Baby, what a night
By Hank Beckman For The Sun May 14, 2011 4:48PM
David Miller of Chef By Request Catering accepts his award in the Business to Consumer category during the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce 14th Annual Small Business of the Year Awards held on Friday, May 13, 2011 at the Wyndham Lisle in Lisle, Illinois. David Miller went on to win the 2011 Small Business of the Year Award for Chef By Request Catering. | Robyn Sheldon~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: September 28, 2011 12:17AM
Since David Miller had already been awarded first place in the Business to Consumer category Friday night, he was more than a little surprised to find out he wasn’t done collecting awards from the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m very surprised,” he said after taking the honors for the Chamber’s 2011 Small Business of the Year, “especially since I didn’t know there was another award.”
The Chamber’s 14th Annual Small Business Awards were held at the Wyndham Lisle.
Miller won by steering Chef By Request through the uncertainties of the troubled economy in recent years.
Chef By Request is a 15-year-old upscale catering firm that Miller has been sole proprietor of since buying out his partner in 2008.
A full service operation, Chef By Request will not only provide meals for almost any type of gathering, but will plan customer’s events, assisting with floral arrangements, photography and invitations.
As its website stresses, the goal of the business is to make people be “guests at their own gatherings.”
Miller got an even bigger surprise when his wife, Josie, showed up to lead the applause. Normally, a spouse showing up at an awards banquet is unremarkable, but since she had only last week given birth to their son, Riley, it was the last thing Miller expected.
“I knew you were going to win, baby,” she told him after he won the Business to Consumer Category.
But like her husband, Josie Miller didn’t realize there was an overall award, so she was headed back to their Sugar Grove home when the big moment came.
As for the overall award, Miller was grateful and eager to credit his customers and staff of 17.
“You need people’s support or you will fall on your face,” Miller said. “We’ve survived the rough times. You endure, the business goes on and then you have a night like this.”
Miller also noted that the timing of the award was good.
“It’s a good year,” he said, “to win it when we’re celebrating our 15 years is special.”
Chamber President John Schmitt spoke with confidence of what he thinks will be an improving climate for Naperville area small businesses.
“The service industry and retail outlets are showing upticks recently,” Schmitt said as the crowd of 300 made its way into the main ballroom of the Wyndham Lisle. “And sales tax revenue is increasing regularly.”
Schmitt noted the critical role of small business in leading the economy out of its recent slump.
“Small business is the lifeblood of the economy,” he said, stressing those small firms will lead any recovery.
As for continuing challenges Schmitt used the word on the lips of so many business leaders in recent years: uncertainty.
Schmitt said that unknowns about taxation and regulation have been a drag on the business community, and stressed that the problem existed in both state governments and in Washington.
“Businesses are good at managing risks,” Schmitt said, “But they have to know what those risks are.”
A committee of winners from past years served as judges in the competition, awarding honors in six separate categories, in addition to the overall winner and a Lifetime Achievement Award.
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