Small Business

by Ian M. Berkowitz

If you are as interested as I am in monitoring our local, state and national business community, you are no doubt seeing many businesses going through extreme hard times.

However, even during these challenging economic times, there are always a few inspirational stories about entrepreneurs who have beaten the odds by taking simple ideas and turning them into successful businesses.

A recent interview with a successful entrepreneur in an online publication confirmed my belief that no matter what obstacles are thrown a person’s way, if you possess dedication, hard work and perseverance along with a positive attitude, the path to success is yours for the taking.

The story of Bob Williamson, someone who claims that he was always told he was worthless, is one that seems to come right off the Lifetime movie channel. Bob left home at 17, lived on the streets and in missions, had many days and nights of going hungry and had drug and criminal problems which led to many trips to jails and eventually his incarceration for heroin possession. However, this is where the story begins.

Bob’s road was long and hard and sometimes very unstable. His first job was cleaning mortar off bricks for $15 a day. However his luck ran out again as he was involved in a head-on collision and nearly lost his life.

Having a near death experience is what seemed to ignite Bob’s determination to succeed. His next employer was Glidden Paints where he worked in a caged-in basement in charge of the label room.

 Success Arrived

 He began to shine and received eight promotions in two years. But Bob’s entrepreneur skills began to take over as he began to study the chemistry of paint on his own and soon turned those skills into becoming a wildlife artist.

He realized that there wasn’t a quality airbrush paint on the market and developed his own line. Soon he was selling his paints at art shows where he would sell out his inventory and shortly afterwards he had distributors and customers all over the country.

What was started in a basement as a single concept product company had turned into a 6,000-7,000-catalog company that operated out of a 50,000-square-foot facility.

Now came the real money as Bob decided to take his company public in order to expand. Unfortunately, none of it happened as planned because a few days after the announcement, his comptroller quit along with many other key employees and Bob found himself and his company approximately $300,000 overdrawn and more than $1 million in debt.

Just as Bob did in other tough situations, he tapped into his entrepreneur spirit, looked at the government as a customer and a new idea came about. This time he focused with his two computer knowledgeable sons on modifying their custom warehousing and distribution software.

Bob acted on a suggestion from a co-worker who was familiar with school lunchroom systems. He obtained capital from the equity in his home and by maxing out his credit cards. Bob’s company developed an A-to-Z software system for managing school food services: warehousing and tracking inventory and sales.

Building Base

Bob built the company one customer at a time by going directly to food-service directors and explaining to them how they could save money by automating their daily processes by the use of his software.

Within two weeks he had his first order and pretty soon he had all school districts in Georgia. Bob started with three to four people, in 1993, and each year the company would either double or triple in size. Today, Bob’s company, Horizon Software International supplies more than 15,000 schools, colleges, and universities and has sales of $26 million.

Government contracting has changed Bob’s life. In 2005, he secured a $10 million dollar contract with the U.S. military. Horizon’s technology is destined to be in every dining facility worldwide for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps and on every land base, ship, submarine, and remote battlefield.

Bob’s ability to stay focused but flexible with his plans has served him well and could serve you equally as we all navigate through the economic challenges of today.