Epcon stepped up. It now offers hundreds of options, and reviews the list regularly.
“So, I would say, some advice is to stay up to date, stay fresh,” Bacome says. “Just because it worked last year, maybe it won’t work this year.”
Fankhauser says you can do that by truly connecting with your customers through targeted market research, focus groups and surveys.
“There’s a wealth of information, but it takes work and it takes time,” he says.
“Every great business connects with their customers, and that begins with truly understanding in great detail what it is that the customer wants when they walk through your door.”
Takeaways:
- Learn from experience — your own or others.
- Prudent business planning decreases uncertainty.
- Focus on your strengths, while staying fresh.
The Bacome and Fankhauser File:
Name: Ed Bacome
Title: Founder and principal
Company: Epcon Communities Franchising Inc.
Born: Harrod, Ohio
Education: Bachelor’s degree in agricultural education, law degree, Ohio State University
Name: Phil Fankhauser
Title: Founder and principal
Company: Epcon Communities Franchising Inc.
Born: Parsons, West Virginia
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business, Franklin University
What was your first job and what did you learn?
Bacome: My real first job was working on the farm — milking cows, feeding hogs, baling hay, plowing, cultivating and planting corn. My parents were tenant farmers.
My dad was always building something on the farm. And while I wasn’t the youngest, for some reason he always selected me to build something. Then when I left the farm, and I got into working with this masonry contractor in a housing development, I was drawn to or almost fascinated by this idea of developing and building.
I liked it at an early age, and I love it today.
Fankhauser: When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I would take a wagon door to door and sell vegetables from my grandmother’s vegetable garden. My jobs were straight commission: If I didn’t sell something, I didn’t make anything. So I guess I learned not to be bashful at a very early age.
A couple of years later, I had an opportunity to get a franchise — I use that term lightly — for TV Guide. This was back when my only regret was that I wasn’t selling TVs because all of the homes in Parsons didn’t have TVs at that point.
I would deliver the TV Guide to each home once a week for 15 cents, and I got to keep a nickel. That was a 33 percent commission, and I’ve been hoping to find another job like that with something that would sell for a lot more than 15 cents ever since.
Bacome: My partner Phil is one of the best salespeople I have ever met. And he’s just shared part of why I say that — he said there were no TVs in Parsons and yet he was selling TV Guide. Now you tell me that that wouldn’t take a great salesperson.
What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?
Bacome: My best advice would have been observed from my father, not necessarily spoken, and that was his negotiating skills. He, to my knowledge, never bought something without making an effort to negotiate. And as a kid, it embarrassed me.
If he walked in and a battery was $30, he would say, “I suppose if I paid you cash you’d take $25.”
There are so many times that I’ve asked for something, thinking that there is not a great likelihood I was going to get it. But in the end the terms ended up better than what I’d have ended up accepting if I’d just said, “Yes, I’ll do what you’re asking me to do.”
Fankhauser: My father said pick something that you like and work really hard at it.
I’ve never forgotten that, and I did pick something I like — coming to work everyday is still a thrill. I can’t envision not having this in my life.
