History dictated that Chris Paxos would make a name for himself in the metal-finishing business.
The 27-year-old University of Akron graduate began his career as a third-grader, when he started working summers as a laborer in his father Nick’s company, Hercules Polishing & Plating in Canton.
“In working there, I learned the business, learned how the internal workings went, both out in the plant and throughout the company,” he says.
The education continued at another plating company, Lustrous Metal Coatings, where he worked with his brother during high school and college.
But Paxos’ long apprenticeship in the family business isn’t the only reason for the success of his own Canton concern, Precision Powder Coating Inc., which cuts, cleans, coats and heat treats bar-stock steel for the domestic automobile and European/Asian rapid rail industries. He attributes his company’s ability to consistently double sales annually during its five-year run to its 50 employees and their ability to execute a business plan. At PPC, the business plan isn’t gathering dust in a locked file drawer — it’s being used every day as a road map to achieve goals and as a yardstick to measure success.
Paxos calls it a living document that helps his people get things done a little quicker.
“Most people don’t understand their business plan,” he says. “Business plans are really done, for the most part, for banking purposes or to (present) an idea.”
Paxos says there’s no secret to compiling a good business plan.
“It’s just really the time you put into it,” he insists. “You really educate yourself on your business, on the marketplace. By spending so much time on it, at any given time, we know where we’re at, where we want to be, and what we need to do to hit some of the visions that we’re shooting for.”
The plan chronicles successes as well as failures.
“It’s a book that plots and tracks our history — and what we foresee ahead,” he says.
PPC’s president lists the company’s ability to change with the needs of the industry and its customers as another key to success.
“We’re constantly upgrading our equipment and automating it to improve quality, increase production, make the operation more efficient,” he says.
The latest evidence of that claim is the company’s new $8 million, state-of-the-art facility on Raff Road that consolidates operations that until recently were divided between two plants. How to reach: Precision Powder Coating Inc., (330) 478-0741
Lynne Thompson is a free-lance writer for SBN.
