Photo courtesy of the Columbia Conference Center Mike DuBose

By Chris O’Brien

Mike DuBose is president and owner of six corporations in the Columbia area, including the new Columbia Conference Center, Research Associates, The Evaluation Group, and a privately held insurance company.

Columbia Conference Center, located off Fernandina between Piney Grove and St. Andrews Roads, is a $5 million 40,000–square– foot facility built in 2003 to provide space for conventions, meetings, socials, weddings, and other corporate or nonprofit events.

Photo courtesy of the Columbia Conference Center “As a national trainer and meeting planner, I wanted to build the very best meeting facility in the nation,” DuBose said. “Also, I had gone to too many weddings with receptions in cramped quarters and attended too many meetings in hotels where the lights were dim, the chairs were hard, the employees were not interested in my needs, and I could hear the speaker next door in another conference.

So, I decided to build a state–of–the– art convention center that was reasonably priced, that provided a luxurious and comfortable environment, and that offered the latest technology. We call it the ‘meeting place of the future.’”

In fact, Columbia Conference Center was recently selected as one of the 100 best meeting facilities in the nation by ConventionSouth magazine. According to the magazine, most convention centers are not profitable nor will they ever be.

“Yet,” says DuBose, “we are turning a substantial profit in year two, while our costs typically are ten percent less than other hotels and convention centers. That is because our staff members work as a team with customers. We view our employees and customers as the company’s most important assets. From the time a customer calls us throughout the entire customer life cycle, we work toward outstanding ratings—nothing less is acceptable! And, thanks to our success, we are now returning ten percent of our profits to worthy community causes like college scholarships.”

Research Associates was formed in 1985. It is the largest business among DuBose’s corporations, with 19 offices nationwide. “We find and write grants for school districts and schools nationwide. We have generated over $250 million in grants for some 70 districts and 250 schools to implement programs such as mentoring, after school, reading, and other supportive programs. Many of these districts are located in SC, NC, and GA. With 50 staff and consultants, we help school districts find money that is unavailable locally to fund programs that would have not been implemented otherwise,” DuBose explains.

The Evaluation Group assesses the quality of the grant programs that many districts implement. “We go in and review what they are doing, how they are implementing the grant, and suggest ways to improve as part of a quality improvement program.”

Personal Background

Mike was born and lived in Darlington, SC, until he left for college. He has been a resident of Irmo since 1976. “I feel like my home is the greater Columbia area, but my roots go back to Darlington, home of the Southern 500 Nascar race,” he says. “I think my greatest accomplishment in life is growing up on a dirt road! I grew up on my grandfather’s airport in Darlington, and one of my treasured memories is remembering getting aboard a Piper J-4 cub and flying every day after school when gas was 16 cents a gallon! We flew for two hours for about two dollars! It was a wonderfully diversified environment that formed a great foundation for life.”

When DuBose was 12 years old, the family’s home burned to the ground and family members lost everything. They moved to a trailer where DuBose’s bedroom became an eight–foot–square room. “Once, my mother got on her knees and prayed for food, and a $20 IRS refund arrived just in time,” he says. “It was good being poor because I can relate to what many families go through today. I remember bill collectors calling, and I swore that I would never live like that.”

When asked what his greatest accomplishment in high school was, DuBose remembers his guidance counselor telling him he would never amount to anything. “I would have been considered a high–risk youth by today’s standards! But that comment motivated me to move into the next phase of my life.

In 1971, I graduated from University of North Carolina at Pembroke in three years with honors and obtained a graduate degree from the University of SC later in 1979.”

When asked if he was a star in high school or college, DuBose says, “I guess it depends on perspective. If you asked my mother, grandfather, or grandmother what they thought about their first son or grandson to graduate from college in three years, I was a star. If you asked other people in my community or school what they thought of my chances of succeeding, you probably would get a different answer.”

DuBose went on to work as an administrator for seven state agencies, a private nonprofit, and two governors, Riley and Campbell. These positions helped him view the world from different perspectives and provided experience to take him into the business world.

Entrepreneurial Beginnings

In 1981, DuBose wanted to buy a computer, as did eight of his friends. Thus, his business career began. Until this time, he had little experience in business and had not even taken even a business course. But, he thought, “If I can sell eight computers in a week, what else can I do?”

He partnered with a banker and a lawyer and formed MicroComputer Distributors and The Micro Shop. In 1981, he had about 50 people selling Texas Instrument Computers (the old 99-4A) out of his home. “Sales were so brisk, we moved into a small office, then to a larger one, then to a mall location, and suddenly, we had two mall locations. We were selling over $1 million in computers each year, but competition from distributors such as Service Merchandise really dipped into our profit margins—They bought in the tens of thousands, while I could only buy 100 computers or so at a time. They were selling them for less than I could buy them. We eventually became a state Texas Instruments (TI) Computer distributor. Finally, TI decided that the home computer business was no home for them. They cut their losses and suddenly exited the market, leaving me with over a quarter million dollars in computers and related software. That was the worst two years of my life, but I battled and fought my way back out of the hole.”

DuBose believes that behind most successful business people is someone who has failed in business. In his own case, it taught him a lot about running a business. “Things that I learned could not be taught in any MBA program or business school. Waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking about cash flow and where I was going to get the money to pay the bills is something you have to experience first hand! The bottom line—don’t put your eggs in one basket. Diversify your business, keep your revenues high, and keep your expenses or overhead low. As Jim Collins says in his best selling book, Good to Great , ‘Be the best at what you do; be passionate about it; and be profitable.’ Otherwise, don’t do it.”

Fast Facts

Columbia Conference Center

Location:

169 Laurelhurst Avenue

Total development cost:

$5 million

Total area:

40,000 square feet

Largest ballroom:

6,175 square feet (95’ X 65’)

Second ballroom:

3,456 square feet (96’ X 36’)

Front reception and gallery:

5,000 square feet

Outdoor patio:

1,650 square feet (110’ X 15’)

Business center:

six computers, fax, copier

Technology:

T–1 Internet access throughout

For more information:

772.9811