My Greatest Challenge

A friend approached me one day and asked, “how would you like to help us start a business”. Why me? “You have started and operated businesses before and we haven’t.” What kind of business? “Manufacturing screen printing equipment.” Well, I know absolutely nothing about either one of those. I’m in.

Here’s what happened next…

If you don’t know the term business “bootstrapping”, that’s what we did. Each of the four partners invested $500. We robbed tools and supplies from our homes, made tables and workbenches, bought some cheap equipment, and literally picked through dumpsters to find what else we needed.

We began in one partner’s basement, then bartered space with a screen printer in exchange for producing him some equipment, and soon rented an old building with no heating system. We designed our prototypes, sweet-talked vendors into working with us, created marketing materials and began to hire people.

We bought entry-level manufacturing equipment which did not last. We hired folks through a job training program that subsidized part of the compensation. We worked our first winter using portable kerosene heaters. Without a forklift, we hoisted machinery into the back of trucks. We drove rental trucks to trade shows, shared a cheap hotel room, and ate fast food.

We began to grow. We purchased a 60,000 square foot building in St. Louis increasing employees and advancing our manufacturing capacity. One partner and his family opened a sales office in Southern California and another partner started a sales office for us in New Orleans. Our profile increased at trade shows and in trade publications. We expanded our product line, began to sell screen printing supplies, and importing larger printers from Austria. We exported to Taiwan, South Africa, the Caribbean region, Mexico, and more.

We managed to create a good banking relationship, plus had great legal, accounting, and insurance resources. And we had some of the most loyal, hardworking guys I have ever known. Our products and business practices were innovative, we had great customer relations, and we worked well together as partners.

But it was not all roses and hearts. From the beginning, we were always short of capital. We got in trouble with the IRS but caught up. Our bookkeeper stole money from us, one of our bigger dealers filed bankruptcy, The partners barely got paid.

It’s amazing the blind spots you have when you are determined to make something work. I look back and realize we started this business during one of the major economic downturns.

At a trade show early in the company’s life, we were approached by one of the gigantic companies who wanted to invite us to a meeting. The big players were tired of expensive trade shows and advertising costs. The person who approached us said that the big six companies in the industry were being invited. After he walked away, we said, “do they realize we operated last year with no heat in our building while eating lunchmeat sandwiches.?” It was a huge compliment to know that our competitors felt we were in the league of the major players. We must have been doing something right.

Despite all the good and bad that happened, I feel like we were a success, yet the business failed. The economy and our lack of cash eventually caught up with us. We could not sustain our growth. It does not take much to topple a business when it is stretched too thin and experiences a few bad breaks.

Yet what a rich experience!