Rieke Office Interiors, owned & managed by Melissa Kehl, is no startup business. It’s been in business for 27 years. But Melissa explains why small businesses today need to think and act like startups, and why you need plenty of entrepreneurial skills to meet customer needs, keep ahead of the competition, and stay in business.
She explains the need to delegate early on, even when cash is tight, and offers some creative ways to do that. Doing that, she says, allows you to work ON your business, not necessarily IN it. She also articulates why it’s so important to take time to step back from the urgent, day-to-day crises, and always stay focused on the strategic.
Both startups and established small businesses today also need leaders who are willing and able to take big risks, she says. If you’re not comfortable with that, you’re probably in the wrong spot.
The interview is full of candid, no-nonsense advice from a CEO that has regularly pivoted her company in a market space full of competition and highly susceptible to economic downtowns. And yet, under Melissa’s guidance, the company continues to grow. Her advice is relevant to both startups and small businesses.
What follows is a transcript of that interview. Or, you can go here to listen to the on-demand podcast version.
Doris Nagel 0:42
Good morning all you entrepreneurs and small businesspeople! You’re listening to The Savvy Entrepreneur Show.
I’m Doris Nagel, your host for the next hour.
The show has two goals. First to share helpful information and resources. If I can help just one of you entrepreneurs out there, not make some of the mistakes I’ve made myself or I’ve seen clients or friends make over the years that I’ve been successful.
The second goal of the show is also to inspire. I found being an entrepreneur can be confusing, and lonely. Sometimes you have no idea if you’re on the right track or not, or where to turn for good advice. And it’s easy to get discouraged.
So to help with both of those goals, I have guests every week on the show who are willing to share their stories and their advice. And this week’s guest is Melissa Kehl. She is the CEO & owner of a company called Rieke Interiors. And she’s here with me this week to share her journey as an entrepreneur.
Now, Rieke Interiors is not a startup tech business. It’s a well-established business. But I think what Melissa will share with us today is that you need entrepreneurial skills to grow those businesses as well. You may need different skills, but you need to be an entrepreneur.
Melissa, thanks so much for being with me today. Welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur Show.
Melissa Kehl
Thanks for having me.
Doris Nagel
Tell listeners just a bit about Rieke Interiors. What does it do? How long has it been in business? What’s unique about its offerings?
Melissa Kehl 2:34
We help people improve their lives by starting with the foundation of their space, whether that space is in their office or their home. And we do this through interior design, construction, management, furniture, and even the finishing touches of accessories or artwork window treatments, the whole nine yards for their space.
We have a manufacturing facility in Elgin Illinois. That’s about 150,000 square feet. If we don’t manufacture it, then we partner with amazing vendors, who can help us supply everything else you need for your space to have an amazing space, no matter where that space is.
Doris Nagel
What do you make in Elgin?
Melissa Kehl 3:16
We manufacture office furniture, laminate office furniture — conference tables, training tables, millwork, reception desks, private offices, workstations. So that’s what we do is the manufacturing part of it. And we have a large showroom there that shows everything else that we sell, besides all of the furniture that we make.
We’ve been in business for 27 years, and I’ve been here for 24 of them. I bought the business in 2019. And we’re constantly growing and changing. When I started working here, we didn’t even manufacture. We just did used office furniture. Then we started manufacturing our own furniture. Now we have a full interior design firm inside of our facility. And then right after COVID, we also started doing interior designing for homes as well.
Doris Nagel
How do your clients typically break down in terms of residential vs. commercial? I’m guessing most are still offices?
Melissa Kehl 4:22
Yes, that’s probably still 80- 90% of our business, because we just launched the interior design for homes last year. So that’s really new for us.
So probably 90% of our business is still in the offices, and then residential just makes up a small part of it. But it’s just the beginning, and it’s growing.
Doris Nagel
Are most of your customers long term customers? How do you find customers typically?
Melissa Kehl 4:55
We find customers through our 13 outside salespeople, who do a great job networking. They have what we call power partners, so they get with other salespeople who sell to the same type of people that we sell to in the office.
So the HR person, the facilities manager, the CFO, the owners. They get together and share that, “Oh, this person’s renovating their space,” or “This person’s moving,” etc. They share leads that way.
We do some cold calling, and a little bit we get from the internet, not as much.
And then you would think that once someone buys office furniture, they don’t really need to buy it again anytime soon. Because it lasts well, especially ours which lasts forever, and we offer a lifetime warranty on our furniture.
But our customers are growing all the time. So they need a new space, or they’re moving, or they just want to update an area or update the look. So 60% of our business is repeat customers that we’ve had for the 27 years that we’ve been in business. That always shocks me sometimes, because I wonder why they constantly need to buy office furniture.
Doris Nagel
I guess I assumed that, too. I envisioned that you’d have a great client and they buy a lot of things, and their office looks phenomenal. And then they go away, and you don’t hear from them for a long time. But that’s clearly not the case.
COVID has obviously been in the news a lot. How has the pandemic changed things for both for you and for a lot of your business customers? And maybe for your home customers, too, for that matter?
Melissa Kehl 6:44
Back when the shutdown happened, it was very scary. We are relationship based company, and basically shut down where you can’t go see customers anymore. And that’s how we get all of our businesses, networking and seeing customers face to face, right? So that was pretty scary.
But [luckily], I have an amazing team. And we’re constantly thinking about what we can do next. What‘s needed in the market? How can we help our customers.
Because of that, we developed a product called Safe Space, which was the big Plexiglass items that you would see out there. But we ended up doing ours via design way. So they flowed with your office. They either matched the color of the top that they were sitting on, or they were curved units that went around your desk so that they looked more built in rather than scary.
There were some out there that looked like saran wrap, and others that were just plain two by four panels. So people spent a lot of money on their space to look beautiful, even with the pandemic. I went into some spaces, and wondered, my gosh, what are you doing?
Some of the things they did just created fear in people, the way it looked. I even heard that one of my employees mother’s worked in a place that they put up a shower curtain around her workspace. Are you kidding me? Who wants to work in that environment? It was crazy! So our plexiglass solution helped our customers as well as us.
Still, we were shut down for three solid weeks. That was very scary. I have 150,000 square feet of space, and it was all black. There was no manufacturing, no machines running. Nobody in the office. And we couldn’t even go out to any of our own installs that we were doing before, because you couldn’t get into anybody’s space.
And we’re like, okay, what are we going to do? But within two weeks, my team developed the line pricing, naming protocol, prototypes, website, all in two weeks. And we literally were up and running in two weeks, bought as much Plexi as I could get my hands on across the country, and started manufacturing.
And we had our first sale the first day that we launched the new product, which was really cool and very amazing. And that helped us get through the whole pandemic. I’m so proud of my team. I have the best team, I think, in the world.
But now a lot of the Plexi has come down, now that the mask mandate is changing and things like that. And I would say, in the big corporate world, a lot of people are still just working from home. But the smaller businesses, or manufacturing companies, or companies where you still do need to be in the office, are changing up their space. Our interior design group is busier than we were pre-COVID, designing different spaces for company.
Doris Nagel
I believe that. And what are you seeing that businesses want these days?
Melissa Kehl 10:17
What they’re wanting now more than anything is collaboration spaces. They want people to get back to the office, and employees don’t want to come back to the same old place that they had before, if it wasn’t up to date.
So [companies] are spending a lot of money on break rooms and lunchrooms, and also on collaboration spaces for brainstorming and getting together and meeting.
A lot of companies still need employees to have what we used to call “heads down” space, and you needed separate places to do that. But now, you can do the heads down space at home, when you have a big project you need to work on, or different things like that.
I think now that when they’re in the office, people want to collaborate more. They want to share stories and say, “Hey, I had this idea. What do you think about it?” They want to have more communication.
So the office space is definitely becoming more collaborative. And then like, the heads down spaces are really being put into the homes now — just do that at home, and then come into work later the afternoon. I’ve been seeing a lot more hybrid, going to the office and working from home both,
Doris Nagel
Do you do see companies investing more in technology to collaborate? Like, interactive whiteboards or more higher tech meeting rooms? Or things like that?
Melissa Kehl 11:54
Somewhat. I think that right now, people are just so sick of Zoom. I mean, Zoom has been wonderful, and it’s helped us not have to do a lot of commuting. So, it’s helped out tremendously.
But now people just want to see a real person, a live person. So we’ve been noticing more of just the live space, whiteboard material — we actually have desks that are made out of whiteboard material now, so you can just come up with an idea and just write all over it. So if I’m sitting at my desk next to somebody, I can take the dry erase board and draw something, or work out a problem or whatever. And we can just write right on my desk and then just erase it.
Doris Nagel
Well, there is something satisfying about a whiteboard, there’s no question. I have one in my home office, a very large one. And it’s covered with all different colors and, and arrows and boxes. And it probably means nothing to anyone else. But there is something very satisfying about it. I’m not sure what that is.
Melissa Kehl
I agree with you. And when people are like, I can write on my desk, that’s even cooler.
Doris Nagel
It’s kind of like you’re back in grade school, right? Being naughty, but being reward instead of being punished for writing on your desk. Exactly. Okay. Well
Do you see people also investing in their home offices more as a result of COVID?
Melissa Kehl 13:36
Yes, I do. That’s kind of slowed down a little bit, to be honest with you. And now that people are coming back into the office, it’s a really big thing because of ergonomics. That’s so important. People during the pandemic weren’t focused on it – they were sitting at their kitchen table or their couch, and probably hurting their neck or their arm or getting headaches.
But now, getting the proper ergonomic chair, as well as sit stands is really critical for offices. Sit stands are the craze now. Five years ago, I probably sold maybe one a month. Now? I don’t think I even have one customer who doesn’t use sit stands.
Doris Nagel
You’re talking about the standing desks?
Melissa Kehl 14:16
Yes, where you can just push a button, and your whole desk goes up or comes down. Mine is huge. I have a three legged one. And it’s probably seven foot by four foot and the whole entire thing goes up. It’s fun!
Doris Nagel
Very cool.
How has the company changed since you’ve been there? And how has it changed since you took over the helm there? It sounds like the business has evolved a lot from its early days.
Melissa Kehl 15:03
Yes, definitely. I’ve probably been running the company for the last 13 years. When I started working here, I was just an accountant. I actually have my CPA. But then I just learned more about the business. And I’m the type of person who just likes to learn more every single day. What else can I learn on a daily basis? And I just learned and learned and learned.
Doris Nagel
Melissa, I never passed out of the “Why?” phase as a child. And I feel like maybe you are a bit like that as well.
Melissa Kehl 15:36
Why you do that, why do you do it like that? Can I do it like this?
To me, it seems like a better way to live. It’s more interesting.
So I learned a lot. And I became the President/Sales Manager, and CFO — all three hats. I don’t recommend that, by the way. But 13 years ago, I was doing that.
And then, once I purchased the company, I learned to delegate more and hire even more wonderful people to back me up, to enable me to work on the things that I really want to work on. Things that help move the company forward.
We’ve always been the type of company that embraced a continual improvement process. But I would say since I’ve started running the company – and even more so since bought the company — I’m always asking, “Okay, what else can we do?”
I would say before that, we would just slowly add new items on, because we’ve always been a continuous improvement company. But slowly, I would say.
Since I purchased the company, then I’m like, “Okay, I want to do this, and this and, and I don’t have somebody I have to like, consult with of like, and he doesn’t say, Oh, I don’t like that, or I don’t want to do that. Now I can just like, let’s try, come on team. Let’s go.
Doris Nagel
That’s an interesting evolution, and an observation of how company ownership really does create a different dynamic. And I don’t know if it’s because you have fewer people to ask permission from or maybe it’s just a mental thing. Or maybe it’s now you feel like it’s really your baby. What do you attribute that to?
Melissa Kehl 17:42
I know, I do think about that a lot. So it’s interesting that you asked that question. Because I have asked myself, “What’s the difference?” I was already running the company anyway. And I had the same employees.
But I do think it’s a mental thing; that I might have just been holding myself back a little bit, thinking “Well, he’s not gonna like that,” or maybe I just would talk myself out of this or that.
Now, I’m just 100%. It’s all on me. We make it or break it. And so I think that’s more of a mental thing, to be honest with you. As I say, that is weird, because I was already running the company like it was my own anyway. But there is a little bit of a difference once it’s really yours. You’re just like free to do it whatever way you want to do it.
Doris Nagel
I think that’s one of the appeals of starting a business.
You know, I think when you say “entrepreneurship,” a lot of people think of some tech startup in somebody’s garage. Or some unicorn businesses.
Yes, there are those businesses, but there are lots and lots of businesses that are main street businesses, or they’re well-established manufacturing businesses. They need to continue to evolve and grow and change. And that requires entrepreneurial skills.
Talk about how you’ve used some of your entrepreneurial skills to change the direction of the company and try and do new different things.
Melissa Kehl 19:35
It starts with a vision, being able to really see that big picture of where you want the company to go.
I’ll give you an example. Even with my employees — my customers also — but on my employee side, it’s very, very, very important to me, that my employees live their best life. And I don’t want work just to be work for them. I want work to be able to be something that can help them achieve their personal goals, whatever those might be.
So that’s something that’s definitely changed since I’ve taken full control and ownership. I concentrate more on what my employees want out of life.
I meet with all my managers, and my managers meet with their employees. And we ask, “What are you looking for? What’s going to make you have your best life? What’s your bucket list item? What can you do to really excel at work and at home? What do you want to do? Where do you want to grow? What do you want to get into?”
That’s a very big passion of mine: helping people see that they can grow beyond where they are right now. And I really want their place of work here to not just be the work that they come to every day, but I want it to be something that they’re passionate about. Figuring out how work can help them achieve their personal goals as well is very, very important.
Doris Nagel
I’m sure some people maybe just wish you would just leave them alone and let them do their little thing. But I’m sure you have some stories of how that has given permission to certain employees to really blossom.
Melissa Kehl 21:37
Well, you are right. Some people are like, “Oh, here she comes again with her positivity. You’re gonna push me out of my comfort zone.” I do have that happening.
But I’ll give you an example of something that I put into place this year. So for the last couple years, I have been working with a consciousness coach, to be more conscious and aware in life of how you’re behaving and how you’re showing up, how are you going to be as a leader for your team. And we’re reading this book called “The 15 Commitments to Conscious Leadership.”
And I gave it to my whole team this year. So they’re all reading the book. And every other week, we meet to go over the different chapters of the book, and talk about how we can implement some of the ideas in their personal life and at work. Talking about their communication skills, with things they can do to move the needle for themselves in their lives.
And it’s definitely uncomfortable. We’re in a meeting, and everybody in there, and you have to be a little bit vulnerable. And I don’t mind being vulnerable. Everybody knows my whole story. I share everything. I’m an open book, but it is much harder for some of them.
Some people really don’t want to share. But then you have some who are like, “Oh my god, that was the best thing. I’ve never looked at life like that. I never tried that.”
And, I’ve already heard two stories that this helped them with. One was having an issue with one of their son’s baseball parent. Another told that it had helped with communication with their mom.
I believe the more you are happy in your personal life, the more your workplace will be happy.
Doris Nagel
I’m guessing a certain amount of creativity is really helpful in the work that you do.
Maybe at first blush, people think offices are not very interesting. But if we’re going to reinvent the office of the future, it requires some out of box thinking. And every client is got different needs.
So I’m sure you need people who have their creative juices flowing.
Melissa Kehl 24:04
Yes, for sure. We actually pride ourselves in that. In fact, we joke around here that we don’t sell office furniture – we do, of course — but we really are more like a consultant to the business owner, helping draw them out on what they want their space to feel like. “What do they want the flow of their work to be like? What how do you want the communication to happen with inside your organization? How do you want your employees to feel? How do you want your customers to feel when they come in? “
And that’s really more exciting for us than if somebody just wants to buy a chair or whatever.
Doris Nagel
The reality for a lot of pure manufacturing businesses is the things they make are a commodity. If I want a chair, I can go to Staples, I can go on Amazon and find something, right?
But what I can’t get is somebody who helps pull it all together. Somebody who has a vision for what it needs to look like and how to lay it out.
Melissa Kehl 25:02
Yes, and help pull it out of the owner too. You can’t just do the same space for everybody. Some people want a homey feel. Some people want a techie feel, some people will want something creative and fun, with wild colors.
But you have to know how to coach that out of people. So that then you can come in with an amazing design. And that goes from flooring, to the wall color, to the furniture, to the window treatment to the accessories, to the lighting — there’s so much involved with the feel.
And you don’t really know what goes into the details. But if you walk into a space, you can feel it. You know, if you walk into this space or this space, you’re like, “Whoa!”
And the space also can help with things like employee retention, or even when you’re hiring.
Let’s say you have a project manager who’s deciding whether to come work for you or going to work for somebody else. Usually the pay is relatively the same, and the benefits are relatively the same, at least within a few 1000s of dollars. But you go in for an interview at one space, and it looks like the 1980s or 1990, and then you go into another space, and it looks more up to date, psychologically, the person will usually pick the job of the space that looks better for two reasons.
One, it shows that the employer cares about the employee. And then it also shows that they’re with the times, that they’re progressing. They’re like moving forward, and so it feels like employees would have more growth at that company. And that’s what a lot of employees are looking for nowadays. They don’t want to just be stuck in the same job 10 years from now.
Doris Nagel
Melissa, we were we were talking about some of the things that COVID has brought and some of the changes you’re seeing in the world of office design, because of COVID, and the pandemic, but also because of the Great quit. But I think it definitely is changing the dynamics.
Let’s talk about the business itself. What kind of entrepreneurial skills do you think make someone successful as a CEO and/or owner of a more established business?
Melissa Kehl 27:32
For either, whether you’re a startup or not, I would say that you can’t be afraid of risk. That is for sure. You have to be able to handle taking risk. You might think “Oh, well, an established business, it’s not as risky.”
But it is, though, to keep a business up and running. The overhead that you have as a business owner, especially in an established business, ends up growing so much. When you’re a startup you only have a few assets and employees, you may not even have an office yet. So usually a startup’s expenses are much lower.
But as a business gets bigger and bigger over the years, the overhead just keeps growing, which then just makes you have to sell more.
Today, the way that everything is changing so quickly is a huge challenge. The price increases that are everywhere, the wage increases, now gas prices – it’s just insane the amount of different expenses that you have.
Another thing, too, about an established business is that you can run into bad habits that you’ve had, and those can sometimes be difficult to change. Whereas, if you have a startup that is brand new, you don’t have any bad habits, you’re just starting right from scratch.
I would say that sometimes changing those old bad habits can be a real challenge. Your employee will say or think, “Well, that’s not the way we used to do it.”
I would say any type of business, whether you’re going to take over an existing business or start one from scratch, you definitely need to have vision, willingness to take risks, and not afraid to make a mistake.
Because if you’re afraid to make a mistake, you can’t grow. You’re not pushing outside your comfort zone. You just have to learn from those mistakes and keep going and just keep getting back up, knowing that there’s always something, there’s always another challenge.
I’ll give you an example. So October, November, December, we had our best sales quarter ever in the history of company. And we were so excited. But then January came, and we realized we didn’t have enough manufacturing employees to pull it off.
So our four to six week lead time just went to eight to 10 weeks. What are we going to do? How are we going to set up a new training program? How are we going to hire more people? There’s no people to hire, it seems like.
So we are literally having the best quarter ever, which is exciting, but then you have no idea how you’re going to pull it off.
There’s always something with a business, whether it’s good or bad. You just have to be ready for whatever it is today, and figure out how you’ll handle it.
Doris Nagel
Having worked in different companies and also having my own business, it seems like whenever you get a handful of people together, the challenge is always, as the company needs to change, you have people who don’t want to change or don’t agree with the change in direction.
And I think you alluded to that, but I wasn’t sure if you were referring to resistance on the management team, which can be a challenge sometimes. But then you also have an employee base that you need to somehow bring along on the journey. And it often seems like the bigger the ship, the more it’s like the Titanic. It’s harder to make those sudden changes.
Melissa Kehl 31:36
Yes, it is. So when we’re hiring, we definitely let people know that, if you are not a person that doesn’t like change, this isn’t the place for you.
We’re constantly pushing the envelope making changes. We are custom. So we make custom office furniture. So there’s always an exception to our rules, so problem, we can do that. We’re definitely that type of company.
And that definitely makes it difficult for some people who really like the rules and just want to follow the rules. And that’s tough, you know, because we’re a company that doesn’t have that many rules. And sometimes that just doesn’t work out for people.
And sometimes when you grow, you outgrow people, unfortunately. We outgrew our operations manager a while back. It was really hard and very sad that it had to end between us. We tried to get him to grow with us, and for a long while, we did grow with him,, but then the company outgrew him. We really tried to get him to come along with us, suggesting he learn some new things, or that he might have to go back to school.
But he just didn’t want to — he wasn’t willing. So we had to part ways after 20 years. and it was very sad because we are a company who really acts like a family e– we’re very close.
But sometimes that happens, and you know that you have to part way, because if you’re not moving your company forward, your company’s going backwards. The times are moving in forward and technology is moving forward, and people are moving forward.
You have to stay going forward. If you think about some companies that were big a few years ago, like Blockbuster – well today, there’s no Blockbuster.
Doris Nagel
Where’s Blockbuster these days? Where’s Sears? Where’s Carson Pierie Scott? There’s a lot of them these days?
Melissa Kehl 33:59
Yes, and these companies were rulers in their day. Blockbuster was everywhere — they were on every corner, and they owend so much real estate.
But times are changing. Andyou have to keep moving forward. And if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards.
That’s the other thing, getting back to the entrepreneurial skills needed, and something which is very hard for some people. If you really want to move your company forward, you need to always be aware that type of work doesn’t come to you.
What comes to you on a daily basis is, “Oh, we have this customer problem,” “Oh, the laminate came in chipped,” or some other crises. Those types of projects and tasks are not moving your company forward.
The only things that move your company forward are being proactive. You actually have to take time, you have to sit, you have to think about what’s important. You have to actually give yourself time.
If you’re constantly just working in the business 100% of your time, you’re not moving your company forward. Because moving your company forward requires being quiet, listening to yourself, looking at what’s you know, coming next, what’s happening in the market, doing some research.
And it is never an emergency to do any of that. You always have these emergencies, but you have to take that time to sit and really work through what you really need to do to move the company forward. And you have to be proactive.
Doris Nagel
People who procrastinate those kinds of decisions tend to get lost in the crisis of the moment. And I think there are certain business owners who like to feel needed.
I don’t want that to sound wrong, because we all like to feel needed. But you know, there’s nothing like a crisis where people come to you, frantically asking, “Oh Doris, what should we do?” And you certainly feel needed at that point.
As you say, it’s like “E Myth,” that famous book that talks about working in the business as opposed to working on the business. It is really an easy trap to get caught in the crisis of the moment. Whether for emotional psychological satisfaction, or just because it’s easier to make those decisions, or they’re more urgent. And then you have an excuse to procrastinate those bigger decisions, right?
Melissa Kehl 36:39
Yes, and it is funny that you said that, because I was that person. I loved solving all the problems that everybody had. I had a revolving door. It was almost like being at the deli, take a number, you know. I was working off adrenaline, and I loved doing that.
But I realized that this was definitely not moving the company forward.
And in order to switch I had a little bit of mental crisis with the change. I felt like, “Oh, my God, I’m not needed as much.” I remember once I took this whole day to do some strategic planning, and nobody called me, nobody texted me.
It’s kind of counterintuitive that the best leaders could leave for a month and not be needed.
Doris Nagel
You know, there are people out there helping owners transition out of the businesses. I’m not suggesting you should do that anytime soon, or that you want to.
But what you said made me think of another show guest that I was just talking recently. He had a really successful website design and content creation business, with 10 or 12 very talented designers and graphic artists and computer programmers working for him. A really nice business.
But one day woke up and just said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” And when I asked him how he transitioned what was an obviously valuable business, he said he just didn’t. He woke up and realized he was the spider in the web, and that nothing moved without him.
And he no longer had the heart to be that spider, and he knew it would take at least a couple of years to transition away that model, and he just couldn’t do it. And so he just closed his doors on a really valuable business. He left a LOT of money on the table, and left his employees in the lurch. Whereas, if he could have forced himself to move away from that model, he wouldn’t have been making a more valuable business.
So it sounds like you’ve made that transition — one that I see and hear a lot of entrepreneurs really struggle with, because the business is their baby. And when it’s their baby, it’s hard for them to let go of those things.
But if you don’t let go, your business can never really level up. And when you leave—which everyone does eventually, you’re leaving all that value on the table.
Melissa Kehl
Yes. And then you can’t sell it. You don’t actually have anything to sell when you try to get out.
Doris Nagel
Correct.
Of some of the challenges you faced, which ones were surprisingly easy for you to tackle.
Melissa Kehl 39:40
The easy ones were things like problem solving, or helping a customer, seeing the big picture. Those were definitely the easier ones. I felt like, yeah, I can do this.
The more difficult ones were the people challenges. There are so many different personalities that work for you. And you cannot manage all of them exactly the same way. You have to manage them the way they need to be managed. And it’s a lot of work.
Doris Nagel
Looking back, what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are starting out? What should they think about? What things maybe would you have done differently?
Melissa Kehl 40:34
First of all, I would tell you start with the why. What are you passionate about? And why do you want to start a business?
I have seen a lot of people — let’s say, a carpenter or a designer – who go out on their own, but they don’t really realize all the things you have to do to own a business.
If you’re the carpenter, or you’re the designer, and you’re out there running your own business, doing that part of it ends up becoming only 50% of your job. Because you have to do your own sales. And you have to do your own accounting, and you have to manage people, and marketing. You have to do all kinds of other things. There’s just so much.
So you really need to figure out why do you want your own business. Sometimes people do it because they just don’t want somebody telling them what to do anymore, so they want their own business. And I think often that’s not a good enough reason.
If you’re not super passionate about owning your own business, and knowing really why you want to do, that’s more important than the money when you’re first getting started. Because getting through the tough times, and if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, or if your why is not big enough, it is very hard to get through tough times.
And there are tough times in business. I don’t care what kind of business you are. You know, we’ve been in business for 27 years, and we could have gone out of business probably four different times. I remember one time, I had no line of credit. I had I was on credit hold with all of our vendors. Cash was super hard to get. We just couldn’t get customers to pay. We had orders on hold that we couldn’t close. We were desperate.
And luckily — I don’t even know how I pulled it off – I went to five of our very biggest vendors and said “Okay, can I make a deal with you of the balance that I owe you right now? Can I put that on a note, and I can pay you interest over five years and put that on a payment plan?”
Which then also basically wiped out my accounts payable, because it converted into a long term loan. And then my accounts payable ended up where I had to pay them every 30 days so that they you know, wouldn’t put me on hold.
And it worked. I had five vendors that did it for me. And I mean it was there was a lot of money probably $600,000 – $700,000. Yeah, it was a lot of money. And, but they did it. And we got out of it.
You know, there’s a lot of times in, especially in office furniture where people don’t want to spend on office furniture. Like during recessions, or the dot-com crash.
Doris Nagel
It’s one of those things that you can put off for another year or two, right?
Melissa Kehl 43:38
Exactly. During the dot com crash, there were so many companies that were startups that had spent tons of money on furniture, and then they went belly up. All of these offices had brand new furniture in them. So the companies that were moving in didn’t new furniture, because they had brand new furniture inside the spaces that they were renting.
You know, during Covid, we went down for a while there. There’s just so many times that you wonder, “Okay, what do I do?”
But it worked out with those five vendors. You know, they’re still my vendors today. And we paid them off eventually. And they made money on the interest and, and we pulled it off. And it was just such a relief to feel like, “Yeah, we did it.”
You have to be super creative when you own a business. You can’t just sit around and wonder, “Oh, what am I gonna do?” You have to be willing to do whatever it takes, even if it’s a big ask, because it’s worth asking for. You don’t know what they’re gonna say. If they say no, you’re in the same position you were before.
Doris Nagel
It takes bravery and, and a belief in the company to do that.
You’ve mentioned another important theme that I’ve heard from other entrepreneurs, which is the importance of finding good partners. They can really make or break you, right?
Melissa Kehl 44:59
For sure. One of the [important] things [for entrepreneurs] is to really assess your own strengths and your weaknesses, Delegate all your weaknesses. It’s not worth it to do anything else.
If you think about you’re at a level 10 at one skill set and somebody else is at level 100, you can work really hard and eventually get to level 15. Meanwhile, you’re still so much less than the person at level 100. So hire that person, and let the level 100 person do that.
And then in addition to the things that you’re not good at, there’s things that you don’t like to do. And those are things that somebody else loves doing. Sometimes you can’t hire them right away, but maybe you can hire him part time, maybe you can hire them on a consulting basis, and then hire them later, once you get a little bit more money. You can be creative with that as well.
So I would say do not try to do it all on your own. You will just burn out. You’re not going to be good at half the stuff you need and that you’re gonna try to do. It’s just not worth it, and it’s gonna drain you and not be good for your business.
You’ll get better, faster, and farther, if you just do the stuff that you’re really good at and enjoy that, while letting other people do the stuff that they’re really good at and enjoy. And that’s a much better company to be in.
Doris Nagel
What do you say to entrepreneurs — and I have been in this position before– where you know you’re not good at something, but you don’t really have you don’t have enough cash flow to outsource it?
Do you take the plunge and do it anyway and just borrow the money? Find the money if you believe in it?
Melissa Kehl 46:51
It depends. I always try to start out with baby steps. So I try to start with what is really needed. Who cares about the people? Let’s not worry about the people yet. Just what does the company need? You know, I need marketing, I need accounting I need like just figure out what all of the core things that you need as a company.
Then once you figure that out, then ask , “Wat am I good at? What do I like doing?” Okay, I can do all of those pieces of it. But then there’s these three other things…
Doris Nagel
Yeah, I’m not good at website design.
Melissa Kehl 47:28
But do you have any friends that can do any of those pieces? Maybe I can trade out services with a couple of friends. Or maybe there’s a consultant that can do it on a part time basis. Maybe there’s even a stay at home parent, and they have five hours a week they can give you or they have 20 hours a week that they can give you and it’s not going to cost you know as much money. Plus, you’re giving them a purpose and something to do that they enjoy doing and it wouldn’t cost you as much money.
But then there are some other things that you just need to take the plunge with. I’ll give you an example: when I hired my CFO four years ago – and mind you, I am a CPA, so I could do it, but it’s not what I love doing, it’s not my passion. I’m glad that I have delegated that, but when I hired him four years ago, I thought, “I can’t afford a CFO. He’s too much money, and I don’t see how this is gonna work for me.
Doris Nagel
Plus, you knew how to do that job in your sleep.
Melissa Kehl 48:45
Yes, but I knew that I didn’t have enough time to do it. I was the President. I was the Sales Manager and the CFO. And I knew something had to give. I had to give up one of these three hats.
So I gave up the CFO hat. And oh my god, I’m so glad I did! He has paid for himself tenfold because he was the right person for my business.
And he holds us accountable. He measures us, he keeps our numbers in front of us. And he tells us, “Okay, we need to do more of this and less of this, because that’s what the numbers say.” And it’s amazing what the numbers can tell you.
Doris Nagel
And he forced you to let go.
Melissa Kehl 49:27
Yes! And it makes me happier on a daily basis.
Doris Nagel
If people would like to learn more about Rieke Interiors — its services and products, or maybe they just want to connect with you to be a sounding board for them. Or maybe they’re interested in partnering with you. What’s the best way to reach you?
Melissa Kehl
Our website is rieke.com.
You can reach me on LinkedIn, or I can even give me my cell phone number, because texting me is much better than emailing me — I’m not very good at emails. My phone is 847-833-7041, and I would love to talk to anyone — I love meeting new people. It’s one of my favorite things. So I would love to talk to anybody about whatever they want to talk about.
Doris Nagel
That’s a very generous offer. And I can’t thank you enough for being with me today and sharing some of your journey as the owner and CEO of a manufacturing company and a services company. It’s been a delight having you so thanks again for your time, and for joining me today.
Melissa Kehl
Thank you so much.
Doris Nagel
And thanks to all my listeners. You’re the reason I do this.
You’ll find more helpful information and resources on my consulting website, globalocityservices.com, as well as at my new radio show website, thesavvyentrepreneur.org. And you’ll find resources increasingly on the new Savvy Entrepreneur site as I populate it with content, blogs, tools, podcasts, and all sorts of other resources for entrepreneurs and small businesspeople.
My door is always open for comments, questions, suggestions, or if you just want to shoot the breeze, email me at dnagel@thesavvyentrepreneur.org. You’ll always get an answer back from me.
Be sure to join me again next Saturday at 11am Central/noon Eastern.
But until then, I’m Doris Nagel, wishing you happy entrepreneuring!
Leave a Reply