Small Business Owner Puts Technology in the Driver's Seat

From the outside, one of these trucks may look like a slick 18-wheeler, but on the inside you might find something akin to a mini luxury home or a restaurant on wheels. Using hydraulics to expand the insides of a trailer, Mattie said these can stretch to 14 feet.

I spoke to him during the National Federation of Independent Business summit on Monday at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Washington after he received a $25,000 award from Dell for creating an innovative apprach to technology and applying it to his customers.

Mattie started his company in 1988 with not a lot of technology and only six employees -- most who worked on the factory floor, with a couple back in the office. He relied on drafting tables to draw and edit designs, and express mail to ship documents to customers.