We’ll be honest. Our business was stagnant when our boss bought the joint. Things were comfortably routine. We weren’t growing but the same could be said for a lot of small businesses in 2012.
Our boss came into this business as a novice. Printing and marketing were industries about which he knew nothing. He’d run businesses before, but this was completely alien to him.
Because it was all so new, he had an advantage. He didn't know what had always worked in the past or what had been tried unsuccessfully before. He was learning an industry as he went, applying concepts from other business models. Some worked, some didn't. But the mistakes were lessons learned and became building blocks for the next success.
In 4 years, he increased revenue by over 100%. In what some commercial print companies would call a waning market, our boss tripled his staff, expanded his services, and turned a quiet little print shop into a thriving communications company.
By the end of June 2016, this guy will be the proud owner of a Gold Circle franchise. In the AlphaGraphics world* becoming a Gold Circle center is a flippin' big deal. And to do it with only one brick and mortar location in a town the size of Franklin Tennessee in just over 4 years is almost unheard of.
He must be doing something right -- something that could be applied to other entrepreneurial enterprises. If we could pin him down, he might have some pearls of management wisdom to share.
But, here’s the thing, we can NEVER pin him down. We call him the shark because he's always moving, always circling through the shop to monitor the pulse of the business. He’s always meeting with clients or potential clients. He’s always making deliveries so he can touch base with customers. He’s always visiting vendors building a rapport that pays off when we’re in a crunch a need a favor. He never stops.
And that seems to be the secret of his success. Don’t stop. Something doesn’t work, try something else. Some project is falling behind schedule, jump in and move it along.
He makes time for his employees but often that time comes during a road trip to see a customer or while hemming banners for an after-hours delivery.
There’s no time to rest on laurels if you’re always moving.
There’s no time to get complacent. If you spend 100% of every work day moving forward, there’s no time to worry about what you might be doing wrong.
That kind of frenetic leadership may not work for everybody. But for our boss, it got his team motivated to do more than we ever had. It’s created a reputation for our business as one that can make things happen even under the tightest deadline.
Having the right experience, the right education, the right business in the right location can give anyone an edge. But those are no guarantee you'll be successful. Our boss is proof that persistence and a refusal to stop moving forward can be the deciding factors in whether a business fails or thrives.
Our shark is still circling gold and we’re right behind him.
*AlphaGraphics is a multi-national franchise with almost 300 independently owned and operated marketing service providers with full-service print shops. Approximately 10% of the franchisees make it to the company’s Gold Circle level of sales. AlphaGraphics Franklin is located in Cool Springs and has 15 full time employees.