Then & Now: Travis Fink relocates biz, home from NWA to FLA

Editor’s Note: The following story appeared in the Feb. 14 issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Then & Now” is a profile of a past member of the Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class.

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Travis Fink, president of Florida-based National Crime Search, said the business environment and new opportunities led him to move the background screening firm from Fayetteville to Florida.

Two years ago, Fink relocated the home office to south of Tallahassee. National Crime Search maintains a Fayetteville office.

Fink, 48, also owns laser tag venue Modern Mission in Fayetteville and a rental property business with assets in Arkansas, Florida and Georgia. He has about 30 employees across his companies. He declined to provide revenue numbers.

“My passion is small business and starting new businesses and building new teams,” said Fink, noting that he’s started several businesses. “I love that. I love working with people. I love working with customers. I love doing new things.”

The Fayetteville native said Florida is business-friendly, has good weather, and moving there has allowed him to support customers, relationships and his youngest son, Gabe, who races motocross full time in about 10 states. He noted that his son’s training facility is near the Florida office.

“A lot of it revolved around motocross,” he added. “We spend probably three days a week on motocross tracks all over the southern part of the United States. A lot of the racing is done in Florida.”

Fink was president of payroll services company PayTime when the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal named him to the Forty Under 40 class in 1999. He sold the company in 2004.

“My wife was ready to start a family,” he said. “She wanted to work less in the business, and it was a good opportunity for us to move onto a different business and for her to stay at home and focus on building a family.”

Before founding National Crime Search in 2007, Fink worked and consulted in the payroll and human resources industries for several years. He realized the need for nationwide background screening with better technology and more automation during this time.

“We started National Crime Search to support the payroll industry, CPAs, accountants, the HR world – people that I already had good relationships with,” he explained. “We had a great partnership with a lot of people across the country, and it was a good opportunity for us to focus on some new technology and new services.”

In 2016, the company was accredited by the Professional Background Screeners Association, formerly the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. He noted this was significant for the company as a small percentage of background screening companies or consumer reporting agencies have the accreditation. The company recently completed reaccreditation.

National Crime Search serves several thousand customers nationally and internationally and partners with organizations and companies to offer background screening options, including working with labs for drug testing.

As the business has grown, it’s become more automated and integrated.

“Since we own and control our technology, we employ programmers directly,” he said. “When we need to change something and create a new interface to a different software system or another business, we can typically move very quickly to do that … We try to reduce the data entry on our client’s side so that information flows — whether it’s from HR or payroll — quicker and more automated to our system so we can process background checks even more efficiently.”

He added that the company’s software could also interface with the federal government’s E-Verify system and accelerate that process.

“We’re always looking for ways to lean on technology to do things faster, less expensively and more automatically for our customers,” he said.

Technology also played a crucial role in Modern Mission, which Fink launched in 2010. He started the business after ordering custom guns that use infrared and radio technology to communicate several hundred feet apart.

“I love technology,” he said. “This brings a whole new level of outdoor fun.”

As the business grew, he relocated it from his former home in Fayetteville to a site along Joyce Boulevard. The venue offers ax throwing, airsoft, summer camps and outdoor and indoor laser tag.

He and his wife, Becky, have three sons. Fink enjoys watersports, especially waterskiing.