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EPISODE 05
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:09.1] TB: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Be sure to stay tuned till the end of the show to hear how you can get a copy of this program and other helpful documents.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:19.3] RJM: Hey, y’all! This is R.J. Martino. Special guest host for Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy, where Arkansas’ best entrepreneurs give advice on your business and your problems. You guys who are listening know that Kerry is on here every week from 2 to 3 on Fridays and you probably have heard of Kerry’s business. If not, Kerry started her business going door-to-door selling flags and has built it over 15, maybe 20 years, into a $4 million business selling both online and through her showroom floor found right here in Little Rock, Arkansas.
What you don't know is R.J. Martino who is your host today runs an IT and marketing company here in Little Rock and we help businesses grow as well. I've got with me some special guest, my first and my favorite is my cohost, Jeremy, G Love, Glover.
[0:01:15.0] JG: Hey, what’s going on KABF?
[0:01:15.5] RJM: You can hear us on 88.3. You can also watch us live right now on Facebook Live.
[0:01:20.8] JG: You can stream at www.kabf.org.
[0:01:24.2] RJM: Now, my special guest today is Randy Clifton. Randy.
[0:01:29.2] RC: Glad to be here, man. Thanks for inviting me.
[0:01:31.7] RJM: Randy is a husband, a father, a risk taker, and comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. He is currently president of RCX solutions, and Id’ love for you to tell the listeners just a little bit about RCX so we can jump in the some questions. Before we do that, I want to let the listeners know that the key to this is your participation. We'd love for you to call. You can find us at 433-0088. Again, that's 433-0088. If you've got a question about your business, about Randy's business, or about my business, I'd love for you to get in touch with us. Call us now at 433-0088.
Randy, thanks for coming.
[0:02:14.1] RC: Man, thanks for inviting me. We’re excited about this.
[0:02:16.4] RJM: Tell me who you got with you.
[0:02:17.7] RC: I’ve got Jonathan. He’s our operations manager, and I figured I’d bring him along, let him fill some adlibs in. See what his opinions are on some stuff.
[0:02:26.4] RJM: You were excited to be here. Tell me about what is RCX. Tell me about Randy too.
[0:02:31.7] RC: My family's has been in the trucking industry, supply chain, logistics. We’ve been doing that my entire life. It started with my grandfather back in the early 60s. I've been in kind of all sides of the desk of it. We started RCX in 2010. It was originally started by my dad in 2000. He got sick 2009, so just a small operation. He had three trucks. We already had logistics company since the transportation. I told my dad, I’m like, “Hey, don’t worry. It’s my job. I’ll take this over and we’ll make it work.”
We’ve grown it. We’ve got 38 trucks. We’re a dry van trucking company. We’re based here in Little Rock. We run all 48 states and we’ve got a lot of different things that we do for small company that we can really help a lot of shippers, manufacturers, even just normal people shipping that sell something on eBay. If they need to get it somewhere, they call us and we can help them do it.
[0:03:26.8] RJM: You deliver the products.
[0:03:27.9] RC: We get the product. Whether it's raw material or finished goods or whatever the case may be, we can get it moved one way or the other. If we can't, we know a lot of people that we’ll direct you to.
[0:03:40.4] RJM: Sure. I want to start even before that, because you said your father started RCX back in 2000.
[0:03:47.6] RC: Yes.
[0:03:48.2] RJM: How did you get involved in the business in the very beginning?
[0:03:52.8] RC: Actually, when my family started, we've always been in trucking. My first job at 14, I would come in and check drivers in do — It was called, basically, trip reports. I would add up how many miles they ran and do this kind of thing. That worked out great. My dad and grandpa paid me good money and then they fired me when I was 16 because they said I wasn’t doing a good job. I wasn’t focused.
I went to work for Walmart and I decided I was done trucking. I wasn’t going to do this. I was going to do something totally different. I went into the retail industry, got into management. Worked my way up to store manager and did that for four years. They moved us eight times in four years. I ended up — I’ll never forget this day. I was up for a promotion. I was going to be a district manager. I was all excited and they tell me I was too young that I needed to kind of stay in the Memphis market for a little bit. Went back to store and my wife called and she goes, “Guess what? I'm pregnant.” I’m like, “Oh my God!” I’m going to be a dad. I didn’t get this promotion. We got to have some babysitters. We’re going to move back home. I sold all my stock. I took my bonus money and bought three trucks and I jumped in the trucking business.
[0:05:03.4] RJM: Wait, that was not day off, like day —
[0:05:06.3] RC: No, it was about a week later.
[0:05:07.5] RJM: Wow!
[0:05:08.0] RC: I knew right then, I’m like, “I’ve got to do something.” Walmart was a great company. I learned a lot. Really helped me, get me going, but it was a hard job. It was 60, 70 hours a week and we moved a lot and with being a dad, I knew that was going to bring some new challenges into it. I’m like, “It’s time to do something on my own.”
[0:05:29.7] RJM: What was your background before starting Sunset and RCX, and do you feel like you were prepared for what you jumped? Because it sounded like a lot of guys, me included, I worked for a decade part-time before we were able pay my salary. It sounded like you jump feet first in.
[0:05:49.0] RC: We did, it was funny because as a kid growing up, you see your parents and you’re like, “We did pretty good. Everything was fine.” We had money and my grandparents, they seem very successful. My uncle was in trucking. I’m like, “Man! They’re making all kinds of money. This is great. This is going to be a good industry. I want to jump into it.” That’s what I did.
I thought, “Well, I’ll take my Walmart principles of business. This is what I’ve learned and apply it to this industry. I’m going to rich and grow.” We did. We took off. We started with three trucks, and in five years I had 35. We shot up quick. We had some great accounts and we were flatbed. We had a lot of flatbed products back then. We had some great people.
One thing about the trucking industry that was really a hard lesson is it changes, and it changes fast. You’re constantly evolving. One of the things that we — one of those hard lessons is we grew way too fast to quick and we didn’t have that solid foundation. I actually lost my first company. My first company was called Capital Trucks Overseas. Great company. Just kind of — We built up really quick. We made some big purchases.
[0:06:59.9] RJM: Tell me what — Because you hear this and it’s almost a I wish I had that problem, where organizations grow too fast. A lot of my close mentors have told me, you’ve got to not grow too fast. Tell me what that means to you whenever you live through it.
[0:07:15.1] RC: I think when you’re an entrepreneur or when you’re a new business owner, that goal is to get sales. Get sales. We’ve got to get those sales. You have these big contracts come up and you win them and you’re like, “Oh, man! This is great.”
You kind of throw money at it because you’re like, “We’re going to make all these money and we’ve got all these.” As a business owner, there’s difference in total revenue and that profit. We can show some great numbers in that revenue, that net profit is what accounts and cash flow. That’s another thing. As a new business, a lot of times you become a slave to what the banks are lend you. You could have the greatest business model in the world and it can take off, but if you can’t get financing for it, you’re dead with water.
That was the trucking industry. When the economy is good and things are rolling and freight is moving, it’s a great business to be in. When it slows down and stops, you’ve got to be ready to make those adjustments, slow it down. That was what we weren’t prepared for. I jumped in at a really great time and it took off and I had never gone through a really bad economy at that time.
[0:08:22.1] RJM: Sure. Tell me about the rebirth of Randy Clifton. Tell me, was it a complete collapse or did you just sell off equipment and kind of go back to work? What happened?
[0:08:31.4] RC: We shut it down and I kind of just basically started all over again. We ended up — I dabbled. I started a little sign company called Express Signs and Graphics. I’ve always kind of enjoyed doing that. It was a good little business, but it was one of those things, I needed something pretty steady, that you kind of start all over again. I had a family. By that time, I’ve had my daughter. I got a job as the logistics coordinator for Wabash Alloys. They were a business in Benton and they made aluminum ingots for the automotive industry, and that was a great lesson because it was the first time I got to be on the other side of the desk. Instead of a carrier, I was a shipper, and I managed their trucks and we kind of learned the different side of the business. We did that and that was a great job. I really loved it. I was really excited about it. With a lot of manufacturers, they moved to Mexico. They were going to shut the plant down.
We had to move. We were going to have to move to Fort Wayne, Indiana and I’m like, “You know, this isn’t the great time for me to move.”
[0:09:29.3] RC: You had babysitters still —
[0:09:30.7] RJM: Well, we had babysitters. We had the house in place. When you lose a business and you start all over, it’s humbling. You file bankruptcy, you start all over. The only thing we were able to save was our house. That was all I had. I’m like, “We can’t let that go. I’m just going to have to stay here.”
I was very fortunate. One of my vendors, Priority One Logistics, they hired me. Great company. Went to work for them. That was a neat opportunity, because I got to become a broker. I got to be the middleman. I’ve been a carrier, I’ve been a shipper. Now, I’m the broke. I’m the guy in the between, and I was very successful with that because I know what both parties want. You kind of get to — It’s really about negotiations and making it work.
We got that done and enjoyed it. The only thing about it is, as you know, once you’re an entrepreneur, once you start your own business, it’s incredibly hard to work for somebody else.
[0:10:22.1] RJM: Yeah. I am unemployable at this point, and I know it.
[0:10:25.1] RC: Yeah. At this point, it’s over. That’s it. It was time for me to step out and go back into it again. I became a sales agent for Sunset Transportation. Great company out of St. Louis. Been in business since 1990. We took over the southwest region for them, and I’d actually done business with them when I had my trucking company before. I’d hold freight for them and met the owner. We started broker and then we basically started that business and we grew it until my dad got sick.
My dad had started RCX, he just had three trucks and was running some things, dry van freight. When he got sick, he was like, “I need you to take this over. I’m not going to be able to do it.” I’m like, “We’ve got freight. It’s a perfect fit. We’ll take these trucks and we’ll plug them in to these dedicated lanes that we’ve already got.
It became a great opportunity for us because now not only do we have this business that we can go out and help people move their freight, but now we’ve got the tool to move their freight. Now, I’ve really have the control to plug it in so when we go in and we see a customer and they need something, we have a little more flexibility because we actually have the trucks. I can make it happen, instead of a contract.
[0:11:34.4] RJM: Sure. This is KABF 88.3. I’m sitting here with Randy Clifton, and you are listening to Up In Your Business, with Kerry McCoy, where Arkansas’ best entrepreneurs can give you advice on your business and your problems. Please give us a call if you’ve got any questions, thoughts, or comments or just want to talk something about your business, at 433-0088. That’s 433-0088.
Randy, one of the things that I’ve been surprised with is that a lot of businesses look at an industry and they look at small opportunities and big opportunities, or small businesses and enterprise businesses and they have to almost pick to sell either to a small business or pick to sell to enterprises.
What I’ve been really impressed with is it seems like you guys are setup where you can handle small and really large. How do you do that and what makes you guys unique? What kind of service offerings? How did you wrap that up to make that possible?
[0:12:32.5] RC: What really helped us Sunset has been a great advantage for us. They’re a well-established company. They do around 100 million a year, and so that gave us the opportunity to present a lot of solutions for what I call your big box customers. We can do intermodal, we can do international freight, we do air freight. One of the things that they give us is the success story and the process.
When we go in, we’ve already got that process laid out. We basically fit in to their need. With RCX, that helped us really do a better job of specializing. A lot of your smaller companies, they need something — It’s kind of out of ordinary, maybe out of the box. They may need some drop equipment. They may need only a one run on a Tuesday afternoon at 3:00, delivery at midnight.
Our trucks gave us that advantage to provide that unique top service that they could do. We kind of have the best of both worlds. When you start a business, I think every business owner — We all have dreams. We want to big. We want to take over the market. We want to be the big guy on the block. As you learn as a business owner, sometimes those big box customer or those big customers are very small margin. You don’t make a lot of money on the big guys.
I think a lot of business owners make that mistake. They go for the big guy — You forget about the small customer. The small customer really is your — That’s your bread and butter. That’s the guy that’s going to stick with you to the end.
One of the hard lessons that we’ve learned is big customers are great to have, but they’re here today. They can be gone tomorrow. They’re always turning. I think as a business owner, sometimes we get caught in this trap. Big businesses are great about sucking small businesses like mine in and they’ll use you until some new comes along and then you’re gone. You have to be careful. You want to be cautious and that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
[0:14:20.4] RJM: Yeah, sure. Jonathan, tell me your role in the company. We’ve got Randy who’s the dreamer, the visionary, the risk taker. Does he go out and just drum up business and he’s flying by the seat of his pants or is he actively involved? Tell us what you do there.
[0:14:33.6] J: Randy is very active in the company, and I’ve been with RCX since 2011. From the sales standpoint, we go out and we develop customers and we come in and develop the relationships and really try to service customers to the best of our ability.
[0:14:48.9] RJM: It’s really interesting how you meet key employees. I know, Randy, at your business, you’ve got some really key employees and they love you to death and they’re loyal to the bone for you. Tell us how you go about finding the best people, like Jonathan. Is it the bars? Is it at churches?
[0:15:09.1] RC: That depends on the spot. The neat thing about Jonathan was the transportation industry in Arkansas is a very glass ball, everybody knows everybody. It’s kind of a tightknit unit. Everybody kind of knows somebody. Everybody in the industry kind of knows one another. They’ve heard of somebody. When I first met Jonathan, I never met him. I started talking around and I was like, “Can you tell me something about Jonathan.” Everybody was like, “Man, he’s a great guy. He’s a good fellow. He does what he says.”
In our industry, that’s 90% of it. I’m sure it is with most industries. You’ve got to be able to back it up. If you sell something, you got to be able to do it. That was everything I heard about Jonathan. Everything he said he did he would do. That’s the kind of people we want at RCX. We met and he’d been with J.B. Hunt. He’d been with Twin City. He’d been with some larger companies, and he had a lot of that big carrier experience that we really needed.
I’ve never been a big carrier. I don’t have that, and so I needed somebody that had been in that large corporate world that knew the structure to bring to the table to help us, and that’s what he’s done. He’s really helped us.
[0:16:23.0] RJM: Yeah, that’s great. Has finding good people — Because from my perspective, the thing that I did not realize growing a business was how important it is to find good people. Not only how important it is, but how difficult it is that. Is that just a me problem or have you found that?
[0:16:38.0] RC: No, I think everybody has a problem. You hear about unemployment numbers and all these and that and everybody that I know that has a business is looking for somebody. You look for that right person. I think as entrepreneur, sometimes —I know in my business, one of things that we’ve really tried to change our focus, you tend to gravitate towards people like you. You want to find an entrepreneurial spirit. You want to find that guy that will do anything to get the job done, and those people are hard to find. I think a lot of the reason is because a lot of those people, they’re like me and you. They’re going to go out and start their own business, and so they don’t want to work for anybody.
What we end up doing is you either settle or you try to find that right person, and they’re hard to come by. Our new focus has really been find people with good qualifications and really train, help them become that persons that they want to be, or help them become the person. I think even if they have that entrepreneurial spirit, if you treat them right and you take care of them and give them opportunity to grow, they’ll stick with you.
[0:17:36.8] RJM: Sure. This is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. We’d love to take your call at 433-0088 if you have any questions for Randy about your business, or just about business in general.
A lot of our listeners are really either thinking about becoming entrepreneurial or they are and they’re in this weird state where there's too much work but not enough money to cover that first hire. I know for me, that first hire was — That was the biggest decision of my life. I don't know if it was your first hire, maybe your fifth hire. What was the hire that you struggled with and when did you make that determination to finally bring help in?
[0:18:13.4] RC: It's tough, because I was a one-man show from 2005, really, to 2010. I think the biggest struggle is, for me, when we bring a person in to our industry, that personally really becomes family. I feel like I'm responsible for them. I want to help them accomplish their dreams. I want them to do do what they want to be able to accomplish in life. I think it's a fear that, “Okay, I’m going to bring them in and things aren’t going go like I planned.” What happens if they can't help me grow the business? What if the business goes through a downturn? Now, I’ve got to let them go. I’m a people person. I love people, and I want to take care of people. Those are those fears that hold you back.
[0:18:54.7] RJM: Yeah, that's a good dot. We’ve got a caller coming in, so I want to take the call and come back to this because you said some really key thing.
Hello, caller.
[0:19:02.4] KM: Hi! Is this Up In Your Business?
[0:19:04.5] RJM: This is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy.
[0:19:07.4] KM: This is Kerry McCoy.
[0:19:11.3] JG: Oh no! No, we’re in trouble.
[0:19:13.5] RJM: Listen. This is an entrepreneur at heart. Even whenever you’re supposed to be on vacation, out of town, you’re still working. What are you doing, Kerry?
[0:19:19.9] KM: That is so true. I’m listening to Randy. I love everything he said. It’s so good; finding that niche market, not letting the big boys bring you down, growing too fast. They’ve just been great questions and great information. I’m making notes so I can tell it on my next show.
Randy, I have a question for you.
[0:19:42.2] RC: Yes, ma’am.
[0:19:43.5]KM: How did you go — You started your own business — I have to say, I haven’t ever heard of your company. I’m glad to meet you. You started your own business. After leaving Walmart with three trucks, it went belly-up, and then somehow you’re with your father and when he got sick you took over his business. Was he already in the trucking business too?
[0:20:05.9] RJM: Yes, ma’am. He’d already stayed in the trucking industry. Sure did.
[0:20:10.2] RJM: You’re competing with you father.
[0:20:12.0] KM: That is what I was going to ask.
[0:20:16.8] RC: It ended up. It was one of those family things where I come in to the family, and when I left Walmart, I had this brilliant idea what we needed to do, because it was really tough at my house around Christmas. I had my dad, my grandpa and my uncle and we’d have Christmas dinner and we would always end up in a fight because you stole my driver, you stole my account. We were fighting like cats and dogs about the industry.
It was tough. I had this epiphany that we should all merge and just have one big company. Everybody kind of agreed. My uncle didn’t. He kind of want to do his own thing, which is fine, and he was very successful. My grandpa basically retired and he just basically let us run his trucks. My dad had a few trucks he leased on and then they put them on with my company and we took off.
We were doing really well. We had those major setbacks. You get that great customer that you think is going to be awesome and then one day you get a letter and find out that they’re after filing bankruptcy and they owe you a lot of money. You’re like, “Oh, no. This can’t be happening.” Then the bank cut my credit line off and I’m like —
[0:21:20.4] KM: They can’t pay your bill that you got out with them and now they’re bankruptcy is affecting your bankruptcy.
[0:21:25.6] RC: Yeah. It’s a beautiful spiral that goes downhill. Those were some hard lessons. My family decided that they didn't really want to be a part of me anymore so they decided to go back out on their own so they just let me out cold. That’s the way family is. No, I’m just teasing.
[0:21:43.0] KM: No, it’s not. No, it’s not the way they are.
[0:21:46.0] RC: It worked out. It was good, and that was a good move for them. That way they can’t —
[0:21:50.3]KM: I hope your dad is not listening. He’s going to get mad that you’ve said that.
[0:21:53.2] RC: Oh, he probably would. It’s okay. I harass him about it all the time. I took his business back over when he got sick, so I'm back in good graces.
[0:22:01.7] KM: You deliver truck — It’s nationwide, statewide, citywide?
[0:22:07.1] RC: Yes, ma’am. All three.
[0:22:08.7]KM: Yeah, I liked R.J. when you said, “How do you do all of that at one time?” I could have you drive something to Fayetteville up, which I sometimes need to do. I could have you drive something up to Fayetteville for me.
[0:22:21.2] RC: Yes, ma’am.
[0:22:21.5] KM: Right?
[0:22:22.1] RC: Yup. We’re kind of like FedEx. We can do everything that FedEx can do.
[0:22:29.3]KM: I’m not going to take up your whole show, but we did have Loblolly Creamery —
[0:22:34.6] RJM: It’s your show, Kerry. Do whatever you want.
[0:22:36.6] JG: Yeah, it’s your show.
[0:22:38.2] KM: I thought of that, when you were talking about what you did. We had Loblolly Creamy on a while ago and they do a lot of delivery to Fayetteville. I thought, “Gosh! You should be delivering some of their ice cream to Fayetteville, although you have to use dry ice to get up there, but that’s no big deal.
[0:22:57.4] RC: No. We can do a lot of stuff like that. Sure can.
[0:23:00.7] KM: Okay. I love, love, love your show, and R.J., I’ve been in business 40 years when you said 15 or 20. Boy — You’re going to have to tell me how you’re streaming this on Facebook. I’m going to have to learn from you. Since you are in the IT business, you could do everything.
[0:23:16.9] RJM: Oh, just give us a phone call. I know someone that will charge you a pretty penny for that.
[0:23:23.4] KM: Now you’ve spoken like a true entrepreneur. All right, guys, I won’t take any more time. Thanks, R.J., for sitting in for me.
[0:23:28.5] RJM: Hey, if you have anything else, feel free to call us, call us at 433-0088. We are live here with Randy Clifton, and this is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy, where Arkansas’ best entrepreneurs give you advice on your business and your problems.
One of the things we’re just talking about that just hit home for me was whenever you hire somebody, it’s like bringing them into a family and you feel responsible for. That’s a feeling that I don’t know, and I’m kind of looking at Jonathan asking if he understands. Man, I don’t know if you realized how you just truly feel responsible for the livelihood of other employees. How many times have you paid a payroll and made sure the lights got paid, and you didn’t take a pay that day. That is real life of an entrepreneur and it happens at all levels, not just day one. Not just year one. Not just year five, but sometimes even today. You’ll have tight months, because cash flow is so important.
Jonathan, are you familiar with kind of an entrepreneur lifestyle? Does that make sense? Do you think that clicks for most employees?
[0:24:33.8] J: I don’t think it clicks for most employees. RCX, it is a family, and a lot of times trying to understand what Randy does and the processes. I don’t think most employees — Our employees do. Like Randy said, we’re a family. It was a big step coming to RCX. I started with big box carriers, I went through the processes. Taking that risk and joining somebody, joining a smaller operation. It was a big deal, but Randy quickly helped me understand this was the place that I needed to be. When we say we’re going to do something, we do something.
He mentioned that he wants to find people that are similar to him. We had some meetings and some discussions and I thought, “You know, we’re on the same level. I understand we try to take care of our customers. We try to do the right thing all the time and handle the business. That’s what makes us great; taking care of the customers and doing what we say.
A lot of times employees outside of the industry or outside of office don’t understand what comes in to making a payroll, what comes in to keeping the lights on. I know at RCX we do.
[0:25:39.6] RJM: Yeah. Often, you get a group of entrepreneurs together and we all talk about how the employees don’t — It doesn’t click on them. We think it’s a problem. We — I’m looking at Randy. We entrepreneurs think it’s a problem with employees not understanding that. In reality, it took time for me to realize this. In reality, it’s an entrepreneur’s responsibility to communicate that stuff with employees. It’s not a problem of the employee. It’s actually a problem with the entrepreneur.
We’ve got another phone call that we’re going to take. Hello, this is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. How are you?
[0:26:14.3] B: Good afternoon. I want to make a comment. I enjoy your show. It’s been on for, I guess, six weeks or so. I think I listen to every episode we’ve had.
[0:26:22.3] RJM: That’s great. Thanks for listening.
[0:26:23.2]B: I like to comment the man made about being very consciousness about his employees. I want to tell you something, that’s rare. That’s rare in a lot of businesses. If you really think about it, the most important customer any business has is the employee.
[0:26:40.0] RC: I agree. Absolutely. One of the things — Go ahead. I’m sorry.
[0:26:44.1] B: I was going to say that if you’re going to think about, that employee — If they’re not souls on the business you’re involved in, it’s very important that they are and that’s very important that they feel like they’re part of something. People, they need to feel like they’re in the loop. You hear about companies all the time, everything is roll along, and all of a sudden they call a meeting among their staff and say, “Yeah, we’re going to close down in two weeks.”
If you think about that maybe six months ago, maybe a year ago, if those problems — If the company had been faced with have been discussed and you got your team behind you, maybe bad things wouldn’t happen.
[0:27:33.4] RC: Absolutely. One of the things that I really — I don’t want to talk about Walmart on the national air. I probably get a bunch of hate mail. Walmart was a great company and I learned a lot, but I was in a transitional period. I was with Walmart before Sam Walton died and after Sam Walton died. I can be honestly and tell you there was a cultural difference.
After I was a young guy, and I’ll be honest, I’ve really thought, “Man! Look at me, I got this going on. They’re promoting me at the chain.” Honestly, when you start looking at it, I was replacing a lot of guys that had been in the company 20, 30 years. They had families. The things were changing and they were moving me, because I’m a dumb kid. They put me in the spot as a manager for half the money.
[0:28:12.0]B: I was going to say — With all due respect, you’re probably cheaper that time.
[0:28:15.6] RC: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
[0:28:17.1]B: I’ll tell you something. When I first broke into management 25 years ago in the retail automotive industry, I was so excited about being promoted to management. I didn’t even bother to ask my pay plan was for three days. I was just so — I was on a cloud. I was in a cloud. Employees need to know, and I want to make one personal comment about hiring people, my own philosophy about that, okay? Hire the best you can afford. Hire thoroughbreds, don’t micromanage them, and let them run.
[0:28:49.2] RC: Let them do their thing. I agree.
[0:28:50.4]B: Yes, sir. Enjoy your program. I’ll hang up and listen.
[0:28:52.3] RJM: Hey, is this Bob?
[0:28:53.0] B: You bet.
[0:28:55.7] JG: That was Bob. He’s a frequent caller on KBF. Good guy.
[0:28:59.7] RJM: We love it. If anyone else has any comments, thoughts, questions, we’d love to hear from you. Number here is 433-0088. This program only is engaging if we’ve got people calling in, so I love those calls. 433-0088.
[0:29:17.5] RC: One of the things he said and I agree with and what I really tried to bring from Walmart was there are people out there and you kind of classify people. There are people that just want a job. They just want to do a certain project every week and draw a check and go home, and then there are people that want to do something that has meaning, has value to it.
One of the things at RCX, we really try to be transparent. I’ll let everybody know the numbers. I’ll let everybody know the true cost. One of the things that we started a long time ago, employees can get disgruntled because they know they make X amount of dollars and then after you hold taxes out and they realize, “Oh! The government just took half my check.” You want to understand they want a raise and I understand that. One of the things I always try to show the true cost of what it cost to hire an employee. Be upfront with them, “It cost me this much to turn the lots on. It cost me this much to do this. When we have this much money involved in you, right now, I can’t give you a raise. Here’s the deal, if we hit this number, I can give you a raise.”
I’m real big about sharing the profits. I want everybody to feel like they’ve got a part in this business, and they do.
[0:30:28.0] JG: I think that’s unique too, I want to dig into that too. We’ve got another phone call that we’re going to take. This is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Who do I have with me?
[0:30:38.8] J: Hey there, this is Jake. I’m a 25-year-old from Central Arkansas and I have the business blood in me.
[0:30:45.6] RJM: Love it.
[0:30:45.6] J: My family has been in business their entire lives and I want to start my own, but I’m a young man and I don’t know what the first step is especially if you don’t have any credits. I was wondering if you had any insights because you said you had to just everything after Walmart and just went headfirst into the trucking business.
[0:31:04.7] RC: Yes. Luckily, we had stock money and bonus money which if I had kept that stock, I’ve been in a different spot today, but we don’t want to talk about that. We sold out and started something from scratch.
Starting from scratch is fine and I think a lot of people do it. It’s hard work. It takes a lot of sacrifices, but don’t give up on your dream because you don’t get financed. You’ve got to start at the ground level and start working it day at a time, day at a time, and you’ll get there. Once you prove it, you may be in business 10 years before you have any kind of a financial plan where you might get some backing. Don’t give on your dream. You definitely want to keep pushing along.
[0:31:48.5] RJM: Jake, tell me what kind of business are you wanting to start?
[0:31:51.2] J: I have a building. I own a building and I live in a community where it’s a dry county, but it has a whole bunch of colleges, so I’m hoping to open up a music venue and a place for the youth to come and congregate, but still be a safe environment that kind of works with the community.
[0:32:12.2] RJM: That sounds like a capital intensive business if you just hear from in the beginning. Often, what you realize is that businesses are made up of people and some of the things that you think you need right now, like you’ve got a building, what you need is you need maybe talent to play the show or you need people to come to the show. Some of those things are things you can do on a bootstrap, kind of cash flow low investment.
In the beginning, we were doing literally, literally, work for free just to get our name out there. Just to get the ability to get paid work. We would do work for free. I don’t know how that translates in your business, there are tons of ways to get started. It might just be throwing parties. Maybe you just start throwing parties.
[0:32:55.2] RC: Having DJs come. A lot of DJs, they’re just trying to get their name out so they might do it for little or nothing just to get their name out.
[0:33:03.7] J: All right.
[0:33:04.5] RJM: We love the phone call. Thanks for calling in. We’d love to talk to you.
[0:33:07.2] J: Thanks a lot. You’ve been insightful.
[0:33:10.3] RJM: Again, this is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. You can reach us at 433-0088, 433-0088, where Arkansas’ best entrepreneurs give advice on your business and your problems.
Randy, I can’t remember where we left of on, but I have something else I want to talk to you about because Kerry had said that you do local shipping, you do nationwide shipping, and I’ve noticed through some of your Facebook and online posts that you’re also starting to do international shipping too. Is that something, again, you guys just wanting to do more of or is that something that’s a customer demand?
[0:33:42.2] RC: I will let Jonathan talk about international. He’s been hitting this whole project of, so I’m going to let him talk about it.
[0:33:48.9] J: R.M, we’ve got Randy mentioned we’re partners with Sunset and we do a lot of big box — We have a lot of big box customers and whatnot. We do have customers that ship a lot of international business. What we’ve gotten more into lately is the one-offs, the one and twos that Randy was mentioning, the smaller customers that also want to ship international or might have some questions and whether it’s just our knowledge of the business or the industry, how we can help them or they actually need to move some products.
The website has driven a lot of business to RCX and we had some good success with that, some customers that started small, the one and twos, the four pallets here from China and it’s really turned into something special. We’re continuing to grow that.
[0:34:39.0] JG: Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s always surprising to me how much of a pivot businesses will make just base off of customer request. At one point, we weren’t doing video production or Facebook Life Streaming, and customers starting it, started asking us, “Hey, could you guys do this for me?”
Tell us about the development of RCX and how clients have actually do things that might be outside of your comfort level and have actually caused you to do something new.
[0:35:04.7] RC: I’m going to have to put you on the spot, sir, because that didn’t happen until we hit our prof come in and take over our marketing. Now, it’s really opened up. There is a market there. More and more manufacturing is moved overseas and there’s so many people that have gone and moved their manufacturing over or even buyers — eBay, has been a huge development of moving stuff in from China. There’s all kinds of stuff coming in that people are actually buying and it’s direct drop. It’s direct ship from China.
They’re looking at ways to — They’re not a big shipper, so they don’t get the greatest cost. They’re looking for new ways to save money, and that’s given us that opportunity for them to reach out to us. That’s what Sunset has given us. They’ve give us that internal footprint to be able to go out and help these smaller people save money.
[0:35:53.3] RJM: Yeah, sure. Again, 433-0088. That’s 433-0088. Randy, I got to ask you as an entrepreneur, we always have different goals and different dreams. Is this something — Did you ever think about a different career? Is this something you imagine you would be involved in whenever you were younger?
[0:36:12.7] RC: Honestly, yeah. There was this time in school when I was making really bad grades and I was like, “You know, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to take over my dad’s trucking company.” Then, now, looking back, I’m like, “Why did I get into this industry?” I think entrepreneurs are a neat breed because I think they all — You talk to them, we all have the same drops and complaints. We’re all upset about the economy. We’re all upset about the government and the regulation and employees and this and that, but we wouldn’t do anything different. I couldn’t work for anybody else.
As far as this is something that I’ve kind of locked into and I know it and I’m comfortable with it and I enjoy it, but if it’s this or if it’s something else, as long as I’m control of my destiny and I can create and grow, I’m happy. I don’t really care what I do. That’s it.
[0:37:05.2] RJM: What are some tips that you have for someone that’s considering starting their own business?
[0:37:08.8] RC: I saw a thing one time that I think it really hit home to me. Entrepreneurs are people that can’t work 40 hours for somebody else, but they can work 80 hours for themselves, and I think that is the best description ever. Whatever you decide to do, if you’re willing to work daylight and dark, you think about it 24/7, you’re probably an entrepreneur. You can probably do it. You’ll work twice as hard as anybody else. You may make half as much. You may not make anything, but if you’re truly happy doing that, I think that’s the niche. You’ll know it.
[0:37:44.1] RJM: Yeah, I was going to chime in whenever the last caller called in, I think it was Jake, and he said I’ve been bit by the bug. I don’t know if I should congratulate him or apologize, because it is a lot of hard work. It is a labor of love for a lot of businesses for a long time.
[0:38:02.6] RC: It is, and I think — It is something at an early age I learned that I wasn’t a school guy. I did not like school at all. I didn’t want to learn anything that I didn’t care about. If it was something I was interested in, I loved it. They give you some boring classes about cell structure and stuff, I’m like, “No. I’m out.”
If I could go out, and I realized from an early age, I could create and sell and make money. I was really money-driven. I really liked that. He’s right. It is. It’s a bug. Once it gets you, that’s what you want to do.
[0:38:38.4] RJM: Yeah, you can’t stop thinking about it.
[0:38:40.4] RC: That’s it.
[0:38:41.5] RJM: What were some of the initial hurdles that you had whenever you first took the business over?
[0:38:48.5] RC: When I left Walmart, Walmart was great, because Walmart is like the military. They have a procedure for everything. They have manuals for everything. I think that’s a challenge a lot of entrepreneurs face. When you go into a business, you don’t have structure. You don’t have the process. You don’t have the standard operating procedure and you’re small so you’re flexible. You get used to flexing all the time, and that can get you in trouble. I think having procedures —
[0:39:15.5] RJM: I want you to come back to that, but we’ve caller calling in and we want to grab this.
Hello, this is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Who do I have on the phone with me?
[0:39:23.3]R: Hey, this is Roxanne.
[0:39:25.5] RJM: Hey, Roxanne.
[0:39:26.5] R: Hey, I just have a question for Randy. You touched on it a little bit, but just wondering, because the trucking industry is sort of an older line of work, so to speak. Just with the advent of the internet, how it’s changed, how the internet has changed your business.
[0:39:43.0] RC: It’s really — You touched on, it’s an older line of work. What I think is really in a positive, it has helped people reach out. It’s made it more customer-friendly. Customers can find carriers easy, carriers can find customers easy. There is a negative to that. It’s also created, I don’t want to say too much competition, but you get in to a lot of — Everybody has access to the same information I’ve got and it’s created price war.
Competition is good. It helps economies work, but sometimes too much competition can be a bad thing. People start really undercutting the value and you lose that value. It doesn’t matter how good of a job you do, it’s only going to be worth this. I think sometimes the internet has done that. It’s hurting.
[0:40:33.3] R: I guess especially since research all starts online.
[0:40:36.4] RC: Right. Exactly. Then there’s a lot of people that’s jumped in. The research has opened up a lot of information, so a lot of people just jump out. One of the neat things — We went to a seminar a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis, the fastest growing section in the transportation industry is the 3PL. It’s what they call a third party logistics company. These are people that have all these data, they have all these information. They don’t have trucks.
They’re like freight brokers, or they have contracts. It’s the — What was it? The second fastest growing — Second fastest growing industry in the county, and that we’re joking about nobody knows about. The problem with that is —
[0:41:15.1] RJM: Wait. Are they brokers?
[0:41:16.9] RC: They’re like a freight broker. They’re an intermediary. They’re just making contracts. They’re moving freight. The problem is you’ve got all these people growing in this industry. We’re all fighting for the same group of trucks. We’re all fighting for the same group of airplanes, the same group — That industry is not growing that fast. What happens, now you’re only as good as the value you can provide. You’re only as good as the service that you can get. It all goes back to the guy that is sitting in the seat of the truck. That’s the guy that makes the difference. You get the right people working for you, the right guy delivering your freight. That’s really what matters.
[0:41:53.6] J: The internet has, in my opinion — We talk about this a lot, but we are reaching out to more and more customers after hours. We talk about international business. It might be the middle of the night. We’re getting a lot of traffic to our website from people, the one-offs that might not reach out to us 8 to 5, Monday through Friday, or they’re just searching for trucking companies online or international, how do I move my stuff from A to B. The internet has really — Our website and the things we’ve done lately have really driven that traffic to our website and we’re getting a lot of customers finding us that way. I think that’s really helped us grow here lately.
[0:42:34.6] RJM: One of the things that all entrepreneurs think about is how hard it is to hire an employee especially whenever there are lots of other people competing for that same person. I think you guys have a unique opportunity to — All of your competitors are going after the same set of drivers, because I look on a truck and I see the kind of benefits, the kind of pay that’s being offered. I think how in the world is it even tough for you guys to find? It’s seems like I’ll quit my job and come drive a truck for you sometimes.
[0:43:06.2] RC: As a driver, they really — That is something that in our industry is really struggling. We’re facing an 80,000 manpower driver shortage.
[0:43:15.8] RJM: Are you kidding?
[0:43:17.0] RC: No.
[0:43:18.0] RJM: Wow!
[0:43:18.5] RC: You go to any high school and you into their classroom, “How many of you guys want to be a truck driver?” Nobody raises their hand. Everybody needs to go to college. They’re going to go out and they’re going to be, “Whatever,” and they’re going to make lots and lots of money. We’ve got truck drivers that make a lot of money, but it is a hard laugh. You’re not home. You’ve got long hours. A lot of stress. A lot of just mental stress driving through rush hour traffic.
It’s really a rock sensitive, it was an older industry. There is an older generation that is retiring right now and there’s not a lot of new people going into the field. We’re looking for really quality drivers and nobody wants to that driver. That’s a sad thing.
I grew up — I’m a third generate — My grandpa drove a truck, my dad, my uncle. It’s a dying industry and that’s sad, because people can make — Our drivers make, on the average, $60,000 a year. They have insurance, and we’ve got those benefits, but a good driver can go anywhere and get a job.
[0:44:19.7] RJM: Really?
[0:44:20.4] RC: Not a problem. You can get hired by anybody. I think the differences is how he’s treated. Is he just a driver? Is he a number, or is he a real person that has, “Hey, my kid’s got his first ballgame Friday. I really need to be home.” “Awesome, we’re going to make sure we get you home.”
[0:44:36.6] RJM: That was my next question, is then how do you differentiate if he can go anywhere? If he could walk into any driver shop in the country and get a job, how do you differentiate yourself from everybody else?
[0:44:50.2] J: Sometimes we joke about this so to speak, but as a midsize company, we’re up against larger carriers or carriers our size, and we might have the same customers. What we like to say is it’s the same freight. It might be the same customers, at the same rate, but you get better people. Better service. Back on our first topic with the employees, they take care of the driver. They care about the driver. His home time, his family. That all ties in. That’s the same way we treat out drivers and our customers. We’re a family. We take care of each other. It helps.
[0:45:26.9] JG: Yeah. Right now, is that something — It seems like you guys almost have two sales to make, especially in the brokering side. You got to get drivers and you’ve got to get a customer that will pay for it. Is that —
[0:45:38.2] RC: He’s got. He’s already picked up on it. That’s it.
[0:45:41.7] JG: It seems like that could be a struggle. Is that a struggle. Is that what you guys are doing, is kind of building a market every day?
[0:45:47.6] RC: You really do. As the broker, we’ve got to take care of the shipper. We’ve got to fulfill their needs. We’ve got to take care of the carrier, the driver. We got to take care of their needs. It’s really like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. We’re putting the pieces together.
One of the things that I always felt like it helped me, I’ve been on both sides of the desk. I know how much the shipper is going to be willing to give, how much the driver is going to be willing to give. If we can just find some common ground to make this shipment work, or this contract work. I think that’s been a huge selling point for us was what’s really helped us; being able to have that experience on both sides. You’re right, everybody is a customer. You’re trying to sell all sides of it.
[0:46:31.6] RJM: This is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy where Arkansas’ best entrepreneurs give you advice on your business and your problems. I’ve got with me Randy Clifton from RCX Solutions and Jonathan who is — Jonathan, what’s your title there?
[0:46:44.9] J: Operations and sales and marketing.
[0:46:47.4] RJM: Yeah. I’ve got my cohost with me, G-Love, Jeremy Glover.
[0:46:52.7] JG: Hey, how are y’all doing people?
[0:46:54.2] RJM: We would love for you y’all to call in and ask us some questions. I’ve got a couple of things. What some advice that you’ve received along the way as RCX has grown that you’ve just seen as invaluable?
[0:47:07.1] RC: Over the years, I've had — One of my all-time managers at Walmart and — I don’t know if this is — That kids listen to this show. I’ll keep it clean. He come in, he goes, “You’re going into management, don’t let them turn you into a butthole.” He goes, “You’re dealing with people.” You always want to keep people at the forefront.
We’re all got problems and families and issues at home and we’ve all got a job to do, but at the end of the day what's really most important. It's those personal relationships. He was real big on, “Remember, no matter what we’re going through, you’re dealing with people.”
That was great advice. Had an assistant manager who was — He was a retired general and he was just bored and so they made him an assistant manager at Walmart and he gave me some great advice also.
[0:47:55.6] RJM: I want to hear about it. We’ve got a call coming in. I want to make sure to grab it too. Hello, this is Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Who do I have?
[0:48:03.6] J: Hi, my name is Jay.
[0:48:04.9] RJM: Hey, Jay.
[0:48:06.0] J: Hello to your guest, I find the information that y’all had presented today rather intriguing. I’m in the transportation business. I have a one-time hotshot van based out of North Little Rock and I get all over the United States.
[0:48:22.5] RJM: Hey, Jay. Sorry, before I interrupt — I can interrupt you. Tell me — Randy, you might be able to answer this quickly, but what is a hotshot van?
[0:48:31.4] J: Different people have different interpretations of it. Actually, different people define it differently. What I do is take smaller shipments and deliver it faster, pick it up faster and deliver it faster than a big truck could think about doing.
[0:48:48.2] RJM: Yes. Okay.
[0:48:48.7] J: I do a lot of stuff like I pick up things from the airport and then deliver it out to the outline regions by ground. I deliver urgent medical supplies. I deliver aircraft parts where the aircraft is grounded, needing maintenance. Different kinds of production, like equipment, like when a production line goes down, needing a repair, deliver those types of parts. Different kinds of urgent shipment.
Anyways, I had a couple of questions, if I may?
[0:49:22.5] RJM: Yeah, go ahead.
[0:49:23.4] J: It seems that freights going out of Arkansas has been unusually slow for this time of year here lately. Have y’all experienced the same thing and do you have any kind of ideas about why that might be?
[0:49:39.8] RC: Yes sir, you are correct, and I’m glad I’m not the only one that’s noticed that. Freight tonnage as a whole is down. We don’t like to use the recession word. When we come out of the last recession, it was manufacturing that brought us out of that recession, and manufacturing is actually slowing down. We’ve got a glut of inventory. Not only that, we’re in an election year and I don’t know how long you’ve been in the business. Traditionally, every eight years, there’s a patter. If you don’t have an incumbent, freight typically begins to slowdown.
Inventories are high right now and tonnage is down. What you’re seeing we’re predicting that second quarter of next year, things will begin to pick back up. No, you’re correct. Arkansas has lost a lot of manufacturing over the years. Over the last 10 years we’ve lost a lot of business that had a lot of freight. So we’re kind of experiencing that as well. Yes, you’re correct.
You’re in a special business because a lot of your stuff is what we call expedite. It’s very hot. It’s very demanding. They want it done right now. When a slow economy happens, that’s normally the first thing that shipper try to avoid. We don’t want to ship anything expedite. Let’s just save money anyway we can. You’ll experience a little bit of that. Yes, you’re correct. It has been very slow.
[0:50:58.6] J: If there’s a point where I’m starting to kind of think forward, it matters survival and so I may end up having to base my company out of another region in order to stay busy.
[0:51:12.5] RC: Yes. Texas has really — A lot of companies have really —
[0:51:15.8] RJM: Hey, you guys are not trying to move businesses out Arkansas. We got to go grow this state together.
[0:51:20.8] J: I agree totally. I’ll say look us up on our website. We have a chat feature, give us some information. We are nationwide. We have someone to take care of you. We do hotshot and expedited and we might able to direct some business your way. Do look us up as well, it’s rcxsolutions.com.
[0:51:40.8] RJM: That’s right, rcxsolutions.com. Jay, I’m going to hop off the phone with you so that we can wrap up here. We’ve only got a few more minutes and I want to get a couple of more things out of Randy. Definitely do get in touch with RCX.
Randy, in closing, we’ve only got a few minutes left. One of the things that I like to ask people, if you could start your business all over in a brand new city but you’re in the same business but you don’t know anybody, what would you have done different in those early days?
[0:52:05.0] RC: I was talking earlier about the policies and procedures and trying to setup — They always tell you in school, write a business plan. The thing about our industry is it’s ever evolving. It’s always changing. I’ve started writing business plan and I’d get through about the first little bit and then, “Nope, we got to change it. We got to change it.” I’m always changing it.
I think if we could have set a plan and had a lot of the procedures that we’ve learned over the years already in place, think it through before you do it. I was real quick to jump in and learn as I go, and it works. I don’t want to discourage anybody from not doing that, but it is one of the things. If you can give it some time and really think your plan through on the front side, I think it gives you a better chance.
[0:52:47.1] RJM: Yeah, that’s a good point. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are just go, go, go. That’s kind of how we’re wired often and what makes us action-oriented, is we just go. Often, you get a chance to sit down with a Randy Clifton and you ask him 10 years, 15 years, however long you’ve been on business, and getting to tease information out of your head is so valuable because you learn so much by just doing. We always look back and say, “If we could have done just a little more planning it would have gone a long way.” That’s worth repeating. Let’s do some planning on our businesses.
The last thing I want to ask you; tell us and our audience, what could we do to help RCX continue to grow?
[0:53:24.4] RC: Keep us in mind. A lot of your FedEx, UPS, their advertising, you turn on TV. You’ve got that. Look in your regions. We’re a small company but we can do the same things. A lot of people automatically go, “We’ll call FedEx.” I’ll probably get some hate mail from this from FedEx reps, but we can do the same thing. Sometimes we can do it cheaper. We can do it more affordable.
In all of industries — You’re a small business. Don’t give up on small business. They all have a niche and there are some things that they do really well. Don’t just go to the big box guys. A lot of things — The big box guys, they do everything pretty good. There’s a lot of small businesses that do one thing and they do it better than anybody can. Try to find those guys.
[0:54:10.1] RJM: Do reach out to you for any shipping.
[0:54:11.8] RC: Reach out. Yeah, absolutely.
[0:54:13.6] RJM: Awesome. Randy, I want to tell you thanks. G-Love, I want to say thanks for cohosting with me.
[0:54:18.5] JG: No problem.
[0:54:19.9] RJM: Jonathan, good to see you man. I hope we get to spend some more time together. This has been Up In Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Find us on upyourbusiness.org. Thank you very much. Look forward to talking to everybody out there. This is where Arkansas best entrepreneurs give your advice on your business and your problems.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:54:38.4] TB: You’ve been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. Want to hear today’s program again or want someone else to benefit from it? Jot this down. Within 48 hours the podcast will be available at flagandbanner.com. Click the tab labeled “Radio Show”, there you’ll find today’s segments with links to resources you heard discussed on this program. Kerry’s goal: to help you live the American Dream.
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