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About fifteen years ago when I started my
own business, I got the opportunity to write custom programs for clients of
a company named Automatic Data Processing (ADP). ADP does a lot of different
things including providing payroll-processing services to thousands of
companies of all shapes and sizes across the world. Often, they run across a
company that likes to color outside the lines and do things a little out of
the ordinary and when they need some specialized programming or custom
reporting that can’t be handled by the regular ADP computer system, I
sometimes get the call to work as a third-party software consultant, which
is just a fancy way of saying that I get to help the customer and ADP fit
together better.
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity
to work with some really nifty companies such as a chicken processing
company in Atlanta called King’s Delight; Quikrete, the packaged concrete
company, Outdoor Technologies up in Macon, MS; an office furniture
manufacturer in Grand Rapids, MI; Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans; a bunch
of great companies right here in Mississippi and even a Canadian company
named Bombardier that manufactured Ski-Do watercraft. Along the way, I’ve
written software for the timber industry and worked with foresters all over
the Southeast. And a few years back, I released a product to help
telemarketers comply with the Do Not Call Law that went into effect in 2003
to make sure telemarketers didn’t call people who didn’t want to be
called.
In the course of fifteen years, I’ve
enjoyed meeting and selling my software products to customers in about 28 of
these United States and at least two countries and it has been enlightening,
entertaining and down right interesting to learn about the different
businesses and to become acquainted with lot of good folks just like you and
me. They go to work everyday and earn a living and whether it is by sitting
behind a desk, counting trees in the woods or knocking on doors by and large
they are all honest, hard working folks trying to provide for their
families. From Georgia to California to Michigan to New Jersey to Texas to
Florida and all in between, there are a lot of good people out there and I’ve
enjoyed getting the opportunity to meet a bunch of them.
Back when I was about to graduate from the
University of Southern Mississippi, I noticed a lot of my fellow classmates
going on interviews for jobs that would take them away from Mississippi;
sometimes a long way away. I thought about it and decided that moving away
just wasn’t for me. I knew from the time I was about thirteen years old
that I wanted to start my own business and I really wanted to do it right
here in Mississippi. I felt there was two ways to go: 1) I could go to a big
city and try to make good and maybe come back, or 2) I could create my
opportunity right here in my home state. The latter option though harder,
meant that I could stay near family and if I played my cards right, I might
even be able to say one day that I had added something to the economy of
Mississippi and maybe in some small way helped improve Mississippi a little
bit too.
When I finally started my business and would
bean to get referrals from ADP to perform some job for a client in some
other state, I would put on my real radio voice and brush off my best
vocabulary taught to me by Ms. Tedder in my Senior Year of High School and I
would call the customer up and begin pitching them on the benefits of
agreeing to let me do the job. I would try to ask all the right questions,
offer my best suggestions and show them my best manners. If the customer
resided in a state right next door, say Louisiana or Tennessee, Alabama or
Georgia, it usually went as expected, we’d chat for a while and
eventually, I’d get the go-ahead to start working on the project.
But pretty early on, I learned to expect
that if the client was outside of the Southeast or at least more than one or
two states away from Mississippi about half-way through our conversation
they would ask, “Now where did you say you were from?” Without
hesitation I would respond, “We’re located in Meridian, MS.” There’d
be a pause on the other end of the line and I always felt they were
thinking, “Meridian, MS? They have computers there?” What they usually
said was a little more tactful like, “Really! I thought you were from
Atlanta or Memphis or whatever big Southern town came to their mind.”
For me the solution to uncomfortable
situations has always been humor, so I’d quickly revert to my native
Southern drawl and say, “Yep, we got us a regular ole Sillycon Valley
going on down here. Not only have we got computers, last week they installed
telephone lines that go BOTH WAYS!” This comment got the customer
laughing, broke the tension, and once we had put the stereotypes to bed, we
could move on and do some business. Over the last fifteen years, when I’ve
been in that situation and responded that way, I’ve rarely failed to get
the business. And when I got the business, I did everything in my power to
give that customer the best programming, the best service, and the best
return on their investment that I could give them.
Representing Mississippi in a positive light
has always been one of the benefits I’ve been blessed with doing the work
I do. And if along the way, I have changed just one person’s mind about
how they view our great state, then I can say I’ve been successful in
accomplishing the goal I set out for myself in college: To make my
opportunity right here.
Choosing to stay in Mississippi and build my
life and my business here didn’t mean I had to isolate myself from the
rest of the world. It didn’t mean that I couldn’t do the same sorts of
things I could have done in a city bigger than Meridian. All it meant was
that I had to reach out a little further and sometimes work a little harder
to overcome people’s pre-conceived notions, but in the end it has been
rewarding, exciting and educational.
Yes, I am an un-appointed ambassador of my
company AND of the Great State of Mississippi. And, so is every other
business owner who makes the decision to do his or her thing in this state
and then take it to the larger world. Business owners in Mississippi are all
Ambassadors At Large and every time one of us reaches outside Mississippi
and brings business back home, the whole State of Mississippi takes one more
step forward.
Paul Tarver has been working in the
computer industry since 1984 and has owned and operated two businesses in
the Meridian area since 1991. He writes regular articles for websites and
newsletters and he appears as a co-host on WMOX AM-1010 on a monthly basis.
This article was originally published in the East Mississippi Business
Journal.
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