Life Lessons from Two Decades in Staffing
An interview with Greg Madler, Founder and Managing Director of Commercial Staffing
"We're not in the business of staffing. What we are is problem solvers."
As part of our 25th anniversary celebration, we sat down with a client who’s been with us almost every step of the way to find out what he’s learned during his time in the industry. Greg Madler founded Commercial Employees, Inc. over twenty years ago. From a startup in the basement to a $20M multistate enterprise employing hundreds of people, Greg truly has seen it all – and has wisdom to share!
On starting his own business 20 years ago: “I had just lost my second staffing job, and frankly, I didn’t want to work for somebody else. After six and a half years in the industry, it was time for a chance. I started in a franchise group where they really push growth and have you do everything. It gave me the experience I needed to do it all myself. I was already doing everything – finding the sale, recruiting workers, etc – the only thing I didn’t have was the money. But finally I had the ability to start my own company, so I did. Commercial Employees is turning 20 this year. We have 26 core internal people and a revenue of $20 million. It started as just me and my wife in our basement and kitchen. We put our last $3K in savings towards a Workers Comp policy. Now, we’re in two states and have a headcount of 400-700 weekly.”
On getting his start in staffing: “After my service in the Army in 1994, I have had one major career: staffing. After Somalia, I went to college on the GI Bill and was selling tires. One of my customers was a guy who started his own staffing franchise. I hated this guy at first because he would run the crap out of the tires and he was always giving me grief about the policies, always a back and forth. But eventually the guy comes to me with a job offer. I was making $5.85 an hour plus commission, and he offered me a job at $7.15 an hour. I was like, sold! And the guy ends up being a very formative mentor for me in staffing.”
On major lessons learned over the years:
“One thing that comes to mind is ‘this too shall pass.’ You will always run into problems, but you’ll find a way through. Stick with the basics. If you do the basics right, it’s hard to make mistakes.
Hire slow, fire fast. Look ahead, pour training into your people, and give them the most help you possibly can.”
On dealing with uncertainty and change: “Constant vigilance. There’s a great line in Ocean’s Eleven. The’yre getting ready to blow up the safe, and the batteries in the detonator are bad. ‘You lose focus in this game for one second and somebody gets hurt.’ You have to be smart with money and pay attention to what’s going on in the world around you. Make your moves quickly while strategizing on what the next move is going to be. If you have a client pumping out a ton of revenue, you have to be able to pivot should that change. Pay attention to two steps ahead and what’s coming down the road. Keep a positive outlook and ask yourself, what’s the next right move?”
On defining success: “The obvious thing is money. But what drives me at the end of the day is building a great company and watching my employees succeed. I recently watched three employees - who started a while ago at entry-level - buy their own homes. I’ve seen people pay off cars, be able to do things. I think of my role as teaching people how to fish. If they have the ‘want to’ and can problem solve, I love being able to teach them and watch them grow. Watching them run a branch or an area, that is success to me. We’re not in the business of staffing. What we are is problem solvers. I’m most proud of teaching how to problem solve and a mindset to be able to grow and thrive. I have almost sold the company a few times, but so far it hasn’t been right. I want to continually grow, maybe acquire another company. Eventually I will look for that off ramp.”