The opportunities for Mike Mellace to
grow his business seem endless. But
by the same token, the opportunities to overextend his resources are equally
plentiful.
His company, Mama Mellace’s Old World
Treats, produces and distributes specialty
nuts, and as Mellace often asks, what
store in the world doesn’t sell nuts?
“Whether it’s Home Depot, AutoZone,
Office Depot or Neiman Marcus, they all
sell nuts,” says Mellace, Mama Mellace’s
co-founder and CEO. “As entrepreneurs,
it’s one of the toughest things to say no,
especially when you’re trying to grow
your business. When we first started, we
had that shotgun approach. We didn’t
say no. We found we had spread ourselves so thin that we weren’t specialized at anything, and that really hindered our growth initially.”
Now, after growing Mama Mellace’s
annual revenue to $10 million in just
four years since its founding, Mellace
— whose mother emigrated from
Italy in 1962 — says his company’s
success owes much to concentrating
on its core market channels and
becoming experts in those channels
before expanding to others.
Mellace spoke to Smart Business
about why empowerment and delegation are essential in a growing
company.
Q: How can a growing company
maintain service to its customers?
You have to go after the customers you
think you can manage. Many entrepreneurs have the approach of, ‘Anybody who
will take us will be fantastic,’ and a lot of
times, we go for the biggest guys out there.
We purposely stayed away from Wal-Mart because we knew we probably
wouldn’t be able to service them. They
would take so much of our production
that we wouldn’t be able to service any of
our other customers, which leaves us
counting on one customer to make up our
revenue. That’s not a good scenario.
It’s being selective of your customers to
the extent that you can be, not biting off
more than you can chew and having a realistic expectation of what you can actually
do productionwise, what your people can actually accomplish. As entrepreneurs, we
get into this mindset of, ‘They can do
more; they can work this many hours.’
People aren’t going to work as hard as
you are. They don’t have as much invested
as you do. They will work hard, but to
expect them to work as hard or harder
than you will is not realistic.
Q: How would you describe your leadership style?
When I was a little less experienced, I led
more by fear and intimidation. Today, I
have more of a servant-leader leadership
style. A servant leader determines vision
and values. Once you determine that, you
flip the pyramid upside down and empower your people to actually implement it
and to make it happen on a daily basis.
If you were to ask our employees, they
would tell you they’re not afraid to fail, and
they’re not afraid to make decisions.
Things happen where they can’t depend on
me to make a gut call. I’ve got to trust that
they’re going to make the right decisions,
and they know that I stand behind them.
Q: What are the benefits of empowering
employees?
It does two things. An empowered
employee is able to take care of your customers, which, in turn, creates more loyalty.
Unfortunately, the best example is probably the airline industry. You go to Southwest, and people can make decisions. People can put you on an
earlier flight and help you with your
situation. You go to one of the ones
that are bankrupt, and they can’t
make a decision. They sit around
and say, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but that’s
policy.’ Your customers end up getting frustrated and leaving. Empowered employees will create more
satisfied customers at the end of the
day.
It also gives them a sense of purpose, a sense of accomplishment and
better job satisfaction because they
feel like they can make a difference.
They’re not an order-taker. They can
make decisions that impact people’s
lives on a daily basis.
Q: How important is delegation in a
growing company?
It’s something you have to do as you
grow. We’ve grown from zero to $10
million in four years. There’s a lot of
change there.
When you’re small, you can handle a
whole bunch of stuff, and you almost feel
like you have to. You feel like, ‘Who else is
going to do it? Nobody is going to do it
better than me.’ You do the sales, the
accounting, the production, and you coordinate all those different aspects, but as
you grow, there’s just no way. You’re only
one person.
You have to figure out a way to delegate
and get things done, and as I’ve learned,
you’re not going to be able to do it through
intimidation and fear. You have to begin to
empower and trust that your employees
are going to be able to make the right decisions. Otherwise, you’re not going to be
able to grow.
HOW TO REACH: Mama Mellace’s Old World Treats, (760) 448-1940 or www.mamamellace.com