Recognition for Small and Minority-Owned Business
UPS Stores, Certified Technical Experts Win Montgomery Chamber Point of Light Awards
February 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Robert Fouts
The nomination for the Montgomery Chamber Point of Light Award was a surprise and it was an even bigger surprise when Clare Weil, the owner of five UPS Stores, was named one of the three finalists.
Weil, president of C. Weil Enterprises, said that her initial reaction to being a finalist was, “I’ll never win this because the other finalists are both wonderful businesses.” She was referring to Associated Business Services and LogoBranders Inc. “I don’t know why I would be singled out.”
What was her reaction to winning the award for companies that have been in business for 10 years or more? “I just sat there,” Weil said when her name was announced at the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce 143rd Annual Meeting. “I was in shock. My husband and I looked at each other and it was like – ‘Did they really just call my name?’ I don’t know what made a committee think I was the one this year.”
Certified Technical Experts Inc. was the Point of Light Award winner in the category of businesses that were less than 10 years old and CEO Eugene Tinker “knew” that one of the other nominees would win. The award is given for “outstanding business achievement and community contributions.”
Tinker’s 5-year-old firm services government facilities with software development and sustainment; and provides medical assistants with software sustainment and training on the software.
There was not much time for Weil to celebrate because December is the busiest month of the year for The UPS Stores, according to Weil. December revenue, she said, is twice as much as a typical month. “It’s like having a 13th month,” she said. Actually, the holiday season for The UPS Store continued in January and extends all the way to April. Really.
“In my 18 Christmases, I’m always amazed that in April somebody is sending a Christmas present for the past Christmas,” Weil said. January is a busy month because some families, who were out-of-town, ship gifts back home because there is not enough room in suitcases. There are always a lot of returns as well.
Weil, who has been operating UPS Stores since 2001 and worked in the industry since 1997, said receiving the Chamber Point of Light Award “is a real honor for me. I work every day. I don’t work for an award. I work for people. I work because I love doing what I do. It’s really nice to be recognized, but the day after the award you still get up and come back to work and try to help people and do all the things that you do to make a good business.”
She plans to keep the award at one of her UPS stores or at her 12-foot by 18-foot office she opened about eight months ago at the Zelda Executive Suites – just down the street from her Zelda Road store. Weil uses the office for uninterrupted training and work on her financials.
“I guess it’s (the award) a validation of what you’re doing is meaningful and that you’re doing a pretty good job with it,” she said.
One of her proudest accomplishments “is being able to hire 19 people fulltime,” which includes five store managers and a general manager. There are no part-time employees.
Tinker, who has 51 employees, said the Point of Light Award “is not about me – it’s about the company and the people that work for the company to make the company grow.”
He said winning the award “means a lot to me and it means that we’re on the right track.” Tinker said that the announcement of the award at the Montgomery Performing Arts Centre during the Chamber’s Annual Meeting was “very prestigious. It blew my mind.”
