No one ever said running a successful business is easy. Sally Hughes, president and CEO of Caster Connection, has stretched herself to the limit time and again, making difficult decisions along the way to bring her company to its present-day prosperity.
Today, Caster Connection employs a stellar team and is on track for continuous, sustainable growth. But that wasn’t always the case.
Several years ago, Hughes began to recognize stagnant growth and a blasé attitude among her employees that she knew had to be adjusted for her company to survive and thrive.
The tipping point
Hughes launched Caster Connection in 1987 in Chardon, Ohio, near Cleveland. Nine years later, she married her husband, who lived in Columbus, and moved there to be with him and raise their family.
Hughes traveled between Columbus and Chardon, keeping a general manager to run day-to-day operations.
In 2001, she opened a location near Detroit to be close to the Big Three automakers and serve Caster Connection’s clients better. But the business wasn’t growing.
“The nature of the business was very complacent,” she says. “But I believed the company had a lot more potential.”
By 2008, Hughes knew she either had to move the company to Columbus, or move back to Chardon to refocus the business and spur growth.
During one of the least stable economic years in recent U.S. history, Hughes made the first of a series of difficult decisions: She would consolidate the company back under one roof — in Columbus.
To prepare, Hughes hired a logistics expert to analyze the subject of moving to Columbus. She made sure research and thought was put into where the distribution location would be, the optimal warehouse layout and where supplies and inventory would be placed.
The move was expensive. It was exhausting. And it was completed in one weekend so that business was up and running by Monday without skipping a beat.
Building a star-studded team
Hughes offered incentives to retain her highest-performing employees, and a handful of her staff remained with Caster Connection through the move.
Still, the company was at less than half of its previous manpower. It was a drastic change that Hughes knew was necessary to start fresh.
Once in Columbus, she began to analyze which aspects of her company were working, and which could be improved. The culture needed to shift to focus on creativity and success, and she needed the right people to make that happen.
“My goal was to find really talented, driven personnel,” she says. “I wanted Caster Connection to be the most innovative, cutting-edge company in the caster industry.”
Hughes hired the company’s first marketing specialist, and promoted her best sales representative to manage her sales team. Both employees leveraged cutting-edge technology to completely overhaul business processes and increase efficiencies.
Hughes shifted her thinking to look for highly effective employees who could take on challenges and produce strong output.
“I knew that I needed to hire high-quality people and I needed to pay them well. Because if you want to attract top talent, you have to pay for it,” she says.
Hughes encourages her staff to bring ideas forward to increase efficiency, cost savings and improvements. She often implements those ideas, fostering an atmosphere of openness and sense of belonging and appreciation.
Team performance metrics were set up for accountability, and team members are rewarded for strong performance, and as such, are highly motivated. This booster shot to the corporate culture has, in turn, led to an extremely high retention rate.
The takeaway
Hughes is now enjoying a fast-moving, growing, innovative business with a staff passionate about the success of their company. She credits her decisions to honest feedback solicited from clients and employees.
“The only people who really understand what’s going on in your business is the people working inside it, and your clients,” Hughes says. “I said, tell me anything — I have thick skin, let me have it. People weren’t afraid to tell me the truth, and I wasn’t afraid to hear it, because I wanted to get better.”
Hughes recommends anyone who thinks their company is in need of a drastic makeover do the same.
“And then take that advice. Because of that, we’ve had really dramatic growth,” she says.
Looking back, she would have only done one thing differently.
“I would have probably reached out for more help, because there were so many things I didn’t understand or didn’t know how to do,” she says. “People wanted to help, and I should have taken them up on their offer.”
