It’s said that timing is everything in business. And when the timing isn’t just right, all it takes is a little creativity to make things work. Just ask Fred Stewart.
Two years of healthy growth in his new company, Drain Doctor of Southwest Missouri, told him it was time to expand in 2008. He bought equipment, hired more employees and added services – just in time for the recession. “I saw it coming in March,” he says. “I had already bought the new equipment and signed the contracts. The backhoes were already delivered.”
One key step Stewart and his company took to get through a tough time was to form alliances with other businesses with related specialties – even if some of those firms’ services competed with his own. It’s a concept sometimes called coop-etition.
The approach has helped him increase profit with a smaller, leaner staff and put himself in a strong position for the turnaround he knows will come.
Simpler life
The onset of recession wasn’t the first time Stewart has had to change his plans. His search for a new job outside of the corporate world in 2006 didn’t go as he intended, either.
Before moving to Missouri, Stewart worked for a drain cleaning franchise for 12 years, including three as manager of the excavation and industrial division. “I just decided to come out here and live a more simple life,” he says.
The job search didn’t go well: “I was much more qualified than every manager I spoke to, so nobody would hire me.” Then he and his wife, Tracey, learned that Drain Doctor of Springfield was for sale. So, instead of having a job, he found himself owning a 10-year-old sewer cleaning and waterjetting company in Rogersville.
The new Drain Doctor of Southwest Missouri grew quickly. Before the Stewarts took over, the company had just completed its best year with sales of $235,000 (2005). The Stewarts took over in June 2006 and did almost $275,000 in their first six months. The next year saw the company grow to nearly $600,000 in sales.
In 2008, they added plumbing services and Perma-Liner cured-in-place pipe lining, became licensed to install and inspect conventional and advanced septic systems, and hired employees to do the work. They also added an excavation division and expanded the service territory from one county to cover five counties around Rogersville, including Springfield and the popular tourist area of Branson.
By June, the company had matched its 2007 numbers and was on track to do $1.2 million in sales. Then came August.
