Interview with Bryan L. Welton Jr., CEO - Namifiers, LLC

Interview with Bryan L. Welton Jr., CEO Namifiers, LLC August 15, 2007

Why did you decide to switch from pursuing a Law Degree to owning your own business at Namifiers?
I interviewed attorneys at a few different law firms.  The purpose of my interview was to find out what the life of a junior executive was like while working up to partner or junior partner.  It was almost universal that everyone I interviewed said, “It will take about 60-65 hours of billable time to survive in the law world as an attorney.” They explained that you also had to add in commute time and lunch time.  They said, “Plan on about 70 hours a week for your first seven years.” I sat back and did some calculations and I thought, “That’s almost like working two full-time jobs.  If I’m going to do two full-time jobs anyway, why not work for myself?”  So that was the catalyst that got me thinking about doing my own thing. 

Where did you get the idea to build a company making and selling nametags?

My father-in-law was connected with a guy that was in the nametag and key ring business.  I partnered up with him and asked if he wanted me to use my internet marketing experience to help take the business online.  He wasn’t interested at the time, but I felt like it was something that would go, and it would go really well.  That experience caused my initial interest in starting a nametag business.  Over time, I developed my own business model including same-day service.  I tried to figure out how  we could tweak nametag design to move away from a generic, 70’s font  and move to full-color, digital nametags.  That was in ‘99. 

How did your life change after you founded Namifiers?

I’ve been able to grow in my personal life.  Running a company takes a lot of energy which has forced me to stay on top of my game.  I’ve had to keep my eyes open and maintain a certain vision and level of energy that I probably would not have maintained had I been working for someone else. 

What is the most satisfying part of your position?

I like being able to open doors for people who might not do as well in other arenas by providing jobs for them.  Some of our employees have not gone through the traditional route of getting a formal college education, yet they excel in their positions here.  The most satisfying part of my job is being able to share opportunities with these people and growing the business with them as a family.  

Tell us about your most heart-wrenching low in business.

I’ve always been a fan of saying yes to everything and being able to take care of every customer.  One of the hardest things I had to deal with was when we got a request to bid on a job for the NFL.  It was a 20 million piece job for all of the stadiums.  For a week straight, I tried to figure out a way we could do it but it was just impossible at the time.  We were only a year old as a company.  It was a 5.8 million dollar contract.  We needed about half a million dollars in capital just to get started on it.  Nobody was going to lend us that amount of money in the short time frame that we needed it in. We didn’t have our processes in place.  So, it was really hard for me to face that we were such a small company.  It sent a blow my way and I felt like maybe we didn’t have the vision we were supposed to and maybe we were not as good as we thought we were.  It really made me sit down and re-think some things.  I knew then that we really needed to grow and expand our vision to be able to deal with orders like that.  Deep down inside, I’m hoping that one day that NFL-style person calls back.  We’ve done similar jobs to that since then and we could handle it now. 

What would you say your greatest triumph in business has been?

I think our greatest triumph has been becoming a supplier for the Awards & Recognition Association and the Advertising Specialty Institute.  Through these entities, we can share our vision with other companies.  I also feel like it’s a triumph that we’ve been able to create products such as the Green Magnet and same-day service lanyards.  Those products help re-sellers in any industry as they try and promote their products and services. 

Is there a specific famous businessman that you’ve tried to model or emulate?

I don’t know if there’s one particular person.  It’s sort of a melting pot of different ideas.  There are several people I look at.  I like to read articles about Utah Valley entrepreneurship and see how many entrepreneurs come out of here year after year.  There were people that were involved with advertising specialties that helped along the way to create things.  I look at great people like Jack Welch who is the CEO of General Electric.  He began his employment with GE in a lower-level position and worked his way up to CEO. He was able to take GE to the number one and two spots in many of its markets:  appliances, energy, efficiency, owning NBC, and successfully doing different mergers and acquisitions.  So, I look at guys like that who are really just normal guys that can accomplish a lot in 20 years. 

How do you feel about being placed as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2007?

When the VP of Marketing, Brad Gasaway, told me about it, he said, “Congratulations.  You are a finalist for Ernst and Young!”  I just said, “Oh.  Ok, great.”  I didn’t really understand what it was.  I looked at it and said, “Well, it’s probably just this neat little program.”  I don’t think I realized how important it was until we started getting the information about it in the form of dvds and brochures and seeing who the past finalists and winners were.  As I got more involved with the program, I realized what a great honor it was.  We were probably the smallest company at the awards banquet.  We were also one of the younger companies there. 

How do you spend your free time?

I’ve got five children, ages six and under and I really enjoy going on drives with them and looking at homes.  I started investing in real estate as a hobby.  I invest in homes and work with various personal and professional home projects.  We also spend a lot of free time in Florida where my wife is from.  We’ve made it a goal to get out there a couple of times a year and bond as a family.  I’m actively involved with church, community resources, and education.  I enjoy serving in certain capacities, whether it’s on a homeowner’s board in the neighborhood or getting involved with local politics. 

Do you have any secret ambitions you don’t mind sharing with the audience?

Besides being on the cover of Fortune magazine, my ultimate goal is to live a childhood dream I had when I was 14 or 15 years old:  I hoped somebody would come along and see that I had some sort of talent and maybe help me get through college and maybe even help me to start a little business.  I’d like to have enough wealth or assets to be able to find young (14 or 15 years old) talented people and provide an anonymous source where they can be helped and served.  I’d like to give people a chance that they normally wouldn’t have.  I would put money in a fund and let a couple of the employees run it.  They would choose the recipients and the donation would be anonymous. 

Now a few questions about business…

How did Namifiers start out?

The concept originated in the year 2000.  I had partnered up with a guy who had the domain nametags.com. He hadn’t done anything with it for four years so I asked him if I could take it live.  After some persuasion, I ended up launching a website for the business which became more of a success than he had anticipated.  We partnered up for about two years.  During that time, I realized that there are advantages and disadvantages to partnerships.  We had different philosophies.   I decided to take some of my ideas in a different direction.  The domain for The Nametag Source was registered in December of 2000 and launched in 2001.  Namifiers was born from The Nametag Source, Lanyards Now, and a few other domains such as Badge Boss. 

Tell us something about the atmosphere at Namifiers.

We have a unique cultural mix because we have people from all walks of life.  In the manufacturing sector, it’s typical to find Latin or Hispanic people. In our sales department, we have several wives who are with us for a year or two, working to put their husbands through school.  We have interns from local universities and different countries working in various departments.  Our executive team is youthful and enthusiastic. 

I think we’re able to channel the energy from our diverse and vibrant team of employees, mature it a little bit, and use it to grow the business.  I’ve always felt that everybody has something to offer.  We pride ourselves that nobody has ever been fired for doing something wrong or messing something up.  If an employee messes something up or they’re no good at one thing, we know they’re good at something else.  We make adjustments and put them somewhere else and they seem to excel. 

What are some characteristics that give Namifiers an edge on competitors?

There are two things that I think really set us apart that I consider strengths.  One is our fundamental vision that we’ve had from day one:  same-day service.  We want to make sure that we are helping people; that it’s not a hindrance or a bother to order promotional products.  Because of that, we have been forced to improve our manufacturing processes.  Sean Fitzgerald, our Vice President of Operations, has done a great job of helping us get a competitive edge by developing some proprietary manufacturing processes that enable us to send out 80,000 to 100,000 pieces per day, whether they are blank or custom; nametags, lanyards, or whatever.  So part of it is the process. 

The other edge we have is one that we’ve developed over time:  we have our own proprietary software.  Our Chief Operations Officer, Chris Jensen, has been instrumental in helping us achieve our goal to have just one piece of software to fill all the needs of the company.  I have worked with Chris to develop our software for both employee and client use.  Employees use this software to generate reports and manage accounting, payroll, HR, and everything else.  Our Vice President of Sales, Nick Vance, has trained his team of account executives use Everest proficiently to assist customers and communicate their needs with other departments.  Customers use this same software online through our web interface to view product details, place orders, and upload the specs for their orders such as a company logo.  Having the same software for all of these purposes means we don’t have to translate data from one department to another.  This helps us communicate effectively and efficiently as a company on one platform. 

So the software you use was developed internally at Namifiers?

We got together with iCode who had been developing their version of Everest.  Chris and I took about 70 percent of what they had developed and adapted the other 30 percent to our same-day model.  In other words, we didn’t just open a box and then all of a sudden Everest worked.  We had to program in different things:  how to separate our orders, how to do an order tracking system, how to get shipping to communicate with sales.  So, we’ve been developing our version of Everest for about two years.  It has been quite an investment, costing the company about $250,000 to put it together. 

We are in the finishing stages and it’s really starting to pay off.  People are able to communicate with one another.  Any employee can access the information they need such as sales quotes or orders.  It’s all kept in a nice, clean database.  We can use that same data to keep in touch with our customers.  So, our proprietary manufacturing processes and enterprise software keep us on the competitive edge. 

What does Namifiers do to keep existing customers and attract new ones?

We are consistently trying to send out product offerings to our existing customers.  There are certain customers that we’ve had for five years and they were with us when our only product was nametags.  We’re trying to listen to what they want.  Because of those customers, we have added lanyards, custom lanyards, custom printing, badge holders, badge reels to our product offerings.  Listening to customers gives them a sense of loyalty.  They know that if they get stuck in a bind for anything they can call us and say, “I know this is random, but can you guys do pad-printed stress balls and can you do them in 3 days?”  We listen to those customers and say, “Not only can we do it this time, from now on we’re going to have it as a product offering.” 

We have a very aggressive marketing campaign.  It’s similar to most of the pay-per-click models that are out there but we try and attract any type of customer we can through many different means.  We have a number of domain names that appeal to a variety of people.  Our Namifiers website looks different than our Nametags.com website, which is different than our Lanyards Now website and our Nametag Source website.  So, we use several avenues.  Brad has done a great job of expanding these domains and using them to attract all types of customers. 

What are Namifiers best accomplishments through the years?

The best accomplishments are related to employee growth.  The awards our company has received such as Businessman of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year show the accomplishment, maturity, and growth of our staff.  Other great accomplishments are the launching of several different product lines such as the Green Magnet and our same-day custom lanyard printing. 

What trends do you see in the Identification Products Industry this year?

Lanyards were somewhat popular before 9/11 but due to the tragic circumstances of that day, people had to change.  Many businesses added security cards, ID cards, lanyards; some sort of identification or separation that would keep their areas secure.  This sudden demand for identification products created growth in the industry in 2001 and 2002. 

In 2007 and 2008, people are and will be looking for a smaller piece of identification.  Technology has changed and people are looking to streamline things a little bit.  They’re looking for something that’s less bulky.  We’re seeing thinner lanyards.  We’re seeing ID tags smaller than the standard credit card size.  RF chip tags will replace large ID cards with photos or bar codes that need to be scanned.  This smaller, button-sized ID card has a radio frequency chip that sends a signal to a monitor.  The security guard looking at the monitor can see if the person is OK to pass through. 

If you had to sum up the vision of the company into one phrase, what would it be? 

Unify, Simplify, Namify.   We unify companies by providing them with identification products which promote the common purpose of individuals in an organization.  We simplify by using basic principles such as customer service and user-friendly processes and transactions.  We Namify with the ability to put a name or logo on a variety of items.  One day we’d like to be able to put a name on anything in the world, except we don’t do permanent tattoos.

What are some ways you have found to give back to the community or charitable causes?

When Chris and I set out to establish a business model, we felt that it was important for a company to do something besides help its own employees.  We sat down and made a list of what causes we’d like to donate to and who we would like to help.  We listed several causes including local education.  We feel like it’s important to give something back within our own communities.  We also feel it’s appropriate to invite all of the employees to volunteer a certain number of hours at different places.  We encourage them to develop their sense of charity by being actively involved with their community and any church organization they may belong to.  This encourages dedication to the overall cause of humanity.  We feel like our Namifiers employees are better because of their volunteer efforts. 

What awards has Namifiers received?

Recently, Namifiers has been listed in Inc. 5,000 as one of the fastest growing private companies in America.  In Utah, we’ve received various local awards ranging from Businessman of the Year to CEO of the Month in industry publications. We’ve been selected as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and Business of the Month from local chambers.  Although they are awarded to me as the CEO, these awards represent Namifiers as a company and the ability of the employees to work together.

This is Kelly Forbis and my interview with Bryan Welton, Jr. please share with us your comments.