No. 1 in Food and Beverage Signature Foods 2,023.7% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $28 Million Employees: 155 CEO: Chuck McAtee Founded: 2004 Overall RANK: No. 127 Pendergrass, Ga. signaturefood.com As vice president of business development for ConAgra, Chuck McAtee was constantly turning down opportunities that didn’t make sense for a company of that size. So in 2004, McAtee and a partner, Tom Southworth,... 

No. 1 in Government Services Luke & Associates 16,636.6% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $37.5 Million Employees: 588 CEO: James Barfield Founded: 2004 Overall RANK: No. 3 Merritt Island, Fla. lukeassoc.com James Barfield spent his early career decked out in protective breathing gear, checking the air inside spacecraft for toxic chemicals and gases. Then his employer, Kennedy Space Center, discovered... 

DUBAI — Union Bank of India, or UBI, plans to open a branch in Dubai to meet the funding needs of Indian corporates in the Middle East and further boost UAE-India trade, the bank’s chairman and managing director said. See the rest here:  Business : UBI to help boost UAE, India trade | Yahoo! News Search Results for start-up business  Read More →

No. 1 in Financial Services Debt Free Associates 12,376.2% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $26.2 Million Employees: 46 CEO: Bradley Smith Founded: 2006 Overall RANK: No. 7 Oklahoma City debtfreeassociates.com Back in 2005, Bradley Smith gathered up a bunch of his smartest friends, all of whom worked in the financial services field, and took them out to lunch. The topic of the day was: What’s going... 

No. 1 in Environmental Services CleanScapes 1,119.3% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $38.6 Million Employees: 260 President: Chris Martin Founded: 1997 Overall RANK: No. 274 Seattle cleanscapes.com In the mid-’90s, Chris Martin was working at an ad agency in Seattle and living in the downtown Pioneer Square district. The area was plagued with overflowing Dumpsters, clogged storm drains, graffiti,... 

Karren Brady, assistant to Lord Sugar on TV’s The Apprentice, will deliver a keynote address at a free event for small business owners in Telford next week. Read the original here: Lord Sugar’s right-hand woman to headline small business event | Yahoo! News Search Results for start-up business  Read More →

No. 1 in Engineering Appareo Systems 1,751.9% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $5.5 Million Employees: 57 CEO: Barry Batcheller Founded: 2003 Overall RANK: No. 159 Fargo, N.D. appareo.com Barry Batcheller’s childhood heroes were astronauts, several of whom he met through his father, a flight instructor for NASA. When it came time to choose a college, he looked long and hard for an institution willing... 

No. 1 in Education FortuneBuilders 3,648.2% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $10.1 Million Employees: 17 CEO: Than Merrill Founded: 2005 Overall RANK: No. 62 San Diego fortunebuilders.com Than Merrill’s career with the Chicago Bears was cut short by injury. His next gig, as the owner of a restaurant near the campus of Yale, his alma mater, wasn’t nearly as lucrative. After reading books on real... 

No. 1 in Consumer Products and Services Scentsy 8,094.1% Three-Year Growth Revenue: $178.4 Million Employees: 424 CEO: Orville Thompson Founded: 2004 Overall RANK: No. 19 Meridian, Idaho scentsy.net Scentsy was Orville and Heidi Thompson’s last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy. To save their family’s specialty retail business, they had spent their last $50,000 on an infomercial for car... 

CAIRO — There are glimmers of hope in this tough economy. One of them is in Alexander County where a business is expanding. Owner Gabrielle Harris says it’s the first time something like this has happened in that community in a decade. Here is the original: New Business Brings New Opportunities | Yahoo! News Search Results for start-up business  Read More →