When we joined up with Seth and Deb Chandler at the most recent Success Group International expo in Dallas they were in the thick of a pretty high-stakes move for any family owned business: rebranding their company. What had been Chandler Services – a long-trusted name in their home of Baton Rouge, Louisiana – has now become Chandler Electrical Services.
It’s not a huge change, but it’s still one that required lots of careful and precise planning.
“It’s a nervous process to get ready and prepared. It’s a leap.”
When we asked them about balancing the logic and precision side of life as a business owner (the Mr. Spock side) versus the Don Quixote urge to follow your gut and act on faith and instinct, Deb said hubby is the risk taker.
“Seth is much more willing to take lots of risk and step out on a limb because he has a vision,” she said.
Another friendly face we saw in Dallas was Mike Krumm of Krumm Siding and Roofing good old New Richmond, Wisconsin.
Mike was in the midst of taking a leap of his own with his company, expanding his territory into the Twin Cities market in Minnesota. He said the expansion isn’t going to change the personal, authentic way Krumm has always done business, and that early on customers in Saint Paul and Minneapolis were more receptive to the low-pressure sales and engagement process, which is a marked difference to competitors in the market.
Asked about the challenges he’d been facing in recent years finding dependable, quality workers, he said asking customers for referrals and being upfront with the company’s values and mission had proven to be the best way to find good people.
Still, he said, the tight labor market of late 2019 was making it difficult to grow.
“It’s a drying market and hard to find good employees.”