Utah Entrepreneurs honored

deck: Three Utah County companies, Wing Enterprises, Aero Technologies Group and Prosper Inc., win 2005 Ernst & Young awards

Just what do this year's crop of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winners from Utah County have in common?

In addition to robust revenue growth and successful niche product branding, the three winners from Utah County—a ladder maker, a business education school and an aircraft parts maker—all impressed Ernst & Young's panel of independent judges with their efforts to foster a spirit of camaraderie in the work place, offer career development opportunities and keep jobs within the state instead of outsourcing to cheaper labor markets overseas.

Wing Enterprises Inc., a Springville maker of the Little Giant Ladder; Prosper Inc., a Provo business education school; and Springville-based aircraft parts maker Aero Technologies Group, which owns Kitco Inc. in Provo and Wencor West Inc., were among eight companies honored at the awards banquet at the Salt Palace Convention Center on Thursday night.

The eight companies were selected from a group of 24 finalists by an eight-member panel of independent judges from academic institutions including the University of Utah and businesses including Smith's Food & Drug, UV Partners, VSpring Capital and Sorenson Capital. The winners were judged on their financial results, entrepreneurial background, innovative approaches, business plan as well as contributions to fostering future entrepreneurs.

"What's unique about entrepreneurs is that they see a niche that none of us can see, and they capitalize on it. In the case of Wing Enterprises, product innovation played in extensively with the judges," said David Jolley, managing partner of the Salt Lake office of Ernst & Young. "How do you make a ladder an exciting product? Hal Wing can't seem to make them fast enough. He provides a compelling solution to a problem that's been around for a long time, that is, flimsy ladders."

Company founder Hal Wing attributed a large part of the award to the work ethic of his 400-plus employees.

"You just can't feed enough cash into the furnace when you're ramping up to meet the kind of production we do, but we managed to avoid that," Wing said, citing cross-training courses and multiple quality-control inspections done at various stages of the ladder making process.

"We cross-train everyone so they can do more than one job," he said. "We instill pride in our employees by telling them, `When you bring your ‘A’ game to the table, the world will know us.' "

Building a strong brand and product in a very short time with limited financial resources helped Prosper Inc. win favor with the judges, Jolley said.

"Prosper is an emerging company. But the degree of innovation they showed and the success they achieved in a very short period of time without a lot of start-up capital played in pretty big with the judges," he said. "Prosper's business concept was simple. Lots of people can do well if they have a good mentor. The company found a way to connect students with outstanding mentors, and they do it effectively."

Randy Garn, co-founder of Prosper, gave credit to his company's 289 workers. Founded in 1999, the company saw a niche serving those who want to get an education in such areas as real estate investment, e-business investment and Internet marketing, while working at the same time. The company expects to make more than $50 million in gross revenues this year, up from $42 million last year.

"The judges were impressed with the Web marketing strategies and technologies we pioneered to help businesses build their brand," Garn said. "We hope this award will help people recognize there're lots of companies in Utah Valley that can foster lots of opportunities for economic development."

Like Wing, Brent Wood, founder of Aero Technologies, was recognized for his ability to grow his business with a local work force as opposed to outsourcing to cheaper labor markets, Jolley said. Wood could not be reached immediately for comment on the award.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D6.