Greg Milam
Owner, Camp Bow Wow
Fifteen years ago, if someone told Greg Milam he’d leave corporate America to open Camp Bow Wow, Birmingham’s doggie day care and boarding facility, he might have laughed at the prediction. But life has held a few surprises since Milam’s second year of high school, when his family departed Miami and moved to Birmingham for his father’s job. The move was tough, but Milam adjusted, made friends, then enrolled at Auburn. An accountant by trade, he worked in corporate roles before a change of heart in 2019 inspired a return to the Magic City with his wife. Months later, the pandemic hit. “Everyone got a Covid dog,” he laughs. “My friends in New Orleans take theirs to Camp Bow Wow, and I thought to myself, Why not?! We signed a franchise agreement in 2020.”
Though he now spends his days around happy pups, Milam says running Camp Bow Wow takes the same skills he acquired long ago. “Nothing has been a big surprise,” he insists. “But our values — community engagement, quality customer service and value – are now through the lens of caring for dogs.”
As for the corporate world he left behind, Milam has never looked back. “There’s a tinge of excitement in the entrepreneur world and having the kids grow up in an environment where they understand business,” he says. “Honestly, my 2-year-old hates it when he can’t go see the doggies.”
Joseph Braswell
Owner, Guin Service LLC
For Birmingham native Joseph Braswell, the decision to take on his grandfather’s longtime HVAC and plumbing business, Guin Service LLC, did not come lightly. While Braswell never questioned whether he would become an entrepreneur, he selected and learned the profession carefully. “[My grandfather and I] always talked about it growing up,” he says. “He would jokingly say, ‘You’re going to work for me one day.’ So, when I graduated from college, I called him up.”
Braswell’s parents initially encouraged their son to pursue the typical nine-to-five workday for “real world experience” and perhaps as a safeguard against failure. Braswell, however, thrived on his grandfather’s philosophy that failure was OK and even valuable. He would meet up with his grandfather and share ideas about the company’s future, and the process of brainstorming primed Braswell to one day own Guin Service. During these meetings, his grandfather didn’t treat him like a grandson; Braswell learned the business as any apprentice would, and, when the time arrived, he purchased the company. “If you become part of your family’s business, there should be no ifs, ands or buts about whether you are the right person,” Braswell comments.
Today, the success of Guin Service – 65 years and counting — is a testament to Braswell’s dedication, which started long ago. He’s modernized his grandfather’s legacy for the future — “Everything was written down on notepads,” he says, “but now I can read our numbers from anywhere” — however, Braswell maintains those “old-school” ways of running a company. “I think the best way to run a business is by the book,” he shares. “Don’t cut corners. I sleep soundly at night knowing we do everything we can to help our customers.”
David Bonamy
Owner, AR Homes
For David Bonamy, entrepreneurship is in his DNA. His father owned a car business in their original home of Daytona, and his grandfather ran a hotel and grocery store. By the time Bonamy graduated college in Alabama, where he’d played football and studied accounting, he knew his dream was not to be an accountant long term. Still, he embraced his first role as a CPA. “I started my career in a great spot,” he admits now. “But I used to make the joke that I didn’t want to review other people’s business challenges; I wanted to create my own!”
Bonamy maintains that the first decade of his career in accounting – managing businesses and understanding numbers — became instrumental in his next career move, which was residential construction . . . and that everything built up to owning AR Homes. “I think the years in accounting and the next ones in construction prepared me for any business,” he remarks. “I saw the good and bad of running a company. I had a lot of education in multiple ways, seeing people work and build relationships. It put me into a position to accept all sorts of challenges head on.”
By 2016, when he became franchise owner of AR Homes in Birmingham, Bonamy knew he was right where he was supposed to be. “I don’t get up a single day and begrudge or dread anything I do,” he says. “I love owning my decisions and knowing our staff depends on me. I believe customer service is truly our business, and we love building homes. I know if we succeed, we collectively succeed.”
Bonamy’s father, now living in a newly constructed home in Leeds, enjoys hearing about AR Homes during his son’s frequent calls and visits. “He’s proud of what we do and how we operate,” Bonamy says. “And if his health was better, he’d be out here helping every day – five years ago, he was! So I think the entrepreneurial spirit has stayed within him too.”
Aaron Sanders
Owner, Acre Group
Aaron Sanders is no stranger to nature. After moving to Birmingham at the age of 5, Sanders and his brother would often find themselves exploring the vast woods of Shelby County. “We built forts and bridges; we played Army; we rode bikes and explored,” he says. Later, in high school, Sanders followed his passion and asked to join the school’s grounds crew, which would become the first step in owning Acre Group. Of course, there was zero prestige in those early days — he laughingly recounts jobs such as weed eating, edging, repairing playground equipment and installing landscaping. “Although it was grunt work, we loved it,” he declares.
Eventually, Sanders enrolled in Auburn as a landscape architecture major — but, to his surprise, he felt like a duck out of water. “I’m more hands-on,” he notes. He deftly switched focus from architecture to landscaping design, then completed his degree and embarked on an eight-year stint with a landscaping company, where he honed his people skills.
Today, Sanders is owner of Acre Group, a full-service landscaping company. He stresses the importance of not just a yard but a comfortable space that customers can savor and enjoy. “We like doing hardscapes; we love backyard renovations and creating a space with a patio or somewhere to relax outside,” he says. “And we can pull in components of stones, plants and trees.”
A self-described intuitive person, Sanders works to understand his customers’ visions and navigate to their dream results. “Involvement is key,” he notes. “I developed my people skills little by little. You do it wrong the first time, and you figure it out. The easiest thing to do is listen. Articulate what you hear, make sure you are both on the same page, and be real.”
Dan Pahos
Owner, Home Instead Senior Care
Born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dan Pahos never suspected he’d live in the South. But fate intervened when he fell in love with a girl from Birmingham during a work trip to Nashville, and, the next thing he knew, he’d up and moved to the Magic City. Later, when his father began having health issues, Pahos found himself providing care from a distance. That’s when he realized how important senior care is – a realization that led to purchasing Alabama’s first Home Instead franchise. “I thought about it and prayed about it,” he says. “It was my mom who first said I should do something with the elderly. And she was right!”
Prior to February 1997, when Home Instead was officially up and running, Pahos had thrived in his career in industrial packaging supplies and sales. He says the transition was easier than he anticipated; Home Instead played into numerous strengths he already had. “I learn by doing,” he says. And he was indeed doing a lot: not only hands-on caregiving for seniors but also learning about certain diseases (including Alzheimer's); performing company HR duties; marketing to physicians and social workers; and more. “My wife was patient because I worked a lot of nights and weekends,” he remarks.
The hard work paid off — Home Instead is thriving 26 years later. And while Covid’s challenges set the company back, the need and demand for Home Instead continues, and the company is growing stronger. Pahos attributes the success of Home Instead to acquiring his dedicated team, all of whom genuinely care. In fact, he’s been known to bring an unsuspecting interviewee along for a “preview” of the work involved. “You can start with normal job ads, but you have to create a culture within the company — and that becomes a gyroscope of how you hire people,” he notes. “Our core purpose statement is to enhance the lives of seniors and those who love them. In the interview process, I find those who meet that standard.”