Growth spurts

Virginia Beach-based law firm Melone Hatley hired its first employee in spring 2021. Three years later, it now has a staff of 50 people and could reach as many as 60 by the end of this year, says Rebecca Melone, the firm’s managing partner.

That growth is part of a strategy that Melone and her business partner, Charles Hatley, hatched in 2020, a few years after founding their firm.

“We didn’t want our business to just be the two of us doing everything forever,” Melone says. “We wanted to really build something.”

That “something” has landed the firm at No. 202 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list, Inc. magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held companies by percentage revenue growth. The firm is the top-ranked Inc. 5000 company in Hampton Roads this year, leaping to No. 202 from No. 575 in 2023, and lodging a 1,998% growth rate in revenue during the past three years, up from 1,032% the previous year.

A total of 265 Virginia companies made Inc.’s list, and 24 of those are in Hampton Roads. Sixteen are repeat honorees, running the gamut from legal, security and government services to insurance, real estate, engineering, construction and more.

Melone Hatley was established as a family law firm in 2014, and it has followed the needs of its clients, branching into estate law. In addition to offices in Virginia Beach, Richmond, Loudoun and Fairfax counties and Charlotte, North Carolina, it added an office in Tampa, Florida, during the summer, and could expand to the Midwest by the end of the year, with its sights set on going international in the future, Melone says. The company’s growth will also require adding another layer of management, she adds.

Choice Financial Group, a Virginia Beach-based insurance brokerage with a footprint spanning from New Hampshire to Florida, Ohio and Arkansas, landed at No. 1,174 on Inc.’s list this year, up from No. 1,693 last year. The firm reported 436% growth over the past three years. CEO Bob Hilb attributes about 85% of the firm’s revenue growth to seven completed company acquisitions this year, with a projected 11 to 13 purchases by the end of 2024. Another contributing factor is increased revenue from higher insurance premiums, he says.

Hilb points to the average age of Choice Financial’s partners, 46, as giving the firm an edge.

“We have this real youth and vitality that a lot of our competitors don’t have, and it’s really neat,” Hilb says. “It’s folks that kind of see the vision and are really excited about it, and that also drives a lot of our growth as well.”

Another local Inc. 5000 company, British Swim School, formed in Manchester, England, in 1981 but has been headquartered in Virginia Beach since 2019, when Buzz Franchise Brands, also based in Virginia Beach, became its majority owner. A year later, the world plunged into the pandemic, and demand for swim lessons tanked.

But demand has rebounded post-pandemic, and word of mouth has helped, President Ashley Gundlach says, with the company adding 40 new franchisees in 2024. The company ranked No. 977 on Inc.’s list this year, with 521% three-year revenue growth. Buzz Franchise Brands also snagged Inc.’s notice, ranking No. 1,309 with 395% revenue growth over the past three years.

British Swim School offers swim instruction to all ages, including basic water survival skills, and the franchise reaches more than 450 pools in the United States and Canada, with more than 180 franchisees, Gundlach says.

Despite its growth, the company isn’t building massive pool complexes; instead, its model is based on using pools in hotels or fitness centers that might not see round-the-clock use. The company will likely sell out in available spaces in Canada this year, and it is focusing now on markets where it has less presence, like Boise, Idaho; Omaha, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City.

“When you have happy customers, you have more people who are inquiring about becoming an owner themselves,” Gundlach says.