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• Position: Growth 100 Membership Network - Brief Article

Growth 100 Membership Network gets entrepreneurs together.

Congratulations! You've arrived... your company is one of the 1999 Growth 100 winners and among the fast-growing businesses in the state. So now what do you do?

Unfortunately the road to the top doesn't plateau into easy street.

That's why the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation created the Growth 100 Membership Network, a dues-paying organization where high-growth companies can share information and advice about ensuring continued success in their unique circumstances.

Kathleen McDonald, director of placement with Personnel Management Inc., a corporate sponsor of the network, has seen it help successful entrepreneurs in a variety of ways since it started in 1994. By bringing together both executives of Growth 100 companies and the professionals who can help them with such issues as access to capital, intellectual property rights or recruiting new staff, the network helps Indiana's top entrepreneurs manage their current growth and plan for the future.

McDonald, who was also a former director of the Growth 100 program, notes that the common bond of high-growth experience and expectations provides a level of energy that is far different from other business groups which include companies that have already reached maturity or are just getting established. "It's really exciting to watch these high-growth companies and it's exciting for the state of Indiana," she says.

McDonald also notes that the Growth 100 program's focus on companies that have between $1 million and $10 million in annual sales allows the network to cater to the specific needs of companies in that stage of development. The staffing, legal and financial needs of such companies are much different than those of either smaller businesses or larger corporations in different stages of the business cycle.

"Take advantage of every service that you possible can," McDonald advises new Growth 100 companies. "Full participation in the network is truly invaluable."

Joanne Bozza Jonathan can attest to that. She has been active in the network since 1995 and has used it while building Advanced Physical Therapy into a network of 12 clinics across central Indiana that assist individuals recovering from illness and injury.

She says talking to other Growth 100 members, who may have totally different companies but share similar growing pains, is very helpful. The information that is provided through the network's seminars...