The Cleveland District Office of the Small Business Administration named Kenneth Thompson, owner of Plasticards Inc. in Green, Small Business Person of the Year.
Thompson, who has been known to juggle as many as 18 businesses at a time, also runs Cascade Management, a property management company in Akron, along with Plasticards.
“Our business is out of control,” he says. “Every day we turn away business for one reason or another.”
His Green and North Royalton Plasticards plants have the capacity to produce 500,000 wallet-sized cards a day. The only obstacle, he says, is finding people to work the hours needed to operate the plants.
Thompson received the Akron Regional Development Board’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998.
Funding growth
The Akron Industrial Incubator received a grant of $388,000 from the state Controlling Board. The money will be used to support the incubator in 2000 and 2001.
The incubator provides technology start-up businesses with low-cost rental space for laboratories, manufacturing and assembly areas. It also provides administrative services and equipment at below-market rates.
