Manchester Businessman Named Young Entrepreneur of The Year

Owner of Manchester's Jeff Computers, Jeff Minnis, is named 2012 Young Entrepreneur of the Year by SBA.

Jeff Minnis, owner of Jeff Computers in Manchester, was named 2012's Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the St. Louis District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), according to a news release.  "We were happy to receive the honor and really excited about all the things we are going to be doing this year, including events with the small business week," Minnis tells Town and Country - Manchester Patch. "It talks about our business and how we are always trying and taking care of our customers to provide great service and help them with as many things as possible." David Craig with the Small Business Week Planning Committee tells Patch the honor is well deserved by Minnis on numerous levels. "He's just always impressed me as …

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Local Entrepreneurs: Their Secret to Success

For Ann Lindenbusch, Glass is the Family Business

The Manchester business owner comes from a long line of entrepreneurs.

Growing up, Ann Lindenbusch never expected to follow her dad into the glass business. “I worked with Dad when I was in college,” she said. “And swore I would never do it again.” But after several years working in corporate America, Ann, along with her brother Rob, ended up taking over Metropolitan Glass in 2000 when their father ‘s health took a turn for the worse. It was loyalty to the family, not a passion for glass, that Ann said drove her to take the reins of the company.   “At this time the business climate is bad, and you wonder what you did when you made a decision to be a business owner, because it is not always pleasant, but I am absolutely glad I did it and kept the business in the family and kept it going,” she said. What it is …

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Local Entrepreneurs: Their Secret to Success

Bob Strothkamp is Much More than Manchester's Paint Guy

The local business owner is indeed a paint expert, but he is also an active community volunteer.

Strothkamp Bros. Paint Center has been part of Manchester for more than 50 years, but owner Bob Strothkamp has never been more involved with the community than he is now. Strothkamp opened Strothkamp Bros. in 1956 with his brother Harry. Their first store was located in the house in which the brothers had grown up; Bob and Harry’s parents had recently moved and the house was available. The brothers bought the property because the location was right, as was the price.  Since then, the once small store has expanded extensively. The current, much larger store sits right next to where the original store stood on 14390 Manchester Road. And just as Strothkamp’s store has expanded, so too has his role in the community.  Recently, he has been …

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Town and Country Resident Pens Childrens Book

After a successful career in advertising and academia, William Tyler wants to get kids enthusiastic about reading.

Town and Country resident William Tyler has been writing most of his life. As the vice president of advertising for Pizza Hut, he wrote ads trying to persuade people to order pizza. Throughout the last 18 years as a Saint Louis University professor, he has written dozens of academic articles on marketing and advertising. Now, with a decidedly younger reader in mind, he has penned Who Let the Mongoose Loose? Tyler’s love for writing was apparent well before he was doing it professionally. When Tyler was a child in Elizabethton, TN, he started his own version of a newspaper, which he wrote, copied (by hand) and distributed to his neighbors. The paper included an original comic strip, foreshadowing his current endeavor. Tyler’s dad was an …

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Holly Cunningham Takes Fresh Approach to Westminister's Lunch Program

The Hollyberry Catering CEO and Westminster alumni says plenty of healthy foods will be on the menu.

With Westminster Christian Academy’s relocation to Town and Country, the school’s administration is taking the opportunity to totally revamp the school’s lunch program. Leading this initiative is Holly Cunningham, a Westminster alumni and the CEO of Hollyberry Catering. Hollyberry Catering is a Webster Groves-based outfit voted favorite caterer by readers of Sauce Magazine three years in a row. A new offshoot of the company, Campus Cuisine by Hollyberry, has been created by Cunningham to provide the students and faculty of Westminster with healthy, balanced meals.   Previously, Cunningham created the alumni council at Westminster and served on the school’s advancement committee. Through that involvement she knew what resources would be …

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Town and Country Business Owner's Work Flies Across St. Louis

The Flag Loft creates flags and banners for Busch Stadium, The Muny and other businesses across the St. Louis metro area.

Although most don’t realize it, just about every St. Louisian has likely seen at least one piece of work created by Town and Country resident Rick Kelly’s The Flag Loft. The Flag Loft produces customized banners and flags, including those that adorn the inside of Busch Stadium and those that hang outside the Muny in Forest Park. And for residents of Manchester or Town and Country, it is almost impossible not to see Kelly’s work. “(The Flag Loft does) the flags at Des Peres Square, and going down Manchester, we do the flag at Sam’s, that big monstrous flag. We do the flags for Missouri Baptist Hospital, we do the flags for the City of Town and Country, we did the flag pole monument for the City of Manchester, we do the flags for Duke …

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Manchester Resident Matt Davis Wants to Organize Your Life

Davis finds true fulfillment in something most consider a chore.

Manchester resident Matt Davis is a firm believer in living an organized life. In that spirit, he founded Watchtower Organizing in 2009 and has been trying to steadily build a client base as well as a reputation. “My main objective is to help people have a more livable and happy life through organization,” Davis said. “If you always know where to find the things you need, your life will go much more smoothly.” Unlike most people, Davis, 31, enjoys cleaning and creating orderliness out of chaos. He said that while he cleans and tidies up he feels a sense of calm, and afterward he feels a definite sense of accomplishment. The origin of Davis's appreciation for organization is not hard to identify. “I remember as a kid (my mom) was such a …

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Pizza Pizza Rises Above The Competition

Owner Burhan Papila says his pizza is the best in town with a unique, fresh offering of a classic.

There are nearly a dozen pizza places within a few miles of Burhan Papila’s Pizza Pizza restaurant, but Papila is adamant that Pizza Pizza’s pie is the best.  “We use fresh ingredients, natural ingredients, we’re unique...we have the best pizza in town,” he said. Pizza Pizza opened in November, and Papila said that the starting months have not been as easy as he would have liked.  “Business has been pretty good, but because of the economy it has not been how we expected,” Papila said. “But considering the economic situation, we’re still doing fine.” He believes it's the uniqueness that brings customers in and keeps them coming back, but said it's a passion for pizza that's his secret to success.  Papila runs the restaurant with the help of…

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Chef Mel Turns a Passion For Cooking Into Burgeoning Business

This Manchester woman turned a "great recipe" into a booming business. See how her entrepreneurial spirit shines through.

"Sweeeeeeet" (with roughly six or seven extra e’s) is exactly the way Manchester's Melissa Dodd-Ruesing likes to describe her original red pasta sauce. In fact, she is so confident in its sweetness that she thinks she just might be able to make a living off of selling the stuff. Driven by her self-confidence and the encouragement of her friends, Dodd has spent the last eight years working diligently to build and expand her brand of Chef Mel sauces. “I didn’t like any red sauce anywhere, so I started making my own. And it just kind of went from there,” she said. In 2003, Dodd was working as a physical therapy assistant at St. Luke's Hospital. Potlucks were often held at work. It was there that the sauce was first exposed to a wider audience…

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