Press
CARING: THE ESSENCE OF EXTRA HELP’S APPROACH TO CLIENT SUCCESS
Dec 20, 2011
(Dec. 1, 2011, Marion, Ill.) — Founder Teresa Katubig: ‘I want to give as much as I get from my life in business —Judy Davis knows Teresa Katubig not only as someone generous with her time but her heart. That generosity of spirit is also an indicator why Katubig and her company, Extra Help Inc., are a success.
Katubig is the president and founder of Extra Help Inc., a full service employment and workforce services company. Davis is the Executive Director of Night’s Shield Children’s Shelter in West Frankfort, Ill. The shelter provides emergency services for abused, abandoned and neglected children.
Katubig and her staff lend a helping hand at the shelter at Christmas time. Davis says words can’t express the gratitude she and her staff have for Katubig and her staff. Their support goes beyond just doing the shelter’s payroll pro-bono.
“When I think of Christmastime at the Night’s Shield Children’s Shelter, I think of Teresa. She is what Christmas stands for,” Davis said.
Katubig and her staff come to the shelter every year to decorate a tree and spend an evening with the children. She also calls a few days before Christmas to ask what each child wants and buys gifts that they can open on Christmas morning.
“It’s people like Teresa that make an instant change in not only the lives of these children, but the lives of everyone she touches,” Davis said.
And it’s also the kind of testimonial that has been repeated over the years when it comes to Katubig and her company – testimonials that suggest their success not only involves being good at what they do, but being good people.
Over the years, having an empathy for people and the issues that clients face has become part of a formula that has translated into results for Extra Help’s clients.
Today, Katubig, 46, heads a company with offices in Edwardsville and Marion Ill., and downtown St. Louis. Ranked among the top twenty women-owned firms in the St. Louis area, Extra Help is also one of the fastest growing companies of its kind in the country.
In August, Extra Help was recognized nationally, making Inc. magazine’s prestigious 500/5000 List for 2011. The list profiled the top 500 and 5,000 privately held, employee-based firms in the United States lead by independent entrepreneurs.
The list is a barometer that assesses a vital cog in the economy – independent entrepreneurs.
Katubig has come a long way since 1995 when she started Extra Help, Inc. as a temporary employment agency in Johnson City, Ill., across the street from a Dairy Queen. And yet she hasn’t forgotten her roots and how important it is to be part of the community.
Katubig has been an entrepreneur since the beginning and while her business acumen has evolved, her core beliefs about doing business remain steadfast.
“I was a single mother prepared to work hard to build a better life,” she said. “My mission was and remains simple – to do the right thing and treat people as well as we all want to be treated.”
Treating people right involves bringing to bear the right kind of expertise to help build a more efficient company. That includes developing partnerships with vendors and clients to make their work easier. That means knowing how to hire the right people for the job. It also means capitalizing on synergies that make clients’ products better.
She and her company try to embody some of the best advice she said she’s ever received: “Think twice, speak once.”
Her journey, as with many entrepreneurs, began modestly.
Divorced, Katubig had two children to raise. She started her company armed only with a CPA certification, management experience at McDonald’s restaurant and a desire to help simplify the work of her clients.
Like many struggling entrepreneurs, she learned an early lesson. “You have to be confident in what you are doing and get out and be your best sales person,” Katubig said. “When starting a business, it’s you that you are selling.”
In selling herself, she also was selling an approach that includes a philosophy about work and life that has remained constant.
“Karma — do the right thing and it will be rewarded,” Katubig said. “We like to take the time to get to know our clients and what they do. We want to make sure that they are confident in how we handle their needs and that we are always truthful about what we can or cannot do for them.”
It’s an approach that also includes building a flexible, honest and smart staff dedicated to providing a customized, complete solution to clients’ human resource needs. It’s a staff with more than two decades of experience, committed to providing the best customer service.
That commitment is also based on empathy because Katubig has shared her clients’ experiences. She’s been in the trenches when it comes to building a business.
“I know what it’s like to start, grow and run a company,” Katubig said. “That understanding of the ins and outs of business helps me and my staff partner with our clients to bring efficiency to their workforce needs. And that efficiency is a key to helping a company fully focus on its mission.”
That help can range from handling payroll, providing bookkeeping services or helping clients with tax management, direct deposit or timekeeping. Time has become the essence for many businesses.
“We save time for our clients,” Katubig said. “That allows them to focus on the more significant, important issues that can help them prosper and grow.”
Making Inc. magazine’s 500/5000 list this year is another step up the growth and prosperity ladder for Extra Help.
Privately held U.S. companies make the list, published in September, based on percentage growth when comparing 2007 to 2010. Extra Help ranked 89 in growth among human resources industries with a three-year growth rate of 58 percent. The company’s 2010 revenue was $12.9 million and sales may exceed $20 million in 2011. The company also ranked 3,271 among 5,000 firms listed.
In the past, the list has included Microsoft, Timberland and Vizio. Inclusion on the list was the first national recognition for some of the most successful companies in the country.
Being on the list is an indication of Extra Help’s quality of work. But Katubig and her company remain fully rooted in helping small and medium-sized companies like themselves succeed.
What she likes about her business has been the freedom to do what she can to help her clients. “That will continue to be our driving force throughout the life of the business,” she said.
Being truly successful carries with it the responsibility of stepping up and helping make where she does business a better place to live.
For Katubig and her employees, stepping up involves being extremely active in area civic, business and charitable organizations. Stepping up can also involve testifying before state officials and legislators about relevant employment and business issues. And, it can involve embracing recycling and becoming a “green” company back in 2008.
Extra Help also received the 2008 “Good Neighbor of the Year Award” for its donation of time and money to charitable organizations in Southern Illinois.
Being a good neighbor is being someone who cares about the people who live in the community. “Teresa shows them (children) that there are really people that care about them. She is a spontaneous mentor with her positive attitude and open heart,” Davis said.
Katubig said it all comes back to a sense of priorities about work and life. “I want to give as much as I get from my life in business,” she said.
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Established in 1995 as a temporary employment agency, Extra Help, Inc has evolved into a locally owned entrepreneurial success story. It is now a full-service employment and workforce services company that serves more than a thousand mid-sized companies in Illinois, St. Louis County, as well as in 31 other states. Its array of services include recruiting, temporary staffing, timekeeping and benefits management and payroll services, all designed to increase workforce efficiency.