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SALT LAKE CITY -- How do you build a business that's so good, so rock solid, that Warren Buffett would buy it? Just ask Bill Child, he's the man who made R.C. Willey a household name in Utah.
Bill Child says he's proof that the American dream is still alive and well. Author Jeff Benedict shares Child's secrets to success in his book, "How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy...The R.C. Willey Story."
In 1949, Rufus Call Willey built his first store. It was a humble 600-square foot, white stucco building in then rural Syracuse.
"It was four parking spaces in front," recalled Bill. "The power was run, electric power was run from the house to the store."
By 1951, business was thriving and the family expanding as Child married R.C.'s youngest daughter Helen Darline Willey.
Three years later, R.C. fell ill and was handing Bill--who was fresh out of college--the keys to the store. R.C. died three months later of pancreatic cancer, and Bill was left with the business.
Child said, "I'd only had one business class, and that was type, and I was not very good at it either."
R.C.'s biggest assets were his reputation and loyal customer base. Embracing that tradition, over the next 40 plus years, Bill built a company that went from $250,000 in sales in 1954 but in serious debt, to $250 million in sales in 1994 and no debt.
"We built probably 15 buildings and stores and distribution centers, and never financed one of them," Child said.
Bill had the attention of Wall Street, and R.C. Willey Home Furnishings caught the eye of one tycoon in particular: Warren Buffett.
"I said, 'Warren, what do you think?' He said, 'I love the company, I'd love to buy if you'd like to sell it,' and I said, 'Let me talk to the family.' I said, 'You've got my vote.'"
Bill had already turned down several offers from other companies, but when Warren Buffett made an offer, Bill couldn't turn it down, and he didn't.
Bill sold R.C. Willey to Warren Buffett in 1995 for $175 million in stock.
Bill said, "I've learned so much from him. It's just amazing how bright he is and how he simplifies everything so I can understand it."
Looking back at how it all started in the little town of Syracuse with Rufus Call Willey, Bill said it had been an unbelievable journey.
Bill said he first wrote the book for the some 3,000 R.C. Willey employees. He wanted them to know what kind of legacy and tradition they were a part of. But Bill realized the principles woven in to the R.C. Willey cloth were universal and could apply to a much wider audience. The book is already in its third printing.
Click here to read Bill Child's 13 Simple Management Principles and Philosophies,
E-mail:shaws@ksl.com
