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One Step at a Time LESSONS FROM LONG DAYS AND ROUGH TRAILS
A few years ago, a buddy introduced me to something called adventure racing. I didn’t know much about it at the time, but I said yes and have been hooked ever since. It’s not like a typical race. You’re switching between biking, paddling, and trekking for anywhere between 12 and 24 hours, navigating the whole thing with nothing but a paper map. You don’t know which discipline you’re doing until they hand you the next section. You collect checkpoints along the way, choose your route, and keep going until time runs out — or you run out of steam. It’s gritty. It’s strategic. And it’s taught me more about myself, my business, and my life than I ever expected. Pace to Last When I was younger, I hit everything at full speed. Starting a business? Go hard. Raising a family? Be everywhere at once. While that kind of energy got me going, it couldn’t keep me going. Adventure racing forced me to learn that lesson again, but in my body this time. If I blow all my energy early in a 15-hour race, there’s nothing left at hour 12 when it counts. I have to pace myself, plan better, and manage my reserves for the long haul. That’s not just a racing mindset. That’s a business lesson as well. I used to believe momentum was everything — just keep pushing and don’t stop. But now I understand that sometimes the most productive thing you can do is slow down, check your map, and rethink your direction. Take the Next Step There’s always a point in the race when it gets ugly — your legs hurt, your brain gets foggy, and you’ve been out in the woods too long. You’re feeling cold, tired, and frustrated, and
you basically have two choices: You can either sit down and give up or take one more step.
That moment is so simple and so clear. It’s one of the reasons I keep coming back to this sport. It reminds me that even in the roughest situations in life, business, or anything else, forward is the only way through. Go Together I do most of my races with a partner. We each have strengths. He’s better at orienteering, and sometimes, he’s the one pulling me forward. Other times, I return the favor. It only works when we trust each other. If one of us tries to muscle through solo or lets frustration take over, the wheels fall off. That’s a tough lesson for entrepreneurs like me. A lot of us are used to doing it all ourselves, but long-term success doesn’t work that way. I’ve learned that real progress — the kind that lasts — happens when you let go of the need to be the smartest person in the room. In a race or in business, no one gets far trying to carry everything alone. There’s a saying: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I used to be the guy who wanted to go fast. These days, I’m playing the long game. More Than Just a Map Adventure racing has become my reset button. It balances strategy with grit. It gets me outside, reminds me what I still have to learn, and keeps me grounded. When the day-to-day grind gets
JUNE 2025 Teeco Times
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loud, racing resets me. It’s not about proving anything. It’s about staying sharp and remembering that while the path may change, the goal remains the same — keep moving forward, one step at a time.
–Steve Arendt
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INVENTORY CLEAN TENTS
Building a business can require long hours growing sales, putting out fires, and driving ideas to fruition. Checking your business credit score might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but it can make a difference in your ability to achieve those other goals. A low credit score will inflate your borrowing costs and make attracting strong business partners and vendors harder. To establish business credit, register for a Dun & Bradstreet Data University Numbering System or D-U-N-S number. Your payment history, the age of your business credit accounts, the size of your debt, and trade credit extended by suppliers all affect your score. To put your best foot forward, check your score frequently with Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian. Ensure your business and financial information, revenue figures, and industry classification are accurate. Mixups happen more easily with business credit scores than personal ones because identifying information is indexed only to your business name and address. If your DBA is similar to another company’s, your business might be confused with theirs. Also, pay your bills on time or, preferably, before they are due. The clock runs faster on business credit than on personal loans. While consumer debt typically isn’t treated as late until 30 days after invoicing, business debt payments are considered “late” if only one day overdue. Your payment history determines Dun & Bradstreet’s Paydex score and is vendors’ primary information source. If you pay your bills on their due date, you will earn a Paydex score of 80 on a scale of 100. To get closer to 100, you must pay before the due date! Also, segregate your business and personal borrowing as much as possible. When starting a business, maxing out a personal credit card is a common but ill-advised strategy. Businesses typically use far more credit than consumers and can access far more credit. PROTECT YOUR COMPANY’S CREDIT SCORE Build Your Business Muscles
Every tent rental company deals with the challenge of cleaning, but most underestimate what it’s really costing them. If you think the expense begins and ends with labor to clean them, think again. Dirty tents don’t just sit in a pile. They quietly block revenue and chip away at your margins. It comes down to what accountants call “earns and turns.” Every time you rent a tent, that’s a “turn.” Every dollar you get from that rental is an “earn.” The more often a tent goes out and the more money it brings in per turn, the better your return on investment. The goal is to maximize both.
When a tent sits dirty, it’s out of commission, and that cuts your turns. To compensate, many businesses do what I used to: buy more tents. That way, you still have inventory for big weekends. But think about what’s really happening out there. You’re spending hard-earned profit to cover for
s
inefficiencies, often purchasing tents that will only go out a handful of times a year. The rest of the time, they sit in storage collecting dust, not dollars.
It doesn’t stop there. Storing and maintaining those extra tents adds more cost over time. Meanwhile, the original problem — your ability to accumulate the pile of dirty tents — still exists. Instead of solving it, you’ve just worked around it with a low-return investment.
Our washers can handle more than just tents! Amanda Pharis at Blue Rock Event Solutions in Mt. Zion, Illinois, used her washer to bring this boat cover back to life. Before & After
Following these basic rules can help you demonstrate your trustworthiness to prospective business partners and lenders, increasing
your financial flexibility and opening up new opportunities!
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Y TIED UP? S ARE THE KEY
Now, you’re dealing with a logistical and financial issue. You’re tying up capital in underused inventory, and every dollar you spend on those extra tents is a dollar you’re not using to grow your business, improve your infrastructure, or take home as profit. As your company grows, so does the pile — and so does the waste. Cleaning delays also drag down employee morale, damage your reputation when less-than-clean tents are sent out, and force overtime costs when last-minute fixes are needed. If you want to improve your bottom line, eliminate the dirty pile. Maximizing turns means maximizing profit, and the fastest way to do that is to keep every tent clean, ready, and earning. Clean inventory is productive inventory.
At some point, every business owner hits a crossroads. Getting to the point where customers are loyal and sales are consistent takes hard work and a bit of time. Yet for many, reaching such a milestone becomes a burden that can be hard to walk away from. It may be worth asking what comes next and whether it aligns with the reasons you started the business in the first place. Many owners in the $750,000–$5 million range are told that scaling is the next logical step. Everywhere you look, there’s pressure to grow bigger. However, very few companies actually scale past $5 million, and even fewer do it without burning out the owner or sacrificing the life they set out to build. Chasing growth without direction can leave you with more stress, less freedom, and a business that no longer reflects your original vision. Instead of pushing for more, it may be time to take inventory of what you’ve already built and how it fits into the life you want now. Momentum is powerful, but so is clarity. Reconnecting with your original purpose — whether that was more time with family, creative control, or financial freedom — helps reset your focus. It’s not always about scaling. Sometimes, it’s about living well with what you’ve already earned. Making the shift may mean that you have to learn business fundamentals, so that the company you have created produces the profit you need to live the life you want. It means understanding them enough to lead effectively. Financials, operations, sales, culture, and long-term vision all play a part. You don’t have to master every discipline, but having a working knowledge of each allows you to delegate strategically and stay aligned with your goals. True leadership is about knowing what matters most and building a business that reflects it. That starts with defining your values, assembling the right team, and creating systems that make the business run smoothly without constant oversight. Freedom doesn’t come from scale alone. It comes from clarity, alignment, and the confidence to let your business support your life, not overtake it. Sometimes, the best next step isn’t up — it’s inward. And the business you have today might already be enough to build the life you want. 3 Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better BUILT TO LAST, NOT TO SCALE
EXTRA TENTS
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Inside This Issue 1 What Adventure Racing Taught Me 2 Steps Toward Building a Strong Business Credit Score
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The Hidden Math Behind Dirty Tents
Before and After of the Month
3 Delegation Tips for Growing Leaders 4 The Hidden Innovators Behind Baseball’s Greatest Gear
Meet the Minds Behind Baseball’s Iconic Equipment A GLOVE, BAT, AND BALL TRANSFORMED
Baseball may be America’s pastime, but it didn’t appear out of thin air. The game we know and love today is a patchwork of early stick-and-ball games, tracing back centuries to England’s cricket and even as far back as ancient civilizations like the Mayans and Egyptians. But modern baseball started taking shape in 19th-century New York. Enter the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, which set the foundation in 1846 with official rules that included base paths, foul lines, and, mercifully, the elimination of tagging runners out by hurling the ball at them. Of course, baseball wouldn’t be what it is today without the brilliant minds who revolutionized its equipment. Three inventors, George Rawlings, John Hillerich, and Benjamin Shibe, took baseball’s core components and transformed them into game-changers. George Rawlings was the first to look at a player’s bruised and battered hands and think, “There’s got to be a better way.” As a sporting goods store owner, Rawlings designed a padded baseball glove, patenting it in 1885. With added felt and rubber padding, his glove gave players much-needed protection while fielding fast-moving balls. Today, Rawlings’ baseball gloves are as essential to the game as the bases themselves.
Then there’s John Hillerich, a German immigrant and skilled woodworker who ran a shop in Louisville, Kentucky. His game-changing moment came when his baseball-loving son needed a better bat. Hillerich’s new design had a harder surface to help players drive the ball farther, and in 1902, the famous Louisville Slugger was patented. More than a century later, the bat remains one of the most iconic pieces of baseball equipment, wielded by legends past and present. And finally, Benjamin Shibe, the “Edison of baseball.” Before Shibe, baseballs lacked the durability needed for a high-powered sport. In 1909, he patented the cork-centered baseball, a tougher, more resilient ball that allowed for stronger, farther hits. His creation became the official ball of Major League Baseball in 1911, forever altering how the game was played. These three inventors helped shape baseball into the thrilling sport it is today. Next time you watch a game, remember that every leaping grab at the warning track, every solidly hit line drive, and every soaring home run snagged by an enthusiastic fan are built on a legacy of innovation.
BASEBALL FOREVER
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