Start Up Story featuring Ball Fabrics: Rising From the Ashes

Now, we identified our strengths and stuck to them.

Dale Ball and his two sons, Larry and Jon, share a unique position at Ball Fabrics: they jointly own the CEO position. It probably wouldn’t work for most companies but they have found it’s a perfect fit as a family-owned and family-founded business.

Their unique management style is only the beginning of their exceptional story. Their first company was stolen by investors, but they’ve come back, better than ever.

“Most people, and most companies, don’t get a second chance. When you lose your entire company – the physical plant, long time employees, loyal customers and all the branding accomplished in 25 years – you wonder if you have another start up left in you,” explains Dale Ball, founder and co-owner of Ball Fabrics.

“The day we were fired from the company we founded and built, we were escorted out of our own offices with nothing but the clothes we were wearing,” says Larry Ball, vice president and co-owner. “Dad told the investors the company would never last without the three of us; we were the company. The investor laughed and said, ‘Everyone thinks he is irreplaceable, but in our experience, it’s always about the product line, and never the person in the corner office.’ He couldn’t have been more wrong.”

After licking their wounds for a few months, the three men agreed that quitting wasn’t in their DNA. They knew the business, what their customers wanted, and they knew commercial fencing, sports netting, and outdoor fabric industry. They reviewed what had gone wrong and they knew how to do it better.

With more than 75 years of experience between them, they collaborated on how to come back. They began with a company vision statement focused on:

• Extreme customer service at the very time customer service was being eliminated in many companies by automated phone services and virtual web assistants
• Narrowing the product line to the most important products to keep it simple
• Sticking to American made even when it was difficult and more expensive
• Ensuring quality manufacturing from the raw materials to the final stitch and grommet

“Our branding focused on the things we knew resonated with the people who used our products, which included fence contractors, coaches and athletic directors, park and recreation managers,” adds Jon Ball, vice president and co-owner.

Their re-branding strategy was to maximize the many years of business relationships through personal contact and word of mouth. “We didn’t have a marketing budget. Social media was in its infancy, and we had to overcome the stigma from the previous company that carried our name and closed its doors one year and three days after we were fired, owing lots of money to advertisers and suppliers, and having accepted payment without delivering orders to many of our best customers,” Jon elaborates.

“When we announced the establishment of Ball Fabrics, Inc. ten of our most experienced employees left the pervious company and showed up to work for us,” Dale adds. “We couldn’t pay them what they had been making, they said they’d start where we could afford and their salaries could grow with the company. This was before our shop opened and before we had our first order. They became our department heads. They reached out to their contacts to find raw materials and used equipment at cut rate prices. We never would have made it without them, so we wrote an employee profit-sharing provision into our business plan.”

Grass-roots efforts was the focus. Contacts were made to everyone they had done business with in the past. The word was getting out: the Ball family was back in business.

Within months, every single fence customer left the old company and committed to purchasing from Ball Fabrics. A handful of those customers offered financial help, which was repaid as they placed future orders. “It was an incredible act of trust,” says Dale.

The growth of the company was supported by anticipating industry growth trends and investing in promising new areas to remain at the forefront of technological advances. “It was a focus that built our original company but got lost as the company expanded. Now, we identified our strengths and stuck to them,” Larry says. “We have invested in state-of-the-art print equipment, hired an experienced print team, developed methods to ensure crisp images that last longer and invested in the machinery to print huge full-color outdoor banners for our customers. We kept our promise to put customer service first so a live person still answers our phone and always will.”

After six years of the come-back effort, the men were able to buy back the vacated 47,000 square foot manufacturing facility they previously owned and lost, for half the amount owed on it when the investors took over. “It was a big day when we removed the old name and installed, in big red letters, Ball Fabrics, Inc. on the newly replaced roof,” Jon says.

“Our success is something that rose out of the ashes of our mistakes. We put what we learned into practice. We stayed true to who we are when we’re at our best, and we hired talented people who identified with our vision. We’ve gone from 10 employees to 50, and they identify with our vision and embrace our goals to be a company that cares about our customers and produces products that make us proud.”

To learn more about the products and services at Ball Fabrics, visit www.ballfabrics.com.