Part Four: Casted Shadows and Resting in the Shade

Rightfully so, Pat Padgett casted a long shadow, in a similar way any patriarch of a family does.   And,

it’s the responsibility of young men to stand in that shadow for a time and then eventually “venture-off.”

By 1991 I had built something meaningful. But that year was a fork in the road. It was a year to build something larger, or a year to play it safe, stay in the right-lane and only merge when the road requires it. But a 25 year old Jeffrey Padgett wasn’t looking to play it safe, he was hungry and ready to prove himself, ready to test the boundaries of that shadow and to set-off on his own journey. 


In hand I had a business consultant, Mack Clark, I had a management book, Small Business Management by H.N. Broom, popular at the time but has since faded into obscurity, and ambition. These were together a dangerous combination: a coach, resources, hunger. 


From Mack I had caught the vision of expansion. Up to this point I had grown a business, I had managed a business, but I had yet to expand a business; this moment was a real test for me. H.N. Broom’s book was helpful because it filled in the details. 


Early on Mack helped remove the blinders. In many ways I was like that carriage horse with his periphery cut off. I saw what was in front of me, but I wasn’t able to see the edges. As the blinders were removed I learned that there were more opportunities out there, in related fields that would, if I allowed it, expand the business. 


The opportunity was emergency restoration work. 


The first step to expansion was research. I had to do a market study. I had to answer basic questions about my neighborhood: Who is my customer? Does this business make sense for them? Is there enough potential work to support a new business in town?


As I asked these questions and did my own research the answers I found were encouraging. The customers did exist because they were the same people I was already servicing. My target customer owned a home that they valued and put their blood, sweat and lives into — a highly motivated group of people. 


But could they pay for the services? 


This is always the hanging question. By this time H.N. Broom’s words were seared in my mind. I had spent countless hours scouring these pages, his book was an old friend, dog-eared and worn edges. Broom’s reminder was ominous and I took heed of his warning, “customers who have unsatisfied needs but who lack the money and/or credit are poor markets because they have nothing to offer in exchange for a product or service.”


Broom was trying to protect me from heartache, in plain speech, “people may have needs, but if they do not have the capacity to fund these needs, the business fails.”


But this herculean hurdle was different for me. Because I did have customers with needs, but these customers also had insurance policies on their homes. And there it was: need plus funding capacity, both these answers were now a yes. 


I was on to something and I was committed to plow forward. And I did. In 1993 I ended the chapter of Jeffrey Padgett the Carpet Cleaner and opened Padgett's Cleaning & Restoration, Inc. then eventually in November of 2015, SERVPRO Team Jeffrey Padgett
. 



As I think back, I wonder what was going through the mind of Pat Padgett the Carpet Cleaner as he saw his son running and working. I know he was approving and I know he was proud. He didn’t always say so, I didn’t always receive the attaboy, but that’s how his generation was. Pat Padgett’s generation is remembered as the Greatest Generation, so called because they experienced the turmoil of the 20th century, the poverty of the Great Depression, the faint memory of the Great War, the turmoil of a second World War and then came out on the other side in one piece and went to work. He was a man who fought and worked not for fame or recognition, but just simply because it was the right thing to do for his family.


As time progresses I test the edges of Pat Padgett’s shadow, at times thinking I’ve ventured off, only to realize in my more cognizant moments, that I do not need to venture from the shadow, only embrace it and realize the shadow is fine enough for me. 


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