Small Business of the Year Finalist: Corporate Business Systems

Corporate Business Systems
Address: 3348 E. Cherry St.
Employees: 45

Jim Quesenberry, owner and CEO of Corporate Business Systems of Missouri Inc., has a specific growth milestone in mind for his company, which posted 2009 revenues of $8.6 million.

“We’re anticipating this year to break $10 million, and through the first three months of the year, we are right on target,” he said.

The company provides full-line service and sales for office equipment. Services include print management, document management, wide-format copying and printing, and copiers that range from desktop to 130-page-per-minute systems, Quesenberry said. He noted that revenues are evenly split between retail sales and service-and supply contracts.

With a customer retention rate of about 95 percent, Quesenberry attributes his company’s growth to his 45 employees. “I have not had a sales turnover here in five years,” he said.

The tightened credit market also has brought opportunity, particularly through CBS Leasing, a $6 million separate entity that’s run by Corporate Business Systems employees in Springfield.

“Long-standing customers are having trouble getting financing through conventional leasing companies,” Quesenberry said. “(CBS Leasing) keeps 100 percent of their dollars in the Springfield marketplace.”

Corporate Business Systems has offices in Joplin and St. Robert, and Quesenberry is in negotiations to add locations in central Missouri and northwest Arkansas.

The company was recognized this year by Savin as its top-performing dealer in the central U.S., but Quesenberry’s particularly proud of the John C. Rush Award it received in 2009 for increasing United Way contributions by at least 15 percent.

“We work with a lot of nonprofits, and that’s really something that I take exceptionally seriously, because we’ve been very blessed,” he said.