by Julia Paulus

Before founding Winning Technologies, a fast growing technology company, Lynette Lewis served in the military for eight years. There she learned how to become a leader in an arena dominated by men.

“I had a female lieutenant in the military,” says Lewis. “Watching her made me realize that women can lead in a man’s world. The technology field is definitely a man’s world. My lieutenant inspired me to take on the challenge of starting a business in the tech industry.”

In 2002, Lewis and her husband, Scott, took the entrepreneurial leap starting Winning Technologies together, and they didn’t let the fact that the dot-com bubble had burst deter their business plans. “Tech companies were not looked upon fondly then, but we believed in our business concept, so we forged ahead,” Lewis says.

She and her husband had to learn how to take their ideas and execute. “We did that by getting a really good accountant and attorney,” she says. “We followed their advice and put a plan into action so that we grew successfully.”

Today Winning Technologies has 30 employees – it started with three – and $3 million in revenue.

Lewis says that watching her business grow is her greatest motivation. “And it is a motivation to continue to provide for our employees, family and future,” she says.

And she says the company’s continued growth has been possible because she and her husband have been willing to learn from experts since the beginning. “Primarily, listening and learning from those who have done this before has made us successful,” she says. “We don’t take anything out of our business. We put it all back into the company to watch it grow so that we have resources to serve our clients.”