Company: Billboards for Education

Headquarters: 9301 Ocoee St., #138, Ooltewah TN

Market: Tennessee

Phone: 423.242.3695

Email: matt@billboardsforeducation.com

Billboards for Education was created to give hope and support to local educators who struggle with an ever-present lack of classroom resources. The Company donates 10% of every dollar, from every billboard ad, to local schools.

Matt Richman is the founder and President and Insider had a chance for an interview with Matt.

Matt, can your share with us a little about your background and education?
How did you end up in the Outdoor business?

I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My grandfather started the first pizza delivery company in the Midwest and in 1995 my parents brought Steak ‘n Shake to the Chattanooga, TN market. My mother is still one of the largest and most successful Steak ‘n Shake franchisees in the country. While I always knew I would end up starting something, I never would have imagined myself in the outdoor business. I originally studied to become a high school history teacher and a Christian minister in order to serve and help people. After finishing my Master of Education degree at Vanderbilt I went straight into ministry. I served churches full-time in Kentucky, Florida, and Ohio. While in Ohio I began to see that business, if done well, can have a tremendous positive impact on people and communities. I decided to join my mother’s Steak ‘n Shake franchise (Debo’s Diners) in order to begin learning how business can do good and serve more than its bottom line. While overseeing marketing for the company, I befriended Ken Hall of Hall Outdoor in Chattanooga. As we drove around and looked at his inventory for Steak ‘n Shake to advertise on, I bombarded him with questions about the industry and his business model. As a young man, I saw an opportunity to enter an industry that seemed to be dominated by much older, and much larger, companies whose main focus was the maximize the bottom line at all costs. I had a hunch that if I focused on people before profits, that profits would follow. I installed my first digital billboard on my family’s Steak ‘n Shake property in 2015, which gave me my start serving local businesses and local schools. I am thankful to have grown that to five locations with many more coming in the next 12 months.

You have a different approach to your business plan. Tell us about the mission of Billboards for Education?

While my life has taken many twists and turns, from the age of 17 onward I knew that I wanted to help improve the lives of others instead of chasing after wealth. Originally, I thought I had to work for a non-profit to make a genuine impact. Billboards for Education was born from the realization that for-profit businesses have potential to do a significant amount of good. I believe that if I serve my advertisers, and donate 10% of profits to local schools, the bottom line will take care of itself. If all businesses took this approach, it would be amazing to see the positive change we could bring to our communities and country. To date, my small company has donated $47,000 to local schools. We bought a classroom set of iPads, expanded the robotics program into all the middle schools in Whitfield County, and funded an anti-sexual abuse curriculum that was recently rolled out into all the elementary schools in Whitfield County.

You currently have 5 billboards. Are any of them digital?

I consider myself a digital billboard company first and foremost. I love the millions of unique ways that businesses can engage the community through dynamic, timely, digital ooh ads. I currently have ten sign faces across two markets, and six of those are digital.

Do you have plans to continue growing the business?

I have been building my business part-time over the last four years, but have only been full-time in my business for the last six months, so I see myself as only beginning. I’m young, driven by an obsessive mission to help local businesses and schools, and excited to see the growth opportunities that God has in store for me and Billboards for Education.

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