'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Eastern Indiana

Ep. 16 | Richmond's Legacy: Mike Allen on Ice Cream, Wires, and Entrepreneurial Spirit | Insights with Michael Allen

• Kevin Shook • Episode 16

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Have you ever wondered what it was like to scoop ice cream for just 65 cents an hour? Join us for an engaging episode as we sit down with my father, Mike Allen, who takes us on a nostalgic trip through his early work experiences at Wayne Dairy and the Richmond Bottling Company. Mike's heartfelt recollections of the local business environment in Richmond, Indiana, and his schooling days offer a charming glimpse into the past, providing listeners with both personal anecdotes and valuable life lessons.

Our journey continues as we explore the professional paths of Richmond locals, including a former employee of Wayne Works and Belden, who shares intriguing insights into the wire and cable industry during the late 60s and early 70s. But the highlight is Geneva Allen's inspiring entrepreneurial saga; from her time at the FBI to founding her own accounting business and launching the Manpower franchise in Richmond in 1966. Her resilience and drive shine through, particularly in overcoming personal challenges such as battling breast cancer while still pushing forward in her career.

Finally, we delve into the intricacies of managing a staffing agency, from early morning dispatch operations to navigating financial struggles, and the eventual move back to the Bay Area in 1977. This episode offers a blend of personal and professional stories, underscoring the importance of work ethic, family support, and resilience in achieving business success. Reconnect with the roots of our family business and discover the generational values that continue to propel us forward.

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Speaker 1

Michael Allen from Manpower. We are a national brand, yet locally owned franchise. We are familiar with the challenges businesses face. It's tough recruiting and retaining qualified employees. That's why working with Manpower is a smart, cost-effective solution. Our entire focus is talent acquisition. We'll manage your hiring and training and provide ongoing, customized support. Since 1966, we have been your community-invested partner, uniquely positioned to help eliminate the hassles and save you time and money. Let us help contact Manpower today. Hello and welcome to the Hub powered by Manpower of Richmond, also in Portland and Newcastle, and I am your host, michael Allen. And here on the Hub we interview local businesses, community partners and various special guests, and our mission is to share and spotlight unique and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who are making a difference in our community. So today we have a rather special guest today. It's somebody I've known literally my entire life, and a special welcome to my dad, mike Allen.

Speaker 2

Thank you, my son.

Speaker 1

Michael. So, dad, currently you live full-time in Naples, florida, and you're kind enough to come and visit for my 60th birthday this week and we're just jam-packing your visit with golf and visiting with family and friends and the manpower staff and kevin and I were talking several months ago about how it would be kind of a unique opportunity to do the hub with you, and so I'm glad that we're getting getting to do this together today. So part of what I hope to do today is just kind of go over part of your, your personal story, kind of chronicle for our followers how, um, our family, business, manpower, began in Richmond. However, before we get to that, I want to start with our hub tradition and every guest. Uh, we asked them about their very first job, and I think I might know what it is, but I'll let you share it with everyone. So, going back several years ago, what was your very first job?

Speaker 2

First job was at Wayne Dairy and it was ice cream, and I was getting ice cream for people for, like, I think, 65 cents an hour, and it was downtown, where Wayne Bank is located, all right, and so that was my first job.

Speaker 1

So was that just like a ice cream shop?

Speaker 2

It was actually it was like a soda shop, but people would come in and buy small pints of ice cream and I would go back in the freezer and pick out whatever flavor they wanted and bring it in and I would go back in the freezer and pick out whatever flavor they wanted and bring it in and that's really all I remember. But I was 16 years old and making 65 cents an hour and it was a great job, I think.

Speaker 1

It was cold in that freezer, by the way. Did you do that? Was that like a weekend job, or you're doing that after school?

Speaker 2

Yeah, that was during the summer, actually.

Speaker 1

All right, so it was during the summer actually All right, so it was during the summer, but so that isn't the job I was thinking about. I was thinking more about.

Speaker 2

You used to talk about the bottling company, the Coca-Cola, coca-cola, I thought you were probably thinking about that job because I did that when I was in high school and I was actually able to drive trucks around. I had to get actually a chauffeur's license and had to drive the Coca-Cola trucks out on US 40 to their warehouse, basically around the corner. So that was my first job and I guess you might say that was seemed to be more important to me because I was able to have a car in my senior year at high school. I was able to pay for my own gas and I felt pretty cool driving around that 1956 Chevrolet yeah.

Speaker 1

Tell us a little bit more you know about the. Was it called the Richmond Bottling Company? Or was it Coke, or was it actually Coca-Cola? Yeah, it was they?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I guess it would be a franchise bottling company. The Witherby family that owned that, and so that's what I remember about it. I remember.

Speaker 1

I'm not sure when they stopped doing it, but I can still remember. I mean they would fill the bottles with Coke. Oh yeah, it was going through a conveyor line. Absolutely, it was a coke.

Speaker 2

oh yeah, I mean it was going through a conveyor line it was a bottling company and, um, it was very interesting because I would unload seven trucks at night, I can remember, and there were open trucks and you had to take off these and you would throw them on a conveyor and a lot of times they'd be filled, uh, with other than coke, because they're being returned all the time. They actually brought the bottles back in the trucks and so we would load those off and then we'd reload the trucks with new product for the next morning.

Speaker 1

So it wasn't just Coca-Cola that was being bottled.

Speaker 2

You know, actually it's all I remember. I don't remember anything except Coca-Cola. It could have been something else but it's what I remember.

Speaker 1

It just sort of seems like that's what everybody remembers. I think that's what everybody remembers about it. So it feels a little weird to ask you this question because we know each other, but I guess I'd just like for our followers, just kind of go back, share with everyone where you grew up and just growing just you know, growing up as a child and and where that all started and well, uh, of course, uh uh, richmond has always been my home.

Speaker 2

Um, I spent uh some time in uh in uh. Maybe a couple other places that uh other than richmond, but basically uh my full time in Richmond. And growing up I remember to Pleasant View Junior High School and went to Highland before that and then eventually, of course, richmond High.

Speaker 1

Right, it's funny because we had spoke to Skip Reynolds a while back and he went to. He mentioned view and highland, right and uh, where? Where were you living at that time?

Speaker 2

what part of town it was, uh, williamsburg pike, and it was right before they started to build interstate 70. Okay, and so, um, my parents had built a house, as you may remember, uh, or no, you didn't.

Speaker 1

You were already told about it, but they built a house.

Speaker 2

As you may remember or know, you were already told about it. But they built a house and then here comes along Interstate 70, and they built a fence right in front of the house, about 15 feet from the house, and took all the frontage that we had going to Williamsburg Pike. So that was kind of interesting and we had to find a way back out of the property, the back property, another road to get past, the access to the interstate. So that was the neighborhood and back then they had a farm across the street. Oh, I forgot about that. One of the first jobs I had was 11 years old, actually helping get hay in the farmer next door and that was 75 cents an hour, right, that was a lot of money back then.

Speaker 1

That makes me think that when. I interviewed Roger Golden. It was quite a while back and his first job was like that. He was like picking strawberries. That was his job.

Speaker 2

Why they let me drive a tractor 11 11, because I could hardly reach the pedals and after I'd knocked most of the hay off of the trailer, I didn't get to. That was my last day for that job, by the way, that's what's kind of cool, though, about?

Speaker 1

I mean, for people that work on a farm, kids that work on a farm and everything they're normally way ahead of the curve on driving because, they get to drive tractors and stuff, and I don't think OSHA was involved back then too much.

Speaker 2

I don't think I'd been driving a tractor at 11 years old, yeah probably not, but I think the rules for out in the farm are a little bit different.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that area. I mean, it's just hard to comprehend. The interstate 70 wasn't even there, yeah, and a lot of people wish they were, and there's plans to do some major renovations of 70, but you know it's pretty bad going from indianapolis to richmond these days. It's really not a pleasant drive, I I suspect back then they were just all pouring concrete.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, yeah, just all concrete well, I can remember that, uh, I think it was too all concrete road. I can remember that, uh, I think it was too. Uh, it was. There's only a section. It stopped at ohio line and it went into indiana maybe five or ten miles and we would get out and drive from the east side to the west side because there's four, four exits on on 70 and it was, and for some reason that section was done. So that was. That was fun to go out and and take off and and go from point a to point b and on on the interstate. You know, thinking what it was going to be. It was. That was kind of unique.

Speaker 1

I uh did, uh, did your parents, my, my grandparents? Did they get any compensation from the state at all?

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, Whatever, I can't remember it was but they did get compensated for the land they took from that part of the property?

Speaker 1

I'm sure it's not, as maybe if they were doing it today, I bet it'd be a lot more money. Probably would be given there because it's like, hey, we're taking this property and here's a little bit of change and you know, maybe, maybe they got more.

Speaker 2

I don't know, I mean I don't, I don't remember it being a windfall, as they say.

Speaker 1

Yeah so that, and later, I mean years later that area where your parents lived and then also, I believe, my, uh, grandpa Allen's, his mom, right down there. And then the first couple of years of my life. There was, there was a like a a cow barn or something that had been converted into a house, or something?

Speaker 2

Yeah, it was, and that's eventually where I lived with you. Yes, you actually lived in that house.

Speaker 1

Yeah, if you called it a house Converted cow barn and I think my mom or you told me once about that. You could like hear the mice running in the ceiling.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it would be subject to small animals and rodents coming into the building. Yeah, to the house.

Speaker 1

It was quite normal, Some humble beginnings there. Later Dana built buildings there. Isn't that the same property where Dana built their corporate or whatever headquarters in that area?

Speaker 2

That's kind of where that was. Yeah, they did.

Speaker 1

For those that would know that part of town, I mean then that all shut down and then Wolverine was out there for a while Now Wolverine's no longer there and I believe another company has purchased that corporate building and they have plans to use that for their offices and then lease some offices out. But that's interesting that that's where that property was. Yeah, exactly right, it changed quite a bit, leased some offices out, but that's interesting that that's where that property was.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you know exactly right yeah it changed quite a bit. Um, originally it was a trucking company. It was going there and that never developed for whatever reason. I think. Actually a bankruptcy evolved out of it. Um, rmcd, I think was, was, uh was the name of the trucking company and they had planned to move from, I think, downtown rich Richmond out there. It just never happened and eventually Dana came in, as you said.

Speaker 1

So chronicling after your life, kind of go through your work career. I mean, we talked about you know scooping ice cream, getting ice cream out of the freezer or stacking bottles an ice cream. You know getting ice cream out of freezer or stacking bottles, but you're, you're, you're grown. Your first kind of grown-up job was where that was. It was a natco.

Speaker 2

Okay, yeah, had an opportunity to go to natco and I was there for two years. And then in 67, actually two and a half years in 67, I got an opportunity to go to Belt and Wire and Cable and I was there for six years.

Speaker 1

What did you do at since you were there a little bit longer? What was your job at Wayne Works? What did?

Speaker 2

you do. The first job was I was assisting in all the different departments filling in for vacations. So I was and became a full-time job. Belden had so many long-term employees back then you got to remember they probably had. The number I remember is like 1,800 employees. It was just a major employer in Richmond and so it was.

Speaker 1

So we're talking about Belden, or?

Speaker 2

Wayne Works. Well, we're now already gone and we can go back to Wayne Works. If we go back to Wayne Works, I was in the scheduling department and helping and I would go and track all the buses from each department until they were finished and then we would get a call from whoever had placed the orders and when is our bus going to be ready for delivery. And so that was the job for my two years in that two-year period and then actually spring of 67th when I went to belton wiring cable.

Speaker 2

Okay, and that's when you were initially filling in for I was filling in, but they had that people with up to five weeks vacation and they had. I mean, I I couldn't tell you how many parties we celebrate for people with 30 years, 40 years, 50 years of service at belton, for people with 30 years, 40 years, 50 years of service at Belton, and they always had a big party. They would go down in the lunchroom and have a big cake and they would literally almost stop production for everybody and bring everybody in to celebrate, especially when they hit the 40 or 50 years. And so, with that many weeks of vacation, they needed somebody to work full-time. At that time it really felt like it was a part-time job, but I would go from department whether it was a wire mill or a cabling department and help with the production and lining the schedules out for those weeks that I was filling in, you probably really kind of learned everything about the company doing that, every facet of what they did.

Speaker 2

And then eventually they moved the sales department from Chicago and then I took a job for outside sales, inside sales, for some of their distributors, and it happened to be West Coast distributors of Belden.

Speaker 1

So you went in a little bit later because it was West Coast. I mean, what were your hours? Well, I took that job. You went in a little bit later because it was West Coast. I mean, what were your hours?

Speaker 2

Well, I took that job and that was probably my third year in Tobelden I think it was like 1970. And so the job was from 9.30 to 6. And so it didn't matter and it was a promotion and I was happy to have the job. I didn't have to be outside in the factory and it wasn't air conditions in some of the areas.

Speaker 1

It was still pretty hot in there to this day, I know.

Speaker 2

But anyway. So I was happy to get the promotion and was able to handle and enjoy the job of talking to the west coast customers. They had and, and distributors and uh. So that's what I did until 1973 the technology really changed since then.

Speaker 1

What were people using wire and cable for then? Do you recall what, how, their, what kind of cable was being made and what they were using it for? Well, I mean or even we're privy to that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean really the cable that I involved was all specialty. So the customers that I, some of the customers I had, it was custom-made cables. You got to remember the computer was and the computer chip was just being developed in the early 70s. So computers were being developed. But the typical in any wiring cable, for example all the wiring that used to go into slot machines, you forget there seemed like hundreds, almost 100 feet of wire in these big bertha machines and all of that was done by wiring. There was no computer chips and eventually it changed. Obviously, but during that process anything that required a cable, any wiring, it could have been anything you could imagine that took a wiring.

Speaker 1

Power cords. Telephone cords to Power cords yeah sure. Telephone Cords to handsets.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

I mean, Plantronics is another company they did originally and they required wiring, same as we're hooked up now.

Speaker 1

Yeah, do you remember? Do you recall if they did any kind of government work at that time, they were providing any products to the government for stuff they were using?

Speaker 2

or whatever. Livermore Labs was one of the accounts in California, and so it required all kind of wiring, of course.

Speaker 1

I mean, back then the computers were like a room, yeah right, I mean they were huge. So, belden, that was until 73. And then that's when you went to California, right, for a few years.

Speaker 2

That was until 77.

Speaker 1

Okay, and then that's when you came back here for Manpower, so that chronicles to you came to Manpower, correct, so so that chronicles to you came to manpower. But but let's go back now and talk about uh, the the manpower business and uh how that got started. So, uh, your mother, my grandmother, geneva Allen, uh started the manpower franchise here in Richmond. But tell us a little bit about uh, her career. Just, you know highlights about you know her, her work history, leading up to the point that she became a entrepreneur, a female entrepreneur, in 1966, which in and itself is pretty remarkable well, um, my mother was born in 1924.

Speaker 2

I was born in 44. And you were born in 64, right, okay, so things are quite changed. So what was amazing is that about my mother, which I think is quite unique. So she's in high school, getting ready to graduate, and she's 18 years old, and they announced that anyone would like to work for the FBI, that they're taking applications. So she applied for the FBI and was hired, and later, on.

Speaker 2

She gave me a copy of the letter from J Edgar Hoover that says I want you to report at this location, washington dc. Don't tell anybody anybody where you're going or what you're doing, and uh, so so you know. Finding that about your mother was, I think, pretty cool and pretty unique that someone that young left this city for a job that she was and I can explain more about what the job was for, but that was her first job, and so she left Richmond and eventually came back. But when she was there she was providing documents of persons of interest for the FBI and she actually ended up managing a group of seven people in her division providing these documents, and that's what she did. And then she eventually worked for the Red Cross for a short time also after that and then came back to Richmond and then took an accounting position.

Speaker 1

What was the guy's name that she worked for? Do you recall his name?

Speaker 2

In accounting department. It was a CPA firm. I want to say Wilson is what I remember. And that's been a long time ago, I think it was right off of A. I think it was South A, no North A and 8th Street.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah, I kind of remember kind of the location years ago, that area where she worked. Right, it was interesting about her going to work. Going back a little bit about the fbi was I mean they needed a lot of women to do different jobs during then because our country was at war? Yeah world war ii, and I mean so you know the, the guys that she was in high school with.

Speaker 2

They were probably in the military they were off the war absolutely tons of them.

Speaker 1

So it opened up an opportunity, probably for women during that time, to do jobs that typically they wouldn't have had the opportunity to do.

Speaker 2

You think that's probably fair.

Speaker 1

Absolutely yeah, so that kind of helped catapult her into, I think, probably in a professional world, in a working world where maybe it wouldn't have turned out that way initially.

Speaker 2

I mean the need for a college education or all those qualifications weren't required. They just needed people to go to work. That's the reason they had so many women in the workforce in manufacturing at that time. Rosie the Riveter, there you go.

Speaker 1

She was doing accounting. She was a public accountant. I'm not sure how she I don't know if maybe you even remember how she ended up obtaining that accounting skill. I mean.

Speaker 2

I don't remember that. That I probably also don't know, although her mother, my grandmother, also did accounting, so it you know. Somewhere along the line it was passed on. Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast accounting, so it you know somewhere along the line it was passed on.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast, like you know going back to my grandma's parents, because they were really kind of unique and very, uh, interesting people. You know, especially granddad, your grandfather, melvin smith. He I mean we, we could talk all day about him. We just loved him to death. I mean Vida too, but he was more of a kind of an out front person than she was. But we definitely could spend a lot of time talking about that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because now you're going back to 1899, when he was born. Absolutely, I had a lot of stories about what happened during his lifetime. Oh, yeah.

Family Business Expansion Through Manpower

Speaker 1

But back to Geneva. So she was doing accounting and well, I think she liked it because she did it until 10 days before she passed. She was still doing that kind of work, Exactly In her 80s, in her 80s. But so, from your recollection, how did it go from her working for this accounting company CPA firm? I don't know if they were CPAs back then, or not but if that was the right term. But how did it come about this whole manpower business idea for her?

Speaker 2

well, um, from the accounting, uh what? How did she ended up with her own accounting firm? Okay and we have to kind of back into how did that happen?

Speaker 2

so what happened? There is, unfortunately. She had breast cancer at 38 years old, okay, so she had to go home and recover from that. Well, when she's home, she has a lot of people call her and say we would like to have you do our accounting, even though you're home and recovering. And that was a unique opportunity because there was, you know, back then there was no FMLA or any type of benefits for people that need to be home for several weeks or even sometime, technology and surgery for, for breast cancer I mean?

Speaker 1

I mean, her surgery was was pretty intense, yeah very, very major and uh invasive, exactly.

Speaker 2

so in recovery time was much more so anyway. So anyway, he had people come to her and bring actually work to the house, and so she worked until she's a recover. She was going to go back to work for, let's say, wilson was in them and they said why do that? Why don't you start your own company and you'll be some of our first customers. And she was brave enough to do that. So she opened a small office on uh, on uh, south 11th street, right off of right there where welling I think it was uh, I want to say welling real estate as a whaling, whaling, whaling.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I always remember that, it's even as a kid. Thanks for helping me there, son.

Speaker 2

I am a little bit older than you. You know, I remember that, you know how I remember that how, even as a kid.

Speaker 1

Thanks for helping me there, son. I am a little bit older than you. You know how I remember that?

Speaker 2

How's that?

Speaker 1

Had a whale on their sign.

Speaker 2

That's right whaling, that's right Whaling. And it was very kind of cool how they built off of that name.

Speaker 1

They had like a big whale. That was part of their sign. It was real estate insurance or something, wasn't it? Yeah?

Speaker 2

and the other side of this. I think it was four offices.

Speaker 1

There was a barber shop right, and so there was two offices in the middle and she opened her accounting firm there yeah, so she was doing that, she had clients and and she must have been doing fairly well she did, she ended up up.

Speaker 2

I remember quite quickly she had like four staff members working for her and then she grew quite quickly within about two years. The first two years.

Speaker 1

Yeah, was that what?

Speaker 2

it had been so that would have been 60, now we're talking about 66. When she looks in the paper, can you imagine the palladium item? And she saw an ad, somebody with an accounting background interested in opening a temporary help service. And before they became better known as staffing companies, the word was temporary help. And so she had an accounting background. And here's a woman already had worked for the FBI, so she was not afraid to try new things and so she answered the ad. She went to Milwaukee, wisconsin, where Manpower was founded in 1948. So the company was only 18 years old and the way they were expanding was through franchisee. And so she decided that okay, I'll go check it out. And they they found out what her background was.

Speaker 1

And she went, she trained, came back and opened manpower in september 21, 1966 wow, yeah, it's uh, it's amazing, and so she started that, and kind of around that time, I think that's when also you would have been at Belden right.

Speaker 2

Yeah, around that close to that time. Yeah, 66. I was actually still at. I was at Wingworks.

Speaker 1

Okay, but then you had.

Speaker 2

Then in 60, so within six months after she opened the office.

Speaker 1

Now I was at belton right and you were working um that 9, 30 time yet, or were you?

Speaker 2

no that wasn't initially. That was kind of later, when you know that that was until a couple of years later, but but if you want to talk about my first job at manpower, yeah, like well, she had that.

Speaker 1

I mean there's kind of two parallel stories. You know the business started but you know, so I guess just share about like you kind of helped out with the business but tell us a little bit about. I mean, do you recall at all? I mean it's so hard to go, I mean it's a long time time ago but so she opens the doors. Do you do you recall about when she got her first clients or how that that started coming, that the work started coming in for the manpower side?

Speaker 2

sure, he had established accounting business and staff and that was going, but it's well, being an avid golfer that both of us are and we like to golf. The first job, the first major job she had was helping put in. They needed 20 part-time people for the fall of 1966, and we're talking October, november of 66, to put in the irrigation system at Forest Hills, a new system. So she had an order for 20 people and that was really. I mean, back then that was considered a big order, believe it or not? Oh sure, and so from there it's a good order today. Yeah, that's right, we would take that right in a minute.

Speaker 1

Oh yeah for sure.

Speaker 2

So anyway, that was one of the first actually that I remember talking about. But it was one person here, one person there. There was a company called Wall Lake Door and they became kind of a major account back in the early days and so a lot of them was in office jobs. So a lot of them was in office jobs and originally one of the reasons that Elmer Winter actually started Manpower. The story I remember it was kind of interesting, which also kind of gives you an idea how the concept started.

Speaker 2

Actually, his secretary, she had major surgery, she was going to be off for months, and so he said what am I going to do? I've got to hire someone to bring in, and now I've got to pay the workers' comp, the liability insurance, make out the paycheck, w-2 at the end of the year. So how do I handle this? And he said, guys, wouldn't it be nice to let somebody else's company find me a qualified secretary that I could call up, who wants to work, maybe only part-time, that does this and works for this company? And I just called the company and said send me a secretary for the next three months. And that's literally how Manpower started in Milwaukee in 1948.

Speaker 1

He identified a need and kind of came up with a solution.

Speaker 2

Exactly yeah.

Speaker 1

And those early years it probably was more predominantly, maybe, like office jobs. And then it got into manufacturing and industrial, which ended up being more of the sweet spot for staffing in later years, yeah, the whole spectrum of technical and then permanent placements also.

Speaker 2

So well, so back. Maybe I can back up a little bit. Actually, the first job I had was in 1968, in in right after I just had one. So it was 67 to start at Belden and 68. I had one week of vacation and Mother came to me and says what do you do on your vacation? I said not much.

Speaker 2

I don't have any money to go anywhere. She said well, gosh, I need someone to unload a boxcar of lumber and it's an old town in Ohio, I can't remember now for some reason. Anyway, I said okay. She says and you've got a car and you can drive these other three guys and do that for a week, because it's going to take a week to do that. And I said that'd be great because now I can work, have an extra paycheck for that week in addition to the vacation week.

Speaker 2

So it was, it was just and what else was going to do. So that was my actually my first job. And then in 1970 is when I took the new position at Belden in my job, and then my day started at 9 30. And then that's when she came to me and says oh, by the way, why don't come in and open the office at 6 and work till 9 and dispatch people to go to work, and then you'll have a half an hour before you go to Belden and then you'll work till 6. And then why don't you come in on Saturdays and do the payroll by hand?

Speaker 2

And I said well, that's great Raising two small children you and your sister and back then working 12 hours or working extra jobs was necessary and I was happy to do it.

Speaker 1

Just needed the money.

Speaker 2

I needed the money and was lucky. And what better to work for your mother and learned some skills and accounting skills from her that. I didn't have Right Doing payroll and by then you had to open a book and say, okay, how much for taxes. No computers, no cell phones. It was a different world back then.

Speaker 1

When people came. What was the office like back in those early days? Because I know I know the answer to it, but I think it's really interesting what it was like when people came in looking for work or whatever.

Early Morning Dispatch Operations and Challenges

Speaker 2

Well, you, had a chair that you had about maybe 10, 12 chairs right in front, right as soon as you walked in, and then you had it with. From here to you there's a desk and another desk behind that and I think maybe one more, and then the restroom and it literally was like a hall, and so they would come in and it was called and back then they called the waiting room. Now you got to think about it. That's the way they operated. So they came in, they sit down, you got an order and then normally the person who had a car was one of the first ones. That's just pecking order, yeah who chose?

Speaker 2

how can? Who's got a car and that was the first okay you got, and they all maybe qualified, they all wanted to go to work and and a lot of and these were mostly I was dispatching that early in the morning people who were calling the, calling the office and said we had 10 people absent. Can you send us 10 employees to fill in at this particular position? They were just general labor positions. So that's what we did. That's how I would dispatch these individuals to a different job and sometimes I would drive them to the job, leave the office, take them there myself and then come back and and then someone will help take care of position of filling orders. Why I was not there for those three hours?

Speaker 1

yeah, so god, and they were probably predominantly men at that time. They were just all guys coming in, sitting in in chairs in the waiting room. Absolutely Probably smoking cigarettes Very common.

Speaker 2

Bringing in, maybe, their donuts. We provided actually that was one that I think they came in for the donuts and coffee. You had coffee, I had coffee and donuts and they enjoyed that Even somebody to get a job they were just happy to be there be inside warm.

Speaker 1

Yeah, were these. Do you think some of these guys were kind of people that were kind of down on their luck or whatever, or just happened to be unemployed, I think?

Speaker 2

it's just people trying to get into the labor force and maybe they had lost a job.

Speaker 2

People trying to get into the labor force and maybe they had lost a job, maybe they were laid off or maybe they had lost a job for not being there on time or or too many absenteeisms or what it didn't know the case.

Speaker 2

So we just took the application and and and of what their situation was and back then you know, maybe we didn't have all the knowledge to find out. You know, obviously, what their total background was, but as long as they were willing to go to work and performed well and the company wanted them back, then that helped build their career to getting another job. In a lot of cases the companies, as you well know, end up hiring a lot of our staffing employees because they were dependable, they went to work every day and they wanted to have a full-time job eventually there was a a short period early on in, uh, the franchise's career where grandmother was trying to make it work and I don't think it was really going that well for her initially from my memory and I think she called uh elmer winter the founder and I think, if I got the story correct, she had called because she was concerned about even keeping it going.

Speaker 1

Is that correct?

Speaker 2

She actually had a letter that said you know, things are becoming difficult. And it had to be, it was probably 68, maybe or somewhere around there. And they said, well, we think the economy is going to turn around, we talk about there going to turn around. Um, we talk about during the Vietnam war, you know, there's just a lot of unsettled, unsettled issues going in the country, but um, anyway. So they encouraged her to continue on and um, and she did, and, and, and. Glad she did is that?

Speaker 1

did that somehow coincide with that Forest Hills job, or was it not?

Speaker 2

No, I think that was actually the Forest Hills job was in 66. Okay, so it was a couple years after that when there was just a tough time. And I'm thinking whatever that was, because, remember, a lot of people don't know cash flow and I think much of't know we. Cash flow and and I think it must have been anything is probably cash flow, because when we at manpower, as you know, we bring in someone to work, you pay them the next week, right, the customers may not pay you for four weeks or six weeks or 60 days and sometimes 90 days, so you have to have it's, that's basically our inventories, our receivables, and you have to have cash flow, so be able to manage cash flow.

Speaker 2

I can remember having to go to the bank and actually trying to get a line of credit for $40,000. And it was not easy and it was difficult for $40,000 and was not easy and it was difficult, and so we did have some help from some nice banks in town that able to look, look forward and say you know what we'll we'll this is, we'll take that chance and do that, but before we need that's really you needed that cashflow. Without the cashflow you couldn't survive.

Returning to Family Business Roots

Speaker 1

And I think that's what she was struggling with. But we were able to get through that period of time right and for any new business, you know, having you know, you haven't had a chance to accumulate any retained earnings or any profits or whatever to try to help because ultimately, you know, through the time that we've worked together, it's always been trying to set back retained earnings to cover your receivables.

Speaker 2

So you're not borrowing, right you?

Speaker 1

hope to be in a position to do that right it's not like you know you make money, you just bring it in and oh yeah, there's a little bit more to that you know people maybe don't don't realize, right, uh, that you're covering that and uh. So, yeah, just to be able to, like you said, just to have the cash flow to be able to pay your staff and pay the employees pay your overhead.

Speaker 1

You know the rent everything. Yeah, so you were in california and, uh, it was in 1977 that Grandma contacted you around that time, right, and so kind of walk us through that conversation which eventually would bring you back to Richmond, right.

Speaker 2

Well, out of the blue, Walt Perman, the owner of Control Master Products in Concord, california, called and said would you like to be my sales manager? So I was inside sales and to me it gave me an opportunity to do something much different and maybe hopefully have some more skills to develop from sales. So that's what got me out to California from 73 to 77. That's what got me out to California from 73 to 77. And things were going crazy and booming in California. It was nice.

Speaker 2

I covered the whole Bay Area Tahoe, reno, carson City, napa Valley, monterey, carmel. So it was like this is really different from Richmond, indiana. And then all of a sudden manpower is growing. This is really different from Richmond, indiana. And then all of a sudden manpower is growing. And she called me up and says oh, by the way, if you'd like to come back and manage the manpower office, it's grown to the point where I need your help. Her accounting company had also had grown. And so I said well, do I want to leave California for family reasons? And coming back to this area, I mean you got parents, you got grandparents. And I said you know.

Speaker 2

I think that would be an opportunity I don't want to pass out. I feel like I'm going to pass out right now. Anyway, so pass up that. I said, yeah, I'll come back and do that and obviously I was very glad I did and that was in March of 77.

Speaker 1

Right, yeah, because just to clarify for our followers, you and my mother had divorced and you were. You were um in California, but Debbie and I were still here in Richmond. Right, so that you know. And so we were here your parents were here.

Speaker 2

your grandparents were still here, yeah.

Speaker 1

Sister was here Right. Still, whatever cousins, whatever we may have had, they would have been here. So there was like no family connection whatsoever in California.

Speaker 2

Right. And when I said come back for a family reason, it was obviously you and Debbie were here and I wanted to be more part of your family. I brought you out to California. We talked all the time but you know, those visits weren't maybe once a year, once a year, and maybe so many holidays.

Speaker 2

Maybe I would you know. So it was limited. So I wanted to be more involved in your life, and so the combination of coming back and was, you know, high on the list and then having a chance, she said well, you can come back and conventionally manage and maybe own the company, and so we're a sub-S corporation able to transfer stock to me and eventually buy her out by 1990.

Speaker 1

So working. How was that transition coming back? I mean, she was running things and now all of a sudden, I mean you did know the business, you had been around it, you had dispatched people, you had dispatched people, you had helped with payroll. It's like you knew how the business worked Right. But what was kind of that transition like coming back and where was the office then? Was that on the northwest side of town at that point or not?

Speaker 2

We were still down on 11th Street, even in 77?

Speaker 1

Okay.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and then we moved to on the west side of Northwest 5th Street and so we were there until 94 and then went to the second floor of Wayne Bank and Trust when that was built.

Speaker 1

Believe it or not, we've been in our current building for 30 years, 30 years this year yeah, that's hard to believe. We've been there at the 500 east main, you know, longer than any other location. You know and probably will never move from that facility. I would think, yeah, the uh.

Speaker 2

So the transition in 77, what was that like, coming back and, you know, working well, I mean, you know, I was, uh, you know, it was a kind of a fairy and it was just totally different California, obviously, and the Bay Area. It was a transition but being next to my son and my daughter and family and my parents and my grandparents, it was also good to be home and I enjoyed that very much and never regretted coming back when you came back, did you just kind of start visiting clients, trying to know who the contacts were, what the business was?

Speaker 1

part?

Speaker 2

of being comfortable, sales, uh, that, that, uh, that I did and I was not not afraid to knock on a door and explain our services and how they worked and what they particularly needed additional staffing for because they were growing their company, because they were losing like, for example, belden I mean a lot because they had so many long-term employees. As they lost employees. How they replace those people. Do they bring in new people full-time immediately, or they bring them in part-time and and then eventually see if they want to hire them? Or did they just have an uptick, uptick in business seasonally that created that need?

Speaker 2

So that was my job, obviously to go out and explain how those services maybe could be needed or was needed, based upon what the company was doing and whether it be back then roses you know, we used to be the rose capital of the world, you know right, and and that's, that's the seasonal job and they don't need full-time people. They wanted people to come in maybe sometime for weeks or months to to do some of the work and, like again another one of the big companies with Wall Lake Door, all of a sudden during the building season they would need extra employees and they would have to staff up, sometimes 20, 30 people a day additional, and also for people's vacations and holidays. That took people out of the company and they needed people to come in and fill for those. So that was my job to go out and hopefully knock on those doors and find out where those needs were and hopefully fill them.

Speaker 1

We've had a lot of great, we've worked with a lot of great companies over the years and there's been just changes, ebbs and flows of how they approached staffing their companies, whether it's through their own means or through using, hopefully, manpower. I think one of the companies though that was a really great, and this isn't discounting any other company we work with. I'm trying to say but when I think of just my knowledge a little bit about a company that really was a kind of helped, probably helped our stability would have been Colorbox. Do you believe that to be a true statement?

Speaker 2

Well, that was interesting because Colorbox came to town I want to say 1972, so about a year before I went to California and Jack Creech was one of the managers and owners and he came to me and they had just come from Ohio and moved into where they're still located G Street and he needed five employees. First five employees went in the company. He wanted to start from scratch. He needed some help. He didn't have the staff, he didn't have the personnel, he didn't have the HR department, obviously anybody here except himself and he was sent here to open the company and get it going.

Speaker 2

So we got the first five employees there and I was I remember having that small little handwritten order for these five employees and uh, and then from there it grew substantially over the years and and then um, and that was uh, and then when I came back and obviously the company was, we got to be very involved in the company and help staff them in a lot of cases for a lot of their full-time employees.

Speaker 1

Right, they did well. For those that maybe don't know that color box name now it's Menasha now and still work with that company even today, right, but they kind of had a unique way of ordering that may uh, I mean at least a part of the time that I remember where they would actually call in the order every day, right, oh, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, they'd say, okay, we need X number of employees it could be five or 10 or whatever the number would be every day, and so you would have to dispatch those people for first and second shift.

Speaker 2

And and so it was. Uh, it was a challenge, but that was, that was what we did. That was, that was how you could grow the business and um, and the service was provided and you could get a call, sometimes at uh, seven, six thirty in the morning for people and first shift, and then the afternoon, and then sometimes at lunch well, I actually had three shifts and then you'd get a call, maybe at 10 o'clock at night, uh, and say I need somebody for Thursday. That became a challenge.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that was still our job. Yeah that we. We did that so many years and that's really not part of the business today, which I think is probably healthy. I mean to call somebody in the middle of the night and have them get up and go to work. Now we try to prepare people and say what shift do you want?

Speaker 2

to work and they say any shift. Well, it's because they want a job. Now the question is have they had any sleep so they can go to work? And in most cases people kind of geared themselves yeah, I'm going to prepare myself, maybe you're going to call me tonight. And a lot of people expected to be calling because they probably had, let's say, had a spouse or someone that was working day shift and the only job they could maybe was able to handle because of child care. Back then they would take the night shift and wanted to. So a lot of cases they would be preparing themselves and getting enough rest so they could go to work on third shift.

Speaker 1

In today's world, though I mean there's still a lot of companies that require a pre-employment drug screen. We want to run a background check on people. There is onboarding that people will have to do. I mean there's employment verification, and the onboarding today includes, like different safety training that they have to do before they're even allowed to be out on the floor. I mean, just through developments and safety and and just the way you put people to work. It's just not. You just don't. People don't get thrown into a job anymore and and it's just.

Speaker 1

It's just changed and it's probably overall for the better. I mean, it's sometimes it'd be nice to be able to, if you were a company needing someone right now, to be able to call and get somebody in there, but it's hard, that it's. It's a challenge to be in that position to do that today, right with all the stuff that people need to need to know or or do before they show up for a job yeah, they.

Speaker 2

Today. They call it vetting. You know it's like everybody wants everybody. You hear it all the time, are you? Has this person been vetted?

Speaker 1

there's uh any other, so you came in 77, took over running thing, any any other kind of just noteworthy well, this year, I mean there's there's been ups and downs in the economy all through these decades.

Speaker 2

We've seen ups and downs and recessions, and downturns and upturns, and and shortly after coming back, of course, things were pretty good in the late 70s, as I remember, and then of course we got I mean until 78, 79, into the Carter years, not getting political, but things got to be a little tough.

Speaker 2

And then of course, reagan came in. And then of course Reagan came in and up until 82, it was some of the lowest years that I can remember. Actually, in part of 82, there was myself and one other person in the office, and so it wasn't until the spring of 83 when Reagan started going to create more jobs and remember they were building back the military at the time but that spurned all other types of job opportunities and growth. Unfortunately, you'd hate to think we'd spend so much money in the military. Unfortunately, that's just the way the world is and that was one of the things that turned the economy and I can remember actually it was March of 83, like somebody in Richmond turned the lights back on and then we started back again. So that was kind of a. I always remember that time frame of ups and downs in the company and that was tough, but we just we got through it yeah, I mean that's in 82.

Speaker 1

That's when I graduated college and uh, in hindsight, I really wasn't ready for an academic career at that point, but I really didn't go to college full-time at that time because there really wasn't the finances available to go. I remember I was 17 when I graduated high school in May of 82, and I turned 18 in August and that's where you know I had worked. You had helped me get started when I was at. You know you passed on the, the, you know the tradition of it's good to work. You know and and uh, um, you know I've had different waves of maturity during that time but you kind of helped me get um into mowing some yards in a neighborhood that you, that you lived and I did that and I worked uh um fast food for a while at uh burger chef, but then you um.

Speaker 1

And then I remember the times where you, you'd let me come and sweep the sidewalks at the office or shovel snow or things like that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that was fun.

Speaker 1

But then in August of 82, that's where you gave me the opportunity to work at Imperial Products, which making door thresholds, and that was another nice business that we worked with for many years nice uh business that we worked with right for for many years and, uh, so, uh, that was my first uh experience in a manufacturing environment and I don't know if I can't remember not liking it or I don't remember disliking or liking it, but when I look back now I'm I'm very grateful for that opportunity to do that job.

Speaker 1

I really look back now with fond memories of of doing manufacturing and then also worked uh some time uh at color box as well, but those uh, I really uh, maybe it's the times where you were trying to encourage me to go there. I wasn't always, maybe too excited about it, but now I'm so thankful that I got to do that because it gave me a insight into the manufacturing world and it also gave me insight of what it means to be a manufacturing worker and how that's not always easy and to try to. I think it's served me to help understand more of the people that I work with, even to this day.

Generations in Family Business Success

Speaker 2

So I'm really thankful for the opportunities you gave me there.

Speaker 1

Well, let me tell you.

Speaker 2

Before we get off that subject, I want to tell you, corey, the fun thing about our memory together is about working, of course. My dad said you know, nothing's ever going to become good of it. It'll become good if you don't go to work. Nothing good is going to happen if you don't go to work. So I said, well, gosh, I better go to work. We ought to buy food or have a car or have a house. So that was pretty simple. So, hopefully, I passed that on to you and your sister and got that from my parents, obviously, but besides Imperial Products. So the fun job is it was that summer and and I needed someone to work second shift at color box and and I knew you could run a tow motor and I, you know I had some skills that I said, yeah, I think you could do that, michael. So I put you on that job and you were working for a while and he said, well, dad, I'd like to meet you for breakfast at Al'sops. And I said, okay.

Speaker 2

So we went for breakfast and you said, uh, now AJ's and now AJ's yeah, yeah, 16th and main and said, uh, oh, by the way, uh, I don't like working second shift. And I said, oh, you don't. And he said no. I said I like to see my buddies and go out. You know that's during the summer, you know, really, we're all hanging out at night. I like to do that. And he said well, michael, unfortunately you're the person I need for second shift. You can run a tow motor. I don't have anyone else, so unfortunately you don't have a choice.

Speaker 1

So you looked at me and said, okay, all right.

Speaker 2

So that's the way that went. But yeah, but you know, I mean, obviously I was, uh, you know, trying to be as kind as I was, but I said real, son, I really need you to do that job and I know you want to hang out with your buddies, but you know, you, we, I really need you. So you got to do it and you sucked it up and did it yeah, I really, and I talk all the time.

Speaker 1

I run into people about working there and and did drive tomorrow but also worked on the. Uh, it was hot down there and I remember at work on the end of a corrugator and all these, uh, these uh sheets of cardboard would come, and you know things have changed so much ergonomically, but you know you would all. You get all these stacks of uh cardboard. Then you flip it up and you balance it on your head I'm gonna say this microphone, yeah.

Speaker 1

And then you uh, you threw it for these two pieces of boards to help you stack it up, and then you would push it down the conveyors and now, like, a lot of that stuff is just automatically done for you. You know, these people don't understand what it used to be like.

Speaker 1

Yeah, I remember hands there was a period of time down there it was so hot and I literally would would go home and I could wring my shirt out. It was just so saturated with sweat back there and I'm surprised I didn't get skinny. I've never been skinny my whole life. I'm surprised I didn't get skinny. I've never been skinny my whole life. I'm surprised I didn't lose tons of weight that that summer, that that summer, because man, it just would physical labor and sweating and everything. But uh, yeah, no, I I definitely appreciate those times and so, uh, I, uh, you know, I went eventually through, you know, just some trial and error and some whatever with college.

Speaker 1

I did end up at Ball State in 85 and finally kind of turned things around for myself academically and there was times. I don't want to go through the whole story but my academic career was pretty spotty for the first three years out of high school. But I really appreciate the fact that you really never gave up on me. You knew the importance at that time of education was important and even though it was a challenge, you were still trying to encourage me to go on and on and uh. But I remember going to ball state. Uh, you know, for their followers here when I, when I went to ball state, uh, my wife and I my girlfriend at the time, fiance beth we, we both decided we're going to go to ball state and I don't remember this. So, my, my wife is excellent academically, she's to this day, she's extremely intelligent and uh. But so we both apply and she gets accepted and, if you remember they, they told me, no, sorry. I said sorry, we don't want you, and it was because my grades were so bad. My, my gpa was 1.729. I'll always remember that number because I had horrible grades, I'd gone to school at three different places and just totally immature, unfocused, and so I don't know if you recall.

Speaker 1

But we got into the car and we went up to Muncie and we talked to admissions and said, hey, is there anything we can do here? So they said, okay, we'll let you in next quarter, we're gonna make you sit out. If you really want to come, you can come. You're being on academic probation and, uh, that was hard because, uh, my wife was planning on going to go to college with me and she had to go to ball state alone, without me. Yeah, and that was a really just difficult time for me. It was somewhat humbling and humiliating, but it was definitely a learning experience and I thank you for not giving up on me, but anyway it was.

Speaker 1

You know you said, hey, son, you know, if this doesn't work out, I'm just not just not sure what, I don't remember that, but it's just like I'm just maybe you just have to come back and give you a job here at manpower. Yeah, ironically, in 1990, right, I came back and started working at manpower. It was out of, it wasn't out of necessity, though it was, it was a choice. So that was. It was a little bit different. It would have been out of just circumstance, right? So I don't know if you remember much about us meeting and and uh decision to come back and and work in April. It was April of uh, 1990 when I came.

Speaker 2

Yeah, 1990, when I came to Manpower. Yeah, I mean barely having that conversation and I think you know, at one time you had different aspirations or ideas of what you wanted to do in your life and again, the company was in a growth period. Your sister had already started for Manpower. And so here we had the third generation working and it just felt like a natural opportunity or transition if you wanted to consider it, and obviously I'm very glad you did.

Speaker 1

No, I'm glad I did too. I mean, it's really. You know, there's different things I thought I wanted to do and through, I'd say, god's providence, he led me back to Richmond and into manpower. And here it is, you know, 30, 34 years later for me, and you started in 77. I started in 90. I believe my sister started in 87, 86, 87.

Speaker 1

And so we've had and at one time, all at one time, in the building we've had, you know, my grandmother, your mom, you, me and Debbie and your sister Paula. We were at one time, all of us were in the business together. Grandmother passed away. She was doing all of our accounting and staff payroll whatever.

Speaker 1

And ironically my wife was a CPA, just like my grandmother and had an accounting background and she came into the business to fill that void with grandmother's passing. And now she's been in the company and been a great asset to the company as well all these years in the company and been a great asset to the company as well all these years, and so it's uh. It's been great to have uh be part of a family business and to work with family.

Speaker 1

Uh is definitely, at times, challenges like there would be for any job that you do you know, but, all in all, I, I, I thank God and I thank you for just the the opportunity to do all this. And you know we talked about the ebbs and flows with the economy. I mean, really, after COVID, it's had a big change on business and it has had a profound change on the staffing industry overall, overall, um, I and it's been interesting to try to find different ways to try to provide services to our clients and, uh, it's it's still this learning process and and trying to um find ways that we can help different companies and it's just not all today, you know, just providing temporary workers no, completely different use this in all kinds of ways to for full-time positions for the recruitment process, and and so it's.

Speaker 1

It's definitely still changing to this day, and and so it's it's. It's been really wonderful to be a part of it. I don't know if there's any other things, any things that you want to share or talk about that we maybe thought we might discuss, that we haven't talked about.

Speaker 2

I mean, you brought out about the transition and my mother died on 11-11 of 08, and I believe Beth started 11-19 of 08, and I believe Beth started 11-19 of 08. So literally, we just had to say you know what do we do for accounting? And so she came into the business and so, you know, it's been a celebration of, I guess, family working together and I guess the appreciation that I have that my mother was able to do what she did at an extremely difficult time for her life and go through all that and, at the same time, provide the opportunity for the community and the surrounding counties that we've serviced for almost 58 years now, and it's always been satisfying to see people accomplish what they want, whether it could have been for working for a few days, a few weeks, a few months and eventually full-time for the companies we serve. So that's always been very satisfying. So it's been a job that you enjoy because you saw people being successful and in some cases they got a second chance and maybe even a third chance when they came back and they didn't perform well or they didn't go to work every day and we said, well, we got to take you off this assignment. And they came back and said you know what, like we all do, we make mistakes. We want to improve ourselves, we want to get better at what we do. We grow up a little bit, we mature.

Speaker 2

And some of these people came back to us and it was the first place they came back and they said well, it didn't work at XYZ, but I really would like, maybe, this job. I see you have an opening over here at this company. Could you consider letting me go there? And we would become sometimes felt like a counselor just saying well, you know, mike, you got to go to work every day, you got to be defendable and I think there's going to be a great opportunity for you and anything we can do to help you get started again, let's give it a try.

Speaker 2

And it was always rewarding to see that. And so I think that was one of the things that you kind of forget about. You know you're there, you've got to make a profit, to grow, you've got to provide opportunities for your full-time staff employees and you want to also be one of the things I almost forgot when my mother opened the office in 66, that was when the Chamber of Commerce started became from the group of 100, and she became a member, one of the first members a charter.

Speaker 1

Member of the.

Speaker 2

Chamber of Commerce in 1966, because that's what she believed, and so she passed on some of those important values that, hopefully, we always thought about and a lot of companies in our community feel is necessary to help support your community.

Speaker 1

Right, it's been interesting through all these years. I think we would be at the service if we didn't mention it. But I mean, we've had family, we've worked together, but we've really had a tremendous amount of people work for us over the years.

Speaker 2

Well, we still do, and we just had one of our employees celebrate his 30th year with our company and they have become like family. We enjoy being with them and doing events together with them and sharing the joy. Hopefully, that is working in a company and the satisfaction they get from doing the things that I just discussed about, and that's helping people find a path to their career or having another opportunity to do something they always wanted to do.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we've had a lot of staff with long tenures and it's uh, uh so appreciative for all the work that they do and and, uh, they've represent us well in the company and, uh, the community well, and so, uh, shout out to all of you, if you've worked for us before, work for us now. We we appreciate you so much and uh, so well, dad, this has been great to get to do this. I think we'll probably wrap it up.

Speaker 1

We've been going a little over an hour, okay maybe we'll have to do a part two in uh, our 60th anniversary coming up in a couple years yeah, so that'd be great, but thanks for coming on. People ask me all the time how's your dad doing, how's he doing? I said, oh, he's doing great. Whatever, hopefully they'll get to see here on the hub how you're doing and get to see you this way. It's been great to have you here. I appreciate you and love you very much. Happy you could be here and do this today. Love you, son, thank you very much Thanks.

Speaker 1

Okay, michael Allen from Manpower. We are a national brand, yet locally owned franchise. We are familiar with the challenges businesses face. It's tough recruiting and retaining qualified employees. That's why working with Manpower is a smart, cost-effective solution. Our entire focus is talent acquisition. We'll manage your hiring and training and provide ongoing, customized support. Since 1966, we have been your community-invested partner, uniquely positioned to help eliminate the hassles and save you time and money. Let us help. Contact Manpower today.