The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Event continues with revised format
2020 Fast Track 50 awards to be announced during virtual ceremony on Nov. 5
For those who want to attend a Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 ceremony that’s different than any of the previous programs held over the past 27 years, mark the calendar for 2 p.m. Nov. 5.
That’s when the 2020 Fast Track 50 event can be followed along from home, office or anywhere else with Internet access.
This year, the board that plans and organizes Fast Track 50 will conduct an exclusively virtual awards ceremony because of health and safety risks posed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The video-conference format will provide an opportunity to salute the fastestgrowing companies in Lake and Geauga counties, and shine the spotlight on award winners in three other categories.
The highlight of the afternoon ceremony will be the announcement of this year’s No. 1 businesses in the Fast Track 50 Emerging and Established categories.
To build suspense and excitement for the big moment, the audience will first hear the names of all 40 Fast Track 50 winners for 2020; followed by the Top 5 Emerging and Established businesses. Among those Top 5 lists will be the eventual No. 1 winners in each category.
Here’s an explanation of how Lake and Geauga County businesses qualify for the Fast Track 50 competition and win awards:
• In the springtime of each year, the Fast Track 50 trustees request nominations for a competition that honors the fastestgrowing companies in Lake and Geauga counties. Businesses can nominate themselves for the Fast Track 50. However, many successful businesses also are nominated each year by certified public accounting firms that assist these enterprises.
• The trustees review sales and employment figures from the past five years that all businesses submit
with their applications. To compile a list of the top finishers, the board evaluates the financial strength of each business based on a weighted average of 80 percent sales growth and 20 percent employment growth over the previous five-year period.
So for the 2020 event, businesses were rated according to their financial performances from 2015 to 2019.
• To more fairly compare larger and smaller companies, the Fast Track 50 is divided into Established and Emerging categories.
For 2020, Established businesses needed to report revenue of at least $4 million in 2015, the baseline year for all evaluations. Emerging businesses were required to have 2015 sales of between $225,000 and $4 million.
While the Fast Track 50 traditionally consists of 25 Emerging and Established winners, this year there will be only 20 businesses on each list. Fewer applications were received in 2020, resulting in a smaller pool of businesses that met minimum qualifying standards for the Fast Track 50.
This year, the application period coincided with the time that many Americans had focused their attention on the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile, businesses were focused on how to keep operating and serving their clients and customers during a sharp and swift economic downturn.
This year’s Top 5 businesses and No. 1 finishers
in the Emerging and Established categories won’t be revealed until the Nov. 5 virtual awards ceremony. However, here’s an alphabetical listing of the 40 businesses that have earned Fast Track 50 awards this year:
• Apollo Supply Co.
• Aqua Doc Lake and Pond Management Inc.
• Carver Financial Services
• Cast Nylons Limited
• Company 119
• Cornerstone IT
• Dan Allen Surgical LLC
• Defender Auto Glass
• D & S Automotive Collision and Restyling
• Enterprise Door
• Essentialware — Global
• Family Pride of Northeast Ohio
• Fredon Corp.
• Fulton & Associates Balance Co.
• Geauga Mechanical Co.
• Giuseppe’s Pizza Inc.
• Great Lakes Eyecare LLC
• Guyer Precision Inc.
• Heckman Excavating Inc.
• Hupp Tax Service
• Keller Williams Greater Cleveland Northeast
• Life Safety Enterprises Inc.
• Moving Ahead Services
• Normandy Catering
• North American Coating Laboratories
• Online Fastener Group LLC
• O’Reilly Equipment
• ProBuilt Homes
• Process Technology
• Quality CNC Machining Inc.
• Ranpak
• Stahls’ Transfer Express
• T & D Fabricating
• Technical Assurance Inc.
• the telos institute
• ThenDesign Architecture
• Tri-Den Heating and Air Conditioning LLC
• Tymoca Partners LLC, dba Federal Gear
• Tyner Inc., dba Protrades Design & Construction, Kirtland
• Vector Technical Inc. In addition to accolades for the Top 40 businesses, tributes will be offered to winners of the Fast Track 50 Nonprofit, COVID-19 Community Service and Hall of Fame awards.
With the event taking place as a video conference, the award plaques — and congratulatory yard signs — will be delivered personally, in the near future, by trustees to all winners.
Serving as master of ceremonies for this year’s virtual awards ceremony is Ray Somich, president of Spirit Media and WINT Integrity Radio. A registration form for the free event can be found on the fasttrack50.org website.