Success Story: Missouri
Phillip Cohen, founder and CEO of Cohen Architectural Woodworking in St. James, Missouri, is the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2017 Small Business Person of the Year for Missouri.
Not bad for a former hippie.
And one-time, self-described, homeless drug user.
And father of nine, most of whom work in the business.
And savvy businessman who began woodworking as therapy and turned it into a 75-employee, 54,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in St. James, with a branch office in Lenexa, Kansas, that can accommodate large-scale and multi-unit rollouts. Projected sales are in the $14 million range.
“Back in the 90s, when I was real broken, I wrote a book for a missionary in Nicaragua,” says Cohen. “He told me God would heal me someday, that I would have a story to change peoples’ lives. That I have to quit thinking about myself, start thinking of others.”
“I never thought God would heal me. But I made a promise that if he would, I’d spend my life healing others.”
And that’s the cornerstone of Cohen Architectural Woodworking, a full-service cabinetry and millwork facility where personal and group development are emphasized over the scrum of orders. (more…)