Will Zimmerman spoke to Midwest Entrepreneurs tonight after one year of successful operations selling and maintaining grain bin systems. He graduated last May from Monmouth College majoring in business with an emphasis in Entrepreneurism. Will and I worked closely together to develop his first business plan which he used to successfully obtain $200,000 in bank financing for the purchase of his company he calls Modern Grain Systems from his former employer Bill Thompson.
Will has been building grain bins for Thompson for over six years. Thompson approached Zimmerman since he was such a great worker and maintained excellent re pore with customers. It was obvious to Thompson that Will also had the education and desire to succeed. He learned many things from his mentor, Thompson, who continues as the general manager of the business. He hopes Will can be even more successful than he was helping farmers create storage bins providing opportunities to 25 employees.
Thompson was successful in the business for over 25 years by honoring his word with his farmer customers. He honored his commitments and did what he said he would do. Zimmerman hopes to demonstrate consistent performance too. Will plans to continue that philosophy. He paid of $105,000 of interest and principal and paid back his parents loan in less than 12 months of operation. He pulled of what all entrepreneurs dream of—profitability in year one. Zimmerman has a dream–to pay off all of his debt and build a lake house near Avon, Illinios in the next two years. He sell both large and smaller systems–check out the link to his supplier-GSI for more information on the products he installs for his customers.
His business model is to not mark up any outside costs and keep his labor charges to a minimum. He often wakes up at 4am to load tractor trailers for job sites so the crew can get right to work in the morning when starting a new assignment. Will often works 80 hours a week to the chagrin of his girlfriend. “I can understand why other entrepreneurs have problems balancing their personal lives”, claims Zimmerman. It is hard enough to keep good relations with my girlfriend. Girlfriends are important but customers are king.
Will’s business is growing as he becomes more customer savvy. He realizes the tax deduction for capital investments in grain storage has gone for farmers from 100% to 50% and that has slowed down inquires for 2012. A sales angle Will uses is the growing cost of transporting corn and soybeans to the grain elevators. The cost of maintaining, owning, or leasing three or four semi-tractor trailers is significant. “It is no longer something a farmer can ignore. It can be upwards of $165,000 annually for a new truck and trailer worthy to transport the maximum loads. Plus fuel costs are expected to rise”.
Another competitor who is 10 times the size of Zimmerman’s operation let Will in on some secrets of successfully bidding large projects.” I found after losing a $1 million dollar job that I was bidding the concrete too high. I knew the structural engineer would require more concrete than the farmer deems necessary. But my competitor lets the engineer be the bearer of that bad news (the increase necessary to pay for 100’s of additional yards of concrete) and consistently underbids his concrete”. This gave his competitor an advantage over Will who was trying to be more transparent in the bidding process. “That concrete bid cost me hundreds of thousands when I lost the job”.
As the professor that helped Will develop his business plan, I was impressed to hear how much he had learned in the last 12 months. have no doubt Will will continue to succeed. He showed a video from www.youtube.com that demonstrated his work and showed in graphic terms how well his company executes million dollar storage facilities. I look forward to hearing more plans for his expansion into a new company headquarters in Avon, IL and financial success in year two.
