File Ph?*os
Tom Trollinger left behind a career at Wachovia to start his own business.
Contract Office Furnishings has a number of lofty clients.
Tom Trollinger has become a business and a community man
BYT KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Tom Trollingcr said he stepped out on
faith when he quit his steady job at a top
company to start his own office furniture'
firm. Twenty-five years later, faith is still
sustaining Trollinger and his-company, Con
tract Office Furnishings Inc.
"If yoo sit on it or sit at it. we can sell it
to you," Trollinger joked during a special
afternoon-long anniversary celebration for
his company, which is on 14th Street, off of
University Parkway.
The company's 25 full- and part-time
employees joined local business and elected
officials for the celebration last August.
Trollinger has gained a reputation over the
years as not only a good businessman but a
mentor tg up-and-comers and a community
supporter.
"He is a hero in the local business com
munuy," said Glefln Yoder, wjjjo approved a
$5(U)(H) Forsyth Bank loan in the late '70s
that enabled Trollinger to start his' business.
Yoder is now a business loan officer at
BB&T. one of Trollinger s many corporate
clients. Yoder recalls that Trollinger waiv.
self-assured about the business he wanted ta
start. ? |
In addition to BB&T, Contract Office I
Furnishings has outfitted corporate offices
at companies such as Wachovia, Sara Lee,
R.J. Reynolds, BellSouth. The company
also has done work for Winston
Salem/Forsyth County Schools 'and various
universities. The company not only services
clients in the city but much of the Southeast.
But the compftfy's client list was not
always so exhaustive. In the lean years, the
business had only two employees.
Trollinger and his wife, Kay.
"I would go out and sell in the morning
and install it in the afternoon," said
iTrollinger, who left his job as assistant vice
president for purchasing at Wachovia to
strike out on his own.
"Back during that time, {corporations)
were, looking for minority sup0iers, and
there were not a lot of minorities who had
products and services to provide to corpo
rate America," Trollinger recalled.
Although he admitted that being a black
business owner did help him get his foot
into the door at some Companies, he said
that the service he provided has kept his
Clients coming again and again.
"Everybody has products," he said. "We
have a commitment to customer service. We
make sure we do what we say W? are going
to do. and we make the customer feel we are
genuinely interested in providing for them."
Adrianc Jones has worked at the compa
ny for the last 15 years. She said the work
ethic that Trollinger used to found the com
pany has rubbed off on many of the employ
ees.
"He works tirelessly, and it shows
because the company has done well," Jones
said. "(The employees) are dedicated. It is a
lot of team work here. It is a real family
environment."
That family environment includes two
members of Trollinger's reaT'family: his
son, Mike, who is in charge of the compa
ny's assembling team (the group that puts
together furniture pieces in office build
ings), and his daughter, Yolanda, who does a
little bit of everything but mostly works in
sales.
Trollinger is also keenly aware of the
effects that an economic downturn can have.
But he said his company will continue to do
what it has always done: take it one day and
one customer at a time.
"When large companies sneeze, small
companies catch pneumonia. We have been
fortunate not to catch pneumonia."
Trollinger said.
Trollinger atso owns the downtown store
Workspace Unlimited, where slightly used
furniture is offered at a tremendous dis
count.
Laptop users can enjoy free
Internet service along Fourth
( HR0N1CLE STAFF REPOKI
People with wireless modem laptop computers or
handheld digital devices can access the Internet free of
charge along a section of Fourth Street. The Winston
Salem Information Systems Department developed a
free public access hotspot late last year that makes it pos
sible for people eating lunch or sitting on benches along
Fourth Street to access the Internet.
The Wi-Fi system - which uses a short-range radio
antenna to broadcast Internet signals in a focused area -
is similar to systems already used at coffee shops and
some airports. It is believed that Winston-Salem was the
first city in the state with a government-sponsored, pub
lie access hotspot, and one of the first in the nation use
the technology on a large stretch of road.
Fourth Street was chosen because it has become the
center of the city's downtown re verbalization efforts. Sev
eral new restaurants and shops are slated to open along
Fourth in the near future. Last summer the city finished
a $2.6 million project that widened sidewalks and added
trees and benches to the stretch of Fourth Street that runs
through downtown.
"We see this as an economic development tool," said
Dennis Newman, the chief information officer for the
city. "(The hotspot) will encourage people to come
downtown and dine at our sidewalk restaurants and go
to our other venues along Fourth Street."
Pile Phoio
Jeff Smith, the city's unofficial social butterfly, tests the new system.