Monthly Archives: November 2011

Rick Long is one of the founders and owner of RDM Industrial Electronics in Nebo, NC.  RDM is an industry-leading remanufacturer of petroleum and car wash electronics.  However, it has come a long way since its founding in 1987.  Rick and his brother studied electronics in school and talked about starting their own business someday.  Working for a company rebuilding gas pumps that was going out of business, they decided to capitalize and use their knowledge and skills in the field to start their own business.  For the first two years they were part-time working in the basement of his brother’s house.

The company went full-time in August 1989.  “We just worked hard and never thought about it failing,” Rick states.  Starting with $3000 cash and putting all of the money from the first few months into the business, they didn’t collect personal payment until January 1990.  They would go market themselves to local convenience stores and gas stations, whether in person, by phone, or mailings.  “One of the hardest obstacles is changing customers from a bigger company,” he points out, while adding “but you’ve got to project yourself to be bigger than you are.  It’s not how you are, it’s how you’re perceived.”  He goes on about this strategy, showing that the company, with only 75 employees, shares ad space with national businesses of 100,000 or more employees, particularly having the back cover of the Petroleum Equipment Institute Journal every year on their trade show issue.

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Doug McCraw is the owner and founder of Encore Entertainment, a sound and lighting business based in Marion, North Carolina.  Encore does sound and lighting for many events, from birthday parties and car shows to larger events such as concerts and street festivals.

When asked about his reasoning to start his own business and to choose the one he did, he said that he “just always wanted to do something like that.”  He started with a company doing sound and lighting for night clubs all over the south east and eventually began to be approached about private parties.  “This could be an extra few bucks,” he said was going through his mind.  The business started off slow, as it was only on the side while he worked other jobs.

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Gary Byrd is the owner of Byrd’s Auto Sales in Marion, NC, and is a man who genuinely loves his job.  “If you’re doing a job you don’t like, you won’t stay with it,” he states.  This is similar to the quote by Confucius, who once said “choose a job you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.”  In that sense, Gary hasn’t really worked since 1986.  When asked why he decided to go into car sales, he said that he just enjoyed selling cars.  “Bill Gates has computers, I have cars,” he joked.

About starting your own business, Byrd states that depending on how hard you want to work, you can get as much money as you want.  Other places, you could ask for a raise, but may or may not get it.  The personal freedom is a major advantage to being an entrepreneur.  However, there are several difficulties on the way.  The hardest part in his case was the money to get set up, to get a building, pave a lot and fill it with cars.  Once set up though, the place became a well-known car dealership in the area.

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Persistence as well as trial-and-error in operation can be very important in starting a successful business.  Just ask Bill Chapman, founder of Hidden Cove Choose & Cut Christmas Trees, located in Marion, NC.  Hidden Cove specializes in live Frazier fir trees as well as wreaths, but the business wasn’t always that way.

Originally starting in the late 1970′s, it took many years to emerge as a successful business.  Hidden Cove began by growing Norway Spruce trees, but they were sticky and it turned out that nobody wanted them.  After deciding to grow Frazier firs instead, more hardships fell in the way for Bill.  Frazier firs don’t just grow anywhere, and he had to find specific areas on his land where they could grow after the first thousand trees died.  Persistence was the key, and when Frazier firs finally started growing in 1993, the business began to thrive and has been doing well since, currently producing between four thousand and five thousand trees.

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