Last Thursday in the Midwest Entrepreneurs class we wrapped up an early-semester mini-series of ag-related entrepreneurial guest speakers. This series—of four great speakers—had previously featured a retired grain bin storage services firm owner with over 65 years of experiences, a local “traditional production” farmer managing a 1,000-acre family farm, and the owner of a Galesburg-based specialty crop Community Supported Ag (CSA) venture.

The series concluded last Thursday with former Midwest Entrepreneurs class member—and 2011 Monmouth College graduate—Will Zimmerman; the inspirational young entrepreneur behind Modern Grain Systems (a firm that custom-builds grain bin storage buildings).

We have thus seen in a very short period of time a diverse glimpse into ag-related entrepreneurial opportunities that exist here in the heart of the U.S. Farmbelt. Although we have had but a glimpse into these vast opportunities I think it safe to say we have provided some enlightening insight into the variety and abundance of such opportunities that exist. Hopefully students have had their eyes opened to the fact that (1) a large number of such opportunities exist, (2) there is room for—and demand for—ag-related entrepreneurial innovation, and (3) farmers are indeed entrepreneurs (that run increasingly complex and risky businesses). I would be overjoyed if even just one student has been inspired to seek out, create, and pursue such an opportunity in the near future!!

With that said, I now turn things over to class blogger Micam Smith to tell us much more about Will Zimmerman’s ongoing entrepreneurial journey.

Enjoy…

Prof. Gabel

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Will Zimmerman, a former student of the Midwest Entrepreneurs class here at Monmouth College, came to speak to the class on February 9th. Will is the owner of Modern Grain Systems, a business operating out of Avon, Illinois, that builds and manages grain bin storage systems. He has been building grain bin storage systems since he was a sophomore in high school, until one day he decided to buy out the business he was working at. As a senior at Monmouth College, Zimmerman took an independent study to work on his business plan and at the age of 21 he successfully obtained a loan of $200,000 to buy Modern Grain Systems.

The previous owner of Modern Grain Systems, Bill Thompson, noticed the hard work and the knowledge Zimmerman enacted while working at the business. At just 18 years old, Will Zimmerman was head of his own crew building million dollar grain bin storage system set ups. Even though Zimmerman was very young, Bill gave him the opportunity to buy the business because he knew Will would keep the business operating successfully. Will took that opportunity and never looked back. He now owns a business reaching 4-4.5 million in sales.

The link below is a video Zimmerman used at the beginning of his presentation to show one of the early projects that his company successfully completed; an almost $900,000 job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qELQMCDRtk

Will Zimmerman and his Modern Grain System business has about 20 employees that are mostly 18-25 years old. His business is responsible for building various size grain bin systems that can range from $60,000 to millions of dollars. In the summer during his busy operating period, Zimmerman claimed that he could work up to 100 hours per week or even every day of the week. With a wife and two kids it makes it hard to find a clear balance between work and family but Zimmerman has learned how to efficiently do both and become successful entrepreneur. You can even find Zimmerman working side by side with his employees on the worksite because he wants his customers to know that he values the quality of his firm’s work (and he wants his workers to know that he would ask them to do nothing that he would ask of himself).

Not only is the work Zimmerman does important to him, but so are the relationships he builds with his customers. Zimmerman spends no money on advertising for Modern Grain Systems. Instead, he depends on customer satisfaction-driven positive word of mouth for his business to operate and expand.

Operating within an hour radius of Avon because he doesn’t want to “bite off more than what he can chew.” So, it is important to focus on customer needs and expectations. Most of his work is repeat work, meaning many customers come back to Modern Grain Systems when they need more or need to update their gran bins. With his business having a slow growth rate—picking up just 7-9 new customers a year—it is important for Zimmerman to complete the job to fit the customers’ exact needs so they will come back and can recommend Modern Grain Systems to other customers.

The Midwest Entrepreneur class learned a lot from Will Zimmerman. One thing we learned is the important of both hard work and having set objectives. One of the most important objectives Zimmerman talked about having was “work as hard as you possibly can” and “spend money on something that has a return on investment.”

Will Zimmerman is not just a perfect example of a successful entrepreneur, he is a successful entrepreneur FROM Monmouth College and it was great having him speak in class.

Micam Smith