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Springfield, MO

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From left: Jeff Mueller, Lou Toth, Lewis Wiles, Adam Toth, Joe Tierney, Matt Miller, Shawn Barry and Brian Orr
Heather Mosley | SBJ
From left: Jeff Mueller, Lou Toth, Lewis Wiles, Adam Toth, Joe Tierney, Matt Miller, Shawn Barry and Brian Orr

2022 Dynamic Dozen Judges' Choice: Toth and Associates Inc.

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SBJ: What has been key to your recent growth?
Adam Toth: We’ve never stopped. We’ve grown since we started. The key to our growth has just been you do a good job for your clients and then the clients talk to each other, and new clients call you up and want you to work for them. You do a good job and then people talk well about you. It’s very basic. With the market conditions that we have today and the economy, people are not following through on what they say they’re going to do. If you follow through and do what you say you’re going to do, you will be very successful.

SBJ: What are your top issues managing growth?
Toth: Finding people. Getting people to move to Springfield is really hard, and there are very few people in Springfield that do what we do. We can hire local people and train them – that’s a long-term plan, and we’re always doing that. If you want to go faster, though, you have to hire experienced people, and experienced people do not want to move to Springfield. The ones we have gotten to move to Springfield have loved it.

SBJ: What has your company’s growth enabled you to do?
Toth: We’ve opened offices in the Northwest, in Montana, Washington and Oregon. We probably have 15 people in the Northwest and 120-130 in Missouri, so we are here, but we have some satellite offices. It’s allowed us to make bigger contributions to the community; we’ve made a sizable contribution to the Missouri State University engineering department, and we’ve donated to several local charities. What it really has allowed us to do is give 130-140 people high-paying, good-benefit jobs. We are helping provide for those people’s families. If I can provide stable, good-paying jobs and benefits, I am making a huge impact in the lives of all these people.

SBJ: What are your top issues when it comes to managing growth?
Toth: We have grown at a similar rate year over year. It is not explosive growth – not unmaintainable growth. I see this rate of growth continuing indefinitely. There’s a shortage of engineers, and especially a shortage of consulting engineers. There are a lot more tech jobs than there used to be, and more engineers are graduating, but a whole new industry is gobbling them up. Because of that, there’s a lot of work out there.

SBJ: Have your goals changed as your business has taken off?
Toth: The first year we started with five people. I remember telling somebody it would be notable if we hit 50, but in my lifetime, my goal was 500. I’m still aiming for that 500 number. The micro goals have changed; who would have seen work-from-home coming? Your goals and priorities adjust, but the values and general direction have not changed.

SBJ: What is the best business advice you’ve received?
Toth: It’s going to sound simple, but to care. Care about people; care about your product. Just care. We would not be where we are without our employees. We have great employees who believe in the mission and work every day to improve the communities where we work and live. We are successful because every one of our employees shows up every day with that goal in mind.

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