Every mobile tool dealer has to get his or her start somewhere.
For veteran tool man Rick Huether, an apprenticeship in the Washington D.C. area helped familiarize him with the business of selling tools and gave him the motivation to build a lasting career as a dealer.
“It was an expansion territory for a flag, and I did it for three years,” he explains. “It started out as a one-year program, but they needed to work out some kinks with it and I ended up there for three.”
After gaining some valuable experience and perspective on the tool business, Huether was then faced with the decision as to whether he wanted to buy a franchise and continue on with his same route. He declined to do so.
“They said, ‘Buy the route,’ but it really wasn’t where I wanted to be,” he says. “It hadn’t done the numbers to substantiate a franchise. I said no.”
A position as an industrial rep for the same flag became available in the North Carolina area, and it ended up being just the type of job Huether needed at the time. He says it served as valuable learning experience for becoming a tool dealer again.
“Our sales manager at the time, he then went back on the street as a dealer and wanted to keep expanding,” says Huether. “He brought me back from North Carolina as the second man for him. I did that for three years, learned an incredible amount from him and then bought a franchise (with another flag).”
