The Inner City 100: True Grit

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The firm, which specializes in designing buildings for commercial contractors, has long done a small percentage of its work for local governments, designing public school facilities and local universities. Slay prefers the commercial work, which pays better and more promptly, but the stability of government contracts can't be overlooked now. "It is what we have to do and where we are now," she says.

To get more work from the government, she's trying to collaborate with bigger companies on projects in the South Texas town of Laredo, where she also has an office. Housing and building seem to be recovering faster there than in the rest of the state. Her potential partners have more experience building large public projects but realize that planners want to use someone local. Slay hopes that those relationships will bring in work on some planned facilities in higher education and a stadium to be built soon near Laredo.

Slay is also carefully diversifying her own offerings, selling marketing services to commercial contractors for the buildings she designs. She creates brochures for the buildings to be leased—an easy task, because her shop already has the drawings and the software needed to make them. "So we become a one-stop shop for them," Slay says.

All of the Inner City 100 companies hope the tactics they've been employing to stay afloat during the recession will also position them well for a recovery. Sundra Ryce, president and CEO of general contractor SLR Contracting & Service in Buffalo, has seen her company expand at a compound annual growth rate of 59% over the past five years, and ranks 15th on this year's list. Ryce credits part of that to her location, which provides access to a labor pool that is very knowledgeable about construction and contracting. But this year, she's rethinking her business plan and hiring more executive level staff with experience in larger projects. Her goal: to double the size of the government contracts her 30-person company wins, which would mean SLR would be bidding on $20 million to $30 million contracts. She realizes small businesses like hers are critical to getting the economy moving again. "We are the backbone of American business," says Ryce. "It is companies like ours that help keep the economy moving forward."

Flip through this slide show for profiles of the 25 fastest-growing companies.

Quittner is a staff writer for BusinessWeek in New York.

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