A profile of NFIB member Cade Joiner and his business.
Cade Joiner knew early on that he wanted to run his own business.
“Growing up, my grandfather was a small business owner,” he says. “Hearing stories about his career really planted a seed at a young age to become an entrepreneur. I also started delivering newspapers at the age of nine. Having a paper route taught me a lot of early lessons that carried me into my business career.”
Now Joiner owns Griffin, Georgia-based Shred-X Corporation, one of the largest independent shredding companies in the Southeast. Shred-X provides on-site and off-site paper shredding and secure recycling/document destruction to more than 3,000 Georgia businesses. Since Joiner started the business in 2002, Shred-X has destroyed more than 30 million pounds of confidential material.
Getting started wasn’t easy, however. The first several years had many long nights, weekends and stress, Joiner says, but in the end it was a small price to pay to build his own business.
“I was 22 years old when I started my company,” he says. “It was tough to sell my vision at such a young age. Thankfully a local bank believed enough in me to give me my first loan. Over the past 13 years, that relationship has been a big reason we have been able to grow and maintain our success. In 2002, we started with one shredding truck and sold the paper to a local recycling company the day we shredded it, right out of the truck. Today we have a full off-site bailing operation and 12 vehicles, and we broker our own paper deals to seven paper mills across the Southeast.”
Joiner also credits his team—11 full-time staffers, including his mom, dad and uncle—with the business’ success. “The best part is working closely with our employees. We are very fortunate to have a great team of people at Shred-X.”
Joiner has also served on the NFIB Leadership Council in Georgia for three years, which he says has been a wonderful experience in which he’s learned a lot from Kyle Jackson, NFIB’s Georgia state director.
“Kyle does an outstanding job as state director,” he says. “He’s a great liaison between the small business community and the political decisionmakers in Atlanta. He keeps the board well informed about pending legislation and other items critical to our success. His hard work makes our job as a board very easy.”
