Part 2 with Adam Slack of Two Roads

Adam Slack (0:03)

I told him in January we were leaving, and by February, probably a month after that, so I didn't know what we were going to do at that point, but a month after that, I said, hey, I think I'm going to try this accounting thing. Would you be willing for me to hire your staff from you?

And then you'd be my first contract. But the first contract would basically just cover my staff, and I'll still take the haircut on my paycheck.

Paul (0:23)

And you're going to go find some business.

Adam Slack (0:26)

And the idea actually, Two Roads was born with the idea of being an intellectual CFO. So it was not born out of the info-keeping.

Paul (0:32)

From the IT Company, it's Made Right Here, the stories of East Tennessee founders, creators, and builders. From the idea behind it to the impact it had on the community, their employees, and their personal lives, we're taking you behind the scenes of the movements they built. Hey, it's Paul. Welcome back. You ever gotten a call from your wife? Or just imagine getting a call from your wife while she's at the grocery store with your kids, and she's like, here, credit cards are maxed out.

That's because of your business.

This is part of Adam's story today. Adam Slack, Two Roads. He's, his story of just building this business that he didn't even really mean to build, but also the risks and the perils and the challenges and the way that things kind of aligned in his mind, even how this maxing out the credit cards really reshaped everything he was doing. So, this is a fun episode to hear how Adam built this and what he's doing next. So, it's gonna be cool. Listen, I think you'll enjoy it.

Adam Slack (1:34)

From 21 until 30, I was in the family business.

Paul (1:38)

Book where else?

Adam Slack (1:39)

That was book, well, it became Simcoe. So, what Simcoe started is, when I joined the business, I think that was around a million in revenue. We had basically two locations, maybe 1.3 million in revenue.

Now he doubled, he got another big location, which was what drove me into the family business. And then we went from 1.3 to about 12 million in total revenue before we started winding it down. We had a retail business, we had a wholesale business, my brother ran the wholesale business.

Paul (2:11)

So, this is all the different family businesses, it wasn't just the book where else. Book where else was the first one that kind of was five or six million, and then you had a whole other set of things that were producing about the same.

Adam Slack (2:21)

Right, okay. We had an event business where we'd do the traveling bookstores, those were Christian bookstores. We help CARM, we still do this to this day, but around 2006, we started Health and CARM, Nasir Rescue Ministries with our thrift stores. And so we took that over as management.

Paul (2:38)

So you spent nine years, and then what? Did you guys do a bunker in that time frame, too?

Adam Slack (2:43)

We did an online bookstore, thank you. We did an online bookstore in that time frame. We were trying to create a family-friendly online bookstore, you know, one your kids could search for.

I mean, it was a lot of fun to try to attempt that.

Paul (2:56)

I will never forget, that might have been the first time I ever met you, was at Getty's EU, and you or your dad or somebody with Gavin was doing a pitch.

I remember that, because I thought it was a fantastic idea. I mean, it was a...

Adam Slack (3:10)

Well, the concept was good, execution. It was just before its time. Now you could probably spend it up and monetize it, and actually probably be able to survive easier than you could back then, back then, the servers and everything else that were required. You know, it was just before Amazon. You have to make that a little easier.

Paul (3:25)

Yeah, it was before Amazon Web Services and true cloud computing advice levels and stuff like that, so yeah.

Adam Slack (3:32)

And that was my first failure in business, and so it was...

Paul (3:38)

Whose idea was it?

Adam Slack (3:39)

My dad and my brother and I. So my dad, at the beginning of each year... Well, that's not true. I think it was probably continuous. He was really good at annual strategy planning. So we would meet.

He would work on the business. He taught me how to work on the business. And so once a year, we would get away from the office. We'd spend two or three days talking about what the next year's gonna look like, who's gonna manage what, who's gonna be over what.