“He told me about the regulations, said that he had designed this Catch-All device, and he wanted to know if I wanted to start a company with him. I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ — so we did,” Jim recalls. The learning curve was steep, but eventually Catchall Environmental gained traction. What began as a prototype became a full-fledged company over the course of the decade. Throughout that process, Jim never stopped learning. He was constantly looking for ways he and his team could expand and improve, and a few years back, that pursuit of excellence led him to Sandler Training. Originally, Jim came to us looking for training for his salespeople, but it wasn’t long before he started exploring our other tools for business development. Eventually, he sat down with us to build a clearly defined, one-page strategic plan for Catchall Environmental and discuss ways to bring his team on board. “I think it’s been helpful for me to clarify what our objectives are to everybody within the company. We’re a small company — we only have nine employees — so everyone is wearing a lot of different hats, and they’re highly productive. But now it’s time to take that next step in our growth and really build the company to the next level,” Jim says. “It takes vision, and it takes people understanding their future role and future op within the company. I think that’s going to help with recruiting people [in the future], and help people who have been with me for awhile see a future for themselves in this business and realize they aren’t short- termers; they’re long-termers — they see the vision.” One of the biggest challenges Catchall Environmental was facing was recruiting new talent. With unemployment rates hitting record lows, hiring had become time-consuming, frustrating, and often fruitless. After some discussion, Jim
passed the hiring buck to us. Our team helped him identify, source, interview, and hire key employees across all areas, including vactor drivers, accountants, and administration leaders. That outsourcing saved Jim time and energy, letting him refocus on his current employees and clients. Next, we plan to work with him on strategies to snap up star players from his competition. “We have one advantage, which is that we’re environmentally oriented. People who have a passion for the environment and having an impact on the world are excited about what we do,” Jim says, reflecting on the hiring process. Thanks to these new initiatives, Catchall is on an upward trajectory. Over the last three months, Jim worked with one of his employees to put together creative, eye-catching graphs that broadcast the
time-clocks. The latter was through a company called Kronos, and after several years there, Jim ended up partnering with its manufacturer to take over dealership rights for the state of Washington. He ran that operation for 14 years, expanding it into Alaska and British Columbia. Eventually, he sold it back to Kronos to start his own interface software company, which integrated Kronos’ data with payroll and HR systems. Unsurprisingly, when the time was right, Kronos snapped that company up, too. From there, Jim’s career was a roller coaster. He boomeranged back to tech sales for a few years, then jumped into the real estate market, buying and selling properties for a profit. It was during that time that his nephew-in-law approached him with the idea for the Catch-All. Despite his lack of experience in the sector, Jim was sold right away.
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