#15 Best Vinyl

   The suburbs have nothing on Best Vinyl. Those dreamy, idyllic white picket fences are a fixture at the American Fork company — thanks to expert management, an ever-growing market and a picturesque corporate culture. “What’s been most rewarding is creating a culture where employees are valued. No one is more important here. No one has a special parking place. We all take care of each other.” The company has taken great care through its expansion to Hawaii, California and Colorado and through its phenomenal growth to a $35-million company in just eight short years. Talk about greener pastures. 

The company was foundedin 2001 and has been growing rapidly ever since. We’re the largest company of our kind in the country, and our key to success has been a high level of competence in our chosen field. 

Often times, people are good salesmen, but they know nothing about the principles of growing a business. They don’t understand the accounting, recruiting, training and retaining. Our biggest strength has come from having a diverse management team. We all have unique and necessary skills to build the business — and we all bring something different to the table. But most importantly, we’re all on the same page.

Leaders are an essentialpart of business. A good leader is competent. He has vision. He sets a good example. And he’s willing to get down into the trenches and get himself dirty. A good leader has high expectations, and he holds his people accountable to them. He also surrounds himself with great people. If you have the right people, you don’t have to meddle. You can provide direction, goals and expectations — and then let them do their job.

Any time you grow as quickly as we have, there will be growing pains. We’ve gone from doing $1 million our first year to nearly $36 million last year, and the skills needed to build a million-dollar company are not the same skills needed to build a $40-million company. So there’s been a learning curve there.

We brought on a private equity partner a couple years ago because of our determination to expand the business and make a footprint outside of Utah. We added additional processes and more robust accounting metrics. Everything has become more sophisticated. Plus, it has allowed us to share some of the risk and opportunity. It was a great moment for us — a moment of gratitude and realization that we reached a long-term and hard-fought goal.

What’s been most rewarding is building a company where employees are valued and where they see the vision we’ve created. They appreciate the opportunity to be involved in a worthwhile pursuit. No one is more important here. No one has a special parking place. There are no special perks. And it’s been satisfying to grow from a small company to a seasoned one — and still have that kind of a culture. 

Starting a business is always harder than you think it’s going to be. And it’s an important lesson for people to realize. Depending on the industry, it always takes longer and costs more than you think it will. There was nothing easy about this.

But you do it, because there’s nothing satisfying about easy things. Whether it’s climbing Mount Everest, getting to the moon or building a big business, man was built to achieve things that are difficult.