Springfield Business Journal_2019-02-25

• SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL PROGRESS 2019 26 Russ Hinds recently bought out his competitor and tripled the size of his company, Mid-America Safety and Environmental. While the competitor’s main focus was safety consulting, Hinds’s company specialized in training. Combining the two compa- nies allowed Hinds to fill the gaps and become a one-stop shop for many of the safety training and consulting services a company might need. Mid-America Safety and Environmental specializes in both OSHA compliance consulting and safety training but Hinds says the safety training makes up the bulk of what they do. “Our main flux of business is the safety consulting side,” says Hinds. Companies hire us to come in and help them develop safety programs to keep their workers from getting injured. The cost to a business is so high when someone is injured.” “Our philosophy has always been that if we focus on employee safety, compliance with OSHA and any other government regulations is easy,” says Hinds. “Our focus has really always been from the employee safety side. Let’s make sure employees don’t get hurt. Then everything else falls into place.” Mid-America Safety and Environmental has several different accreditations in order to be able to offer specialized trainings for HAZMAT, lead abatement and more. The company can also do DOT consulting for trucking compa- nies and environmental consulting. Mid-America is one of only a handful of companies that offers confined space training for rescue workers. The company also runs the gamut when it comes to types of clients and their needs. Mid-America Safety and Environmental’s clients range from large national corporations to local compa- nies with less than five employees. “We cover all industries from construc- tion to manufacturing to warehousing. You name it we cover it,” says Hinds. “We’ve even worked with medical clinics.” Hinds also stresses that there’s no specific time frame clients have to work within. “We have clients that want us to come in every month, every other month, quarterly, once a year, twice a year. We customize everything to whatever our client’s needs are.” Ease of use for the client is also a priority at MidAmerica. The company website now has customer portals where clients can access all of their training and compliance information. Training portals so client employees can take training programs online are coming soon. Hinds is committed to offering any type of safety training companies need. “Our training all expanded out of people calling to ask if we could do certain types of training. Even if we weren’t offering it at the time, I would find out what kind of accreditation or certifi- cation it took and I’d do it,” he says. Buyout Triples Size of Safety Company Mid-America Safety and Environmental • 1607 N State Hwy CC Nixa MO 65714 • midamsafety.com • 417-714-4808 “Let’s make sure employees don’t get hurt. Then every- thing else falls into place.” — Russ Hinds ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT