We’re delighted to continue introducing our finalists for this year's Small Business of the Year Awards, to be presented on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at The Newnan Centre and sponsored by SouthTowne Motors and UBS Financial Services. Today, meet Doug Bates of CMIT Solutions of Fayette/Coweta!

Chamber membership philosophy and involvement: I am proud to be a productive contributor for the Chamber and participate in the functions and events to support membership and continued growth for Coweta County businesses. I continue to participate in numerous Business After Hours, March Madness (in 2015), the Annual Golf Classic, Power Networking Lunches, and NuLink Early Bird Forums.

Community involvement: I am on the board of Woodland Christian Camp, on the CTE Advisory Committee for FCBOE, and we provide free IT services for Community Welcome House, Promise Place, The Healing Bridge, and the Fayette CARE Clinic. CMIT Solutions is also a Charter Member of Experience Coweta, Fayette, Spalding. I am also a member of a faith-based CEO peer group of other Coweta County small business owners.

How CMIT Solutions differs from competitors: We utilize a CRM system to track all of our competition, both local and Atlanta based. In our 8+ years of operation I have identified over 100 competitors in the IT Support market space. We perform an annual SWOT analysis for our market and ourselves to ensure that we are continually in touch with our target market. The IT market is constantly changing, and we have to move with it. We also continually tweak our web presence to stay current with our marketing needs. We are HIPAA compliant (medical), FINRA compliant (financial), PCI certified (consumer), and we are just now starting to offer a cyber liability to our qualified clients. We have a 98%+ retention rate over 8 years, with the industry average turnover rate of 10% annually being deemed acceptable.

If you haven't yet registered for the Small Business Awards and Celebration, click here to do so now!