Rome Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Pete Lemons and Brian Richie of Plaza Transport and Larry Alford of Rome Cleaners and Service Master
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Rome-Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Elaine Abercrombie of Greene’s Jewelers and Steve Dennis of Motivation Unlimited
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Elaine Abercrombie:
Elaine Abercrombie is the Owner of Greene’s Jewelers, Inc. This family business located on Broad Street has been in business 70 years. Elaine serves on the Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is immediate past Chairman.
Elaine began working for Greene’s in 1984. She received her Certified Gemologist and Graduate Gemologist titles through the Gemological Institute of America. Greene’s Jewelers has been serving our community since 1948. She is a member of the fourth generation in her family of jewelers. They have always been on Broad Street and are very proud of our great Downtown. She inherited the business from her mother, Joyce Greene Manning, when she retired in 2019. It is Elanie’s plan to continue serving our community just as she, her sister Sarah Greene Brock, and their parents, George and Thelma Greene, always have! Her family has been serving your family since 1948. Their roots are in Rome and those roots run deep.
Steve Dennis:
Internationally acclaimed entrepreneur, speaker, trainer and life coach, Steve Dennis has shared the stage with such personal development masters as John Maxwell and Jack Canfield.
In 2009, Steve founded Motivation Unlimited, an organization created to inspire positive change in the lives of people – personally and professionally. He began providing mastermind groups, lunch & learns, corporate training, and speaking engagements for individuals and organizations seeking personal growth, leadership development, customer service and teamwork.
Steve is a founding member and Executive Director on The John Maxwell Team. Steve is also a graduate of Jack Canfield’s “Train the Trainer” Program, and holds a Doctorate of Biblical Studies from Ministry International Institute.
He trains and motivates with an emphasis on strengthening leaders and helping them to maximize their skills and effectiveness and identify the potential in the individual. Steve believes that in order to build businesses, you first must build people.
Steve does keynotes, workshops and trainings all over the country in various corporations, universities, government agencies, city and county schools, and community organizations. As an internatinoal speaker, Steve has spoken to audiences in Recife, Brazil and Cartagena, Columbia. Along with the John Maxwell Team, Steve has helped to train 20,000 leaders in Ascension, Paraguay.
His workshops, training, coaching and keynote speeches help leaders and organizations achieve their desired results in record time!
Rome Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Lamante Attaud of Tendo Technologies
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Lamante Attaud, Tendo Technologies.
TENDO technologies was the brain child of Founder and CEO, Lamante Attaud. In Sept 1996 he opened his first “internet” account with pipeline.com. It was a small community of mostly nerds and programmers like himself. That year, using his background in Fortran and C++ began teaching himself HTML. Using IRC chat (a predecessor to modern messaging programs), he learned quickly creating his first web page. It was a single page, with a white background and a single burgundy rectangle placed in the center. From that day until now he has loved the ever evolving world wide web.
In 2004, he stepped out in faith with the encouragement of his first client and mentor, Phillip Gaines of Hi-Tech Signs. After eliminating all obstacles the final one was the need for a client. Phillip wrote him a check that day and TENDO was off the launch pad. Lamante became active with the Rome Chamber, serving 7 years on the board. He also served on many of its committees. He has served on several non profit boards including the Community Criminal Justice Foundation, South Rome Redevelopment Association, Domestic Violence Task Force, The Adult Prom benefiting the End to Alzheimer’s Disease, among many others.
Lamante’s mission has been to help companies and organizations of any size across to globe. From the local “insurance guy” to the New York fashion event agency to a major global manufacturer, and everything in between. His passion for puzzles and programming is the fuel that keeps the TENDO engine going strong. With the assistance of his marketing gladiators, TENDO is helping you fight off the competitors, protecting your brand, and expanding your empire.
Pam Powers-Smith, Rome Floyd Chamber
The leadership of the Rome Floyd Chamber, in conjunction with the Greater Rome Existing Industries Association, has selected Pam Powers-Smith to serve as the community’s contact for existing businesses and industries in the area. The executive search was led by The Chason Group, an executive search consulting firm providing services for chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, foundations and other non-profits. Powers-Smith currently serves as president and chief executive officer of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce in Alabama. Her new title in Rome will be Director of Business and Industry Services.
A graduate of Auburn University, Powers-Smith began her career in the economic development / chamber of commerce world in 1998 as communications coordinator for the Auburn / Opelika Tourism Bureau. In 2002 she opened her own photo business in Opelika which she held ownership of until 2016. In 2011, Powers-Smith was named director of Opelika’s Main Street program which was followed by the chamber leadership role in 2016.
Rome-Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Hillery Sawyer of Speakcheesy and Alma Roman of Farmer’s Insurance
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Hillery Sawyer – Speakcheesy, Owner
Speakcheesy was founded in 2014 as a spark of an idea between three friends. Rome did not offer a late-night food option and they wanted to fill that need. What better than cheese and bread to get you through a late night in our downtown hub? Hot late-night food wasn’t the only dream, the friends wanted to create a concept that was versatile, appealed to the masses, provided comfort and took you down memory lane with the nostalgia of childhood. Together the friends incubated the idea, the name, initial menu, and branding, in just a few short weeks, by hosting a late-night pop-up grilled cheesery on Broad Street allowing customers to vote for their favorite original grilled cheese recipes with their dollars. The friends learned a lot about cheese, each other, and business over the six months they spent popping up on Broad Street. At the end of 2014 the friends chose different careers, but this was still a dream Hillery wanted to make happen! She partnered with local non-profits like the Chieftains Museum and growing local festivals like Going Caching to get the word out about her unique concept. By winter 2015, now sole owner, Hillery Sawyer had raised the $8,000 she needed to bootstrap this business from the help of friends and a quick repay loan from the Maker village. She successfully paid the loan off by March of 2016 and started booking around Rome from the parking lot of Redmond Regional to River Dog Outpost and headed off down the road to Atlanta, Athens, and even South Carolina. Now equipped with a new Teammate and husband, Benjamin Mitchell who dreams of cheese right alongside Hillery they set off for Speakcheesy’s Spring Music and Craft Festival US road tour taking the truck across state lines to over 15 music and art festivals across the south in order to fuel their expansion into a commercial prep kitchen and gastropub. In summer of 2019 Speakcheesy had the opportunity to partner with local brewery Rome City Brewing to make their gastropub dream a reality right here on Broad Street across from the space they hosted their very first pop-ups six years ago. Hillery’s heart is as big as it is cheesy. You can support Speakcheesy’s growth and journey by trying one of our many gourmet grilled cheeses or full menu at RCBC, ordering curbside or delivery, or simply grabbing a t-shirt or gift certificate for your friends and family!
Alma Roman – Farmers Insurance, Alma Roman Agency, Agent/Owner
Roman is one of 9 siblings born in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico to a blue-collar mother and father who migrated to the United States in search of the “American Dream”. At 9 years old, she moved to Rome in 1993 and she has considered it her home ever since. She graduated from Rome High School in 2002. After High School, she chose to be a stay at home mother to raise both of her children, Javi Roman (14) and Katelyn Roman (17). In 2004 through 2007, she worked in the medical field, working for The Harbin Clinic interpreting for the growing Spanish speaking population of Floyd County. From 2007 to 2009, she worked in retail and customer service for Lowes Home Improvement. From 2009 until now, she entered what she considers to be her career position, the insurance industry. She began in customer service and became the only team member in the history of Alfa insurance in Georgia to start as a Customer Service Rep and earn the position of business Owner/Agent. In 2016 she opened Farmers Insurance – Alma Roman Agency on 5 W 5th Ave, Rome, GA. She is happily married to Joel Paul McCool, and proud mother to 5 children: David McCool (11), Savannah McCool (20), Kassidy McCool (15), Katelyn Roman (17), and Javier Roman (14).
Jeanne Krueger of Rome Floyd Chamber of Commerce, Amanda Farrell of Farrell’s Frames, and J.J. Johnson of Smoothie King
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