Long before I started Central Comm, I got some simple, yet profound advice from a mentor. He said “If you want to build a business, then find a need and fill it. If you aren’t inspired to fill a need, then create a product, and let people know they need it.”
Find a need and fill it. When Central Comm very first started, it was because a local California woman began answering phone calls for Doctors and Lawyers. Central Comm was just exactly what that mentor told me to do. That California woman knew that local Dr’s and Attorneys needed after hours answering services and she built the first stage of Central Comm. Since then we have added services, grown the company, and expanded our coverage area, but we are still filling a need.
This is how your start a successful business. You find a need and fill it. Or create a need and fill it. Not all businesses are glitz and glamour. But sometimes it’s the meat and potatoes types of businesses that will stick around for the long run.
Just like what is happening in our service industries today. There are not enough carpenters, drywallers, roofers, electricians, factory workers who are skilled with robotics, and het there are more people than ever with 4-year degrees, which took 6 years to get, who can’t find gainful employment.
There is an up and coming company who has a great idea, one which I actually began using years ago, because I move so often. Instead of purchasing expensive card board boxes, and packing tape and such, they rent plastic containers. I started doing that years ago. Only I purchased the plastic tubs myself. The cool thing for me was when I was done with moving, I could just use them to store other things. Or lend them to friends who were moving.
In this case, the company, called Green Go Box offers green plastic bins to be used for moving. They will deliver the plastic boxes to your home, then when you are done, they will pick them up. According to their founder, the green plastic boxes are better than cardboard boxes for two reasons. One, they are less expensive, although not by a wide margin, and two, the are recyclable. You don’t have to store them or dispose of them when your move is over is another benefit. For myself, the fact they pick drop them off, pick them up and I don’t have to spend time assembling and disassembling boxes in just one more reason to use their product.
Inc. Magazine did an article about this young man, Brian Sutherlin, his motivation and his pitch for funding to Ford’s Five Pitches in Five Blocks competition. I liked the fact that unlike me, he saw an opportunity in supplying people and companies with his green plastic moving boxes.
Something else he said in the interview with Inc. magazine also resonated with me
“What does the “road to success” look like for you?
The road to success for me has Green Go Box franchises as a nationally recognized brand in the moving and storage industry. Additionally, it is our vision to be able to provide jobs to servicemen and convicted felons with the promise of helping them start their own small businesses in the local service industries.
What drives you?
I was raised in a family where my father, who lead very successful service companies, was able to provide in a way where I never really wanted for anything and my college was paid for.
So building a successful tech-enabled local service business in a non-sexy industry (while everyone else chases the carrot by trying to be the next Mark Zuckerburg) is very important to me. It’s showing that someone who may look like me can be a real success. Most importantly, making my family proud and leaving a legacy for my future children is something that really keeps me going during the hard times. “
At Central Comm, our founder saw a need and filled it. We have been answering phones for Doctors, Attorneys, Municipalities and service companies for over 50 years now. It’s not a glamorous business, but it is a business which has helped people, kept people employed and added manpower to many small businesses on their way to becoming big businesses.
Central Comm at your service