Charles Ramos, CR Dynamics & Associates

Charles Ramos took $5,000 and bought professional credibility.

At least that is one way to justify the trials and tribulations Ramos faced when he started his company, CR Dynamics & Associates Inc., in 1994.

Armed with $5,000, his kitchen table and an entrepreneurial spirit, Ramos parlayed his experience with other technology and communications firms to create CR Dynamics, a Baltimore-based call center outsourcing firm.

"My biggest problems when starting the company were just establishing a reputation and developing credibility," said Ramos, an Hispanic-American business owner.

Ramos has broken through that barrier.

Now a company of 20 employees and revenues of $1.2 million, CR Dynamics (www.crdynamics.com) provides sales and marketing work on an outsourced basis for several federal, state and local agencies. The company's client list includes the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Republican Caucus and Maryland's annual Hispanic business conference.

CR Dynamics provides such services as market research, seminar registration, new product launches, the placement of product orders and other direct marketing services. The company, which promotes the attention that a smaller call center can give its clients, generated about $800,000 in revenues in 2001.

"Now there are a lot more long-term projects and the stakes are much higher," said Ramos, a 40-year-old graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park.

Before starting CR Dynamics, Ramos worked for Landover-based Digital Equipment Corp. and was a regional sales manager for Frederick Engineering, an equipment manufacturer for the telecommunications industry.