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Multiple businesses cure entrepreneur’s boredom
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
Russell Smith is a living breathing definition of the word “diversification.”
In the course of any given day, you will find him sorting clothes at Smith Family Cleaners, selling pocket and hunting knives, and riding his bulldozer.
Variety, he says, is what makes him happy.
“It’s in my blood to create my own direction,” he said.
Smith, 46, grew up in the dry cleaning business. His father, Alfred Smith, founded Smith Family Cleaners in 1966. After getting his driver’s license, Russell Smith would spend hours after school helping his father work.
He continued to work with his father throughout his adulthood, and earlier this year, he and his wife purchased the business. They own two Smith Family locations—one on Folly Road and another on Skylark Road in Charleston—and Diamond Cleaners on James Island. Between all three locations, they employ 35.
“The grass didn’t look any greener anywhere else,” Smith said of the decision to buy the business, adding that he is deeply thankful and appreciative of the work his father did to establish it.
Watch him at work and it becomes obvious Smith likes interacting with his customers—shaking hands, laughing and calling them things like “lady”—but what is most interesting about Smith is that one business, no matter how much he might enjoy it, isn’t enough to satisfy him.
So he sells knives and clears land.
Six years ago, he became a representative for Benchmade Knives, selling the automatic, hunting and kitchen knives off of a counter in a corner, which he calls the “bubba corner,” of the Folly Road Smith Family Cleaners location.
“A customer came in here one time carrying one, and I bought a knife off him,” Smith said. “Then I inquired about becoming a distributor. It was just a big interest of mine.”
The only advertising he uses, Smith said, is a sign outside his shop and word of mouth.
“We get women who come in here around Christmas and say their husbands told them to come and buy a knife,” Smith said.
Today Smith said he sells between 300 and 400 knives a year, but according to Benchmade, he sold 655 knives between Nov. 11, 2004 and the same date this year. Smith said knives range from $35 to $350, and each year his sales equal about $20,000.
“People who are staying at (Folly Beach) drive by and see my sign and come in,” Smith said.
“I get calls from the FBI in Quantico, Va., and they ask me if I have model ‘so and so,’ and they give me a federal credit card number.”
Despite running a successful dry cleaning business with annual sales of nearly $1.2 million and a growing side business as a knife seller, Smith still felt a void within him.
“My neighbors hit me with the fact that there was still something in me that was screaming to get out,” Smith said, recalling a conversation with his neighbors. “They said ‘you’re bored; you need to jump out of an airplane or something.’”
Realizing his neighbors were on to something, Smith set out to relieve his boredom. He found the solution with land clearing.
Earlier this year, he decided to turn his love of the outdoors in to a money-making venture and established In-A-Snap, a land clearing business.
Smith invested nearly $90,000 in the business to pay for a bulldozer, backhoe, dump truck and tractor, among other equipment.
Since the business launched, the amount of work he has received is remarkable, he said.
He has gotten calls for residential and commercial jobs and now spends every afternoon clearing land. He charges a flat rate of $75 per hour and is assisted by one employee.
Smith’s wife, Mary, said the initial investment will pay for itself in two years.
For his part, Russell Smith said the venture has already paid off.
“It’s more satisfying, challenging, relaxing and therapeutic,” Russell Smith said. “Dirt don’t call in sick, and trees don’t talk back.
“It keeps me off half the medicines that are out there.”
Russell Smith finally feels fulfilled but that he will always be looking for new opportunities, he said.
“I’m always looking over there,” he said, craning his neck toward the other side of his Folly Road dry cleaning shop. “But I never drop anything along the way.”
Mary Smith said they are always looking to grow their dry cleaning business and may investigate opening a new pick-up, drop-off location in the future.
Rachel Pleasant is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@charlestonbusiness.com.
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