Entrepreneurs: David Helfrich vs. Chuck Simms

The chapter I read from Starting from Scratch was on the entrepreneur David Helfrich. David started his business career as a student at Michigan State University doing what he hated most, laundry. He never had to do his own laundry before college, and as soon as he had to do it, he instantly developed a hatred for it. His first thought was to find a way to not do his laundry. After research, he found out that everybody hated doing laundry as much as he did, and he most certainly did not want to pay for somebody else to do his. The end result was his first company called The Clothes Line. With this business, he would go from dorm to dorm collected people’s clothes and dropping them off at the laundry mat. He would then pick the clean clothes up and drop them back off to the students. For his services, he would charge students $300 per semester. David used his love for making money to overcome his hatred of doing laundry, the end result was profits of $15,000 his first semester.

After college, David sold his business for $50,000 and started working for corporate America with IBM. It was a great job for a 24 year old, a $50,000 salary and amazing traveling benefits. However, his salary was maxed out and even though he saved the company millions on several occasions, he could not receive any more pay for his position. This pushed him to leave the corporate world and get back to his entrepreneurial roots. So he bought a master franchise from Colorworks which is a house painting company.

 He spent the first couple of years driving around recruiting students to work for him while still working full time at IBM. Once he got his painting business up to speed and making money, he quit IBM. He was skeptical at first; he left a stable job and took a leap of faith. It was all worth it though, in the first year of business, David’s Colorworks pulled in over $300,000 which put him making about the same he had made at IBM. However, the second year, the company pulled in over half a million and over $1 million after the fourth year.

Once he felt like this business had reached its limits, he sold his portion of Colorworks and invested his profits into CW Construction and Development. This turned out well for David; he helped grow profits of his section of the CW from $100 to $200. He did this by targeting the “echo boomer” population by building luxury student apartments for major universities throughout the southeast.

David and Chuck Simms are two successful entrepreneurs, but are completely different in almost every aspect. They do share similar personalities that allowed them to succeed. Both turned something they hated doing (laundry and splitting firewood) into a profit. Both also took several risks throughout their careers in order to grow and turn their businesses into successful ones.

The biggest differences between the two business men would probably be with their business goals. Chuck started his business so he could make his own decisions. He never got a taste of the corporate world and started his business at age 17. He took what he had and ran with it, knowing that he could provide better stability (insurance and retirement) for himself with what he had started then what any other company could provide, especially with his only job experience being a snowboard instructor. David was and is still all about the money. He gave the corporate world a shot but saw he could grow much quicker and larger on his own. David did not focus as much on the stability, taking much larger risks than Chuck did. This resulted in a very high return for David. 

Today, Chuck is content with what he has; he is actually trying harder to keep his business small than he is at marketing and growing. Chuck never wanted and never will grow to where he would have to hire help to meet demand. David is the opposite, as soon as he started growing he hired managers to do the work while he went on to look for more opportunities. Both of these entrepreneurs are successful in their own ways. They have achieved their goals and have turned their businesses into exactly what they wanted. 

Entrepreneur interview

The entrepreneur I interviewed was a man named Chuck Simms, owner of Woodchuck’s Firewood, located in Gatlinburg, TN. He has been in business for around 22 years and has grown into not only a firewood provider, but he also provides lawn service and road plowing service.

As a young teenager, Chuck used to split wood for his preacher who would pay him for every bundle of wood. After doing this for a little while, other members of his church started asking for his services as well. Him only owning an axe, he soon had too much demand to keep up with and lacked the proper equipment to produce enough. He saved up his money earned and bought a hydraulic wood splitter from his first customer, the pastor. With the splitter, he was easily able to keep up with demand.

After doing this for a couple of years, he decided he wanted to turn his little side gig into an actual business. At around age 22, he became a licensed business added lawn care to his list of services. He started the lawn service similar to how he started splitting wood. He had one mower at first, but eventually saved up and increased his inventory to an entire trailer with everything your lawn would need. After a few years, he bought a big truck (Chevy 3500) and soon added snow plowing to his list of services.

His goal for the company is, oddly, to not grow any more than it already has. Being a part-time snowboard instructor on the side, he just wants the business to be profitable enough to supply his and his family’s needs. Today, he provides his services to many locals in the Gatlinburg area as well as many of the local businesses. His marketing plan was simple: word of mouth, business cards, and a sticker on his truck. He is content, and never will allow the company to grow beyond what he himself can handle. If he needs help, he will sub-contract but never hire any other employees. He does this because he does not want to deal with the liability nor does he trust anybody else to do the quality of work that he does himself.

He states that the reason his business is successful and will continue to succeed is because of two things: customer service and quality of service. Every customer is treated as a friend and guaranteed THE BEST work. Chuck has based his business of those two things since the start, and claims that has been his key to success because it keeps the customers coming back.

The reason he chose to become an entrepreneur is because he wanted to create his own job security and insurance security. Unlike most, he decided this at a very young age, and never did get a taste of the corporate world. Almost his whole life the only work he has ever known has been in his business and as a snowboard instructor; and that’s the way he likes it.