Interviewer: Elizabeth Shown
Interviewee: Dr. Todd Creasy
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Can you provide a brief explanation of the work you’ve been involved in as an entrepreneur?
I started a company in 1990 in Memphis TN, right as the time that the U.S. was going into Iraq for the Desert Storm mission. It probably wasn’t the best time to start a new venture. I began an HR Consulting firm that specialized in executive recruitment. I was involved in managerial consulting, HR consulting, and there was also a resume-building piece. My company was called ProSearch with subsidiaries: ProTemps, and ProResume.
Back then, if a CEO wanted to replace their controller for example, they would call someone like me to fill the position with details about the experience they were seeking, the salary they were willing to pay, and I would find that candidate for them. After the candidate was interviews and hired they would pay me 30% of the new hire’s salary. I started the business before the Internet was a “thing.” By now the whole process has changed dramatically.
Why did you want to start a business?
In my generation, we were tired of the organizational climate- being told you can’t exercise your own creativity to make stuff happen. Because you want to be your own person and enjoy the rewards to do such, is why most people in my generation wanted to start a business. Your generation is also a little more social-justice minded. You don’t want to work for a company like Exon for example that you have some intrinsic values conflicts with. Now days, it’s not enough to make enough money, you want to feel good about where I work.
What your underlying motivation more about wealth or control?
For me it was wealth. In 1990 I was working as a higher-up in a consulting firm. I was tired of making all this money for my company, and only getting a portion for myself. I thought if I can do this for them, I could do this for me! I was 26 and decided I would give it a shot. My dad gave me some pushback, but I was still determined to begin my business.
Did you have to raise any capital for your startup?
I started this business on my own, with money I had intentionally set aside. It was enough to support myself and to start up the company without having to go through bank loans or VC’s. As the company grew I added temporary employees. I found that I was making enough to sustain their salaries, so I eventually hired them as permanent employees.
Tell me about your hiring and selection practices:
What you should hire for is energy and attitude. You can’t train people to have energy and attitude. You have to hire for those reasons and then train them on the subject matter. Whenever I deviated from that mantra- hire for energy and attitude- is when I got into trouble. The times I got into the most trouble was when I hired someone based solely on his or her expertise of the subject. The problem was that they brought a lot of baggage like they knew more than I did about the subject. They were not easily “led” and didn’t take direction well. They weren’t coachable. I found that people that have a good attitude, are energetic and willing to be mentored and developed, those are the fun one’s to work with. You’re more apt to listen and they have a certain level of autonomy and you can watch them grow.
What are some of the risks you faced when starting your company?
When I started this company I already had a lot of experience in the industry and knew the industry model and how it worked. All I did was tweak it a little. I took what someone else taught me to do and adjusted it to fit what I wanted to be done. There wasn’t much risk in it for me initially because I was already so experienced in the field.
The difficult part when you start up a new business is you feel like you’re rarely doing all that you can. In other words, I would work hours and hours of overtime. I wasn’t married at the time and didn’t have kids so if I needed to work that long I could. But the hardest part was fighting off that feeling of “workaholism” and burnout. I’ve always been pretty adaptive and open to change. It was more of “am I doing enough.” In other words, it was more about the fear of failure for me.
How to find the inspiration? How do you stay productive?
I was teaching in the MBA program on a Tuesday night, I would drive all the way back to Cullowhee, get up on Wednesday and leave at 12 to go out of town and come back late Friday night. I was basically gone 3 nights a week. I have 3 kids ages 9, 7 and 5. I did that for probably 4 months. Was I tired? Yes. But I was enjoying the money. It kind of comes in my DNA. My mother and grandfather were also workaholics. High energy runs in the family. Also, you don’t want to fail in life. You don’t want to think, “If I had only done this or that.” It also brings intrinsic rewards like having the luxury to take the kids to Disney Land because I made enough money off of a consulting gig. You have to have the desire to achieve something, and you have to genuinely like the work. The work has got to interest you and you need to be passionate about it.
In a time before the Internet, how did you build a client base?
I used very traditional marketing methods. I called it, “Todd’s Tidbits.” I would travel around to different counties and purchase books to find out who all the local companies were, their address, and who the contact person was. I built a mailing list and would send out publications of trivia-like information (i.e. Did you know? sort of facts) I would pick up the phone and call the owners and managers at business and introduce myself as the Todd’s Tidbits guy. They knew who I was. It was a way to open the door to build a new relationship. It was a soft-marketing method, but it worked.
What advice do you have for someone starting a business now?
I don’t utilize social media like a lot of people do. First of all you need to build up a really good website-. It needs to be informative, attractive and easy to navigate. Blogging is like offering information for free. If you blog interesting enough stuff, on a regular basis (3 times a week), you can draw in new people and new customers. You have to keep up with the changing social media- Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc. to draw people in. Other things to include on your website could be testimonials, conferences you’ve spoken at, publications, etc. They give you viability and credibility. All of that helps too. There’s a lot of “internet noise” now. One of the ways to be successful is to form a network of people who know you trust you. Serving on nonprofit boards and other groups help you build those relationships. Give yourself to various causes and build relationships slowly. That’s one way in my mind to be fruitful. It can’t be all about you, it has to be about community too.
