act as an independent cost estimation consultant.

CCM’s sales suffered in COVID, of course, but from 2021 to 2022 year-over-year sales increased by 12%, and this year the company is projecting a 26% increase from 2022.

The company’s workforce has also expanded, from three in 2012 to upwards of 15, depending on the work demand.

In 2020, CCM was selected a “Best Companies to Work For” by Fort Worth Inc.

Christie K. Moore

Mansfield Funeral Home

Mansfield Funeral Home has maintained a strong sales, profit and equity growth foundation since she acquired the business in 2016.

Christie Moore has done so partly through exceptional service.

For example, the funeral home provides free cremations to families who have experienced miscarriages. It was also adorned with national attention for providing free services for families who have experienced gun violence.

Moreover, Moore and her staff offer funeral service information to veterans and seniors in their homes, civic centers, and churches.

“The vision of Mansfield Funeral Home is to meet the needs of the community consistently and thoroughly through education and proactive involvement in the community,” Moore says. “This allows people to see our heart before suffering a loss and creates a bond when death occurs.

“Our presence in the metroplex, and beyond, also provides an opportunity for aspiring and budding entrepreneurs to see someone, who is dedicated to their craft, change the face of the industry by bringing innovation to those who were not aware of the possibilities of change — for good — in the funeral service industry.”