John and Connie: Hi, and welcome to another episode of Celebrating

Small Family Businesses where we feature passion in action.

And today we are celebrating Mike and Roggen Frick of Bear Iron Works.

Hi Mike.

Hi Roggen.

How are you?

Good.

How are

Doing.

John and Connie: Wonderful.

Thanks for having us on.

John and Connie: So you guys are father and son.

yes.

John and Connie: I'd love to hear the story of how Bear Iron Works got started.

Did it grow from another business you had, or is it.

I'll let Roggen go here in a second, but I'll, I'll tell you my part.

So I just started building some rock screens, small ones.

The, the industry had a lot big ones, but we, no one was building any small

ones, so I just had some iron and, and so I built a few, put 'em on Craigslist.

And then, uh, Roggen, he learned how to weld and fabricating them.

Uh, I didn't do it as a business at the time, necessarily.

Uh, just some extra income.

And then when Roggen went to college, he can, he can take it from there.

John and Connie: Did you have another business at the time

or were you employed by a.

yeah, I had a construction business, which Roggen worked with me

through since he was like four years old.

He was, he, he hung out

John and Connie: I hope he got paid well.

he,

Yeah,

hung out with me a lot.

that's, that's where I learned how to weld and operate equipment.

Yeah.

He, he could run a backhoe.

By the time he was, uh, three or four years old, he was running big excavators.

Literally, he could do it.

Dozers, dump trucks.

John and Connie: cool.

Yep.

Yeah.

then, so when I went to college, um, I have.

My I race motocross is a hobby of mine and needed to have a place where I could

store my, my dirt bike and work on it.

And storage units aren't very fond of you working on stuff there.

So, uh, I needed to get a shop and so Mike suggested that why don't you

make some of these grizzlies and you can sell enough to pay for a shop

so you can have a place to do that.

So I got a shop and started making these grizzlies and I built a website

and so I could advertise 'em online.

And then pretty soon I start getting quite a bit of demand for these

rock screens, even though I wasn't marketing them very, uh, hard.

And so I got a, classmate of mine.

I recruited him.

I had him running my saw and I was gonna teach him how to weld so he can help me

put it together and do all the welding.

And within six months I had already moved into an even bigger shop with four Bays.

Had a forklift, hired another part-time employee from the college

and was teaching 'em how to weld and started putting these together.

it was getting to the point that it was a little bit too big

handle going to school and running this business at the same time.

'cause I was doing the accounting.

I was making the products.

I was delivering the products.

I was like kind of a one man show with those, my two part-time

employees picking up the slack.

So we shut it down and I focused on schooling and I didn't have

any plans of starting to back up.

I was just gonna go and work in commercial construction and

do construction management, which is what my degree was in.

And, about the time that I start, uh, getting my job and getting started,

um, Mike was working at Kiwit, is a very large construction company, and

he was working a lot of hours and he was kind of getting tired of that.

And he calls me and he says, Hey.

Do you think that grizzly business is a, a good idea?

And when I say grizzly, they're called grizzly rock screens,

is what the product is called.

I said, do you think that that grizzly business is a good idea?

Do you think that that could become like a full-time job for us?

I said, oh yeah.

'cause I was barely marketing it and it was getting enough demand to keep us busy.

So I think if we put our efforts towards it, I think we can make it happen.

Um, that's when Mike came on board and he started the business back up and I

was just gonna be part-time support and.

I'll let you kind of take it from there with growing the operations side of it.

Yeah, so I, I started it back again because he already had the website.

I was, he just basically had to trigger the website backup and going again,

and, I was building, building them out of a small, I didn't have a shop

at the time, so my mom and dad had a. Some acreage and they had a very

small shop, very small, uh, 16 by 20, and I was building a few out of there.

And then I was like, man, this thing's going again.

It really is.

And, and this is COVID.

We're we're talking August,

of

is when we

John and Connie: Wow.

Yeah.

And uh, funny thing was, is one of my first customers was Kiwi,

My old employer, they didn't even know who I was when they called they

needed one on the East coast, uh, in, we're in Grand Junction, Colorado.

So anyways, they, um, so I had moved into a little bit bigger shop.

I Demand was there.

I got an employee and we got into 2,400 square feet.

And then next thing you know, uh, Roggen had spent a year at a fairly good

sized construction company, building schools, re renovating schools, and.

Um, his fiance says, Hey, we we're, we're going to South Carolina, basically,

like she's going to law school there.

And so Roggen's like, Hey, do you think I can go full-time there?

And I'm like, I think we can.

I think you can do it.

So, at that point in time, I think it was, I think the timing was about the same

It was about that time.

Yeah.

a 9,000 square foot shop where we're at now.

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: Wow.

And

And then.

in my wife, uh, Darlene.

She's, she's part owner, so we're all the third owner and she does the books and

John and Connie: got an an attorney in the family too.

Uh, about to be, she just, just, uh, graduated this last weekend.

Uh,

John and Connie: Oh, congratulations.

you.

John and Connie: Now I can almost have your life back.

I'm imagining that was a long haul from stories I've heard.

It, it was, and you know, it was, uh, I, even though it

was gonna kind of disrupt my life and move across the country, I saw it

as an opportunity to get out of the working, trying to climb the corporate

ladder and kind of do my own thing.

and I just got here and I sat down.

I said, okay, what can I do remotely?

So I started focusing on marketing efforts.

I started focusing on putting software into the business that can

help us manage it efficiently as well as manage it remotely since.

I'm not there the whole time.

Um, then just trying to focus on customer relations on the East Coast.

Since I'm here, you know, I might as well go meet some of these customers out here.

That way we can have a good outreach, uh, pretty much wherever we're at.

And so I just started working on that.

I implemented a software called Fulcrum into the company, and what

it does is it manages our, it keeps track of all of our inventory.

It has an AI scheduling tool in it that automatically schedules our jobs.

I just started tying all the softwares together.

I started launching an e-commerce front on the business so that we could

actively sell the products, um, and like let the customers kind of customize

them a little bit on the website.

Um, and then the other thing that we did at about this time is we hired an

operations manager to actually manage the operations as well as, uh, we were looking

for somebody who understood logistics.

'cause that was kind of a weak spot in our knowledge where, you know, trying to ship

Trying to ship this all the way across the country at a price that

somebody wants to pay is difficult if you don't know what you're doing.

Um, so our operations manager, he is, he has a background in that and right away

he just started setting everything up and getting that so we can actually, you know.

is like, kind of like a industrial Amazon in a way.

Even though we're a smaller company, you know, we're selling these online.

You can just go add it to your cart, check out, and we're gonna get it made,

put on a truck, and ship directly to wherever you need it.

John and Connie: Dang.

Yeah, that's definitely not UPS, uh, delivery material.

That's,

No, it's not.

John and Connie: that's a whole other, kinda kind of takes it to the next level.

Whoa.

Yeah.

John and Connie: Wow.

So many things here.

So I I I mean, right away it sounds like you set the business or is this true?

It it, did you set it up right away to be both of you remote or, or did that evolve?

I know Roggen and you were remote 'cause you were in the Carolinas,

but what about you, Mike?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean that what had happened is just outta timing.

My, my wife had a. We will call it a situation.

She was a nurse, she was managing at a hospital here in Grand Junction.

And um, so we had the opportunity to go to Phoenix and um, I've always

wanted to move to Arizona anyways.

And about that time r had already said, Hey, I'm gonna, we're

getting this thing done remotely.

And it was going great, you know, I mean, it was pretty neat.

Um, I'm like, well, I looks like I can do the same thing.

That's our, been our goal for the company to, to work for us instead

of we working for the company.

Maybe we, you know, you always hear that.

And so that's kinda where we're still striving to get to.

And, uh, it's, it's been working pretty good.

I mean, it's not without problems here and there.

We, you're always, you know, you're always gonna have something come up.

It's constant.

But we're as, as a team, we're, we do, well, I mean, we.

Um, I thinking I've said this to a lot of people, I've a movie about Henry Ford

and his son and I, I, it hit, really hit home for me I didn't wanna, um,

restrict Roggen in anything that he did with the company because I know that

he's got the talent to, you know, bring in new things that I've never heard of.

Especially, you know, managing this company with this fulcrum.

And letting them do that and, and all kinds of things.

So, we all get together once a week and we all have a meeting

between my wife, Roggen, and myself.

We, uh, have a meeting and we talk about whatever needs to

be talked about make decisions.

And we don't really hold anything against anybody.

We just kind of work through it.

John and Connie: You have a business meeting.

Yeah, we do.

We, we, we do, we, we've separated our, um, kind of our family.

Um, I guess you might say, and we consider everybody a business manager.

You know, just like if he was a real business and he wasn't

related to him, and that's kind

John and Connie: How

we operate.

John and Connie: smart.

Wow.

You guys, I mean, you're just nailing it one after another, after another.

This is, um, but for, for what you know has worked.

Yeah.

And what works.

You, you brought managing those roles, kinda changing hats and, and you know,

being able, like Roggen, right when we first started, you, you referred

to your dad as Mike instead of dad.

And that that's huge.

Right there, you know, separating those roles in the business.

You know, we're, we're three partners and then, you know,

family is a separate thing.

Yes, they mix, but in each realm, one has to be dominant.

And if you get them mixed up, boy you got troubles.

Yep.

Yeah, I think we're pretty good at drawing a line of

like, when it's time for business, you know, and we need to talk about

business and get business done.

But then when it's time to be a family and go do have family affairs and do

whatever it is we're doing, we say, Hey, we're not gonna talk about business.

We're gonna focus on whatever we're doing, whether it's a vacation or having

a holiday or whatever it might be.

you know, that's when from nine to five, he's Mike, but after that he's Dad.

John and Connie: Yeah.

Yeah.

Roggen, growing up you said, I think you started working for the company,

uh, for your dad's construction company, maybe at five and, and learning to

run equipment and all that stuff.

What was that like growing up?

Was, was there, uh, any sense of pressure or expectation around

what the future would be of that?

Or was it just, hey, you're here while you're here?

You know, uh, it was something that was like.

I'm here, might as well learn.

I mean, I wasn't forced to work or anything like that.

I could hang out in the truck.

I would, I'd have a dirt bike or a four wheeler and I'd go ride

around, 'cause the work that he did was mainly abandoned mine closures.

And so we're working up in the mountains and stuff so I can go explore and,

you know, check out the trees, do some sightseeing, but come back and he'd show

me how to run an excavator and how to do some work and let me swing some dirt.

and then as I got older.

You know, when I got into high school and got to driving age,

it was a great summer job.

You know, I could learn how to weld.

I was even managing a little crew of like two or three people on

one project when I was like 17.

Um, but I didn't have any pressure to go into construction.

I actually was gonna go into movie making, is what I was originally gonna do.

And, uh, he, he had no influence on my decision of what I

wanted to do with my career.

But.

I just started looking at everything and said, you know, there's a lot of

people that wanna make movies and it's a very hard industry to get into, and

I'm not sure if I necessarily like that industry as much, where I already

know quite a bit about construction.

I'm already in a pretty good for it.

I might as well just go double down, get the degree and see

what I can do with it from there.

John and Connie: Well done.

Well, and then my

Thanks.

was a construction guy and so he had his own business

too before, you know, back I was born, just about, um, and so Roggen

would go stay with my mom and dad.

My dad always had a backhoe around.

So Roggen always wanted to run the backhoe, and my dad would say,

okay, just dig this trench here and come get me when you're done.

And he gets to play out there, on a chunk of land.

He just dug trenches and backfilled them and learned how to run a backhoe.

And then

John and Connie: Oh, that's wonderful.

know, I don't forget that one, but, so I did a lot of oil field work too.

And he did, we did a big oil reclaim pit, a lot of mud and I think, I

don't know how old he was then.

How old was you then when you run that dozer?

I was, think about 13,

13.

14, something like that.

I mean, it was, it

Um.

major.

I mean, he is in mud.

The, the mud's about to come up into the cab and he could back out of it.

He, he'll learn how to run that dozer without getting stuck.

It set me up pretty well.

I mean, when I entered the construction workforce, a lot of the problem that

we have in construction management is you get kids that, know, you either get

somebody that has the field experience or somebody that's educated in it,

but not a lot of people that are both.

And that really set me apart as a candidate for hiring.

Um, and it helped me excel.

'cause I had, I mean, I had like.

Every employer wants, you know, 20 years of experience when

you're right outta college.

And so

John and Connie: Yeah,

kinda had that, you know, I already had like a lot

of work experience under my belt.

I think it was a great opportunity,

John and Connie: you were the unicorn they were looking for.

That's right.

Oh my gosh.

The funny, funny thing about that is, is he was working for

a sizable company, uh, like I said, renovating schools straight outta

college, and he, he thought he was gonna be a career with these people.

And it was a, it's a good company.

And, um, when he was, had, you know, decided to move to South Carolina,

he went to him and, you know, said, Hey man, I'm, I'm quitting.

And he was the project engineer there, kind of running the project and all.

I then, then they invited him to a Christmas party.

I think I got this story straight.

Mm-hmm.

they offered to hire 'em back and buy the company.

We'll just buy your, we'll just buy Bear Ironworks.

And they offered him a sizable amount of money.

So

Yeah.

been offered two different contractors to buy the company and then

they wanted Bo, the other contractor wanted both of us to go work for 'em.

Uh, so, but

John and Connie: That's a pretty big compliment right there.

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: That's a self-confidence builder too.

Right?

Yeah.

John and Connie: Hey, and also confirmation that you're in the

right place at the right time.

Mm-hmm.

If people wanna, if people want you, then you're good.

Yeah.

John and Connie: Cool.

Well, so one of the, sorry, go ahead.

Yeah.

It doesn't go without problems.

I mean, we have our problems and employee problems or logistical

problems of some sort, and gotta get together and talk about things

and figure out what we need to do.

Ain't all, you know, roses all the time.

John and Connie: Oh, no, no.

It never is.

And you'd be bored if it was.

So

All.

we get to go and we have some major problems that we

have to deal with and we're like, oh my gosh, we gotta deal with this.

And then I think Rogan and I especially, and my my wife, we, we

kind of sit back and go, no, you know, we're not working for somebody.

Remember those days when we was working for somebody and how,

how we didn't want to be there?

And even when we have those problems, we're like, you know

what, I still want to be here.

John and Connie: Yeah, because you can be the one to decide

how to solve the problem too.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

John and Connie: speaking of that, challenges or problems, what is something

that you've overcome together that that's noteworthy that maybe other

small business owners could learn from?

Boy, I, no, there's been a few.

If you wanna talk about any.

I mean, I think one of the bigger ones was, um,

we hit a point, I think it was when I was coming on full-time.

It may have been before when I was still working for the general

contractor and I was still kind of part-time helping the business.

But, we ran into an issue with cash flows and we were doing net 30 terms

and we didn't necessarily have enough capital to kind of finance that.

And so we hit this point where it was like, if we don't do something

right now, we're not gonna be able to hit payroll or anything like that.

And so we all got together and just started brainstorming ideas, looking

at where the finances are, looking at what money's coming in, thinking

about, okay, how can we go about this?

Um, something that we had done up to, uh, until like a couple months

ago, is we hadn't taken on any debt.

At all to do the company.

It was self-funded and it was self growing.

but when you get into a situation like that where you gotta look, start

looking at like the cost of capital and like how much does it take or how

much does it cost to take out a loan?

Is that worth it?

You know?

'cause you're gonna be losing money and interest.

And that's when we all got together.

We looked at the problem.

We said, okay, what if we start identifying certain customers

that we can pay up front?

Because some customers pay late.

We're, we're offering credit to every single person that wants to buy a product.

And that's not the best way to go about it because some people aren't gonna pay back.

they're definitely not gonna pay back on time, all of them.

Um, and it's, it's hard to build the product, buy the steel, and do

all the work first and try to get it shipped to them and then wait 30

to 60 days for payment when it only takes a week to build the product.

You know, it's taken longer to get payment about five times as

long than to take the build it.

It.

And so, um, that's when we decided that we would kind of start moving towards an

e-commerce type system where we can sell the products and get the money up-front

for the manufacturing, for the custom orders, um, and help the cash flow.

Because now that we have some of the money up front, at least from certain

customers, we can keep that moving forward and keep production moving.

And if production's moving, then it's gonna lower our lead

times and everything like that.

So now we're to the point, because of how we've managed it, that we have a

good cash flow through the business.

We can offer terms to customers that go through our credit approval process.

Um, so we can still, you know, serve those types of customers.

But at the same time, uh, we're able to sell directly to some customers

and we also keep inventory the most popular products as well.

That way we can ship 'em right away.

John and Connie: Strong lesson.

Yes.

Cash flow is, uh, is so critical and a lot of businesses don't, just don't

realize how important it is, and especially when you're growing, right?

Because you can grow into a cash flow crunch that you don't see coming.

right?

Yeah.

And it's uh, that's something that they taught us in construction management.

You know, 'cause you're looking at a construction project.

You're looking at at least 60 days before you get paid, uh,

depending on how it all goes, right?

But you gotta pay your payroll beforehand.

You gotta pay your materials beforehand.

And so how do you manage a multimillion dollar project while also keeping

the cash in front of it and they teach you certain techniques

there, um, on how to manage that.

And I think that's something that a lot of people kind of overlook,

um, when they're running their own businesses or running construction.

Is making sure that there's enough cash up front to keep flowing through that,

because that's something that, you know, it doesn't matter how many sales

you have, if you can't afford to start the first one, then it's gonna tank,

John and Connie: Right, right.

Or if you can't deliver what you, what somebody's ordered because you hit

a cashflow crunch and, and, and then they cancel the order and go somewhere

else and that can spiral real fast

Yeah, yeah.

And you

John and Connie: and then it becomes a matter of reputation and all that out.

Yeah.

Yeah, and you never wanna find yourself in a position where you're

in a cashflow crunch and you might not be able to make a debt payment,

because if that happens, then know, well, the next time I go to try to

get some credit from someone, they're probably not gonna give it to me.

John and Connie: Right, right.

actively managing that is important.

John and Connie: Cool.

What's another favorite question we ask?

My, my favorite question is, what have you learned about each other in

this whole process because, you know, especially father, son, you know, you

had, you know, a certain view sometimes of what you think or what you hope,

and then you're in a business here.

So, and, and same thing back to you Roggen to to dad of, you know,

he's dad and has a certain role.

So what have you learned about working together?

I, I knew that Roggen did very well in school.

I guess I encouraged him to let loose, so he rides motocross.

So he'll, I mean, he is, he is kind of this kid that I would describe to somebody

that he's a nerd, but you'll never tell it by looking at him or talking to him

John and Connie: Cool.

because he's, he's, um, very intelligent.

But, um, I, I guess I've seen that a lot more.

You know, he, I know that he was good at what he did at when he come outta college.

Then, you know, coming into the company I worked with a lot of young engineers

coming outta college and I worked for Kiwi and um, he uh, he was one of those

guys that , the superstar type guy.

And I'm not saying that's 'cause he's my son.

He was at the company he was at before too.

Um, it sounds a little bit braggy, but, um, but, but he's been a

huge help in growing this company.

It's been pretty awesome.

And

and I think, uh.

takes on a lot of role and I don't have to worry about things a

John and Connie: There you go.

maybe I do that a little bit too much sometimes and I'm like,

oh man, I gotta get more involved.

But yeah.

John and Connie: He's got it.

Roggen,

What about you?

I think on, on my end, I think I learned, uh, how much, uh,

my dad's willing to listen to me.

Um, I

John and Connie: Wow.

think lot of parents probably wouldn't be so willing to give

the reins to their kid at this young of age and just say, Hey, let's roll with it.

Let's see what your ideas are and where we can get there.

And I think that's been very helpful.

Um, because even when it comes to things that, you know, Mike might not

understand, especially when it comes to like online marketing and SEO and trying

to get the website going, or automation with software, even if he doesn't fully

understand what it entails, he trusts that I do and he trusts that I'm going to get

something put in place that's gonna work.

um, I think without trust, something like this wouldn't be a feasible relationship.

John and Connie: Okay.

Yep.

John and Connie: So strong.

Wow.

I, I, I'm very curious.

You said you, set this up to, to work remotely kind of from the beginning and

you, you hired an operations manager that with a logistics experience.

So, you know, I'm kind of calling these themes out so people hear it.

You talked about roles really, you know, defining roles and, and also

recognizing strengths and recognizing gaps and where, where you had a gap

, you filled it with somebody that that strengthens the whole company that way.

And, and that's, that's just really like smart.

Smart.

And so when you're managing remotely,

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: how often do you go back to the headquarters and check in.

I'm,

an owner there.

Yeah.

I'd say there's an owner there at least once a month out of one of us three.

The way that it's set up and the way that it's operating.

Our operations manager, he does an amazing job at making sure that

everything's ran the way that we want.

We tell him to do something and say, Hey, we wanna see an improvement

in safety, or We wanna see, an improvement in this operation, or We

need to change something and do this.

He asks the questions that he needs to know and then he runs with it.

And so we're fortunate in that sense of having a good guy in place.

But it's important for us to be there to be able to incorporate

our values in the business.

And to make sure that we have a good culture there and that we

reward and recognize the employees.

'cause we might not see, you know, the day-to-day operations, but we do see

their work because even though I'm all the way out here on the East Coast, I visit

customers and I see the products and I see how they're using them and I can see

if something was good quality or not.

So I'm seeing the end result even though I'm not seeing them actually

physically do it all the time.

And I think one thing too is I was in business since I was 24.

I started my own construction and really the whole time I was in business, I,

I kind of failed really, because I was the only one making the decision.

And it really bothered me that I couldn't get a construction company up and going,

'cause I, I, I knew how to build things.

I know how to do the work and I did it well.

So I went to work for a company, um, and they, they were sizable.

There was like a billion dollar a year type company and they,

um, they didn't do things right.

I, I, I'm really big about schedules.

I think Roggen has learned that through construction management,

the schedules is, is key.

This company wouldn't hold to a schedule, they wouldn't plan

and that they were making money.

And I'm like, why?

Why are they doing so well?

So it was a father son thing and the son had just taken over and it wasn't

the kind of dynamic that we have.

He, he was just kind of going for it.

But they had a bunch of guys that were high up in the management

that helped make the decisions.

And I thought to myself, you know, those guys are still making decisions.

Those, they're, they're helping with the decisions.

There's not one guy making the decisions.

And I think when it's left up to one person making the

decision, that is not a good plan.

It's, it's very tough to grow because you could go, I'm just gonna go spend

this money over here, and there's not somebody else over here questioning you.

Why?

Why you're gonna do that?

So the three of us, so like I said, my wife, she does the books and she's

got, she doesn't have the background in this, but she does have background

in management and managing people and seeing things and, and we get together

like that and we're able to make some really sound decisions doing thatt.

I don't think the company would be as big as it is or as as

successful if we haven't done that.

John and Connie: Smart.

Nice.

Nice.

So you both, you've both brought, I think lessons from a corporate environment

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: bear in your, your business.

I think when we, we had our pre-call, you said, uh, we're, we're running this as

a corporation, not as a family business

Yeah,

John and Connie: talk.

there's a lot of different principles that they do, right, that

are kind of important to, to learn.

Like there's a reason corporations are successful, right?

And the things that they do.

Not saying every corporation runs perfectly, but there's common

principles that they all have, you know?

And one of being is like the company culture.

And developing that, that's something that small businesses

don't focus on quite a bit.

They, every company has a company culture, but not every company

knows what their culture is.

And so if you put some effort into developing that and saying, Hey,

you know, I want my employees to be happy, I want them to be relaxed

and I want them to have time off.

Right?

So that's one of the things we did is we do a four day, 10 hour a day work week.

So every weekend that our guys get is a three day work week, and that's

part of our company culture is we wanted to not overwork our employees.

And so you have it, whether you know it or not.

So make sure you develop it into something good, because if people like

working for you, then you're going to, everything kind of falls in line, right?

Like if people like being here, well then they're gonna take your safety

message and your messages about safety and they're gonna be safer.

And well, if they're safer, then they care about their job, their

quality's gonna fall in line, and then it just kinda all falls into place.

When you're managing with the culture from the top down, and that's what all

corporations do, and that's how you can hire anybody at a corporation any job

because everybody around them can assist them and Hey, this is how you do your

job, or This is how we do things here.

And that's how you can have a disconnect from the top all the

way to the bottom in a corporation.

And so we could try to do the same thing in our sense and pretend like

we're a business or big, like, I mean, we are a business, right?

John and Connie: You are?

Yeah.

I.

like, like a bigger business than

John and Connie: Right.

and give that presence and if you fake, fake

it till you make it, right?

Yeah.

John and Connie: no, it's, I, I would say sort of, but I

would also say it's principles.

You know, there's principle strategies and tactics.

That's one of my things.

And, and when you work, when you, well, maybe principles at the bottom, 'cause

that's the foundation, and then strategies and tactics, tactics change all the time.

But the principles are the guiding, you know, that's what guides, and,

and you're talking about, you know, principles that, that build big companies.

So those principles should be sound throughout any size company, if you

get down to the principal level.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: Um, you know, we, we can't hire, um, just when it's

just the two of us, we can't hire a whole big staff and, you know, you're

this and you're that and you're that.

So, you know, that's more of a strategy, but the principles of, of, you know,

having defined roles and, and you know that everything that goes with that.

Communication, communicate, clear communication.

Yeah.

I don't know about our culture.

We're gonna have to talk about our culture.

I think might need adjusting as, as long as I'm in charge, it's okay.

That's the culture.

So what is next for Bear Iron Works?

So the upcoming year, we're looking to grow our product lines.

So we serve the civil construction industry.

Our main products are the rock screens, our bedding boxes, our concrete washout

tubs, our tracking pads, which all serve, um, mostly civil construction,

but also some of those products go into all sectors of construction.

But we're looking to expand our product lines to better serve those areas as well.

We just launched a new product called the Snow Pusher uh, we're

gonna offer for contractors that do snow plowing in the winter.

So it's attachment for a skidsteer.

and we're looking to launch some other products.

We got some other stuff in the works that we think will be good, um, and

then focusing on our marketing strategy.

That way we make sure that we can get our brand out there in front of everybody

that needs to hear about us and might have a need for our products and.

Uh, just continue growing, I think.

So we can get this thing running like a well lubricated machine.

John and Connie: Oh, that's wonderful.

Well, we will look forward to watching that growth.

So your website is Bear, BEAR right, like the grizzly bear, uh, but ironworks.com

Dot net.

John and Connie: right?

Uh, that's right.

I I, I see.

I thank you.

I knew there were, I hesitated there 'cause it's like, oh yeah.

Dot net; bearironworks.net.

Okay.

And.

Um, so you have e-commerce set, you have a store set up on there for people

to, to at least see the products and, and buy the, some of the smaller ones.

And if they want custom, they can customize it and, and then they can call

the company and order whatever they need

Yep,

John and Connie: as well.

all of our standard product lines, um, on our website.

You can just click and buy.

we have all the most popular configurations and everything

that you need on there.

Um, but o obviously, you know, uh, some people need something a little

bit specific for what they're doing, and we're always willing to, help

you find the solution that you need.

Um, and so we'd like to, if anybody that listens to your podcast needs

any of our products, you know, we like to, we're a small business.

We like to help small businesses as well, so we like to offer a discount, um, to

anybody they can use code, celebrate.

On our

John and Connie: Cool.

5% off of their entire order no matter how big or

John and Connie: Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll put that in the show notes too and, and let everybody know.

And, uh, we'll have all your contact information on there too.

That

John and Connie: Is there a particular social media, uh,

platform that you put more effort into that you'd like mentioned?

Um, yeah, we're gonna be putting some more

effort into LinkedIn this year,

John and Connie: Cool.

Okay.

on Facebook, Instagram as well.

John and Connie: Okay.

All right.

So all three.

Wonderful.

Fabulous.

Well done on that too, by the way.

Yeah, that's, uh, amazing amount that takes effort and consistent

effort and, um, so yeah, and it's not easy keeping up with all that.

And if you, if they

John and Connie: I don't do it

too, they, uh, we have links to our Facebook and YouTube,

John and Connie: on the website.

Cool.

could click on there, watch our YouTube videos.

About our

John and Connie: You got some YouTube, right?

That's right.

Great.

Is there any other words of wisdom you'd like to shout out to for

listening audience or watching audience?

one of the themes I've been preaching is, uh, when

it comes to problems, because problems arise all the time.

Sometimes somebody causes the problem, sometimes the problem

just arises from somewhere where you might not have any control.

But, um, something that I learned in the corporate world.

Uh, I, I worked with really good project management teams and something

that we always focused on was when there's a problem, most people

sit there and they start trying to point fingers at whose fault

it is.

John and Connie: Hmm.

don't worry about that.

Try to focus on getting the problem solved first.

Get through it to the other side.

That way your operations can keep moving forward.

And once you're on the other side of it, then you can worry about, okay,

whose fault it is, because, know, maybe in that situation, maybe the

person's whose fault it is came up with the solution and they owned

that problem and they made it better.

So you wanna focus on blaming it after the problem's dealt with

after the result is, uh, seen.

John and Connie: Nice.

So smart and yeah, and avoiding that.

That way you're avoiding repetition.

If you focus afterwards, uh, it's much easier to see the whole picture

rather than just the initial panic.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

John and Connie: Nice.

You can keep your calm the better off you are.

John and Connie: Yes.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

Wonderful words of wisdom.

Thank you so much for spending this time with us, gentlemen.

Thank you.

You

John and Connie: This was fun.

Pleasure to meet you both.

And, uh, like I said, we look forward to watching Bear Iron Works Grow.

Yes,

Visit, visit us again.

yeah.

John and Connie: we will.

We look forward to it.

Thank you.