Insider is running a series of interviews with Comstor Outdoor Founder and CEO Jason Duff. Comstor operates a 500 face out of home plant in Ohio and Indiana. Jason has previously talked about getting started in out of home and developing signs. Today he talks about how to scale an out of home company.
How did you know when it was time to add someone?
I took an inventory of what I was naturally good the things I wasn’t good at and it happened the things that I wasn’t good at were draining my energy…it was kind of sucking the joy out of what I was doing. I identified the things I didn’t enjoy doing and tried to find team members to complement me.
Play to your strengths and complement your weaknesses.
You play your strength and you bring in team members that can complement your weaknesses. That’s really important. Surround yourself with those kind of people. And also not yes people…it’s natural in the beginning especially for a small operator to hire friends and family and sometimes as you’re building your business maybe your family doesn’t resonate with some of the decisions or the time that you’re putting into it or the risk that you’re taking on. I’m a natural leader but also I have blind spots and I want people around me to say ask why. Have we tried it this way? Have you considered this? Or maybe we should we should do something different yeah.
Scaling the company
We have 5 employees in our company. I was employee number one. The hardest step for me was to trust someone else to treat customers and clients the way I thought they should be treated. My first sales person hire was Adam Rammel. Adam had was doing websites and marketing and was working for an employer at the time that was not investing in him. We met at a Lima young professionals event and he had a knack for marketing and creative which impressed me. Today he’s a Vice President of the company. He’s also started several businesses and restaurants in downtown Bellefountaine.
Allowing employees to develop
Many of my initial employees have been building companies because of their success they with Comstor outdoor and because of their belief in signs and billboards. That’s something I’m proud of. Justin Powell from Huntington was one of our interns. Justin worked with us for about a year as the intern. It didn’t make sense for us to partner but look what he’s accomplished!
Who does what?
We have 5 employees. Adam Rammel is our Vice President. Mike Hibner is our Sales Manager. Nick Bozman is a Sales/Client Rep. Beacher Webb is our installer. We’ve got Cameron Sailor who is Accounting/Customer Service Rep. And then Cecil Smith is our Leasing Agent.
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