We're Turning 30!
Healthcare Supply Celebrates 30 Years!
It’s kind of funny, when you celebrate a birthday or anniversary, what we consider a “big” year are normally the ones that end in zero! After looking back on the last thirty years, wow, has it been a journey. Like a roller coaster of course, ups and downs, twists & turns, and of course sometimes feeling upside down. But, in the end, we are better, stronger, and more resilient than ever. I, Andrew, have been working here at Healthcare Supply (HCS) for 14 years now, and couldn’t be happier. It’s amazing working for a company who appreciates their staff as much as their customers, and here’s my story.
Starting my career at a young 15 years old, I always thought I was going to be a store manager at Publix Super Markets. Working my way up through the ranks of bagger, cashier, office staff, and into management I learned that hard work pays off and gets noticed. This is where I developed some of my most important attributes like how to treat customers, how to answer the phone properly, and how to communicate throughout not only my department, but the entire store. Dave Taylor, my district manager at the time, once told me, “Treat our customers like kings and queens and they’ll always come back.” This stuck with me throughout my Publix career and always with my time here at HCS. This has now become part of our culture.
The retail lifestyle got a little too demanding when my wife, Jeannie, and I wanted to start our family. My parents, Marc and Shelly, asked me to join their company as a territory sales representative. It was a very hard and drawn-out decision, but I went with my guts and accepted the offer on the condition that I could still work for Publix one night a week. Publix was all I ever knew, and I wanted to have a fallback plan if I was not successful in my sales career. I instantaneously fell in love with my new career! Meeting new people every day, exploring new areas, and making new sales!
Earning a new customer is one of the best feelings, but developing relationships is what I have found to be much more appealing at this stage in my career. It’s one thing to be the new guy on the block, and a complete 180 to being a 14-year veteran. My customers have now seen me go through my nerves of having my two children, the praise for buying my first house, and many smiles and laughs on Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day costumes (that I wear every year on the holidays). I love learning about my customer’s families and seeing them at local green markets and arts & crafts festivals. They’re my friends, plain and simple.
So now that Joe, my brother, and I have taken the reigns in late 2021, I see the business through a different set of eyes. Reading books, which I will honestly admit that I had never read a book through high school or college, diligently working after the bell many nights out of the week (I’m writing this blog at 10pm on a Tuesday), and really investing myself to work “on the business” regularly to make sure our path continues. The concept of working “on the business” rather than working “in the business” blew my mind. I was a sales representative, but now I’m a sales representative, a marketer & advertiser, trainer, human resources, party planner, website developer, a writer, and the list goes on. With still needing and wanting to do sales as my day job, many of the other roles get pushed to nights and weekends.
I feel so lucky to have partnered up with my brother, whom I can trust wholeheartedly to work side by side with me through the best times and the not-so-great times. We are the perfect opposite pair that energizes from each other’s strengths. Since taking the reins in late 2021, Joe and I have started new relationships with numerous manufactures (including Coltene, Kerr, Kulzer, Cranberry & more), built a sales team, and developed an e-commerce website. We keep our heads down and plow forward every week by developing new marketing strategies, implementing new technologies to help with workflow, setting and mapping out short- and long-term goals. We are constantly pushing each other to be our best selves.
Healthcare Supply is my home, my family, and my career; it’s where I want to be! I enjoy working with our staff, who average over 10 years of employment, and we look forward to our prosperous years ahead. I really like our team building and comradery at our company barbeques, outings, tradeshows, and fun games we play at holiday parties. As our team grows and we have more dentists join our Healthcare Supply family so does my drive to continue to make our service even better and to continue to learn how to make our customer’s experiences even more seamless than ever before.
Thanks for the read, Andrew
