08/02/2004
In July 1973, Ronald and Judy Smith opened the doors to Specialty Heating in Grand Rapids, Mich. Two years later, Smith's son, Dean, began working for his father while he was in high school.
Thirty years later, things have changed.
Now the younger Smith is at the helm of the business that his father began, and unexpectedly left behind. At age 30, following the untimely death of his father in 1989, Smith transitioned from being a plant manager to the president and CEO of the company.
Since transitioning into his leadership role in the company, Smith has learned a thing or two about responsibility.
"(At first,) I was scared to death," he said.
Like many of the businessmen of his time, Smith's father had kept the majority of the inner-workings of the business to himself, leaving Smith empty-handed when it came to running the business on his own.
And that wasn't the only problem he was faced with. Like many small, family-owned businesses that suffer the loss of an owner, Smith needed to decide if it would be better to sell the company.
"I initially had to consider if it would be in the best interest of the family to put the company up for sale," Smith said. "But I didn't like the idea of working for someone else and I felt I owed it to a number of people that I had grown up with in the company to give it my best effort."
And Smith's best effort has more than paid off – he's expanded the company to include plants in Elkhart, Ind., and Holland, Mich., and he has harvested a healthy crop of industry and achievement awards, including the Small Business Administration's Michigan Small Business Award. In addition, Smith has continued in the tradition of his father, maintaining a strong business while offering the best possible product that he could.
"My father was a strong believer in making the needed investments in technology and pricing the services accordingly," he said. "I have been fortunate enough to take that a step further and have worked toward implementing many of the systems currently used by the highest quality manufacturers in the world."
Specialty Heating also gives back to the community that supports it, donating to several different charities, including Toys for Tots, Pause With a Cause, CAPS (Child Abuse Protection Services), the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Smith said the business has its ups and downs, but says you can't let things get you down too much.
"There are those days when you do question why you're doing this, but they are offset by seeing those around you exceed their own expectations and enjoy some of the same personal satisfaction that I was able to achieve," Smith said.
