Sometimes, success means hitting the market at just the right time
Posted On December 22, 2023
Sometimes a business model just has to be started at the right time to find success. What wouldn’t have worked at one time may be the Next Big Thing in another. So it was for Josh and Jarred Higginbotham, our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” The Higginbothams took about 100 kernels of heirloom corn from a freezer in a barn on the farm that’s been in their family for generations and have built a thriving business, Bayou Cora Farms. There once wasn’t much of a market for heirloom corn – a pre-1940 variety that… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Stepping back from your passion in order to grow your business
Posted On December 21, 2023
If you’re going to turn your small business into a multi-million dollar company, chances are you’re going to have to step outside your comfort zone and try some new things. You’re also going to have to trust others to do the things you enjoyed doing to get that business off the ground. Marty Grunder, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” says learning how to delegate and how to develop new skills and new roles for yourself is important to the growth of any business. Grunder started Grunder Landscaping in the Dayton, Ohio, area while… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
When a side gig becomes the main gig
Posted On December 14, 2023
Sometimes a side gig can become your true calling. So it was for our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” After Danny Lipford started a remodeling business in Mobile in 1978, he was looking for a way to set himself apart from competitors. He made himself accessible to local media, did local speaking engagements, and 10 years later, he got the opportunity to do a home improvement TV show on a local station. Thirty-five years after those beginnings, the “Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford” television show, which Lipford hosts along with his daughter Chelsea, is… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Turning a problem into a business (and transforming wealth transfer in the process)
Posted On November 21, 2023
Sometimes the problems life presents to us lead us to create new solutions. So it was with Martha Underwood, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” Underwood had a family emergency in 2017, when her father fell from a roof while helping a neighbor clear debris after a hurricane and fell unconscious. Living in Birmingham, hundreds of miles away from her parents’ home in Miami, she found that finding and accessing his medical and financial information to make decisions on his behalf was problematic. “With my background, I said there has to be a better… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Wealth, What's Working with Cam Marston, Women
A new mantra for today’s business world: If it ain’t broke, break it and make it better
Posted On October 23, 2023
Some of the best advice you can give or take in business is simply to begin. Joe Calloway, a Nashville-based business consultant and author, had the word printed on a coffee mug to remind himself of it every day. “I’ve tried a lot of things, but I’m also really good at overthinking,” he said. “But I’m very aware of that and so I work really hard at beginning and moving on with things.” Calloway, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” acknowledges that beginning is often easier said than done. Fear often gets in the… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Growing better grass to raise better beef
Posted On October 10, 2023
Joey Mason made his living in erosion control, growing special grasses that naturally protect the soil in which they’re rooted. Growing grass is also an important facet of another industry, however – the beef industry – and Mason has found a way to use his expertise to enter and learn a new business. Mason, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” owns and operates Mason Hills Farm, a cattle ranch in Grand Bay, Alabama, that produces high-end, premium beef. He says he had no idea what he was doing when he bought the 200-acre farm,… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Learning how to craft a business on the fly
Posted On October 4, 2023
When Hastings Read and his wife decided to open a custom woodworking shop in the middle of a recession, they realized that they didn’t know much about the woodworking business. And, aside from kitchen projects, they didn’t really know much about woodworking, either. But that was OK, Read said. “It’s fine not to know anything, as long as you know you don’t know anything,” he said. “So we embarked on a journey of learning.” Read, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” has used lessons learned in his background as a banker and consultant to… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Fear of failure is a powerful motivator in business
Posted On August 22, 2023
DSI Security Services was started over 50 years ago when the construction company building a nuclear power plant near Dothan, Alabama, turned to the local sheriff for help in securing the job site. Alan Clark, the son of that sheriff, is now chairman of the board of DSI and has helped the company grow into one of the biggest privately-held security companies in the nation, with over 5,400 employees in 33 states. Most of that growth has been organic, says Clark, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston.” Clients like BMW ask DSI to expand… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston
Ready to expand into new markets? Know who your customers are
Posted On July 21, 2023
Is your business ready to expand into new markets? How do you decide which ones? The key is understanding who your customers are and where they live and play. So says Casey Biehl, chief operating officer at Fat Boy’s Pizza, a pizzeria based in Metairie, Louisiana, with nine locations in three states that’s looking to expand even further into Alabama and throughout the Southeast. Biehl, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is in a business where the vast majority of Americans consume the product – 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza within the… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
Paul Lewis is making the most of his second chance in construction
Posted On June 27, 2023
Few of us are fortunate enough to get second chances, whether it be in life or in business. Paul Lewis did, however, and he’s making the most of it. Lewis, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is president of Roy Lewis Construction, a company his father started in Mobile in 1984. The company had built a name for itself in the Mobile area and was riding high on negotiated projects built on word of mouth and positive recommendations. They didn’t do much marketing, because they didn’t have to. But when the recession of 2008… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Recession Economy, What's Working with Cam Marston