Many people have asked why Tracy Wilcox named the company he founded Taft Engineering. Who is Taft they ask?
The answer: it is his middle name and business names with Wilcox in the title or somehow connected with the mountains or the mile high state were already spoken for. And he decided that he rather liked his middle name anyway!
Those same people might wonder how Tracy doubled his commercial boiler business during a recession in the construction industry.
The answer: he’s a man with a plan.
So here’s the man and his plan, in his own words.
A note: This article is part of a new ongoing blog series called Voices, which highlights the experiences of business leaders in and around Denver. I’m excited to share their stories with you. Tracy also works with Mark Inboden, a businessman and Alternative Board member who I featured in a recent Voices post.
Thanks for reading,
Blair
Tell me a bit about Taft engineering. What industries do you work with and how?
We are manufacturers representatives for commercial HVAC and plumbing products. We specialize in commercial boilers and water heaters. We’ve been in business since 1998 and have ten employees, three of whom are field service technicians. Our territory is Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. We have three customers: building owners, mechanical contractors and consulting engineers.
What inspired you to start Taft engineering?
I went to the merchant marine academy and got my marine engineering degree, which is a mechanical engineering degree focused on power plants. I travelled as part of my job and had a lot of friends who worked for the boiler industry. Friend who worked for Aerco told me they were looking for a new manufacturers rep in Colorado, so I jumped at the chance. From the summer of 91 to 98, I was on a ship or travelling for my job up and down the east coast, so I was ready to settle in somewhere.
What are some of the big challenges that you’re facing in your business? What are some of the big challenges in your field?
From our standpoint, we’ve been the market leader in high efficiency condensing boilers for a long time. But where I used to have only one or two competitors that had products that were 90 percent efficient, I now have about 30. And now I have competitors all over the world. And high efficiency boilers fit right into greening and LEED certification, so the green construction pushed these to be on the market more. The market has seen double-digit growth in the past ten years. Basically, it’s a challenge because there are more competitors, but the market has grown.
How do you know Blair and why did you think you’d benefit from working with her?
I was sitting on the sidelines of my daughter’s soccer game and one of the parents was Mark Inboden, who also works with you too. As we got to know each other, I started to discuss my trials and tribulations as a business owner. So we spoke, and it really just made sense. The recession hit us late because of the nature of our business and the nature of capital investments, but we hired in that time and doubled our sales during that time – just going through things that small business owners deal with who are seeing growth. Being a part of a board that can give that advice, whether it be the small, everyday things or the big picture, is really valuable. That’s one of the things that I’ve been working on is running my business and not my business running me.
How do you run your business and not have it run you?
It’s a process, but I’m learning to step away, to manage and to delegate. And it’s tough and it takes time to get it, but it’s worth it. It’s still a work in progress, but you find as you start to delegate that people do a great job. It’s deeper than just delegating though, Blair helped me structure the company to determine who was going to do what and when. From the networking side, that’s been great too. When I needed an attorney, I had someone trusted in my network.
What do you think a CEO should be focused on and how has the Alternative Board honed that focus? How do you spend your time?
Delegating has allowed me to look at the business as a business – we’re looking at the potential of doing business acquisitions of companies that have complementary products. We made a significant investment in a new CRM to make Taft a customer-centric sales company. We’re looking at hiring and I’ve been delegating that task. We redid our website and we’re working on doing our SEO. Delegating has given me the space to think big picture.