My wife and I started our own janitorial supply business in 1973 after I had worked as a salesman for J.I. Holcomb Co. for 13 years. At that time I never would have dreamed we would sell Dansko shoes, Rockport women’s World Tour, Nautilus safety shoes, Skid Busters, Sandro Moscoloni, Birkenstock chef shoes, Ryka women’s walking and running shoes plus offering Free shipping on our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com. J.I. Holcomb Co. was owned by Butler University but they sold the company to Premier Industrial Group from Cleveland, Ohio. Premier cut every thing they could so they could pay for Holcomb while raising the product prices almost every other month. They packaged alkaline cleaners and disinfectants in used unlined 5gal buckets that soon rusted through, leaking all over the customer’s storage areas. They even stopped silk screening the Holcomb logo on drums. Holcomb started back ordering products and since I was paid based on product shippments my check started to become smaller. The last year I worked for them, my wife and I attended the President’s Club meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. I had earned the trip by increasing my sales from the previous year. At the meeting the management spent most of the time high pressuring us to produce more sales. My wife and I talked it over and decided we could do better on our own and with the help of a competitor, who became my mentor, we borrowed some money from our local bank and we started Lion Products, selling cleaning supplies in Southwest Iowa. I bought a new Ford Van and headed to Chicago to meet with Mack Magee, who was the owner and president of Magee Chemical. I placed an opening order with Magee and also met with the Claire Aerosol rep for our area. As I headed back home I ran into fog so thick I could not see 5 ft. in front of the van. I drove over 280 miles from Chicago on I-80 in dense fog which did not lift until I started south on Hwy 71 north of Atlantic, IA 40 miles from home on Miller Ave. in Red Oak, IA. Our first warehouse was in the basement of our home. I made wooden pallets using two by fours as a base and two 1 by 12s for the platform. When the semi delivered our orders I would carry the cases and pails to the basement and carry them up the stairs, load them into the van and deliver them to our customers. I found out it was easier to get customers to place orders to be delivered on my next trip to the area. Sometimes I would lie awake at night wondering if I could sell the 25 cases of bowl cleaner I had just ordered. My wife did our books and invoices at night after working as a bookkeeper for the Farmer’s Merc. We really liked owning our own business and we made a good profit the first year because of hard work and keeping our overhead low. We soon rented a small warehouse downtown that made the business a lot easier to operate. I kept making sales calls and delivering orders and we took on the Acme Chemical line of floor finishes, cleaners, strippers, and boiler treatment. Their prices were good and we were vary competitive on price. We were approached by Hillyard Chemical about becoming their distributor in Southwest Iowa. Hillyard was know for Trophy Gym Finish, Super Shine All Cleaner, and other chemical products. This was the company my mentor was selling for at the time we started our business and we signed up with them. We also brought on a part time sales rep to call on some of our accounts.
He eventually came on board full time and took over most of our accounts. We added epoxys and urethanes to the line after hiring Parewax’s sales manager to work for us. We added 4 commission reps selling our Acme and epoxy products in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. We hired a friend to work at the warehouse to do the shipping, receiving, and delivery. We still sell some janitorial products but we have moved on to other ventures. One venture is our online shoe business offering K-Swiss, Avia men’s walking and running shoes, Birko balance, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. Call 800-831-0940 for customer service or email waterman711@yahoo.com
phone: 1-800-831-0940
