Springfield business owners featured in book

Jeff Russell, owner of Russell Cellular, and Gordon Kinne, president of Med-Pay Inc., were interviewed by Ruth King, of Atlanta, for her book, “The Ugly Truth about Small Business: 50 Things That Can Go Wrong … and What You Can Do about It.”

King is CEO of the Internet television station BusinessTVChannel.com.

King contacted 250 chambers of commerce across the country in May 2004 asking for help in locating business owners who might have stories to tell.

In the book, each business owner tells a brief story of a challenge faced in business. There are tales of bankruptcy, betrayal, dissolved partnerships, greed and serious illness. The stories, all told in first person, end with the lessons gained from the experience and how to apply those lessons to any business.

King interviewed 63 business owners for the project, and 50 of their stories made it into the finished book.

“I asked them initially if you had advice you were going to give somebody who was starting a business, is there anything that surprised you or kicked you in the butt?” said King, who has owned seven businesses in the last 25 years.

She was inspired to write the book after losing a $1.6 million contract, $800,000 in investment and a business partner. “I lost it all in a day,” King said. “I knew I wasn't the only one who'd gone through really tough times and survived. That was the final impetus to write the book. I'm not alone.”

A common thread throughout the stories was the element of surprise.

“Everybody that I interviewed for the book, without exception, said they never saw it coming,” King said of the lessons shared in the book. “It's really interesting because we, as small-businesspeople, think we're invincible until something blindsides us.”

Springfield's Russell wanted to participate in the book to help other business owners.

“I thought it was a great concept, putting together a book that talked about rough times in business,” he said. “I think people always think business owners have a gravy train and you just open a store and it's accessible and they don't realize people have to overcome some large adversities.”

Russell's contribution is titled, “You Have to Have a System.” That system, he said, included making the transition from taking care of every aspect of the business on his own to learning to hire the right people and turn responsibilities over to them.

Russell Cellular is Alltel's largest dealer in the nation, with about 110 employees at 40 locations in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Signage at Russell Cellular locations underwent a makeover in December, with the introduction of Alltel's new branding campaign for its exclusive agents.

“What that's allowed me to do is to look more like an Alltel corporate store and capitalize on their branding program that they have, which is spending tens of millions of dollars each year on radio, newspaper and television advertising,” Russell said. “We're able to piggyback off that rather than trying to brand ourselves as a separate entity. We're still Russell Cellular.”

Curiosity led Med-Pay's Kinne to share his story with King.

“I was curious if it was a worthwhile story,” said Kinne, president of a third-party administrator for companies that self-fund their own medical plan. Kinne founded Med-Pay in 1981, sold it to Humana Inc. in 1995 and bought it back in 1998.

In the chapter, “They Tried to Stop Me From Buying My Company Back,” Kinne told his story of perseverance.

“We'd sold in 1995 to Humana because it looked like managed care and the Clinton health care proposal was going to happen, and most of what we did was self-funded,” Kinne said.

Med-Pay, he said, lost about 40 percent of its business when St. John's wouldn't honor discounts Med-Pay had negotiated for the clients the two companies shared, resulting in those clients leaving Med-Pay.

In sharing his story, Kinne said his intention wasn't to rehash the events that occurred in 1998 and 1999 but to let other business owners know that, although a business can take a hit, it's possible to come back.

“Try and do the right thing and be honest and up-front with people,” said Kinne, who now has 40 employees compared to 25 when the situation flared after the buy-back. “We came out stronger and better from it, but it was a tough time to go through.”

King's book is available at www.amazon.com and through local bookstores.

Gordon Kinne on perseverance:

“I turned the lawyers loose and we solved the situation in seven days. This was after six months of stress and sleepless nights.

“We still prospered, but it was pretty brutal. I aged five years in six months.”

Jeff Russell on growth and change:

“We were never going to move forward without bringing the right people on board. That was very hard.

“The only time I stopped (selling) was when there was enough cash flow coming in the door to rely on everyone else's sales. Then it got tough.”

Source: “The Ugly Truth about Small Business: 50 Things That Can Go Wrong … and What You Can Do About It.”

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