Evo Business Environments

Evo Business Environments isn’t marketed as a family business, but it’s obvious from how owner and President Chris Cerrato talks about his two sons who work there and how he treats employees that there is a family-like atmosphere.

“Zac is a sales guy. He was born to be a sales guy. He’s one of those guys that’s never met a stranger, and he loves everybody. He just loves the sales process,” Cerrato said of one son.

“Casey is my engineer,” Cerrato said, speaking of his other son. “He likes to make things work out well. He’s very organized and very good at problem-solving.

“It’s a really, really good mix to have two boys that are on the opposite spectrums when it comes to what you need in a company.” Cerrato hopes his sons take over for him when he retires.

Evo sells office furniture, DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time) prefabricated construction products and raised access floors. It employs 17 people.

Cerrato said the biggest thing he’s learned since starting out is to hire good people, and he has those people now: people who have good attitudes, can think for themselves and can execute his vision.

Evo also treats its employees well. It pays 100% of employee health care, including dental, vision and a $100,000 life insurance policy, and matches 401(k) contributions up to 4% of annual compensation.

In addition, every Friday, Cerrato has breakfast with an employee to get to know him or her better.

Evo was established in 2013, when Cerrato bought a Herman Miller furniture dealership called Workplace Resource, which had just two employees when he took over.

And Evo actually was Cerrato’s Plan B. He had always planned to acquire a different business he used to work for through a structured buyout over time. “I had a handshake deal worked out on that,” he said. “The old owner couldn’t wrap his mind around that I was going to pay him with the profits of the company.”

Although that deal fell through, Cerrato is proud of how Plan B has worked out.