Building a Customization Empire - The Fox Cities Embroidery Story

In this episode, host Brad Ruh interviews Nick Vance, the owner of Fox Cities Embroidery. Nick takes us through his journey from working in branding and customization in Utah to becoming a successful small business owner in Wisconsin. He shares his experiences, challenges, and triumphs in building a tech-focused company specializing in customized apparel and promotional items.

[00:02:00] The Beginnings of Entrepreneurship

Nick shares how he started as NVR Printing in 2014, initially working out of a room in his house. Over the years, the business expanded, and the name was changed to NVR Branding. The company's focus shifted from mainly printing to all things customization, partnering with schools, sports teams, and businesses for their branded apparel and promotional items.

[00:05:00] The "Aha" Moment 

Nick discusses the turning point when he decided to go all-in on his business. Reflecting on his experience of growing a company from $2.7 million to almost $13 million in revenue while working in Utah, he realized the need to invest in people and technology to take his own business to the next level. Despite the challenges, he made the bold decision to expand rapidly.

[00:10:00] The Acquisition During COVID 

N ick shares the rollercoaster journey of acquiring a competitor's company during the COVID pandemic. He explains how the deal almost fell through due to uncertainties but was salvaged through strategic planning and leveraging incentives provided by the SBA.

[00:14:00] The Tech-Driven Growth 

Nick reveals his vision of turning Fox Cities Embroidery into a tech company that specializes in customization. He emphasizes the importance of adopting technology, particularly in creating online stores and automating the ordering process to enhance customer convenience.

[00:17:00] Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs 

Nick's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to ensure that their vision and passion are strong enough to withstand the challenges and uncertainties of starting and growing a business. He cautions against focusing solely on money and instead encourages individuals to pursue their dreams and visions relentlessly.

[00:21:00] Conclusion 

Learn more about Nick Fox Cities Embroidery
https://www.foxcitiesembroidery.com/

Need a little guidance in your own business? We're here for you!
https://www.actionfinancials.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ActionFinancialS/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuE31mXf6_Nf4yhpuZRHI6Q

Transcript

Brad Ruh: [00:00:00] I am Brad Ruh for all of you guys listening. Business Owner of Action Financial Strategies, and we are interviewing our clients on their small business story. Today we have the fortunate opportunity of interviewing a good friend of mine, Nick Vance, owner of Fox Cities Embroidery. Welcome, Nick.

So Nick, give me a little bit of background on what it is you guys do here at Fox Cities Embroidery. 

Nick Vance: At Fox City's embroidery, we do basically all things customization, a lot of apparel. We work a lot with schools, sports teams and very closely with a lot of businesses where we do their online stores for all their apparel, promotional items, and we work with them on events that they go to, trade shows, set up, that kind of stuff. So basically we tell people anything that you can put your logo on, we can do it. 

Brad Ruh: Like right here, right? My water bottle. It's awesome and we appreciate the partnership and all the stuff that we've got our logo on, thanks to you. 

Take us back now going through this sort of origin story of () and I know a little bit of it just from our time together,) but take us back to your early days of working in Utah to coming to the great state of Wisconsin and where you are now because of that.

Nick Vance: So yeah, 2005 I got into this world of branding and customization. I worked for a company there for about seven and a half years. I was their vice president of sales. And basically, it was really fun. We grew the company really well from 2005 to 2012 or through 2012 to 2013. But at the time, there was a lot of things that I wanted to do that I had visions of and goals for my [00:02:00] personal life. And unfortunately in that situation, I wasn't going to achieve those goals. And I knew that and quite honestly, they knew that as well.

Basically I picked up my family and we moved 1500 miles to get out of my non-compete. Nice. And in 2014 I started NVR Printing. And so NVR Printing was formed and we got that. 

Brad Ruh: What is NVR? 

Nick Vance: NVR is basically my initials Nick Vance, and then R is my wife's first name Rebecca.

We started NVR Printing and then a few years into that I realized, this is really pigeonholing me with printing and what have you. 

Brad Ruh: Was that like mainly business cards and stuff? 

Nick Vance: I was doing definitely apparel and things like that. I just didn't like the name and how it I felt like it was too restrictive. And so I changed the name in 2018 to NVR Branding. At NVR Branding, we were growing, we had an office in Green Bay, we had about a 4,000 no, excuse me, we had a 2,500 square foot office in Green Bay.

We were starting to buy machines and then you remember those days? It was fun. It was definitely exciting; it got to the point we had four employees.

Brad Ruh: Almost starting out of your garage, right? 

Nick Vance: Yeah. To be honest, I initially was in my like in a room in my house that, that's exactly where I was working out of.

It was a home-based business. 

Brad Ruh: And weren't you selling life insurance, too at the time?

Nick Vance: I was, yeah. That's what I used to fund NVR Branding. To get to that point, to buy some of the machines and to get going.

I did that from 2013 to 2014, 2015. And then NVR Branding started taking off and that became full-time. 

Brad Ruh: [00:04:00] And then I remember you going through the genesis. Explain to me your “aha” moment where you're like, okay, how do I take NVR Branding to the next level?

Because I remember you telling me about how you were used to managing a ton of people at your place in Utah. Yeah. And how, you went back to being a solopreneur for a bit. What was the genesis of okay, I need to expand rapidly, and then where does that leave you into kind of the early days of being here?

Nick Vance: It really got to a point where I was just like, all right I'm either selling insurance or I'm going all in. That was really the decision point where I was like, okay, what am I doing? Am I gonna go out and sell insurance or am I gonna go and actually do this thing the right way?

I think I've told you this, when I was in Utah at that one company we did $2.7 million our first year, and then my last year we did $12.6. And so I know how to take a business from, 2.7 [00:05:00] to close to $13 million because that's what I did as an executive there. I was responsible for the sales, a lot of the marketing even.

So I have a very keen sense on how to do that because I did it. But I've never taken a business from zero and taken it to $2 million and that's, quite honestly very difficult. There's a ton of risk and there's a lot of nights that you just don't sleep. And it's hard, even my wife has a hard time grasping it because it's like my brain never is off. It doesn't turn off ever. I'll be up in the middle of the night with ideas and things like that where I'm just like, oh, we gotta do this and we need to do this, and I need this machine now. 

Brad Ruh: I suppose it's a lot easier when you have 20, 30 people to help get the job done than you, yourself and I.

Nick Vance: For sure. And when you're not paying the bill it's a lot [00:06:00] easier too. It's a lot easier to make financial decisions when it's not your money. In Utah I definitely had confidence. I knew it was like, all right, here's, this is what we should do.

And I had these ideas and I understood definitely I understand even now from that, from the perspective that I have now, a lot of my ideas, when I would take it to the owner, he was like we're not gonna do that. I'm not gonna spend my money on that. And I never necessarily complained or anything like that, but I was like, man, I think if you did this would, be really successful.

And, there were decisions that he did make. Then I was like, I don't think that's the best decision, but I also was an employee and not the owner. But yeah, it was that, I guess the long answer as far as the, that aha moment it really was just when I started realizing I need people. And either I'm gonna just sell insurance and then this is just gonna be a side little hustle thing. Or I need to invest in people.

Brad Ruh: would you say that was [00:07:00] the point where you were deciding like what to give up? 

Nick Vance: Yeah. There's a lot to give up and there's a lot to sacrifice. A hundred percent. And everything comes at a cost.

It was about 2017, 2018 is when I was like, all right, we're going all in. We're going to do this. And even when I went all in, I wasn't, now that I look back at it. I wasn't all in - I was still dipping my toe a little bit here or there just to, for a little bit of that security safety net.

And that was all the way through 2020. In 2020 is when my lawyer reached out to me and told me about a company that was a competitor of mine that was for sale. 

Brad Ruh: Had you been looking for a while to acquire as a means of growth?

Nick Vance: No, I'd never been looking. I was just looking at growing organically.

Never have, never even crossed [00:08:00] my mind to buy an existing company. But he brought it to my attention and, I quickly, got the paperwork and signed the appropriate paperwork. 

Brad Ruh: that's not common for lawyers to necessarily do, right? Bring deals to their clients? 

Nick Vance: No, I don't know. I guess I like to think that I would have a lawyer that would be in my corner, right? And would be like, hey man, just this, not like they're not working for me and actively, sure. But it, it crosses their desk. And that's what happened is it crossed his desk and where he looked at it, he was like, whoa, hang on. 

Brad Ruh: So in other words, have a good relationship with your business lawyers?

Nick Vance: Yeah. Have a good relationship. For me, it's, it is about having a really good team involved.

Like for me, I need to have a good lawyer that I can trust I need to have a very good accountant that I trust. There's a very close and small circle that I have for my business and financial [00:09:00] advisor, lawyer, accountant.

Those are the three main people that I lean on. I need a team, there’s only so much you want to DIY. I'd try and do all that stuff myself, but it's gonna cost me a lot of money and mistakes and time.

Brad Ruh: That's good advice. 

So you got this deal on your desk and you're going, okay, now I have another decision to make because this is financially quite a big commitment, right? Walk me through that. 

Nick Vance: So 2020, it was like in March is when it crossed my desk.

Brad Ruh: Oh, COVID, congratulations. 

Nick Vance: Yeah, I'm gonna buy a business! When Covid was happening and they started shutting everyone down. And, for me I was like I'm not, this is my business. I don't know. I just kept working, kept doing my thing. But I started looking into the financials really closely and trying to add everything up.

And then Covid started getting worse in the summer months.[00:10:00] And so the deal came very close to falling through. I was able to leverage Covid a little bit as far as look, I'm not, I'm not sure, I'm probably gonna just walk away from the deal right now.

And then they came back. 

Nick Vance: At the time, the government was talking about extending all these shut downs and that kind of stuff. And I'm like I'm not about to go into massive debt only to buy a company and find out that I can't even go to it. And that the employees can't even come into work. And are other businesses even buying, right? Are they're not buying, they're not going to events, they're not buying apparel, they're not getting promotional items. And so there's a lot for me that I was Yeah, I'm not sure this is the right time. 

But they came [00:11:00] back and they talked to my lawyer and legal team and then in turn talked to me and we started getting together and discussing other potential ways we could potentially get the job done for buying the business. And long story short, we, we found a way to make it happen. 

Brad Ruh: That was right under the gun too, right? Because the SBA had a great deal going of for loans? 

Nick Vance: The SBA had their, not forgiveness, but it was like, Hey, you don't have to make payments for a certain period of time. And it was big enough for me. I was like that's a pretty big incentive.

Brad Ruh: That incentive ended on the 27th of September. And didn't your deal get done like literally that [00:12:00] weekend? 

Nick Vance: That day, yeah. They got the people in California to come into work on Saturday to get the paperwork signed.

And then I came out here and signed the paperwork with the former owner on that day and got the keys to the building, and showed up the next Monday. So, yeah, it was definitely under the gun on the timeframe!

Brad Ruh: Now, from where your business is today, from that initial acquisition almost three years ago, is it where you envisioned it? Does it differ from where you envisioned it being?

Nick Vance: It's hard because I sometimes wonder what I did envision? You always have a vision. You hope that you're going to be really successful, that things are going to take off, that things are going to go well.

We're sitting in a room right here that didn't exist even a year ago. Yeah, this was gravel. And there was an abandoned house here that, [00:13:00] is our new addition. And yeah, that's fun to see, we've added an extra 5,000 square feet to the 3,000 that we already had, so that's cool.

We've got new machinery and we've definitely grown that way. There's always hiccups and there's bumps along the way. And you know how it is with running a business. Sometimes you forget to pause and reflect and see this is how far we've come.

Let's appreciate it because it's one of those like always what's next? I guess that's how my brain is. So I don't pause and reflect as much as maybe I should. 

Brad Ruh: How has the community responded to you?

Nick Vance: I think the community's been great. We've been extending  our reach, the vision and the direction of the company. Before I bought Fox Cities Embroidery, it was very much focused on schools and sports teams and things like that, which is great.

We have no, no qualms there. [00:14:00] That's been a world that I've been able to really get involved in and really enjoy and learn a lot more about. My expertise has always been business to business. That's where I've always been, in Utah at that company, that was our growth. That was our focus. 

So I just adopted that same approach for NVR Branding. And so my focus was always businesses. Coming here and seeing the relationships with schools and the local sports teams and things like that was really fun for me to see and get involved in because it's very different than working with just businesses.

My goal has been to extend that reach because I believe it's a very underserved community. There's a lot of competition out there and there's a lot of copycats out there. But it's all this world of branding and customization is; I've always considered it almost like an old boys club.

It's one of those things that “this is the way we've done it forever, this is how [00:15:00] it's gonna be, so we're not changing that.”

And here I am, I'm like, oh, hang on a second. Maybe we should change it. And that's the very reason we should be changing things up. And we should coming up with different philosophies and ideas and concepts.

Brad Ruh: You are really tapped into that website space, correct? 

Nick Vance: I really believe in the online stores and automating those stores and making it super convenient for the schools and for the sports teams, for the parents to be able to go in and order their spirit wear for their kids and for themselves. To really automate that and to make it fun.

Brad Ruh: We're all used to the Amazon, click to cart and 21st century buying. 

Nick Vance: Yeah. And so that was my very first hire, even before NVR Branding, when in NVR Printing… it was my IT guy. He was my very first hire. Because I've always believed in the importance of technology.

I think technology is a critical component for our growth. It's vital. And [00:16:00] so I'm always looking at what's happening in the tech space that Fox Cities Embroidery or NVR Branding can adopt and implement and improve. 

Brad Ruh: I remember you saying you're more of a tech company than an apparel company. 

Nick Vance: Yeah. We're a tech company that just happens to produce customized apparel. 

Brad Ruh: What does the horizon look like for you? What things do you envision next for your business? 

Nick Vance: You have big dreams. You always do. And I think you should dream big. I try and manage those expectations with reality.

You always overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in a week. So my goal as a company, I definitely want to be in a much bigger space. I've actually already started looking. I try and behave as if we're where I want to be.

And that's why I've already started looking at places to have, just a much bigger space. I want to have a place for the employees where we [00:17:00] have a nice break room, we have a gym those kind of things that I feel help with the culture. Working as a team to create the right atmosphere I think is absolutely vital. When I bought the company we were in that small, it was 3000 square feet, but it was still a condensed small space. It wasn't that conducive to strong culture. And that's one of the biggest reasons why we expanded and why we're here is to help create that culture and create that environment.

So that's where I want to be. I want to be in a much bigger space. I'd love to have a 20,000 square foot facility. Better parking and just a cleaner area for the team and things like that. 

Brad Ruh: So what advice in the last couple minutes here would you give to young aspiring entrepreneurs out there looking to maybe start a business or take their fledgling NVR Printing to where you're at [00:18:00] today?

Nick Vance: Honestly, so this is funny and you might want to edit it out, but when people come to me and they say, “what should I do?” “What's the number one thing that I should do to grow my business?” Or “I'm thinking about starting a business, what do you recommend for me?”

My recommendation is DON'T. That's honestly what I say… don't do it. And the reason I say that is because if me saying “don't” is enough reason and strong enough to have someone stop with their vision and their dream, they were going to fail anyway. 

Brad Ruh: That's really insightful if you think about that, sit noodle on that. 

Nick Vance: You know how it is to a degree, how it is very difficult and it is very like you spend nights not [00:19:00] sleeping. And the anxiety is for real. And if you're going into it because you think this is a great way I can make money, you've already failed. If you're doing it for money, you're doing it for the wrong reason. 

If the money is the reason – it could be the most inspirational vision that you have -- but if the money is the why, you've already failed. And that's why I tell people don't do it. And usually I get a laugh or something, but I truly believe if me saying don't do it is strong enough for you to be like, oh yeah, I probably shouldn't do it… then I just saved you a lot of time and money.

And you can thank me later because you were going to fail. You just have to make sure like your commitment is going to pull you through your motivation. I always think motivation is bunk -- I don't believe in motivation. I think motivation is pointless. You have to have that pull where the vision and that dream is going to pull you through because if you have to push it, that's motivation is pushing and you push through and you wake up and you're like, I'm gonna work out every day. And pretty soon that vision dies. Once February rolls around, it's like the parking lots of the gyms are empty again. It's that push that has ended. And so whatever the vision is, THAT’s what needs to pull you through and you have to love it.

You just, you cannot quit. 

Brad Ruh: My dad always says, you just have to last. You’ve just got to last. 

Nick, I really appreciate you coming on our podcast today. This was fabulous. 

I look forward to seeing your success and growth here in the [00:21:00] future. And hopefully we can have you on again in, in a couple years, months, however your success journey happens here. 

And thank you all for tuning in today and have a great rest of your day.

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This material is for general informational purposes only and was produced by Action Financial Strategies, LLC.  Life insurance is subject to underwriting. No coverage exists unless a policy is issued and the required premium is paid. Neither Action Financial Strategies nor NYLIFE Securities LLC or its affiliates provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. For advice on such matters, consult your own professional counsel.

Brian Ruh is a Member Agent of the Nautilus Group®, a Service of New York Life Insurance Company.  Brian Ruh CA insurance license #OB66341.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are collectively Registered Representatives of and offer securities products and services through NYLIFE Securities LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC, a Licensed Insurance Agency 999 Fourier Drive, Suite 300, Madison, WI 53717. (608)831-4416.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are also collectively registered as Investment Adviser Representatives with Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser.  Action Financial Strategies, Fox Cities Embroidery, and NVR Branding are not owned or operated by NYLIFE Securities or its affiliates.