This week Matt sat down with Charley Boyce, president of Paschal Air, Plumbing & Electric, to discuss the challenges in expanding his company, lessons learned in baseball that apply to the business world and how business is a team sport. Learn more about Charley, along with Paschal Air, Plumbing & Electric.
Episode Transcript
Charley Boyce 0:00
What made us successful in baseball, that kind of team mentality makes us very successful
over here is just, let's put together a world class team with a bunch of like minded
individuals and let's go have some fun and be successful.
Matt Waller 0:15
Excellence, professionalism, innovation and collegiality. These are the values the
Sam M. Walton College of Business explores in education, business and the lives of
people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller Dean of the Walton College. Welcome to the
be epic podcast. I have with me today, Charley Boyce, president at Paschal, air plumbing
and electric. He has been with them since 2010. But he actually bought the company
in 2012. We're going to be talking about that. He graduated from the Walton College
in 2005. So Charlie, thanks for taking time to visit with me today about your background.
Charley Boyce 0:57
Thanks for having me. Super excited to be here. Really appreciate it.
Matt Waller 1:00
So Charlie, where did you grow up?
Charley Boyce 1:02
So I was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, went school there raised there, and then,
you know, found my way over to the University of Arkansas graduated in 01. And then
came to school here at the University of Arkansas and played baseball here. So that's
what brought me over here.
Matt Waller 1:16
You were Razorback baseball pitcher, three time captain. And you led the hogs to the
2004 College World Series that is quite an accomplishment.
Charley Boyce 1:27
We were very fortunate had a lot a lot of success. I think we were kind of part of
the group that put baseball back on the map. But the people they got in there today
are a little bit more talented than in our group that was there.
Matt Waller 1:38
You are a young person. I'm 57. And so you seem young to me, but you really have
accomplished a lot. I mean, majoring in business and playing baseball. That's that's
a lot to juggle.
Charley Boyce 1:50
It had its set of challenges. But I was first kind of generation going to college.
I think like I was going to be successful at that. But I enjoyed going to class every
day. And I enjoyed playing baseball every day. So those were the two things I really
kind of sunk my teeth into, you know, just keeping a schedule to with baseball, they
were going to make sure you were going to school too there's no way to kind of nail
that in you had to be eligible, but I really did enjoy it. It worked really well for
me.
Matt Waller 2:15
When you graduated, you move back to Tulsa for a while. Is that correct?
Charley Boyce 2:20
No, I actually stayed here. So yeah, whenever I graduated, and I was done playing,
I didn't really know what I was going to do was I going to go back to school and get
my MBA or enter the workforce or my family has an HVAC company that my grandfather
started. So I'm third generation in the trades. I went to work for a supply house.
So I was in HVAC distribution, got to know all the contractors so Paschal was actually
once a customer of mine, I came to work for Paschal in 2010. And then I worked under
our old owner for two years, and then I acquired the company in 2012.
Matt Waller 2:55
When you started with the company, did you think you would eventually buy it?
Charley Boyce 2:59
That was my goal, Yeah, absolutely. When I came in, we were obviously a lot smaller
back then than we are today. But it was a good company that had been around since
the 60s. You know, if you were from Northwest Arkansas, like Springdale, specifically,
you knew Paschal, but a lot of people didn't know Paschal was kind of the best kept
secret little company and our old owner, he didn't really have an exit strategy. He
was in his maybe early 60s At the time when I hired on I mean, I told him with that
intent, like, hey, my goal is to work for you for a couple years, and then eventually
buy you out. I can't say that he took me super serious at the time, but you know,
eventually kind of came to pass.
Matt Waller 3:36
Well, you had only been out of the U of A, for a few years, seven years, when you
bought the company,
Charley Boyce 3:44
I acquired a company, I believe I was maybe 28 or 29.
Matt Waller 3:48
Then again that's pretty young for your first acquisition. And now you've been owning
it for nine years. How did you think through plan and orchestrate the acquisition?
Have you witnessed such an acquisition before?
Charley Boyce 4:04
No, I was just figuring it out on the fly. I've worked in a great company, right?
So I was a part of Paschal for two years. I mean, the good news is I was a part of
the fabric of the company. I knew everybody I knew our old owner, you know, he was
ready to exit and retire. So I mean, we were all on board, and we were all kind of
working in the same direction. So that that was positive. I wasn't an outsider just
buying a company. You know, we have a CFO here who's really good, and he kind of helped
me, him and I have kind of functioned as partners for the last 10 years. Obviously
a great learning experience at a young age. You know, we've done a couple of since
then, but looking back, you don't think about it, you know, you're just kind of going
through and doing it. You know, I've made plenty of mistakes along the way. But yeah,
it just kind of works itself out.
Matt Waller 4:48
How many employees did you have when you acquired it?
Charley Boyce 4:51
When I got here in 2010, I think we were maybe 15 plus or minus a couple and then
took over in 12. We were probably 20 to 25. Today, we're right at 200. So it's been
a lot of growth over the last 10 years for sure.
Matt Waller 5:05
200
Charley Boyce 5:06
Yeah, it is a lot of growth, we averaged 20% growth year over a year for the last
number of years. And then the last couple years specifically has really been a lot
of growth. We're getting now to where we're, we're doubling every 24-36 months. It's
a challenge. And we just got to keep a handle on it and make sure we're, you know,
we got good processes in place and people in place to keep up with the growth.
Matt Waller 5:31
The two things you mentioned, are challenging the people, processes and systems to
support the processes. And then also the funding, you know, even if you're making
a profit, it's no simple matter to fund that kind of growth.
Charley Boyce 5:47
You're 100% right. So to date, we have funded our own growth, right, like we've just
done it through traditional finance and the banking institutions. And for me, it's
just about growing the business and watching our people be successful. What is your
territory? We started in Northwest Arkansas in March of 20, we acquired a company
in southwest Missouri in the Joplin market, February, March of this year 21, we put
up a facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas. So we now have three locations.
Matt Waller 6:14
You've gone from having a handful of people to a couple 100. That's a big challenge.
It's hard to find good people, and then you got to train them, help them to understand
and become a part of the culture that you've created. How do you do that?
Charley Boyce 6:30
It was a lot harder early. And it's still something that is not necessarily easy,
but it's almost kind of this virtuous cycle. It's a lot of time, energy and effort
early. And it's just the culture, it's what you do every day. And it's how we conduct
ourselves how we talk to each other, how we talk to customers, it's just what we do.
We're very intentional on what it is to be Paschal. At the end of the day, our culture's
our most important thing are people in a service based business like ours, not a whole
lot of what we do is proprietary. Everyone can go buy trucks, everyone can hire people,
everyone can do what we do, I mean, but we just offer a service, and making sure we
have happy customers and happy employees, I mean that that is what is differentiating
in our market. If we're delivering on both of those fronts, you know, the company
is going to be on good footing, and we're going to we're going to keep growing.
Matt Waller 7:22
Well, as you get bigger, more processes need to be in place. And it's hard to implement
new processes. And it's sometimes hard to scale existing processes. Because when firms
are small, you can have labor intensive processes. But as they scale, you've got to
start automating using technology. How have you managed that?
Charley Boyce 7:46
Well, not well, we've made a lot of mistakes along the way, you're 100% accurate in
that we look at fulfillment or ops and execution, and how are we doing? And when you're
running 20-50 70- 80 people, it's one thing in one location when you got your thumb
on it, but then as you start getting 100 employees 150 200 different locations. Now
it's how do we how do we produce it scale. And solving for scale is something that's
a little bit more challenging, but at the same time, once you get it right, then a
lot of the growth comes a little bit easier, because the solutions you put in place
are scalable. It's something that we're always working on mindset, that's kind of
how I'm geared is to make sure I'm removing bottlenecks. And in growing and scaling,
you know, one saying I heard one time that always works with me is we're too busy
mopping up the water to turn off the sink. A lot of times our solution is just to
throw more mops at it. But like, let's take a step back. What do we need to do to
turn the water off? That's kind of our solution is when we constantly keep coming
up against a problem. Are we trying to turn off the sink? Or are we just throwing
more mops at this, we brought an individual in who's another university Arkansas alum
from Houston, he actually used to work at Exxon, but he is just a process engineer.
So we brought him in. And that was my whole thing to him is hey, we got to make this
scalable, right? We have this really good business. But we need to learn to 2x 3x
4x our output, with not 2x 3x 4x and our people. So that's his whole job is just to
streamline operations. And he's he's been very helpful.
Matt Waller 9:24
That was smart of you. I mean, I think a lot of times, entrepreneurs at your stage,
they don't think that far ahead. But the investment you make in that is just so valuable.
Charley Boyce 9:36
Yeah, I think in the first five, six years of owning and running the business, I didn't
make those decisions, probably pull my hair out trying to keep up with it. But I think
get to a point where like, Alright, there's got to be a better way you can keep doing
what you're doing, or you know, you can take a step back and so that's the way I look
at it. I'm either working in the business or on the business, and my whole role is
to work on the business. Not necessarily in it every day. And so all I try to do is
architect and put the right people in the right seats and making sure we're flowing
the right way. But if I'm stuck in the business, then the business is never really
going to grow. What's your vision for the future? We want to keep going. We're looking
at adjacent markets right now Springfield, Little Rock, Tulsa, North Dallas, just
in that whole area, I want to keep going, like you said, we're young, we've had some
success. And we have this really good company in this part of the world. And I really
want to take the show on the road and just build out a world class service organization
that serves a region.
Matt Waller 10:38
You have even when you were in school, you had interest in eventually building your
own business. You didn't see yourself as being a corporate kind of guy you didn't
like the to be a part of the bureaucracy in a formal type of a situation. And yet
you wanted to build a great business. What are some ways you're you're doing that?
Charley Boyce 11:00
Yeah, I don't think I would do well, in a corporate environment. I like to move fast.
What made us successful in baseball, that kind of team mentality, we win together,
we lose together, what made us successful there makes us very successful over here
is just, let's put together a world class team with a bunch of like minded individuals.
And let's go have some fun and be successful. I don't know that I was thinking about
it at the time, but just taking baseball, and then what I grew up doing, HVAC just
kind of found a way to marry those two worlds. And we're, we've had some success at
it. And we're we're having a lot of fun in the process.
Matt Waller 11:37
That's interesting, especially what you're saying about your experience with baseball.
Of course, you were three time captain for the Hogs baseball team. So you're saying
that that experience helped you in terms of team building today?
Charley Boyce 11:53
Without question business, in my opinion, like it's very much a team sport. I mean,
yes, you need to be good at what you do. But you need to get that whole organization
performing well. So it doesn't matter how good I am. It's about the whole place, and
how well can the whole organization function? I think the stuff that we learned in
team sports or baseball, or how to lead or servant leadership, or accountability,
and just helping each other out, that very much translates over to the business world.
Matt Waller 12:22
Again, I'm really impressed with what you have done. In a short time you've been out
of the Walton College, congratulations on that. But what advice do you have for students?
Charley Boyce 12:34
You know, looking at my own path, it was a maybe a little bit unconventional, it makes
a lot of sense now, because of what we've been able to build. But heating and air
is not real sexy, you can bring a lot of fun or sophistication, like HVAC is not the
super innovative market. So we were able to apply a certain level of team atmosphere
and sophistication and technology to kind of an unsophisticated industry. And we were
able to have a little bit of success and still do so people say follow your passion.
I think there's some truth to that now, you still have to pay the bills. So I think
you kind of got to marry both of those two. But when I was in the supply house business,
we were good at it, but I was not fulfilled at a certain level. I felt like it was
Groundhog Day. And I was bored. Now I work three times as hard. But I enjoy what I
do. And I almost have to peel myself out of here. So you know, I have some buddies
that are very successful, very intelligent, but you can tell that they're not fulfilled
in their jobs. So I would just say, find your passion, find what you would do if you
didn't have to pay bills, and then maybe see if there's a way you can monetize it.
And you might be surprised what what might happen.
Matt Waller 13:55
Great advice. Thank you so much, Charley, for taking time to visit with me today.
And congratulations on your terrific success in business.
Charley Boyce 14:06
Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.
Matt Waller 14:08
On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, I want to thank everyone for spending
time with us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe by going to your
favorite podcast service and searching. Be epic B E EP IC
