Randy Salvig is a very intentional, hard worker.
Randy owns and leads Randco Tanks, Inc., a successful water truck and fire tender fabrication business in Kelso, Washington. After years of management and leadership roles, Randy went out on his own in 2000. Starting with a dream and working out of a shop by himself, to owning his own facility with 20+ employees and producing over 350 tanks and tenders a year.
This is an interview with a man that’s not taken what life has given him, but instead, worked hard to find a more successful life. If Randy’s story doesn’t inspire you or reinvigorate the energy you have in your current business or career, I’m not sure what else will.
With that, grab a cup of coffee and get ready to read a very inspiring story of Randy Salvig from his office in Kelso, Washington on December 5, 2016.
—
It was the first snow of the year and a cold one.
I got into my truck and quickly realized that going the speed limit wasn’t an option with the slick powdery liquid covering the roads in my hilly neighborhood. But, I make it to Randco Tanks office. On time and without incident.
I walk into the Randco Tanks office and am immediately greeted by Chandra, the friendly secretary who always says, “You’re welcome”, when you say, “Thank you”, over the phone. Tyler, Randy’s son, comes out of the backroom to shake my hand and ask how things are going. Tyler and I have worked together quite a lot this past year, as he hired my company (Graticle, Inc.) to design and develop Randco’s website. After a few pleasantries, Randy speaks up from his office (with the door wide open as usual) and says, “Come on in when you’re ready, I’m just finishing up a few things.”
You feel a warm, friendly, family atmosphere when you enter the Randco office. Everyone is extremely positive and polite. It’s as if you’ve just entered their home and they are ready to serve you.
Randy gives up on me and Tyler chatting and comes out to the lobby and we shake hands. He says he wants to grab some coffee and brings me a cup as well.
We decide we’d better get the interview started and we walk into Randy’s office. As we’re talking, Randy’s pastor comes in and Randy introduces us both. Since Randy is being interviewed, the pastor asks for Randy’s signature before leaving. This is especially entertaining because of how humble Randy is. Making speeches and sitting in front of a crowd and being a celebrity isn’t, as you’ll see, something that Randy aspires to do. He’s much more actionable and analytical. You could say fame and fortune aren’t part of his 5-10 year vision.
Randy clears off the conference table in his office enough to sit our coffee cups down and we get started.
We talk about the goals of Longview Leaders and what I’m trying to achieve with it…
Randy:
I know as a business owner, to look at it from the perspective of: “OK, what are some of my needs? What are the needs that I would have to help make my decisions, resources, of helping me, or encouragement?”
Sometimes reading a story encourages me, and I think “Oh man, I want to achieve something like that.”
I know that as I go through business through the years, I will make goals and I’ll achieve those goals, but once that goal is achieved, I need to make another goal. Because, if I don’t, then I just stay at a happy medium in my train of thought.
I think if you don’t have a set of goals set, you really go into it dormant way of thinking and attitude.
Business people always need to be climbing in the sense of meeting and exceeding goals.
Whether that’s financial or physical.
Like this building.
It was a dream of mine to build this building and own it. It took years of dreaming and figuring how it was going to work, financially, physically, mentally. I hadn’t done this before so it was a hill to climb. It was a challenge but I wanted to achieve my dream.
Let’s say someone out there was wanting to achieve a project similar to mine, building a shop or achieving a certain goal. I would want them to read about my accomplishment and be encouraged. In my life, I’ve looked to different leaders for help. My CPA stands out as a leader in my life because not only is he a great at what he does, but he is also visionary.
You have to find people who are going to inspire you to do great things. I can self-inspire myself only to a degree.
So I learned from him. I also learned from my lawyer that does the corporation paperwork every year. These two inspire me not only because they look at the books and do their job well, but as businessmen, they have achieved many goals in their lives.
Sometimes as you’re going down that road, things just come together. Yeah, there are always struggles, but things tend to work out in the end.
For instance, I was always eyeballing this property we’re at now. From finding the right banker and all of those details. It was quite a hill to climb, but once I got to the top of it, and achieved it, I thought, “now where?”
It was nice to see my son Tyler come on board 100%. He was in transition at the age of 18/19, with college and music interests he was pursuing. I always thought having my kids being in the business would be awesome, but I didn’t want to push them.
It has to be a desire of the heart. It has to be a passion.
Once he started, he hasn’t stopped. It was like I fed him a plate of food and he ate it up. Then I had to make another plate. It was almost like the more I gave him the more he absorbed and wanted more. At first, I though it would take him some time to learn everything but he was already primed for the tasks. He has helped in many aspects of the business and completely took over other areas, such as safety and the website. We needed a website for years, but I didn’t know how or what, and Tyler took charge of that. He took the ball and ran with it.
Once I achieved the goal of this building and working with my son, I found a new goal. To make the business successful and to teach Tyler and run alongside him.
Now I can see 10-15 years from now, kind of moving away from the business.
It was great having Tyler on board, but I was still weighed down with a lot of the production in the shop. I became frustrated more than I wanted too, pulled in too many directions and wearing too many hats.
That’s where my son-in-law Kaleb came in. I said, “You know, he’s mechanic in the Dalles [Oregon] and he would be a good person to run the shop.” And one thing led to another and he came on board as well.
Now I’m grooming both Tyler and Kaleb. My goal has expanded once again, creating a mountain of mentoring and educating. That is a fairly tall mountain and should keep me busy for years.
Kaleb has two boys and they’re toddlers now, but one day they may be involved as well. As I look back, 10-20 years has gone by pretty quick. The next 10-20 years is going to go just as fast and the next thing you know, I’m in retirement mode and watching the next generation guide this business.
It’s only going to produce as much as you put in.
A Legacy
I heard a statistic that typically a family owned business lasts 2-3 generations. My desire would be to outlast that. I even tell the boys, “In 20-30 years, you may be making an entirely different product. That’s OK if that’s what keeps the doors open.”
For example, recently we’ve been bombarded by companies, especially logging companies, who want us to build fuel tanks for their pickups. The current options out there are too thin and break or crack or are the wrong capacity. We custom-make our tanks with a heavier gauge steel that withstands the abuse of logging activities. We’ve never had a fuel tank come back to us cracked. So they keep coming back and buying more. This is a company that probably has over 100 vehicles in their fleet. They’re constantly buying 20-30 vehicles a year and replacing others. Some get smashed by trees! It’s amazing. But obviously, these trucks get worn out so we’re constantly building tanks for them.
All that to say is…
20 years from now, this may be a manufacturing facility for fuel tanks.
In the last 10 years, things have changed, especially the economy. We’ve had to put a different iron in the fire. This comes with challenges, including re-gearing our shop. We still have the tank building, painting, and installation facilities, but instead of the cookie-cutter mindset of the production line, we have had to go into more custom work. Custom work easily becomes more complex and expensive. We used to have a predictable production line. Put a sticker on it and go. Now, it’s very complex.
A good analogy would be the Ford production plant.
Imagine the production line going well, then all of a sudden you introduce a Chevy or a Dodge in the mix.
It changes everything.
[question]
How are you learning to juggle this? Are you brainstorming, educating yourself, etc.?
[/question]
[answer]
My mindset is always has been geared towards fast-paced production. I love everything about it. I know if we have a slow down in this department I can envision how it will slow down the following department. If you don’t think ahead, you’ll be in trouble.
[/answer]
With a production mindset, order and organization of people is the most important asset as a leader.
I meet with my son and son-in-law multiple times a week to make sure we are on the same page and if problems arise, we work through them.
[question]
When you’re communicating this with them, is it all in your head? Do you document things? Have systems?
For instance, when your son, Tyler runs into a problem. Is it all a learning experience and taught from you directly? Do you have checklists?
[/question]
[answer]
We have a weekly production list.
For our weekly production, I’ll communicate the order of priority for the projects. I also have a production sheet that goes on for 3 months, that gives me a bigger snapshot.
We have a sheet (on Excel) that’s on each of our computers (on an internal network drive) and we can click on it anytime to see all the jobs we have on the books right now. We put the job, the PO, etc.
I print that sheet out during our meeting. Then we all review it and let each other know about the new jobs we haven’t discussed and review the details and update the sheet. There may be jobs that have been completed and they communicate that and we note it.
For each month we try to get an inventory of supplies together as we’re in our production meeting. We had a short one this morning but we need to sit down again to make sure we’re on top of not only ordering the parts but what truck comes in next. There may be glitches we need to find. Like, we’re waiting on a part. Or, if a project isn’t going too smoothly. We’re going to have to get to another project because they’re waiting and it’s now being held up. Happens all the time. Customers don’t need to know the details, but we do try to hear the heartbeat of the customer and their situation.
It’s a challenge to get us all on board.
Communication is key. We’re constantly texting.
[/answer]
[question]
Will you give us your backstory? Where did you grow up and how did you get to where you are now?
…in under 8 hours [we laugh]
[/question]
[answer]
I was born in Sacramento, California in the early 60’s.
My Dad was an electrician and my Mom was a homemaker.
My parents divorced when I was 11, which was devastating.
My Dad got ill when I was younger. He actually overdosed on caffeine, believe it or not. We flew down for the first time to Disneyland and he met us down there. He stayed up the entire night before and drank sodas and took nodose pills [caffeine pills]. Keep in mind, he was not a drinker of coffee or soda pop at the time. This was in the mid-70s.
Anyway, he started weaving all over the Los Angeles freeways and barely made it to the airport to pick us up. The whole weekend was botched because he just had to lay down.
Later, he got to a point where he couldn’t be in confined spaces. We went into a grocery store once with checkboard type of tile and that made him go nuts. From there he couldn’t really hold down a job so he kind of worked at home and tinkered there and did side jobs, electrical side jobs. Overall, he did good. Up until he passed away at age 67.
For me, schooling didn’t exactly pan out.
I got to my second week in 12th grade and I was done.
I did not want to go through high school. I was working for a contractor doing construction underground work and so I decided to quit going to school. I later tried to get my GED but it didn’t end up working out.
I also started operating equipment and got a CDL for trucking.
When the economy dropped in California, I went into the Navy for 4 years. In the Navy, I was a jet engine mechanic. I liked mechanical work. They put you through some testing in the Navy before you get hired. That’s when I figured out I didn’t want to go into electronics and all that. I was more mechanical, more of a hands-on type of guy. That was the field I chose and had done well at.
When I came back I started working for the same guy again. He knew I was a good worker. I worked for him for 6 or 7 years more and got hired by another company that put me in a supervisor role. I had my own truck. In the previous job, I was in charge of people, but this new larger company allowed me to oversee more employees.
Everything I’ve done in my life, from construction to the Navy, I’ve always exceeded what I can do. From rank, to pay, to position.
I had always wanted my own business once I got out of the Navy. Once I saw what my employer was doing, I thought, “Man, I could have my own backhoes and tractors. I can do this.” So I started working towards this goal.
Meanwhile, my employer wanted me to work Saturdays which was considered overtime and he only wanted to pay me regular time. I was also promised 1/3 ownership of the business along with two other people.
That created a frustration among all three future partners because now we were trying to keep everything equal. The frustrations kept building from this point. I had a family and that job was taking away from it and I wasn’t getting paid for the extra time I was working. Plus, I wasn’t getting paid very well at the time, $10/hour for doing a whole lot of work without overtime. On top of that, we never could figure out a system for all three future owners to put in the same amount of work. That was a bad plan the employer had for us all along.
I got this other offer running a backhoe business doing the similar work so I switched to that for a year. Any overtime hours I worked went towards buying the business from the owner. The owner went to work for another construction company. He came back and wanted his business back and wanted to go back into business with me. I said no. That’s when I got a call from this other individual that actually built the warehouses and didn’t want to contract out the underground because he wanted to save money.
I proved to him that by hiring some employees and getting equipment, we could save a lot of money per job. So he hired me…
…and I worked there for 4 or 5 years. Then the economy went into the pit again. At that same time, I hurt my back.
I tried for over a year going to different therapies, trying to make it feel better. I had constant pain down my leg. Finally, I had surgery at that time. Which is a key point because that’s what pushed me back into school.
I needed to be retrained so I picked accounting. I thought, “Well I can do accounting, I like numbers.” Because I hadn’t graduated high school, I had to study for this GED and pass the test in eight hours. By the end of the test, I had a complete headache.
But, I passed.
I went to Heald Business College. I learned the process of accounting. This is in 1992, so it was well before computers. Well, computers were just coming out. So I was learning how to use a computer. My generation did not have computers in school growing up. So now, here I am, about 30 years old, thrust into an accounting school and learning about computers. This struggle set me up for success in my business now. Not knowing that Randco was in the future. That’s still about 10 years away.
After my schooling, I planned on becoming an accountant and getting a job at a company. They economy was down, construction was down. I couldn’t afford to start my own business, even though it was still a dream.
Instead, my wife’s uncle in Prineville, Oregon needed someone to help him with his fabrication business that built water trucks. So, we moved to central Oregon. He had a 1,500-acre ranch with a ranch home that they’d just remodeled and we moved into. It was a perfect situation. Pay wasn’t the greatest but it provided for us. Soon, pay increased and the opportunity increased as well. After 7 years, I was in complete control and managing the facility. The business grew from 6-7 employees and into 20 employees and till this day, it’s still booming.
[/answer]
[question]
Did you start off in the shop?
[/question]
[answer]
I started off just being groomed by my uncle. And he taught me everything about the business. He was a good mentor when it came to business operations. He promised me his business (this is the third time I had been offered a business) because he planned to move to New Zealand. In the end, he did not move so I left the company in 2000.
I decided to leave because I’ve always wanted my own business.
In my uncle’s business, I had moved away from a lot of the day to day activities and stepped into more of a supervisory role, managing people in the shop. It wasn’t a bad job. It just made my dream of having my own business go down the pipes. And, I was more or less just walking around making sure people were doing their job and ordering parts. It became repetitious and boring.
At this point, I planned to start my own business in two years but I didn’t know how to get the ball rolling. During my morning coffee and devotion time with the Lord, I told Him, “I don’t know how to do this, I just need help.” Within 30 seconds, I had an idea of how I can bend the steel for the tanks in a new way. I started writing it down and began to work on this project for a few months.
I called up my dad one time and asked him if there a way I could start my business his shop. I just threw it out there. He said, “I’d love to have you guys up here!”
I started my business basically doing what my uncle was doing. Buying chassis, putting tanks on them and sending them to auction. I put an ad in the paper and people called me, wanting to bring me trucks. I got a couple local companies that I promoted and got some trucks. When you’re me, myself, and I you only need about one job a month or one every other. We didn’t have to have that many jobs at the time because my Dad charged me very little rent, so my profit margins were probably in the 75% range. But, I had to do all the work.
[/answer]
[question]
Did you have a business plan written?
[/question]
[answer]
No, I just knew that my business plan was basically buying the right trucks, put some tanks on them and advertise and sell them, or send them to the auction. It took about 6-8 months before I was “discovered.” From my experience of working at my uncles, there were a few people who found me. My uncle told people where I went and that I had started Randco, for which I was very thankful.
[/answer]
The business started booming for Randco in the Castle Rock facility (my brother was helping me weld). My Dad would not allow me to have any employees at the facility. It could only be me and my brother. I honored that. It got to a point where I had a lot of jobs and I couldn’t do everything myself. It was too difficult for me. I went down the road from where we are currently and rented a 4 or 5,000 square foot shop for $2,000 a month. I reluctantly signed the contract and shook the entire time.
I thought,”What if this doesn’t work and this and that?” But things kept growing and I needed to hire a secretary, rent another facility, and hire more employees. We moved around to different facilities due to our increased growth with up to 35+ employees doing 350 units a year.
The business doubled every year from 2001 to 2008. When the economy took a dive so did we, but we’ve progressively gotten better with the economy. Bringing the boys in has helped make this place better too.
We saved money when the business was doing well and bought the property cash. Then we actually funded about ¼ of the shop facility and took a loan for the rest. We’re looking to pay this off within 5 years. The rental of this will actually be my retirement. That’s the ultimate goal.
To get a rent check from here and not a paycheck.
That’s my long-term vision and hopefully, it works out.
[question]
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had since growing your company? Have you had any “aha” moments?
[/question]
[answer]
The initial design of bending the tanks has been simplified and the tanks are stronger. My competitor’s tanks crack and are sent back. I feel like the Maytag guy where I don’t have any calls on my tanks. No design problems or cracks or breakages. We’ve had some but we fix them along the way. Very minimal.
[/answer]
Our customers are pretty happy, we very seldom hear complaints.
On one hand, I can count the number of complaints we’ve received in the last 16 years of business. And those happened because they were not happy to begin with.
I’m always amazed that I always have tanks to build. Always.
I’ve never in the 16 years got to the point where I wonder what tank to build now? Even the slower times in 2008 and 2009, I always had a tank to build.
I sit there and pinch myself and think, “wow I never thought I would own a building like this or own the machines to create the tank materials”. I have had those moments where my heart is in my throat and thinking, “What am I doing? I’ve left a $100,000 a year job and moving the family here to the unknown.” And moving from a supervisor role to actually working on the tanks.
The first week I cut my hand open pretty good from the grinder. I hurt my back during the process. Or, re-injured my back. I had to have a friend come help me finish the job because I couldn’t. I was relying on my physical body to produce a product. I’ve come to learn how important a healthy body is and I don’t want to ever jeopardize it.
With the boys learning, I can find myself taking a day off and they continue running this business. It’s going to get to the point where I can take off and do other things that need to get done. Whether we need to deliver trucks to a customer’s location or do projects at home. To give myself a little bit more freedom, or achieve more personal goals in my life.
We’re going into the 16th year of Randco. I would have to say there’s a part of me that is tired from all the hard work I put in up until this point. As I’ve looked over my life, I see how I’ve been put into these positions, it’s almost like someone had a plan for me along. I’m a Christian and I believe the Lord really had His hand upon me the whole entire way. It’s was like I couldn’t fail, but He never told me that at the time. It’s like, I wish you had told me years ago I wouldn’t fail.
[question]
What do you think gave you the confidence to go out on your own?
[/question]
[answer]
Have you bungee jumped before?
I need to bungee jump to know if it was the same feeling. When I made the decision to go out on my own as a business owner, my heart was in my throat. I would almost call it panic attacks at the time, but it wasn’t to the degree where it affected me and my conscious decisions. I was going into the unknown but I was excited. And that’s why you get guys out there that do thrill jumping because it’s going into the unknown and the excitement of flying off the top of this hill and landing way down below. I almost feel like that’s the same as a business.
I finally mustered up the courage and “jumped” when I confronted my uncle about his promise to give me his business. It was a pillar moment in my life. I finally looked at him face-to-face and said “I’m done.” I told him that I don’t dislike you, I don’t hate you, and I’m not going to go over all the things I don’t like or that could be better. Because that’s not me. I didn’t want to burn a bridge, that was my biggest thing.
When you’re making these decisions, you try not to get personal. You don’t want to affect the other person in a negative way.
During the first year of running Randco I experienced freedom for the first time. During that first year, I would work for a little bit, then go into town to run errands, take myself out to eat and then come back to the shop and work. Coming from the last job where I was expected to be working and present almost every hour and day of the week, I loved the new feeling of freedom.
[/answer]
[question]
How did you adjust from having a structured job (an employee) to a job with complete freedom to do what you want and at the same time keep yourself motivated since you no longer had a boss?
[/question]
[answer]
I would have to say that age has something to do with it. I’m in my mid-50s now. I still have a lot left in me. I still have a lot of plans and goals. Especially as the business is doing better. The only thing limiting me is square footage and employees. I need more square footage so I can put more employees to work.
I wouldn’t say I’m a major motivator, but I would have to say that I have the Lord on my side. Every decision that I make is through prayer. Meditating, and just trying to hear from Him. My faith is my core foundation and from where I operate. Plain and simple. I even think as the Bible teaches, “Give and it will be given unto you.” Although I don’t give to get. I just give out of obedience. It’s out of worship.
To me, it’s just like eating food each day. I think through that sometimes when I think that we need more work coming in and out of faith I will give to something and all of a sudden $100,000 of work comes in. And again, I don’t give to get, it’s just automatic. The Lord knows my heart. I believe that my faith and my obedience in the finances is the cause to our blessed business.
Back when I was making $10 an hour trying to raise a family, we had one car, and debt to our shorts, credit cards, house payments. Now, we have a business that we own, pretty much debt-free, grandchildren, married 30 years. This life is good and will continue to be good. I’m living in the channel that God has given me. If he moves me into another channel to put more Randco’s out there, then that’s what will happen.
One of my favorite quotes that my pastor likes to use is:
“I’m trying to make the best ceiling for my family’s floor.”
What I’m trying to do is build the ceiling for their floor to build on. To move forward even better. To where they can build a ceiling for their children and future generations. We will continue building this business lifestyle. Lifestyle meaning a Christian-based business, taking appropriate time off, investing, not only investing physically, but in people. Like right now, Kaleb brings communication and bonding between employees. He’s good with people. I try to get personal with them, but there’s always a barrier between me and them.
All that to say, once I’ve built the ceiling, and they’re working off of their floor. They may build this company on an entirely different mindset. But with that, they are going to have surprises. For example. they’re going to have situations that happen that make them realize why I separated business from pleasure. So hopefully they’ll be able to glean off my ideas even though I may appear a bit more radical.
[/answer]
[question]
What makes this Longview/Kelso community unique?
[/question]
[answer]
I think locally speaking, it’s a great place to develop a blue-collar business. Not that people are less educated, but in this community as a business owner, you can still get a decent employee for a decent wage. If the employee works hard, their wages will be decent to them as well. For instance, top welders make very good wages here.
Leadership is always a desired trait.
This is a unique community that you can be in the bottom of the barrel and go to the top pretty quick and still make decent wages. With cost of living lower here, I see this area as a great place for people to bring their families. If you want to work hard, this is the place.
[/answer]
[question]
The last question, do you have any advice for the person that’s reading your story and hasn’t started the path of starting a business or getting into a leadership role in the community are there any words of encouragement you would offer? Things to think about?
[/question]
[answer]
People often ask me, “how did you do this?” To me, it’s not really a big deal. But if you looked at me when I first moved here from Prineville with a pickup truck and trailer full of stuff and $20,000, and compare that to where I am now, it would be a shock.
It all started with a passion.
It started with a desire. Sometimes the unknown is the best thing for you. So that’s what drives you. And I think as a Christian it’s a very good correlation. If God wanted to make everything known for us, we wouldn’t have the passion. He gave us free will.
We are different creatures. We are really made special. And that’s what I tell people, you are made special. Everybody has a desire and motivation within them to do a certain thing.
Phil Knight with Nike, started with a waffle iron and tried to make the print of a tennis shoe. We can dream and achieve things here in America, that’s what makes it such a great country. I believe that we are living in the best time as well. We have the option to go home right now and lay on the couch and watch soap operas. But we think of who we love, our wife, siblings, children, and grandchildren, and we work hard for them. I’ve got people I’m responsible for in life and it motivates me.
On my gravestone, I would like it to say: “Well done.”
And that “well done” does not have to have 10 zeros behind it. It can have two zeros or three zeros. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter.
There is a lot of sacrifice. You just need to be careful on what you sacrifice on your way.
Hopefully, I’m doing my part in society and being a good influence.
[/answer]
Previous Next