Inside the Box: Building a Family Business - Nothing But the Truth

By Richard Kuipers

Many years ago, Richard Kuipers started a little removalist business from his home. It was just him, a vehicle and a strong work ethic.

Over the years, Richard, with the support of his wife, Cheryl, grew this business, Two Men and a Truck, into a multimillion-dollar operation that, as of 2022, owned a fleet of 94 trucks, employed 300 peopl

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard & Cheryl Kuipers
• Release date: May 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9780646859101

Book preview

INSIDE THE BOX

Also by Richard Kuipers:

Outside the Box

title

Published by Richard Kuipers

Copyright © Richard Kuipers 2022

www.richardkuipers.com.au

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved, except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review). No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means with prior written permission.

Typeset and printed in Australia by BookPOD

ISBN: 978-0-646-85909-5 (pbk) 978-0-646-85910-1 (e-book)

DEDICATION

RUNNING A FAMILY BUSINESS INVOLVES THE ENTIRE FAMILY AND includes colleagues that have become family. The people within our company are the essence of our business. I have so many people to thank for making Two Men and a Truck what it is today. I want to thank them by mentioning them here and giving some an opportunity to tell you what is ‘inside their box’ later in the book.

This book is dedicated to:

•My family now and my family in the future, for keeping the business going and being its soul

•The office staff, particularly the ‘young dude’, Jake Piper

•All the roadside teams

•All those who work alongside us outside the business: Esther who does the uniforms, Peter Ivette our business coach, the accounting department, bank personnel and friends

•My friend Les – thank you for our walks, talks, and years of friendship

•My wife, Cheryl, for her years of support and standing by me through thick and thin

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

Experience Matters. Listen to Old(er) People

CHAPTER 2

Conversations with Les and a Café ’Round the Corner

CHAPTER 3

You’ve Got Mail … and Coffee

CHAPTER 4

A Brand Needs an Ambassador

CHAPTER 5

Generosity Is Good for the Soul and for Business

CHAPTER 6

Build the Culture You Want to Maintain from the Start

CHAPTER 7

Lessons and Values Learned in the School of Life

CHAPTER 8

Leap and the Net Will Appear

CHAPTER 9

Minding Your Business and Making Mistakes

CHAPTER 10

Two Men and a Trademark

CHAPTER 11

The Only Constant in Life and Business Is Change

CHAPTER 12

Asking Very Tough Questions and Handing Over the Reins

CHAPTER 13

The Wisdom of the Charter. Working Together, Playing Together

CHAPTER 14

Succession Planning and the Difficulty of Letting Go

CHAPTER 15

Calling In the Experts. Family Business Australia

CHAPTER 16

Customer Relations Bring Interesting Situations

CHAPTER 17

Navigating Through Lockdowns and Reshaping a Business

CHAPTER 18

Progress Is Powerful But Sometimes Painful

CHAPTER 19

Richard’s 13 Cardinal Rules for Running a Family Business

Foreword to the Family Charter

Practical Elements of the Family Charter

Behind the Paintings

CHAPTER 1

EXPERIENCE MATTERS LISTEN TO OLD(ER) PEOPLE

ANOTHER DAY, MY EYES ARE CLOSED BUT MY MIND IS ACTIVE. Thoughts begin to drift in, to assemble, and come to life. I wake up grateful for another day, just to be alive! Another day of life to do something good, to build, and explore.

Numbers are my thing, they continually invade my headspace, like cogs clicking into gear, working out problems, pulling things together, adding things up, planning for the future. It never stops.

I crack open my eyes and see the blink of the air-conditioner. Relief fills me as I comprehend, I’m not yet in Heaven, or hell (which I’d like to avoid at all costs), I’m in my bed ready to start a new day, ready to move.

Each morning I ask the same questions: ‘What’s happening today, where do we have to be? Which problems are we tackling?’ Cheryl, my wife, preempts these questions now and often her first words in the morning are answers to the questions in my head.

I am now what they call ‘legally blind’. It has changed my life and I’ve had to learn to roll with the punches. As a result, I frequently get told what to do and when to do it. An important friend of mine, Jennifer, who I met through Toastmasters, has provided me with a lot of valuable emotional and practical support. So too, of course, has Cheryl. Together, they help me get stuff done and get to every doctor’s appointment on time.

Moving is in my blood. Born in Holland, moving to Wales, then back to Holland, studying abroad in Switzerland, South Africa, and London, then finally moving to Australia. Exploring new horizons is exciting, it is something I do both physically and mindfully, yet although I love to move, I also love to stay, and my home in Australia grounds me – it is my constant. The life of an entrepreneur is creative. Big ideas and spontaneity are some of it, but for the most part, you need something solid to rely on. Once, I went for a stroll around the block and came home having bought a house. Yes, really!

Life has a rhythm; I prefer to say rhythm instead of routine. Routine is mundane, rhythm is alive. Rhythm points to the ebb, flow and life of music, books, poetry, business, and truck engines. I am grateful to have a strong rhythm that beats within me for family, work, people, and spontaneous moments.

It takes an extraordinary infrastructure of support to build a business or empire from scratch. I’m an ideas man, I’m always in my head and I’ve needed to surround myself with the right voices to teach me to bring what I think about, to life. The support is not just for me, it helps everything run smoothly and creates an environment of safety and care for those that work within the business.

This book is called Inside the Box for three reasons: Firstly, it’s an inside look at Two Men and a Truck, my removalist business, and how it became successful. Secondly, it’s about how to work on and in your family business – we openly share our successes and failures. Thirdly, I’d like to take you inside my mind and the minds of our family – it helps to know how we think, how we operate and changes we’ve made for the good of the family, to enable us to stay together at home and in business.

As I get older, there is a lifetime of knowledge to impart and wisdom that has come through years of experiencing life. Some things change and some things need to be fought for to stay the same. I want to share things I wish I’d known, mistakes I’ve made, and the extraordinary benefits of cultivating a culture of community and family within a business.

This book carries stories that have shaped us over time. Crying, fighting, laughter, holding grudges, being apart, and coming back together again. It hasn’t been easy, but what in life is easy? With help, we have learned how to work and play together as a family to build something that has longevity and will still be here for the next generation, and the one after that.

We all have strengths and weaknesses; I’d like to share mine with you. I have weaknesses that nearly tore things apart, but also strengths and determination to help bring things back together. My girls and my wife have been part of it all, and together we have worked through the tough bits to make business life and family life a success.

The family is the hero of this story.

CHAPTER 2

CONVERSATIONS WITH LES AND A CAFÉ ’ROUND THE CORNER

IT WAS THROUGH SERENDIPITY THAT I MET LES. THIS CHANCE meeting was to change my life because Les has become a trusted friend and confidante; someone with whom I share my ramblings, reveal my secrets to and receive valuable advice from. In other words, it’s the very best kind of friendship.

In 1972, just before Gough Whitlam became prime minister, Les and his wife were on a world cruise for their honeymoon. They were en route to Hawaii and were meant to only spend 12 weeks in Australia. They did what everyone else did in those days, they went out to find work.

Les’s wife had always wanted to work in radio and just walked into the ABC in Sydney to ask for a job. They put her to work immediately and Les thought, ‘Well if she can do it, I can do it too!’

He went off to cash some travellers cheques at the Bank of New South Wales. The bank manager happened to be the kind of man who liked to meet everyone who came into his bank. Life was unhurried back then and we could develop a personal relationship with our bank manager.

He asked Les what he did for a living and Les replied that he was a computer programmer. The bank happened to have just installed new computers and were looking for programmers – Les got a job on the spot! That was the beginning of his life in Australia, 50 years ago!

Les and I eventually met up as board members of the Anne Frank Travelling Exhibition. I was also a member of Toastmasters