A downside to upsizing

I changed the name of my business from ‘Hesh Reinfeld’ to ‘Hesh  Reinfeld and Associates’. Did I hire additional staff? No.

Then why the change?

For starters, it made me sound more important over the phone. My typical cold call to a prospective client went something like: “Hi, this is Hesh Reinfeld; can I speak to Mr Big Shot? … Who am I with? … I am with … myself, Hesh that’s it, … it’s just me.”

As you can see I did not exhibit much power and energy. I was lucky if I even got to leave a voice-mail message.

With the new corporate identity I got a totally different response. “Hi, this is Hesh Reinfeld. Can I speak to Mr Big Shot? … Why, I am with Hesh Reinfeld and Associates … You’ll put me right through, thanks.”

I had cracked open the door, but I was still missing something. I needed a tag line that would explain my company’s vision in just a few words.

We all remember Nike’s ‘Just do It’ or GE’s ‘We bring good things to light’. I needed something similar that got to the essence of my business, my commitment to quality, and customer service.

Then it came to me: Hesh Reinfeld and Associates. Our associates focus on you.

Doors soon opened and business came my way; more than I could handle. I had requests to go national, but I did not have the capital to expand so I decided the best solution was to franchise my business. 

My marketing sensitivity told me that I needed a simpler brand name that was recognisable anywhere.

After much soul searching I shortened the business name to And Associates.

Business boomed, but so did the copycats all trying to hang on to my coat tails by using similar-sounding corporate names.

In El Paso, Texas, I could look across the border into Juarez Mexico and see gaudy neon signs blinking ‘And Compadrie’, while in the UK my kids reported seeing ads for ‘And Ol’ Chaps’ at every station in the Underground.

I went to court to protect my company name. It was time-consuming but I won each time. As I gallivanted around the world with my attorney, I realised that my business was just getting too big. I caved in and brought in professional management.

I have to admit that the professional managers helped the company grow.

They were detail guys. Operating systems were put in place and vendors were squeezed to offer lower prices.

I heard complaints from many of the original franchise owners that they were being micro-managed. “It’s true,” I told them, “but you’re also a lot richer.”

To my amazement we were soon preparing for a public offering. I was going to be a very rich man.

And yet, I started to have misgivings. At board meetings the agenda focused on our IPO and expansion efforts in Asia. We became more interested in selling franchises than serving our customers.

I started calling the group of original franchisees. “Guys,” I said, “how about if we take the company private again.” At first they would not listen; they reminded me of my hubris in brushing them off only months before. But they had to agree; they were miserable and liked my game plan.

We secretly approached the venture-capital funds that had bought-in early.

They thought that they were going to finally get their long-awaited big payout with the IPO.

We told them that if they did not go along with us, we would publicly announce that the franchisees would not support the IPO.

The negative press would drive the price of the stock down to pennies a share.

We scared them. And we won. We took back the company.

We then downsized. Each regional franchise became totally independent. Before long I was back to being simply Hesh Reinfeld, not even HR and Associates.

I started all over.

“Hi this is Hesh Reinfeld can I speak to Ms Big Shot? You have heard of me? Great … sorry, no I am not with the firm Hesh Reinfeld and Associates, they no longer exist … yes it’s a shame … I’ll wait … Oh, she isn’t available ... well, just leave a message that I called.”

She hung up and I happily started dialling my next call.   

• US-based columnist Hesh Reinfeld’s tongue-in-cheek look at the world of business will appear regularly in WA Business News.