Page 44 - Cityview Jan-Feb 2017

RANDY BOYD IS A SELF MADE MAN. He has grown from humble beginnings as atraveling salesman to his current role in guiding economic development for the entire state of Tennessee. Here is a look into what makes him tick and what might be his future in politics.Korda: How and where did your business career really begin?Boyd: Probably when I was eight years old working for my dad in his factory. He gave me a job working a dollar an hour in his factory doing assembly. By the time I was 14, I was up to minimum wage which was $4.35/hour. I thoughtI had died and gone to heaven. I had no idea what anybody could possibly do with that much money. I paid my own way through college and whileI learned a lot at The University of Tennessee, I think I learned more in the factory about business and the world than I did in the University.Korda: A er Graduation?Boyd: I went to work for my father forfour years, which was a great lesson. And then, like most young men at age 23, I realized what most young men realize: that my dad really wasn’t that smart. He was under-paying me, so I started my rst business. Within six months, it failed, and I realized my dad was a lot smarter than I gave him credit for, but I was too proud to go back.Korda: But you didn’t give up?Boyd: No, I started a new distributing company that I held for abouteight years. It was very glamorous;I had a Dodge maxi-van with noair conditioning and no radio. On weekends, I would load it full of fencing supplies and other things that a farm store would buy. My territory was Georgia, Alabama, and North Florida. I would start at 4 AM on Monday morning, call on the rst store in Ringgold, Georgia. I had aclip-board. I would go in and take their order. I’d go back out to the truck and bring in stu that they, they needed. I would put it on the shelf and price it for them. The average order was about $100. Drive down some little country road to the next town. Do that ten times a day, and at the end of the day, stayin the absolute best hotel I could nd for $18 a night. When you are paying your own way through you do what you can to save money. I didn’t have any air conditioning because I was cheap, and I didn’t have a radio because I wanted to focus on customers, make sure thatI was always listening. If you listen long enough, your customers will tell you what you want to hear. Eventually some of my customers, back in 1989, started asking me for this product called the Invisible Fence. They said the kind of thing every salesman likes to hear: it doesn’t matter how much it costs; we’ll buy as many as you can get. So I thought this sounds interesting, I’ll look into it. I called the Invisiblearound townCONVERSATIONSgeorge kordaRandy BoydA look at how the owner of the Invisible Fence Company plans to shock Tennessee back to economic prosperity.42 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2017Photograph by Bryan Allen