Jim Reed was in the crowd at the MGM Hotel yesterday afternoon in Las Vegas, watching me and Ryan Reynolds and Grant Cardone talk about the business of growing a business in these challenging times. I didn’t notice Jim yesterday – what with all the smoke and pyrotechnics and 7,500 hundred other entrepreneurs and small business owners blowing the roof off the place – but I did notice him at the airport a few minutes ago, when he and his wife walked over and introduced themselves.
“I’m Jim Reed,” said a big man with a red beard. “Your Pop and I had something in common.”
“What’s that,” I asked.
“Electricity,” he said. “My wife and I run an electric company in Salina, Kansas. You talked about your Pop yesterday. Said he was an electrician?”
“That’s right,” I said. “Among other things.”
“That’s what I do,” he said. “This is my wife, Jennifer.”
“Nice to meet you, I said. “Did I say anything useful yesterday?”
Jennifer blushed a little. “I don’t know,” she said. “I was a little under the weather yesterday, and stayed in the hotel room all day.”
“Well, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?”
“Depends on what you do with that selfie,” said Jim.
I laughed, as the Reed’s told me about their business. JAE’S Electric is smack dab in the middle of Kansas, which is also smack dab in the middle of the country. Thirteen employees, fifteen years in business, $2.5 million in revenue, with more work than they can currently handle.
“What’s the plan?” I asked. “Are you gonna 10X the business?”
“That’s the plan,” said Jim, but it really depends on how many qualified electricians we can hire. The skills gap you were talking about yesterday is no joke.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “And last I checked electricians were in higher demand than any other trade.”
“That’s a fact,” said Jim. “We could hire half-a-dozen journeymen right now. You know where they are?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I know exactly where they are. They’re in the eighth grade.”
Jim nodded somewhat ruefully, as most business owners do when I use that line. But it’s the truth, I’m afraid. The biggest companies in the country, and the smallest, are all recruiting from a pool of talent that gets smaller every year. And the only way to reinvigorate the trades in this country, and grow that pool, is to make a more persuasive case to the next generation.
Anyway, that was my message to the crowd at the 10X event in Las Vegas. And to everyone else, for that matter. If you want to be an electrician, or if you want to master any other trade, apply today for a work ethic scholarship at mikeroweWORKS.org/scholarship. $2.5 million is currently up for grabs.
Go get some!