Belmont Entrepreneurial Showcase: August 2005 Archives

Parthenon Publishing specializes in developing print and on-line custom publications for the customers, membership groups and employees of sponsoring companies. Bobby Stark co-founded Parthenon Publishing in 2002, 10 years after receiving an MBA from Belmont University.

Bobby Stark was an experienced marketing strategist with over 15 years experience when he in decided to start his own business.

Parthenon Publishing, Inc. had no existing customers or clients, so Bobby had to hit the street and work hard to establish a client base for his new company. By offering a customized approach to multi media communications, Parthenon was able to quickly earn a loyal base of customers who have helped refer more new clients to his business. Parthenon now serves some of Nashville's biggest companies, including HCA, TravelCenters of America (TA), Fleet One, Spheris, Psychiatric Solutions, and IASIS. Three years after it's founding, Parthenon now has sales of over $2.8 million and 10 employees.

TravelCenters of America's magazine, RoadKing, boasts a circulation of over 225,000 readers and is distributed at all of TA's 160 locations nationwide. Parthenon not only manages the content and layout, but they also handle all aspects of advertising and publication.

Bobby is active in Young Entrepreneur's Organization (YEO) an organization dedicated to entrepreneurship and continued education.

When asked why he chose Nashville to launch Parthenon, Bobby said that it is a great place for entrepreneurs to find kindred spirits. Both the city of Nashville and the local business have made the area great for aspiring businesses and entrepreneurs.

"Nashville is a really fun town for entrepreneurs."

Bobby accounts Parthenon's growth to how well they know their customers' businesses and their intended audience for each publication. Parthenon acts as an advocate for the reader, engaging them with content and information. This is a challenge in the information age of today, with a reader's time continuing to be a valuable commodity.

Bobby says that continuing to attract and maintain the best people will be their biggest challenge as they try to continue to grow their business. He believes that it is the Parthenon team that draws and retains customers. It is this team that also keeps Parthenon successful in their highly competitive market.

Business Tennessee released its annual Business Tennessee Fast50, ranking TAG (The Access Group) as one of the fastest-growing private companies in Tennessee. Charles Hagood, a co-founder of TAG, is an alumnus of our MBA program here at Belmont. (I ran a profile of TAG a few months ago).

The ACCESS Group works with a variety of Fortune 500 companies throughout North America and Asia in providing a variety of engineering, project management, plant relocation, facility startup and consulting services. TAG also provides A/E and design services to industry via TAG Design Services, LLC and recently began providing Healthcare related consulting services targeting cost reductions, quality improvement, and efficiency improvements through its new subsidiary, Healthcare Performance Partners, LLC.

TAG has been honored on multiple occasions as a Tennessean newspaper Future 50 company including 2003, Business of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2001, as well as the 12th fastest growing small business in middle Tennessee by Business Nashville magazine in 2002.

"The 2005 Business Tennessee Fast50 surely reflects the diversity of industry that is so beneficial to our state," said David A. Fox, editor of Business Tennessee magazine. "These companies are showing what entrepreneurial drive amid a good business climate can accomplish. Many of these businesses are destined to be Tennessee's biggest employers and publicly traded corporations of tomorrow."

Those of you who are regulars here have been keeping up with Jason Duncan, one of our recent graduates, who is blogging about the opening of his business. It is called Cafe Evoke and will be located out in Bozeman, Montana. If you haven't been to his blog site in a while, you should check in over the next few days. He is at a critical point in his start-up.