[TRANSCRIPT] 123Print Small Business Sense – Bill Valway

Bill: Hi my name is Bill Valway.  I am the CEO and owner of Absolute Perfection, Inc.  We started about 10 years ago out of my parents’ garage in Finksburg, Maryland doing auto tinting and I never thought that we would grow into the business we are today.  Now we actually offer vehicle wrapping, window tinting on commercial and residential locations as well as marketing services such as video production, web design and graphic design.  It’s just really exciting for us.

Question: What inspired you to start a small business?

Bill: I think the reason I started my business at such a young age is that my parents always instilled in me that if you want to do something and you really believe in it, you know, go out and do it on your own.  Take the risk.  And that was probably one of the best decisions I ever made in my entire life.  It’s been quite a journey, again starting out at 18.  I didn’t know that much about business but over the years I’ve learned efficiency is very important.  Customer service is number one for us and I really strive to make sure that we’re doing whatever we can to make the customer happy—and that’s not always easy but it is definitely something that we look forward to doing and helping our customers.

Question: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in starting and growing your business?

Bill: Some of the challenges that I faced starting out at such a young age and not really knowing that much about business—I didn’t know what were the right and wrong things to do so there was a lot of trial and error.  Thankfully it didn’t bankrupt my business or run it into the ground or get me into any type of significant problems—however learning infrastructure and implementing accounting tools and scheduling—all the things, you know, when you start a business you don’t really think about.  And then, you know, you start having customers calling you and how you are going to manage those calls—how are you going to communicate back to them—marketing materials, how are you going to present your company to your customers—and you know all those things kind of crop up after you start growing your business and developing relationships—and you know that’s always been really important to me is understanding what it is our customers want to see, understanding you know what kind of things make our customers happy when they do business with us.  And so marketing I think is one of my strongpoints in the business.  I really like branding and getting our name out there.  It’s exciting to me to take a business like ours that really was started from a garage and by creating a good brand, a good reputation, getting it out there and watching it grow—it’s really exciting for us.

Question: How did you first get the word out about your business?

Bill: So the first thing that I did when I started my business was went and got a box of business cards.  And it sounds so simple and basic but that’s what I did to promote my business.  I had a box full of business cards that were very generic looking at the time but they worked.  And I went out and handed them out to every business, every friend—anyone I could possibly think of to promote the business.

Question: Now that your business has grown, how do you promote your business?

Bill: So now that our business has really evolved we’ve implemented a lot of other printed items.  We use brochures which we’re really excited about now.  It’s a really great marketing piece.  We have printed mailers that we do quarterly.  We have a newsletter that we send out.  And those are all great items to continue to just build a relationship and market our company and continually stay in front of our clients.  And again that’s back to what I truly believe in is that you have to continue to impress and awe your clients so that they’ll continue to come back to you.

Question: How have you involved your business in the community?

Bill: We recently added an internship program which has been really exciting for us.  We actually work with Century High School which is right down the road and we bring in some young students that are looking to prepare for college.  They either work with our graphic artists or video production team to kind of prepare them for whatever career they’re going into.  And the other thing that’s really great about that is that they get to see how a real small business works.  When kids go to college they really don’t know what’s in store for them in the real world, in the business world.  And it’s great for them to have an opportunity before they jump into college to come in, work with us, work with our team, and kind of see what business is really like.  And I think that really gives them a stronger handle on what is going to be required from them when they do graduate from college.  And that’s really invaluable for them.

Question: What are some struggles you’ve faced?

Bill: Being in business has been one of the best things that I’ve ever done in my life.  It’s been extremely challenging.  I love what I do every single day I wake up and go to work and I can say I love what I do.  That’s what it’s about.  That’s what really small business is truly about and I love it.  There are some days where they’re just extremely trying and those days are, you know, when an employee doesn’t show up or when a job goes south—and controlling those types of things—sometimes it’s just completely out of our control—but there are certain things that are within our control and we just don’t have the resources or tools to really deal with them as a small business.  You know, understanding what the—what your employees need, you know what your customers need, how to control costs such as product expenses and things like that.  And it’s really taught me so much about business.  You know, it’s not just about being the best salesperson or the best marketing guy, or the best HR guy.  You have to be a really well rounded business owner to be successful.  And you really have to think about others than yourself.  It doesn’t mean that you always have to give in to what other people want, but you also have to know how to pick your battles and understand when it’s appropriate to stand your ground and when it’s appropriate to allow others to voice their opinion and kind of let them win the battle.  You know that’s kind of how I lead my business.  I try not to micro manage or force my opinions on my employees.  I like to let them have free rein to make their own decisions.  And I think by doing that that’s allowed our business to continue to prosper because it brings in new talent.  It brings in new ideas and that’s ultimately what makes America what it is, you know.  We can continue to allow that freedom of coming up with great new ideas and prosper.

Question: Who in the business world do you look up to?

Bill: I watched my father having extreme success and also having some failure in his life in the business world.  And you know I learned a lot of valuable lessons through that.  One is that you always have to protect the business.  You always have to make the best possible decisions for the business.  And that’s in finance, that’s in planning—you know you have to have a plan.  In the recent years I’ve actually developed a relationship with a group called Vistage.  And that’s a CEO or Executive leaders mentoring program—and that has been extremely helpful to develop my knowledge as a CEO and a leader to group of CEO’s—about 15 CEO’s that meet on a monthly basis.  And then I have a chair that I actually meet with once a month and we focus on specific issues in my business.  And it’s all focused around me making the decisions.  I don’t have someone sitting there telling me what to—the decision to make—but he’s asking me questions so that I arrive at my own decisions.  And it’s really been a great benefit to our company.

Question: How do you balance work and life?

Bill: I tend to be all or nothing and, you know, it’s a struggle for me all the time.  In the summertime we are extremely busy and I want to just continue to work, work, and work until the project is done.  And the reality is you just can’t.  You have to focus on the family life and you have to take some free time to unwind and relax.  The only way that I would say that I do that is by, you know, having a good relationship with my wife and my family and they kind of help me to stay grounded because if it wasn’t for them I would constantly be working and focusing on the next project, the next big thing.  And you know, having the family members that enjoy being around me and spending time together—they say, “Do you really have to work until 10:00 o’clock tonight?  Why don’t you come home and have dinner,” or my wife says, “Get home and have dinner.”  Those are the types of things that help to keep me grounded and I’m very grateful for those.

Question: What is the best piece of advice you could give to someone starting a small business?

Bill: My best advice to someone who was starting a business is to remain teachable.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions from people who are successful in business.  I’ve really focused on the people that are more successful than me or the people that I admire.  Those are the people that I try to hang around and get advice from and I think that’s really worked well for me.  You know, listen to what your employees’ needs are and listen to what your customers’ needs are.  Don’t get too big, too fast.  Focus on building infrastructure and reinvesting in the company and don’t use the business as your personal piggy bank and you will probably be successful. 

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