How a broker can help you buy or sell a business
Posted On June 19, 2023
Looking to buy or sell a business? A broker can help. Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” was Trey Langus, a business advisor and broker with Transworld Business Advisors. He connects owners who are looking to sell their businesses with potential buyers. There are a lot of potential buyers looking for businesses, Langus says, and many of them are coming from out of state and across the country, attracted by the favorable business climate in the Southeast. What they’re looking for, typically, is a business with clear financials, upside and, ideally, scalability. But Langus… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
When a fundraiser becomes a calling, and a calling becomes a business
Posted On May 28, 2023
April McClung was just looking for a way to raise enough money for her kids to travel overseas. What she ended up with was a business. McClung, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” was perfectly content working in the corporate world, and expected to retire in that same role. But like several other reluctant entrepreneurs I’ve met, she felt a calling. And that’s how Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes was born. It started as an answer to a prayer about how to afford to give their sons the experience of school trips abroad. McClung and… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Introducing a new generation to cigars and cigar-making
Posted On April 21, 2023
Introducing the next generation to the family business can be a challenge, even if your family has been in the business for generations. For Ernesto Perez-Carrillo, patriarch of E.P. Carrillo Cigars, it was all about finding the best roles for his two children, Lissette Perez-Carrillo and Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, who have degrees and experience in law and economics and both of whom grew up around the cigar business. As co-founders of E.P. Carrillo Cigars with their father, their expertise in these areas has helped grow the brand. “It’s a process,” said Perez-Carrillo, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Generations, Podcast, Recession Economy, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston
Revolutionizing the home renovation industry may be AnotherStory
Posted On February 15, 2023
“Build a better mouse trap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” It’s a phrase commonly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson and, while his exact words were a little different, the point holds: Everybody’s looking for the next big thing – if it works. The world may be soon beating a path to Ben Strout’s door in Birmingham. Strout, an architect and contractor, doesn’t build mouse traps. He and his company, AnotherStory, renovate houses, and they’ve found a better way to do it. “AnotherStory is really an answer to an age-old question that people didn’t even know… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Real Estate, What's Working with Cam Marston
Avoiding the pitfalls of entrepreneurship
Posted On January 29, 2023
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult hurdle for many small businesses to clear, that apparently has not kept fledgling entrepreneurs from wanting to jump in feet first and give business ownership a shot. “In the past three years, we’ve been inundated with people coming in, looking for help to start a business,” said Mel Washington, Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center for southwest Alabama. Washington, our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” says many of those new would-be entrepreneurs are Baby Boomers, looking for something new to throw their efforts into,… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
How a plumbing business became a multi-faceted construction and disaster recovery company
Posted On January 19, 2023
How does a small plumbing company become a massive construction and disaster recovery business with about 200 employees, offices in five states and work lined up throughout the Western Hemisphere? In the case of Persons Services Corp., it happened through a succession that was fueled by the new generation adding new expertise to chase new opportunities. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Buddy Persons, is President and CEO of Mobile-based Persons Services Corp., and Managing Director of Persons Development Company. The company was founded in 1978 by Persons’ father, Paul E. Persons, Sr., as… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, Succession Planning, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
The Modern House: Answering the call to help the homeless through coffee
Posted On January 2, 2023
Why would someone open a coffee shop when they don’t even drink coffee? For Troy Whetstone, it’s a means to an end – and what he was called to do. Whetstone, our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” is CEO of The Modern House Coffee Shop in Birmingham. With the help of a pastor and other members of his community, Whetstone opened the shop in 2016 as a way to help the homeless. An exercise in social entrepreneurship, The Modern House Coffee Shop hires homeless people and trains them with the job skills and social… Read More
Categories: Blog, Charity, church, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Work
How do you make better bacon? For Bill-E Stitt, music helps
Posted On December 1, 2022
Make a better product and you can prove a lot of people wrong. People told Bill-E Stitt he wouldn’t be able to sell his small-batch bacon because its packaging didn’t include a window where customers could see the meat. He didn’t listen. Now he’s shipping it all over the world and it’s being used by championship chefs in prestigious cooking competitions like the World Food Championships. The last time we spoke with Stitt on “What’s Working with Cam Marston” a couple years ago, he was selling 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of bacon a week. Now it’s up to 3,000. He’s… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Lane Zirlott of Murder Point Oysters is sharing the Butter Love
Posted On November 21, 2022
Business is competitive. You have to compete to survive. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t celebrate others’ success at the same time. Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is a testament to that idea. It was three or four years ago that we first met Lane Zirlott of Murder Point Oysters, a south Mobile County company known around the Southeast. At that time, he was raising about 6 million oysters a year. Now the company has grown to the point that he’s raising five times that number annually. While Lane has worked tirelessly… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston
Troubleshooting for entrepreneurs: Identifying common problems and solutions
Posted On October 29, 2022
What are the secrets to starting and building a successful business? There are so many variables in entrepreneurship, it may not be possible to have an answer for every possible contingency. Nikki and Buddy Cummings have a lot of them, however, and they have the resumes to prove it. They’ve built and sold several successful businesses in industries ranging from high school sports marketing to renewable energy. Now they’re sharing what they’ve learned with other entrepreneurs through their California-based consulting business, Cummings Camp Programs. Our guests in the latest episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston,” the Cummingses say entrepreneurs… Read More
Categories: Blog, Entrepreneurship, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston