Alaska Small Business Persons of the Year: Philip Brower and Tim Adams honored by SBA for Sharps Billiards.

• Author: Kalytiak, Tracy
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS SPECIAL SECTION

Billiards once was a game for royals and aristocrats, played in sumptuous surroundings. Its appeal spread, but eventually billiards devolved into a pastime relegated to smoke-filled bars and pool halls. It was a way for idlers to while away their evenings.

For Philip Brower, however, billiards was something that transformed his world.

"By the time I was in ninth grade, I had gone to nine different schools. It was a pretty disruptive life," said Brower, 37, a Michigan native whose single mother struggled with poverty. "There wasn't any sports; I didn't fit into anyone's group or organization. Basically when I went to the pool hall it was an individual sport, something I could do and didn't need a lot of money to do. I didn't need a team behind me and there were always people willing to play. What else was there to do--vandalize things and get in trouble?" Brower was 15 years old and sneaking into pool halls to play when the idea of his life first inspired him. He wanted to create a beautiful place where people and their families could come to shoot pool without being forced to breathe tobacco smoke or mingle with a boozy crowd.

Three years ago, Brower and his friend of more than 15 years, Tim Adams, brought that dream to life. The Alaska Small Business Development Center helped Brower and Adams complete and polish a draft business plan and successfully leveraged a U.S. Small Business Administration guaranteed loan that helped pay approximately $80,000 in renovation costs and open 3,500-square-foot Sharps Billiards on May 24, 2008.

The Small Business Administration recently awarded Brower and Adams its top accolade, the Small Business Persons of the Year award, for growing a business that offers "wholesome, nonsmoking, nonalcoholic, family friendly entertainment" and contributes to local charities and causes.

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"Sharps Billiards ... believes in being good stewards of the community, helping to promote a positive environment through a deep respect and understanding of the responsibility we all share for one another," said Bryan Zak, Southwest region director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center, of Sharps Billiards in his nomination of its owners for the award. "Sharps' reputation is stellar and a shining example of small business caring for the community of which it is integrated, on a very personal level."

Zak said Brower and Adams are what is known as extended-engagement clients. "Throughout a business's life...