By Mikala McCurry
Two new minority-owned, women-led businesses have emerged in the River Region with the focus of helping small businesses and nonprofits throughout the state of Alabama thrive and reach their highest potential. Those two businesses are owned by a mother and daughter duo – Dr. Tammie McCurry and Ms. Brittney McCurry Wingate.
Dr. McCurry and Ms. Wingate both started their own businesses in late 2022 after working in the corporate sector in their respective fields. They both desired to use their gifts and skills to enhance small businesses in ways they simply couldn’t accomplish in the corporate world.
By combining efforts, they are able to provide a holistic solution to quality improvement for businesses through process standardization and strategic focus on the business’s most valuable asset – its employees.
Ms. Wingate is the CEO and Founder of The Region HR Consulting Firm, the first minority and woman-owned full service human resource firm in Alabama. She has more than a decade of experience in the Human Resource field and holds a Master of Human Resource Management degree from Troy University and a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) certification. Her firm offers services in six focus areas: strategy, recruitment, onboarding, development and training, retainment, and evolution. She also provides employee relations services, focus group facilitation, and resume and interview preparation.
“We focus on the full employee life cycle for small businesses. We help them from start to finish: from their pre-hire needs all the way to ending services that may include separation, termination, or retirement,” Ms. Wingate said.
Dr. McCurry is the CEO and Founder of Confidential Consultants, a professional development firm focused on equipping, educating, and empowering organizations and individuals with creative solutions for quality improvement. Her firm offers organizational auditing, strategic project management, leadership coaching, and training and development for organizations. She also offers faith-based counseling for individuals.
Dr. McCurry holds a Doctor of Ministry in Christian Counseling degree and a Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is also licensed by the National Christian Counseling Association as a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor-Advanced Certified and previously served as the Associate Commissioner for the Alabama Department of Mental Health.
“I originally launched my business in the early 2000’s then went back into the corporate sector,” Dr. McCurry said. “I really had a passion to help small businesses, nonprofits, and individuals improve the quality of their businesses and lives, but I didn’t feel like I could fully do that in my full-time roles. That’s why I decided to leave the corporate sector and relaunch my business full-time in September of 2022.”
Both Dr. McCurry and Ms. Wingate saw the innate need for the services they offer within the workforce now more than ever, which is why they both decided to leave their corporate jobs and launch their businesses full-time.
“As an HR professional, I always pride myself on getting to know a person and finding out how to help them get what they need to succeed, and that’s what we do at The Region,” Ms. Wingate said. “Instead of just placing an employee somewhere or making them a number, we really get to know them so we can better help them to better help their employers.”
Dr. McCurry felt a calling and desire to help more people and organizations thrive, and she can now do that through her own business.
“Coming out of the mental health field and emerging from COVID, I saw the isolation that was happening and how the workforce dramatically changed. One of the things I thought about was if the leaders in the workforce were properly trained to appreciate and support their employees through these types of changes, they would be able to better retain the employees they have,” she said.
Although they have separate businesses, Dr. McCurry and Ms. Wingate both saw opportunities where their services coincided and could compliment each other to provide more high-quality, comprehensive opportunities to businesses.
“At the beginning of 2022, Brittney and I both told one another that we wouldn’t be at our current jobs the next year, but we didn’t really know what that meant at the time,” Dr. McCurry explained. “One day, we just said: ‘What if we do this together?’ We prayed about it and realized it was possible.”
They found an office space together where they could run both businesses. They knew it was the right space and right time for them after seeing the words “Let your faith be bigger than your fear” written on the wall.
With Ms. Wingate’s experience in human resources and Dr. McCurry’s experience in development and training, they are able to collaborate on initiatives to offer a fully comprehensive employee relations plan to businesses. Dr. McCurry also offers faith-based counseling services to the employees of their small business clients if those employers do not have an Employee Assistance Program.
“With HR, it’s really about building team and employee morale and implementing initiatives to keep employees happy because happy employees mean more productive employees,” Ms. Wingate said. “When I have clients who are focused on employee morale building, I can partner with Confidential Consultants to do stress management, time management, and other team building training.”
By combining forces, Dr. McCurry and Ms. Wingate are able to help their clients reach their highest potential both professionally and personally, thus building better businesses and a better workforce for future generations.
“There are so many opportunities for services we can provide together to businesses, and I can’t think of anybody I’d rather work with as a partner than my oldest daughter,” Dr. McCurry said.
For people interested in starting their own businesses, Dr. McCurry and Ms. Wingate encourage you to be your biggest cheerleader, never give up on yourself, start before you’re ready, and bet on yourself.
For more information on The Region: HR Consulting Firm, visit www.theregionhr.com or follow them on Facebook, Linkedin, or Tiktok @TheRegionHR. For more information on Confidential Consultants, visit www.confidentialconsultants.org or follow them on Facebook and Linkedin @ConfidentialConsultants. Both businesses can also be reached by phone at (334) 593-2747.
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