Small business winners: Indiana business people and companies honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS

IT'S MAY IN INDIANA, a month that's fast from the start to the finish line. But there's an annual event, the 44th this year, that deserves to be separated from the pack--celebration of the 2007 Small Business Administration awards for Indiana.

Indiana and National Women in Business Champion of the Year Charlotte Zietlow, economic-development coordinator, Middle Way House, Bloomington

It seems there's hardly been a moment in the 43 years that Charlotte Zietlow has been in Bloomington when she hasn't stirred the pot and challenged the status quo to get things done, much of it on behalf of women. She arrived from Michigan in 1964 with her husband, a new faculty member at Indiana University, intent on pursuing her doctorate in linguistics, and taught German on an adjunct faculty basis. By 1970 she was immersed in local politics, and in 1971 became the first female member of the city council, "a huge deal at the time," she says, and served four years, two as president.

"In 1973, Marilyn Shultz (former state legislator and state budget director) and I started Goods for Cooks, a retail gourmet cooking supply company, because we were told one time too many that we couldn't understand a budget if we hadn't met a payroll," says Zietlow. "So we decided to meet a payroll.

There were very few opportunities for over-qualified women. The chamber of commerce people told me there was no problem with employment here because the only people who were unemployed were people who didn't know anything and faculty wives. So we started a business, which is still going. We sold it in 1988."

She was elected a county commissioner in 1980, also the first woman, and served seven of her eight years there as president, during which time the Bloomington Economic Development Commission was incorporated, she says. That was followed in 1988 by a short run as United Way director, then five years with Planned Parenthood of Southern Indiana. In 1995, she was invited to develop an economic-development arm of Middle Way House, a regional refuge for women victims of domestic violence. First she balked, but after hearing the details said, "Well, that looks impossible, so I think I'll do it. So, I've been here ever since. The job is basically do whatever it takes to help women who are victims of domestic violence to become economically self-sufficient."

That simple directive led to the creation two businesses aimed at providing transitional jobs and training to women served by Middle Way House. Confidential Documents Destruction has offered a mobile shredding service and recycling effort since 1997, with more than 200...