It was a rainy day in Georgia, October 19, 2007, and I was headed back to my hometown, Conyers, GA. I have been friends with Mr. Riley’s daughter since middle school and was always aware of THP, but never once, had I actually seen where the business lives. As it turns out, THP is located right around the corner from a local gym that I used to hold a membership with. When I entered the large brick building, I was immediately greeted by a smiling face and many friendly staff members who were walking by, including Mr. Riley’s father. I could tell that I was in a great work environment from the very beginning. After some introductions around the office, Jeff showed me to his soon-to-be renovated corner office and we began to talk: 

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1.        Would you tell me about yourself before you started your first venture?

We moved to Covington, GA from Sarasota, FL when was 9 years old in 1969. I remember going to the barber shop and watching the shoe shine boys shining shoes. It looked easy and fun, and they get paid for it. At Cape’s Barber shop in Covington there was a young black fellow named Cap. He had a gold tooth right in the front and he always had a big smile. Looking back I realize that he worked for drinking money (he was dead about ten years later). Anyway, at 10 years old (1970) I borrowed my dad’s shoe-shine box and walked up to the Newton County Court House on the Square in Covington and shined shoes on Saturday mornings. I charged 50 cents a pair and usually earned $3 to $5. I also picked Coke bottles and sold them back to the store when I had collected a case of 24. I could usually pick up about two or three cases a week. Also, when pecans were falling I would pick up about a bucket a week and walk over to Patrick’s Feed and Seed and sell them for re-sale. Most of this took place from when I was 10-12 years old. At 13, I got my first real job at A&P Grocery Store, bagging groceries, and actually getting paid. However, my time at A&P was short because my family moved out to the country shortly after I started. There was a Catfish restaurant nearby called Henderson’s Restaurant and I got a job bussing tables. 

When I turned 15 in 1975, I was allowed to get a job at the 5 & 10 cent store, Harper’s, on the square in Covington. My job was to stock shelves, bag groceries, and weigh candy for the customers. Mr. James Callahan was the manager and he demanded top performance in every area. Eventually, Harper’s built a big, new store in a shopping center two miles away. This was to be the wave of the future, “Big Box Stores”.   I ended up working in retail until I was 18 years old and learned many aspects of business; sales, marketing, management, and just plain hard work. 

 

2.       Were your parents, relatives, or close friends entrepreneurial? How so?

Both sets of my grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great grandparents were business owners. Neither of my parents were business owners. On my father’s side my great-great grandfather, F.L. Riley, bought 4500 acres and founded a small town, New Hebron, MS after the Civil War where he also started F.L Riley Mercantile Company and later a bank. My great grandfather, Jefferson Davis Riley, bought and ran the Mercantile Company. One of his sons, my grandfather, John Miles Riley, Sr., started a couple of businesses including an insurance company and a meat processing plant named Riley Meat Packaging which he ran until his death in 1965. My dad, John M. Riley, Jr. worked for the Post Office for 37 years.

Well, my mom’s dad died the year I was born, as I mentioned earlier, in 1960. My father’s dad died when I was five years old in 1965 and I do remember him. I remember going to the plant when I was five and would stamp meat packages with a rubber stamp. I thought that was fun! 

Another role model I had was man named E.J. Shannon. He leased some property from my grandmother Ila in Covington and I met him when I was ten years old. One thing unique that I remember about Mr. Shannon was that he was always patient with me and talked to me like I was an adult. Mr. Shannon owned a used car lot and towing service. From the time I was 10 until I was 19 I would always go there in my spare time and wash cars or help on the tow truck. When I got old enough to drive I drove the tow truck whenever I could help. Anyway, “E.J” as everyone, but me, called him, was one of the best salesmen I have ever met and a very successful businessman. He also did his own financing. He died recently in his late 70’s and worked until the day he died because he loved it.

Mr. Callahan, the manager at Harper’s, also had a great influence on me. He was like the “barker” at a carnival. He could sell the customers on whatever he needed to move from the shelves that day. I was always impressed with that.

Other role models from afar were Ted Turner; I watched him build Channel 17 “The Superstation” from 1979 on to what the Turner Empire is today and Donald Trump and Sam Walton.

 

4.       What was your education? In hindsight, was it helpful? In what specific ways?

I hesitate to say this but, I hated school. I was just an average student. All I could think about while in school is what all I could be accomplishing while I was sitting there. I believe it is absolutely critical that everyone graduate from high school, beyond that, I can’t give an opinion, other than it can’t hurt! I do think, now that the company has grown so big that there are things that a college education may have made easier.

 

5.       In particular, did you have any sales or marketing experience? How important was it, or lack there of in starting your company?

My first full-time position was at Mike’s Quick Copy as a sales representative in 1978 three weeks out of high school. On my first day as his sales representative, I got an order from Sweetheart Plastics, my second stop that day. I had learned from my mentors, Mr. Shannon and Mr. Callahan, how to sell. Since that day Sweetheart Plastics, now Solo Cup has been a customer of mine for 30 years. Unfortunately, due to some bad business practices, I had to leave Mike’s after 10 months. Following my split from Mike, I got a job with Allen Reinhart at Ben Franklin Stores, another 5 & 10 cent store “Big Box Store”, as the assistant store manager. By the way, this is where Sam Walton got his start. It was there that I put what I had learned from Mr. Callahan into action. I completely restructured the store so that the items that we not selling were no longer hidden under dust and moved them into key points within the store. Just as I knew they would, the products started to sell. Then, the District Manager put me on a restructuring team on the road in an effort to turn around other stores. This was not an ideal situation for me at 19 and I soon resigned Ben Franklin after a successful six months with the company. 

Undesirably for me, I quit my job at Ben Franklin during a very bad economic recession. It got so bad for my wife and I for about a month that I went back to picking up Coke bottles, like I had done when I was a child. Eventually I went back to Mike’s Quick Copy, against my career desires and better judgment, in order to simply pay the bills. 

Looking back, I believe that these experiences in sales (at Mike’s Quick Copy) and marketing and management (at Ben Franklin) were very important to the beginning of my company. Those experiences helped grow my confidence as businessman. It would be impossible to not think that those experiences were invaluable.

 

6.       Describe how you decided to create a job instead of take a job by starting your venture.

            I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur and follow in the footsteps of my grand-parents and my great-grandparents. It was only a matter of time until I could get my own printing business on its feet. My experiences with Mike, Ben Franklin Stores, Harper’s, A&P, Mr. Callahan and Mr. Shannon also confirmed my desire to create my own job. It was after my second time working with Mike that I spotted the opportunity to broker. I knew I was a good salesman and persuaded THP owners, David and Beverly, to allow me to have a small office within THP for my first official business as a print broker, I named the business Commercial Printing Brokers.   

7.       What were your goals? What were your lifestyle needs or personal requirements and how did you fit these together?

It was 1983, my wife and I just moved to Conyers, Georgia and my company was doing well within the walls of THP, however, I still needed to generate more income in order to support my family and ultimately open my own print production business, not just a brokerage. It was at this time, the Post Office gave me a call. A couple years prior I passed the postal entrance exam; remember my dad also worked for the post office. They called to offer me a position and I accepted. In order to keep up the work at Commercial Printing Brokers, I worked the split shift. The split shift allowed me to work from 4 a.m. – 10 a.m. at the Post Office, continue work at THP until 3pm and then return to the Post Office from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. In January of 1984, I had decided to start my print production company and bought one printing press and some support equipment and started producing my printing work. My goals were finally becoming reality.

 

My print production company now Commercial Printing Services first started in my garage, which was, of course, until the county came and told me that I was not permitted to run a business out of my home. I had 30 days to move it. I eventually found a rental space right around the corner from the Post Office which ended up being very convenient. At this time my wife began helping me with the company books and I was still working the split shift at the Post Office and coming back and working at my shop until midnight. For about a year, I lived off about 3-4 hours of sleep at night, seven days a week, always keeping the business first.

In the early months of 1986, I developed the biggest sale to that date for my business. It was a contract with the Gone with the Wind Museum in Atlanta, an order worth about $25,000. I scheduled a meeting with the museum on a Tuesday (the slowest mail day) and specifically requested, from my supervisor, to have the latter part of my shift off, presuming my co-workers and I finished our work. Unfortunately, my supervisor was not very generous, but with the comradery and hard-work of my co-workers, we finished all of the requested work and I was still finished in enough time to meet with the museum. It was that same day that I resigned from the Post Office, March 1986, and my business was finally on its feet.

 

 9.       Did you have to find partners? What kind of financing did you have?

By September of 1986 Commercial Printing Services had grown to seven employees including my brother and sister-in-law, and I had a scheduled lunch appointment with David Bond of THP. At this time I was thinking about acquiring THP in order to expand my business and work side-by-side with David. So I asked David, Do you think Beverly will sell? His response was a quick, no. A month later I asked David to lunch again and we had the same conversation ending in the same response. In November, 1986, we were at lunch again, but the response was still, no. Finally, in December of 1986, David called me up for lunch, and announced that Beverly wanted to sell her share in THP!  However, it was not until May, 1987, that the negotiations between Beverly and I came to an end. Finally, David and I merged THP and Commercial Printing Services and located at THP’s facility of 4000 sq. feet. It was no more than a week later that I saw a front page of the local newspaper that read, “Covington Press closes doors after 103 years of service. THP and Commercial Printing Services merge.” By June 1, 1988, we moved our company to its current Conyers location (25,000 sq. feet) and were eventually ranked among the top 50 fastest growing companies in North America for five years in a row.

 

10.  How did you evaluate the opportunity in terms of the critical elements for success? The competition? The market? 

The printing industry is a great industry; everyone needs printing. Of course there are economic ups and downs, but to this day, I have been fortunate enough to not think of other printing companies as competition. If anything I have referred overflow business to them and have tried to partner services with as many printers as possible.

 

11.  How much capital did it take to get your venture off the ground? Did you have enough financing, if not, what were some ways in which you bootstrapped the venture (beg, borrow, or steal)? Tell me about the pressures and crises during the early survival period.

I was fortunate to find most of my equipment used and therefore, affordable, except for my first printing press. It was imperative that my press be brand-new. So, in order to buy the press, I went to the Bank of Covington now BB&T and borrowed the money. They required that I present them with a two year Proforma. That wasn’t enough so I basically had to sell them on the idea that I could do this and make it a success. They made me the loan. Before that, all the money I had was from my Post Office salary and my printing brokerage business.  

As my business grew, I knew it was imperative that I keep up with technology. On a family vacation in 1985, to Panama City, Florida, my wife and I came across an Apple store. While reading a magazine, I had recently seen a computer that could produce word processing. I went inside the store and asked for the computer I had seen in the ad, a MAC 512, and sure enough they had it!   I was the first person in Atlanta to own the machine. I also purchased a laser writer. The laser writer and the MAC 512 enabled me to produce printing plates for $1.87/ plate compared to my competitors who were producing plates at $25/plate. This was huge!

 

12.  What was your family situation at the time? 

When I started Commercial Printing Brokers I was married to my first wife and still lived in Covington. It was in 1983 when we moved to Conyers and in March, 1985 my daughter Krista was born. In fact she was born the same day I moved my business into a rented building in Conyers. Talk about an exciting day!

 

13.  What did you perceive to be the strengths of your venture? Weaknesses?

I would have to say that the strength was the fire in my belly to make it (perseverance), my energy and my ability to sell. Once I started I had fear of failure and embarrassment and desperation to make a living. Weaknesses would have been, not enough time in a day, never enough cash to fund our rapid growth and the expensive equipment.

As we get bigger I find that it is easier to fill most gaps quickly due to the shear number of employees and the extensive cross training that we do. When we were smaller sometimes there simply weren’t enough people to cover everything.

When we were smaller I simply looked for experience for the position I was filling and usually accepted what ever I could find that was willing to work for a small company and for what we could afford to pay. We would get experience but sometimes with a bad attitude or uncooperative or sometimes not quite the experience we were looking for meaning bad work habits. Now that we are bigger and can afford to pay a premium for the right person I first look for attitude and energy. Then I begin to look at education and experience. Yes, I now believe that education is very important.

I now advertise job positions online to generate a volume of resumes. I then narrow them down to who has what I’m actually looking for. I do phone interviews to narrow it further and then try to set up personal interviews with at least five.

Remember this, it’s not just about finding the right people, it’s getting the right people in the right positions.

Dishonesty! I have been very blessed to have a business partner in the printing business with the utmost of honesty and integrity. Not so in some of my other adventures. I have been cheated, lied to, stolen from etc, etc….from best of friends that I took on as partners.

It is a constantly changing world that we live in. Right when you think that you have it half way figured out then everything changes. Always expect change! I wrote a column in the Georgia Printer Magazine one time and included a quote of my own, “There is only one thing that will never change and that is, that things will always change”.

As far as business growth I would say less predictable. I have never run a business this size before so with continued growth I will have to grow with the business and I don’t really know what to expect.

I spend less time now than I did the first five years but I still work about 12 hours a day and six days a week. I actually feel like I spend equal time on both. Of course a great deal of my time is spent managing but I have bought several other companies in the last few years. I also started a new company in February on ’06, AdverSource Promotional Products, so I believe I am still very entrepreneurial. 

I may slow down but I think that I will always have to be doing something business wise.

My original goal was to be my own boss and just make enough income to support my family. I have exceeded my farthest dreams more than once.

Starting a new business with its time requirements was very hard on my first marriage. Today, I am happily married to my second wife, Deborah, and continue to be proud of my daughter Krista as she pursues her own entrepreneurial path.

Running a company the size of THP or bigger, like the jobs mentioned in the question, it’s all about leadership at this point in the game. There is nothing I can physically do in one day to effect a major change on the company. But, I can rally the troops as a whole and move mountains. Leadership is getting THP, which is in fact the people that work here, to want to do what needs to be done in a day, a week or a month to make the company a success. That’s why so many companies claim that their people are their greatest assets; because the truly are! Imagine a company full of unhappy employees, moving slow, making mistakes; this costs the company money in additional labor and materials. Now imagine a company full of employees that are happy and believe in and love the company. Which company do you think will be the most successful and most profitable? Which company do you want to work for? This is accomplished through the leadership and leadership style. People want to know that they are appreciated and they want to know what their efforts have yielded. THP shares its financial information with its employees and rewards them for superior performance. My leadership style is “firm but fair with love and care”. Kind of like a parent. I truly feel like everyone that works for THP is my extended family and I love to come to work everyday and spend my day with these people.

So, I do feel like my job compares with that of the heads of very large companies. They are just dealing with more zeros.

Great question,

a)      Do what you love to do and be the best at it; if you love to do it, it won’t seem so much like work and the money will come.

b)      “You” have to be your best sales person and if you have employees, everyone is a sales person no matter what their position is. Remember this, persistence pays in sales! Sales are what gets everything started and keeps everything rolling. Never give up!

c)      Don’t forget to make a profit! Charge everybody including your friends and family. You have to make money on your friends and family because your enemies won’t be doing business with you! (unless you want to start a non-profit or a non-profitable company)

 

To the second question, I would say “listen”! When you get ready, find as many business owners as you can and tell them about your plans. They love to talk about their business and would love to give you advice about yours. Get them to tell you about all the mistakes they’ve made but don’t let them discourage you. Remember, this is your plan not theirs. Collect as much advice from as many leaders as possible, then you can dissect the best information given to you. Put it all together, along with your knowledge, education and experience to form the very best possible blueprint for success. Learn to trust your gut instinct!

 

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After we finished our conversation Mr. Riley led me throughout the offices of THP. I was able to meet many of the VP’s, most of which had been with the company for 18 to 24 years and are relatively young. We then proceeded into the print manufacturing area. As Mr. Riley walked me through the space, I could tell he was very proud and excited about what I was going to see. Inside were many hard working people, but nothing caught my eye like the enormous Heidelberg printing presses right in front of me. I was able to see how the amazing machines worked as well as many other grand machines in the area. Again, the friendly faces were all around as the tour progressed. Eventually, we arrived upon some finished products and I have to say I was more than impressed. My time soon came to an end and it was time for me to leave THP, but I have to say my experience there with Mr. Riley was very inspiring. I believe it is rare, today, to find such honest, hard-working, and friendly people all in one building. It is my hope as an aspiring entrepreneur to conduct my business in this same manner.

 

 

Since the start of his company Jefferson Riley has started many other ventures as well as acquired a fair share as well. To date Jefferson Riley is President of many companies including: 

 Mr. Riley is not only a business man he is involved around the community in the local church called First Baptist Church of Conyers. He has also served twice as the Chairman of the Printing & Imaging Association of Georgia, in an industry which is one of the largest in Georgia and is the largest employer with nearly 27,000 employees. Other community involvement includes:

Current: 

Past: