As you drive though the green, rolling hills in the farmland in southwestern Wisconsin, you pass through small towns that proudly tout their local high school’s last state championship. In these towns, you find a lot of small businesses from ranging cafes to farm implement stores. If you enter Fennimore on Highway, if you look left, you see Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and if you look right, you see a warehouse proudly displaying a big sign for SUPPZ.COM, a nutritional supplement retail company. It may be headquartered in a small town, but that doesn’t mean Brent and Mary Sheckler think or act small.
Suppz.com has online and brick and mortar presences, but their heart belongs in the heartland. Brent Sheckler is Suppz.com’s CEO and was born and raised in Fennimore. When it came to where he and his wife, Mary (Suppz.com’s CFO) wanted to raise his family and grow is business, Fennimore was the clear answer. The started the SUPPZ brand with a small gym in a town of 2,000 (it is still there plus a few more), and a $20,000 loan. They remain committed to their hometown and remaining a local source for jobs to pack and ship products from their warehouse.
Using social media, radio, television, e-mail and other digital advertising, they now have a global customer base. Suppz.com’s mission is to provides high quality products and incredibly competitive prices. They strive to give top quality customer service as a small company and not of a corporate giant, but they take advantage of their size to keep prices low. According to Brent, Suppz.com’s products are priced lower “99% of the time” over competitors.
But it wasn’t simply advertising and low prices that allowed them to grow. They know the importance of being a trusted source. Even their warehouse has a retail store that is staffed with knowledgeable staff to answer questions with the prices equaling those online. That way no matter where you buy from Suppz.com, you get the same service and price. To add more value for their customers, they have events and promotions with famous industry figures at the brick and mortar locations that their competition (especially the online ones) cannot.
Brent and Mary are avid networkers. If you have one meeting with Brent, he will try to connect you with people he thinks will help you and not be afraid to ask if you know someone who can help him with his latest idea. He also builds mentor relationships to learn from others experiences. Brent said, “I have a great friend in Fennimore, Pete Adam, who is a very successful business person. He’s in a different industry, but is probably my go-to person with general business questions.” If you have something to teach, they are there to learn.
One lesson he has to teach others is it would be to “not over extend yourself of working capital. That happens too often. When asked what he would have told his younger self. The answer was, “Make sure to be well financed, and don’t rush things. My bigger mistakes came from rushing into quick decisions.” But that doesn’t mean not to go forward, next up is more retail locations and more content. But know that it is using the small-town prudence learned growing up as a Golden Eagle.