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17 Idaho companies rank among nation’s fastest-growing 5,000

POSTED: 11:35 MDT Thursday, August 28, 2008

by Dani Grigg

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Tags -  Alloway Lighting, B&B Builders, Bodybuilding.com, Business Psychology Associates, Economic Modeling Specialists, M2M Communications, Mullen Crane, Northwind, Petra Inc., Sloan Security Fencing, TitleOne

Inc. magazine’s new list of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States includes 17 Idaho companies. Yes, that’s 0.34 percent of the nation’s top companies, located right here in Idaho.

  But we’re not at the bottom of the list. Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska each have just three companies in the top 5,000. And Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, the Dakotas and West Virginia all have fewer fastest-growing companies than Idaho.

  That’s right about where we should be. With the 39th largest population in the nation, having fewer exploding businesses than 40 other states is about right. And with just one half of one percent of the nation’s population living in Idaho, hosting 0.34 percent of the fastest-growing private businesses isn’t too bad.

  The Idaho companies that fit in with the nation’s fastest growing (by percent increase in revenue) are:

  #513 PalmerCash.com, Boise

#692 M2M Communications, Boise

#1334 Mullen Crane & Transport, Soda Springs

#1588 B & B Builders, Rigby

#1907 North Wind, Idaho Falls

#1238 Economic Modeling Specialists, Moscow

#2148 Bodybuilding.com, Boise

#2239, Pita Pit, Coeur d’Alene

#3009 Birch Creek Millwork, Terreton

#3279 Petra, Meridian

#3846 TitleOne, Boise

#3990 Sloan Security Fencing, Boise

$4004 Business Psychology Associates, Boise

#4054 Alloway Electric, Garden City

#4231 Phoenix Lumber, Blackfoot

#4747 CD World, Idaho Falls

#4925, Employers Resource Management Company, Boise

  PalmerCash.com grew by 616.2 percent between 2004 and 2007, and Employers Resource Management Company grew by 43 percent in that same time period. To qualify for the rankings, companies must have been generating revenue by the first week in 2004. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent as of the end of 2007. Revenue had to be at least $200,000 in 2004 and $2 million in 2007.

3 Comments

  1. So, what happened to the much vaunted tech boom? I'll celebrate growing companies in whatever field of endeavor they occur...but wasn't the whole point of Gov. Kempthorne's blue ribbon panel of science and tech leaders (now disbanded, I believe) to sow the seeds of a new generation of high-tech start ups?

    To paraphrase Yossarian in Catch-22, "What happened to the Treetop Technologies of yesteryear?"

    Comment By Michael Boss
    Tuesday, September 2, 2008 @ 4:24 PM

  2. PalmerCash.com, E-commerce at its best. Don

    Comment By Don Crowell
    Tuesday, September 2, 2008 @ 6:10 PM

  3. Kudos to Brice Sloan & Sloan Fencing for making the list!

    @Michael: Good to hear from ya! There are firms who qualify but avoid the Inc. list as it paints a bullseye on them with competitors, LOL.

    Actually, growth firms are in all industries and are rarely young (a bit of surprising news?) And well-represented in *rural* areas.

    Anyway - here's a nice blurb courtesy of Boomtoom Jack!

    "High-Impact Firms -The Gazelles Revisited

    David Birch first popularized the term "gazelle firms", referring to the fast growing firms that can often transform a community and region. Birch's work was primarily focused upon sales growth. A recent study by the SBA has expanded his work to include expanding employment in addition to sales growth in determining which firms are the most desirable.

    Their key finding was, "High-impact firms are relatively old, rare and contribute to the majority of overall economic growth. On average they are 25 years old, they represent between 2 and 3 percent of all firms, and they account for almost all of the private sector employment and revenue growth in the economy."

    WOW! Read the preceding paragraph again!

    [NK note: PLEASE read that]

    High-impact firms exist in all industries. We can see why a diversified economy grows more rapidly than one that is less diversified. The industries that are rapidly growing, which are led by high-impact firms, seem to shift over time. Encouraging diversity as a policy seems to make much more sense than targeting select industries.

    As with most studies like this rural areas show very well. The states with the highest percentage of high- impact firms were AL, AZ, WY, SC and ND, all fairly rural. The lowest were: NY, KY, GA, CN and MS, mostly urban.

    Twenty-three percent of all of the high impact firms in the country are located in rural areas. You have to go out ten miles from the central business district in urban areas to get to the same percentage. Obviously the urban core isn't generating as many high-impact firms as we are in rural America.

    Are you doing anything to encourage and grow the high-impact firms in your community?"

    Right on, Jack (who's speaking in Arco next week!) - rural gazelles abound & they're not young -- that means business expansion is critical here.

    For the complete study, visit High-Impact Firms: Gazelles Revisited (http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs328tot.pdf) by my buddy Zoltan Acs.

    p.s. Also google then check out the recent study by another chum, Larry Plummer, that shows the economic dynamics of entrepreneurial entry & exit differs little between rural & urban.

    Comment By Norris Krueger
    Tuesday, September 2, 2008 @ 7:13 PM

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