Starting a business isn’t for the faint of heart, not that wallflower would ever be a word used to describe Rightsize Facility Performance CEO Mason Awtry.
In fact, it’s his fearless drive and perseverance that can be credited for expanding the commercial furniture company out of his condo’s bedroom and into a 250,000-square-foot Chicago warehouse.
And like most business owners, Awtry made some mistakes, the gutsiest of which, he would make again. Like in those early days when Awtry would go after projects with a gusto that could have put the whole business on the line.
“When I started the business, I didn’t have as firm of a basis for bidding contracts as we do today, after completing 23,000 projects,” Awtry says.
The advantage was that by taking those risks, he was able to win projects that he would have pitched differently today. And it was those early wins that funded the business, allowing it to grow to the $20 million brand that it is now.
It was when his appetite for risk shifted to a less climactic level that he knew Rightsize was the real deal.
Humble beginnings
See, risks are much easier to take when there is nothing to lose. Back when Rightsize launched 10 years ago, Awtry wore a lot of hats — there was just one employee.
“I was even the guy driving the truck,” he says.
He simply didn’t have a lot at stake, so could toe the line without having to worry about turning on the lights. Today, Rightsize has 90 plus employees in the office, overhead, real estate and a strategy that mitigates risk, rather than challenging the name of the game.
But growing the business from just one guy meant having the direction of the company in mind.
“Without a clear vision it’s impossible to have success that is consistent, repeatable and predictable,” says Awtry, noting that a business is more opportunistic than prosperous if it focuses on one-off wins. “To replicate that success without a clear vision, I personally think is impossible.”
Rightsize has a tried and true identity, with a business focused on providing new, preowned and refurbished office furniture for organizations of all shapes and sizes, among other things. The business has gained significant market share over the years, something that Awtry attributes to recognizing opportunities and gaps in the market.
He founded Rightsize Facility Performance in 2004, after building an impressive rolodex in the commercial real estate industry through his work with Rentacrate. He was known as a “king maker,” growing the company by leaps and bounds — which was a benefit to his boss much more than to himself.
But Awtry was a natural entrepreneur, and it was time to channel that success into a business where he would reap all of the benefits.
Building on the foundation
Not one to completely reinvent the wheel, he founded Rightsize as a furniture decommissioning organization to monetize the connections he had built from spending eight hours a day on the road.
“It was important to leverage those relationships and the time commitment I had already put in,” Awtry says.
Part of his natural success was building upon the foundation he created, rather than trying to cut his teeth on a completely different industry.
But he still had to think outside of the box to make the business thrive.
The original vision of Rightsize focused on handling the less glamorous parts of a commercial real estate project, particularly getting rid of the old furniture that businesses had left behind, either from acquisitions, relocations or closing their doors.
“As a result, over the course of time, we obtained a large quantity of preowned assets,” he says.
He saw an opportunity to work with those remaining assets, and took the concept and ran with it.
Fast-forward 10 years and it’s clear that Awtry found a way to evolve the company, taking it from a product acquisition model with facility decommissioning to a large new, preowned and refurbished furniture dealer.
“We had to create demand for the supply of assets that were being obtained from the original business model,” he says.
And the model worked. Now, Rightsize is a firmly established furniture vendor in the Midwest, complete with market recognition, brand awareness and a hearty client base. Knowing he has a model that works, increasing market share is on his mind. Now, “it’s a matter of how big of a rocket ship we can build at this point,” Awtry says.
But part of growing a business is making sure the right people are in place to take the business to the next level.
Figuring out how to attract good talent is one of the biggest lessons he’s learned as a business owner.
To Awtry, it isn’t just an equation of compensation, but a combination of money, lifestyle and a sense of accomplishment. He’s looking for what he calls 10,000-hour employees who want to carve their own path in the organization with an entrepreneurial model.
“10,000 hours is the concept of the time it takes to achieve mastery at any one thing,” he says.
Based on that math, it means 40 hours a week of practice for five years. A business is a sum of all of its parts, and Awtry can’t be all things at once.
Bringing in experts who can slide right into a position and instantly add value have particular appeal to Rightsize and Awtry’s team — especially because growth is on their radar.
Rightsize just opened an office in Milwaukee and Indianapolis and are about to open another in Detroit.
“We are trying to expand the footprint by bringing in highly qualified, experienced talent,” he says.
Between expanding offices, hiring all-stars and running the proverbial ship, Awtry has a lot on his plate. Like any entrepreneur, he’s always thinking about his next move, most of which is based around continuing the 10-year streak of profitability.
“To build a long-term sustainable organization is the end-all, be-all goal,” he says. But we know that he’s got something up his sleeve to make sure that happens.
