Flushed with success.

• Author: Murray, Arthur O.
• Position: Speedway Plumbing Inc. - Company Profile

Growing up in Concord, Bryan Huneycutt's dreams revolved around being a fireman. They still do. Call them his nonpipe dreams. "I want to be a fireman, but firemen aren't paid what they deserve." Huneycutt, 28, is president and owner of Speedway Plumbing Inc., which he started in 1996. What makes a plumbing business special enough to merit selection as a Small Business of the Year runner-up? How about doubling revenue each of the past three years, with $5.9 million projected in the most recent fiscal year?

He got started in plumbing by chance while still a student at Central Cabarrus High School. "The guy that lived beside my parents was a plumber." That guy, Tommy Price, and his nephew taught Huneycutt the basics while Huneycutt worked for Price part time. But when he graduated from high school in 1993, he wasn't planning on a future of unclogging drains and mending pipes. He got a job with the Concord Fire and Life Safety Department as an entry-level firefighter while attending class full time at Central Piedmont Community College. To make ends meet, he kept moonlighting for Price.

He didn't like school and quit after a semester. But he was advancing at the fire department, winning promotions to lieutenant, captain and assistant chief. Despite the promotions, he wanted more. "I just wanted a shot at my own business." Working with the fire department budget left him confident that he could handle the finances. He also drew on a class he had taken at Central Cabarrus, where students got hands-on training in how to run a business. But he hedged his bets, keeping his job as a firefighter and running Speedway Plumbing from his home in Harrisburg.

The business took off. Old clients not only called him, they recommended him to friends. By 1999, he had four fulltime employees, three part-timers and trouble from the town of Harrisburg, which notified him that he couldn't run a business out of his home. Moving the business out of his house...