This semester, a significant part of students’ grades is writing a blog post on an assigned guest speaker presentation. The 20 students in the class have been  randomly assigned to our practicing entrepreneur guest speakers. Today’s blog entry marks the first of these student-authored efforts. It has been written by Rhett Kuhnen.

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John “Beefy” Huston is a man of his words. An old-fashioned lifestyle is the way he chooses to live on a daily basis. He takes a lot of pride in what he does. Whether it is the little things in his business or the big picture. Having at least one computer in a household is typical for the average American today. However, Beefy Huston is not a typical businessman in the world today. He does everything by the book or as some would call it, “The Old-Fashioned” way.

Mr. Huston does all the little things right which makes his business such a success. He always arrives to the job site on time, and if there is a chance he could be even five minutes late he will call the customer to let them know. Beefy Huston does not do any advertising, he relies on his customers talking to their friends and family around the area about the work that he has done at the job location. This would be called “Word of Mouth” communication. After he hears that someone has recommended him, he gladly sends that person a handwritten “thank you” note. When Beefy was speaking to our class about doing the little things right, he said, “Try to achieve these even when you are sick of it everyday.” This quote is something a successful entrepreneur has showed in his business that has led him to be one of the most prestige landscaping businesses in the area.

One of the keys to having such a successful business in a small town is to see and be seen. Mr. Huston is very active in the community. He grew up just outside of Roseville and his father is still a Veterinarian in Roseville today. He served 14 years on the Warren County Fair Board, 4 years on the Roseville Community Board, and he is also a Knights of Columbus member. He participates in the community any way that he can. He is a substitute teacher any time after Thanksgiving until March. Also, he drives the bus for the Varsity Boys Basketball team. Charity events, pancake suppers, and auctions are a few other ways he likes to be seen in the community. “What goes around comes around” is a quote Beefy mentioned in class, whether it is a quick return or 4-5 years down the road. If you do something good for someone else, most times they will return the favor at a later point.

Another main point that Beefy addressed in class was the freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur – you are your own boss. He sets his own schedule with a remembrance that the customer always comes first. Whether he spends all seven days of the week working from sun up to sun down he makes sure the job is completed within a timely matter. When Beefy is asked about why he does not make his business into a larger company, he responds he likes the minimum level of stress he has with his small business. Also, he does not want to be overwhelmed with adding new employees. His employees are always college or high school kids that are willing to work hard. Mr. Huston keeps his employees determined to work hard even through the hot conditions of the summer by working along side them; he is not a boss who sits in the air condition all day and gives his employees orders. This has helped keep him in business since he receives numerous calls on people wanting jobs to be completed by him.

Rhett Kuhnen (30 January 2014)

This Tuesday the Midwest Entrepreneur class went on what is hoped to be but the first of several field trips this semester to the actual businesses of local entrepreneurs.

This field trip, to the McGuire & Davies Funeral Home and Crematory in Monmouth (see: http://www.mcguireanddaviesfuneralhome.com/) , was a very special field trip.

Our gracious host, Mr. Al McGuire, had been our very first guest speaker in Spring 2013; last January 29 to be exact. Al came to the class then with little but an architect’s rendering of the facility, a piece of empty land near the northwest end of town, and a grand entrepreneurial dream to be the most modern and service-obsessed funeral home—and the only crematory—in the Monmouth area.

How things have change in the last year…

Ground was broken in April of 2013 for the new facility. The grand opening took place on October 18. More than a million dollars was invested by McGuire and his partner Trevor Davies. In the latter months of 2013, the two fledgling entrepreneurs received 39 calls for funeral services and performed 40 cremations. So far this year, they have performed 7 services; all involving use of the facility’s crematorium.

Several of the funerals handled since opening the facility were very large and truly tested the mettle of the McGuire and Davies team. As Al told the class—sitting attentively in the beautiful parlor of the new facility—these particular services were both (1) great opportunities to show what they can do—and generate positive word-of-mouth in the community—and (2) opportunities to, as he put it, “crash and burn.” Well, there was no “crash and burn.”

You see, while the two entrepreneurs are new to running their own business, neither is close to new to the funeral business.

Al McGuire possesses 30 years of experience as a funeral director. His work in the industry can be traced all the way back to his undergraduate days at Loras College in Dubuque, IA, where he lived above a funeral home and worked—to pay for school—for two years in the early-mid 1980s. Immediately prior to starting his own business, McGuire had worked at Monmouth’s Hoover-Hall Memorial Chapel for many years. Trevor Davies, although 20 years the junior of his partner, also possessed a wealth of industry experience entering into their current venture; having (1) graduated from the Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling, IL, (2) served an apprenticeship with the Davenport Family Funeral Home and Crematory in Barrington & Crystal Lake, Illinois, and (3) worked for 5 years at the Turnbull Funeral Home here in Monmouth.

So, what we have here—on the surface at least—is two highly ambitious people with extensive industry experience who, at some point, decided to “go it on their own,” be their own bosses, and compete against their former employers.

But there is far more to the ongoing, early-stage entrepreneurial story of the McGuire & Davies Funeral Home and Crematory.

You see, during their respective years of working in the local funeral home industry, each gained not only knowledge of the trade but, just as importantly, connections to people in the local community and, arguably most importantly of all, strong reputations as professional service providers who listen to and care about their customers. This is, of course, particularly important in the funeral services industry.

This, too, is about something I stress in virtually all classes I teach here at Monmouth College; something called relationship marketing.

Relationship marketers are concerned first and foremost about customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, achieved repeatedly over time, leads to repeat business and the spread of positive word-of-mouth-communication and referrals. Further, repeated satisfaction leads, eventually, to high levels of customer loyalty; something all marketers should strive for.

After hearing Al McGuire talk proudly about his new business Tuesday, I can firmly attest to the fact that the McGuire & Davies Funeral Home and Crematory is indeed a relationship marketer committed to continual customer satisfaction.

But do not make the mistake of thinking that it has been easy for the two entrepreneurs…

McGuire and Davies have taken extraordinary risks in starting up their entrepreneurial venture. As stated earlier, McGuire informed the class that he and his partner had invested more than $1 million dollars into the business. This in and of itself is worthy of the label “extraordinary risk.” But there is far more to consider here.

As Mr. McGuire told the class, both he and Davies have put “everything they have on the line” into this business. As Al stated during our visit: “… about the only thing I didn’t have to do was give away my children.” Yet he is confident that the right risks are being taken and that all external debt—incurred only at local banks—will be paid off in approximately 10 years (even though the loans are for 20 years).

And a note on the investment into the physical facility itself… Clearly—and I say this as a result of the class having been treated to a complete tour of the facility—McGuire and Davies have gone well above and beyond what most would think “necessary to compete” with the building. However, as Al informed us, there are two key reasons the level of investment made.

First, given that his is now one of three funeral homes in a small market, McGuire expressed his belief that he must go the proverbial extra mile to stand out in the marketplace (particularly considering the fact that he is competing against two deeply entrenched, long-time providers of funeral services in the Monmouth area).

Second, the large investment was strategically made so as to make the new business stand out in ways allowing it to both (1) position itself on the basis of unique and increasingly meaningful benefits, and (2) create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Most notably here, the new facility incorporates the latest technological advances to allow the playing of customer-chosen music and DVD compilations celebrating the life of the deceased loved one; part of an ongoing memorialization trend in the United States toward mourning in celebratory, technology-facilitated fashion. Further, the addition of the crematorium—a nearly $90,000 investment on its own—allows the business to generate income above and beyond the funeral services it personally performs; as it is the crematory in the area. And as Mr. McGuire clearly noted, the investment in the crematorium is particularly warranted given the fact that more and more people are opting for lower-cost cremations, a trend likely to continue and intensify in coming years. What we have here is adaptation to emergent customer-driven change in the marketplace… According to McGuire: “Change has occurred… you must change or be left behind.”    

Actually, as someone trained extensively in services marketing—and how services must be marketed differently than goods products—I see the investment in the building itself—what services marketing scholars would call a “tangible” within the overall product offering—as an investment in service capabilities.

Specifically, having the most modern and service-oriented funeral home—and the only crematory—in the Monmouth area allows McGuire and Davies to do more for those in need of funeral service than anyone else in the area. And that is just what the two early-stage entrepreneurs are doing.

Doing what competitors can do better and also providing highly valued and increasingly demanded services that the competition cannot…

That is a sound entrepreneurial business model!!

Thank you Mr. McGuire for allowing us special, intimate insight into your business!! And thank you as well to Claire McGuire—Al’s daughter and a member of the Midwest Entrepreneurs class—for arranging the field trip.

Student comments to this blog—or other comments regarding Mr. McGuire’s presentation—are welcome.

See you again soon.

Regards,

Prof. Gabel

Yesterday afternoon saw the Midwest Entrepreneurs welcome its first guest speaker of the semester; Susan Schuytema, Proprietor of Market Alley Wines (http://marketalleywines.com/).

Susan came to class armed with 2.5 years of experience running the cozy downtown Monmouth retail store as well as quite a stack of index cards. Both were instrumental in her highly insightful and entertaining presentation (which inspired one of the most active class discussion I have witnessed).

While the value of her entrepreneurial experience is blatantly obvious, the value of the index cards warrants explanation.

On each of the cards was information pertaining to a particular job Susan held prior to opening Market Alley Wines in June of 2011.

She worked for a time—consistent with her education at Western Ilinois University—as a journalist. She also toiled as a corn detasseler, a lifeguard, an usher at Wrigley Field, a landscaper, a freelance writer, and a salesperson for a nursing home.

Eventually, Susan began to think about what she really wanted to do. She stepped back, engaged in what she described as “soul searching,” and looked at all that she had done and tried to figure out what it was that she really liked—and did not like—in this series of positions.

One thing she had come to really like, in large part as a result of a summer visit to France, was wine.

Another thing she had really come to appreciate was extraordinarily excellent customer service. Here Susan recounted being inspired to open Market Alley Wines by several Galesburg, IL retail businesses—Calico Cat and Mimi’s—run by persons conspicuously concerned with getting to know their customers and remembering seemingly trivial details of their lives. As she said of Calico Cat: “They went out of their way to know you.”

Susan combined these two “likes”—wine and extraordinary customer service—and developed  her own high-service, customer experience-based business.

Experience is, I think, the key word here.

As Susan told the class, one can find bottles of some of the same wines she sells elsewhere for several dollars less. Actually, as she explained, due to peculiarities of Illinois liquor law, what she pays for her wine is at times more than some other large-volume sellers sell their wine for at the retail level.

Of course, Market Alley Wines sells far more than bottles of wine. Yes, one can purchase bottles of wine—and now fine whiskey—at her store. One can also sit in a comfortable couch or around a table with friends and talk and enjoy a glass of wine. There is also live music on weekends. There is atmosphere and there is, of course, outstanding customer service; provided first and foremost by Susan herself.

This is the Market Alley Wine experience… And this is why people keep coming back again and again… And why they spread all-important positive word-of-mouth to members of their social networks…

It is not because of price… Relationships with customers are seldom if ever built on price. Loyalty has little if anything to do with price. Remember that as we progress through the semester!!

Another interesting point to take away from Susan’s presentation is the fact that love of a product coupled with a desire to offer it to customers with extraordinary customer service does not alone make for a successful entrepreneurial business. This is due to the fact that these factors tell one nothing about the level of demand for the product; even is nothing like what you have in mind in the trade area.

Evidence—hard, data-based evidence—of adequate demand for the business Susan eventually developed came from her reading of a study commissioned several years ago by the City of Monmouth which she referred to as The Buxton Group Report. This report indicated, among other things, that Monmouth-area residents spend very large sums of money on wine outside of Monmouth itself. This data helped motivate Susan to make the decision to open a wine shop and lounge in Monmouth; and to develop a customer experience unrivaled in the area.

Finally, Susan Schuytema strives to make a Market Alley Wines a “destination.” By “destination,” she means a retail store in a trade area where people from within as well as well beyond the area specifically seek out and go out of their way to experience. Such a store is “the place to go to” in the area to such an extent that it literally pulls people into the area just to go to that particular store. Susan’s stated inspiration to pursue “destination status” for her entrepreneurial venture was yet another successful Galesburg business; Innkeeper’s, an entrepreneurial coffee house and roastery (http://www.innkeepers-coffee.com/).

As Susan put it, the owners of Innkeeper’s “built a destination” drawing people to the Galesburg Seminary Street business area and she wanted to do the same with her own business here in Monmouth. As she told the class, while she gets a surprising volume of business from local residents (and not just the Monmouth College faculty and students one would think), many customers travel from as far away as Macomb, the Quad Cities, and Burlington, IA to experience the wine and the atmosphere to be found at 59 Public Square in downtown Monmouth, Illinois; the street address for Market Alley Wines.

And good news: Susan announced in class that the business will soon be expanding into an adjacent building. The extra space will allow her to cater to both larger crowds for live music events and wedding receptions.

Thank you Susan for being our first guest speaker of the semester!! And best of luck with Market Alley Wines!!  

Cheers!!

Prof. Gabel

Today was the first meeting of the Midwest Entrepreneurs class for Spring 2014.

A new group of 20-some students sat through the obligatory syllabus review and talk of what is going to transpire throughout the course of the next several months. And much more…

What the students heard about today was a class likely far different than any other class they have experienced here at Monmouth College; a class structured around 20 or so practicing entrepreneurs eager to share their histories and vast business knowledge.

The “first day” meeting of the class featured a brief introduction to what makes entrepreneurs both “different” and successful. This was reinforced by showing of a video of Steve Jobs’ amazing 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHWUCX6osgM).

This is the “long version” of the address; including both Jobs’ address and his introduction (wherein a short list of his many mega-accomplishments at Apple, Next, and Pixar are detailed). This video—one I have come to like to watch periodically just for the sake of doing so—does far more than exemplify the quintessential entrepreneur; someone who thinks differently and overcomes doubt and various surprise obstacles, etc..

It educates and, above all (I think), IT INSPIRES!

It inspires one to be innovative.

It inspires one to never ever give up or to doubt in one’s self.

It inspires one to seek their full potential; both in business and in life (and, importantly, perhaps both at the same time).

And it ends with the famous exhortation from Steve Jobs: “Stay hungry, Stay foolish.”

Indeed…

What a way to start the semester; another semester of Midwest Entrepreneurs… With practicing entrepreneurs coming and sharing their histories and knowledge with us; much as Steve Jobs passionately shared the secrets to his success at Stanford University in 2005.

I am looking forward to another unique learning experience in Midwest Entrepreneurs this semester. See you all again soon.

Prof. Gabel