Yes Is More

Tangible and Timeless Ways to Differentiate

Yourself from Your Competitors
Howard L. Brown
©2020 by Howard Brown
Adapted by permission of Greenleaf Book Group Press
ISBN: 978-1-7334781-2-0
Estimated reading time of book: 3–4 hours

Key Takeaways
• Before diving into entrepreneurship, learn as much as you can about the business world. Find good
mentors. Once you begin your career, be passionate about your work.
• Strive to differentiate your company from the rest of the market. This may mean offering new products
or services that aren’t directly related to your core business. When you find new and innovative ways
to provide additional value to customers, they’ll continue to buy from you.
• Always be on the lookout for new customers. Begin with people you know and don’t hesitate to ask for
a person’s business. Say “yes” to customers whenever possible, then determine how to deliver what
you’ve promised with outstanding service.
• Hire the best employees possible. Get to know your employees and offer to help them if you can.
When you’re loyal to employees, as well as to customers and vendors, they’ll be loyal to you.
• Buy other companies outright whenever you can. You can then integrate them into your organization
and build them up. Before making an acquisition, be sure to conduct thorough due diligence.
• Always be willing to sell your business. It’s better to be in a position to choose when you sell, rather
than be forced to sell or go out of business.

Overview
Over the course of his career, Howard L. Brown bought over 40 businesses that he integrated into the
office-products companies he was running. Although his products were commodities, he focused on
hard work and innovation, developing highly successful one-stop shopping solutions in the office-
products market. In Yes Is More, Brown shares his experiences and lessons learned with the hope of
inspiring young entrepreneurs.

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Yes Is More Howard L. Brown

Start Learning about Business as Early as You Can

When Brown was in college, he worked for his father during the summer. His early work experience
taught him a great deal about business, including three important lessons:

1. Dress for success. It’s important to look professional, since your appearance reflects how you repre-
sent your company. Dress as well as your budget permits. A professional image opens doors.
2. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Negotiations and business dealings don’t need to be a zero-
sum game, where one person wins and the other loses. Find out what’s most important to the other
party and then try to negotiate a deal that’s attractive for both of you.
3. Surround yourself with good people. Once you hire good employees, reward them. If you change
companies, make an effort to take the best people with you to your new organization.

Build Relationships with Your Customers

Since office products are commodities, Brown quickly learned the importance of customer loyalty to
business success. To cultivate customer relationships, he recommends five best practices:

1. Talk passionately about your business. When a company deals with commodity products, your only
options for differentiation are to create added value and build strong customer relationships. You
must convey with passion how your products can serve your customers.
2. Sell to everyone you meet. Start with people you know. Keep in mind that one of the most effective
ways to sell is to get a foot in the door with top decision makers like the CEO or company owner.
3. Find selling opportunities by being observant. Ask your business contacts to introduce you to their
networks. Visit your customers often, learn about their businesses, and seek out new opportunities
to serve them.
4. Deliver outstanding service, which solidifies customer relationships. Sell to your strengths and try to
identify your competitors’ weaknesses. Ask customers whether they’re happy with their existing
vendors.
5. Hire great customer service employees. You can ensure great service by empowering customer service
people to go the extra mile to satisfy your customers. If you can’t compete on price, look for other
ways to stand out, such as fulfilling special requests and ensuring that the customer is always right.

Develop Loyalty with Your Employees

In his first job, Brown had an adversarial encounter with a coworker. That experience taught him the
value of showing employees how important they are to the organization. This philosophy generates
employee loyalty and has paid off for Brown over the years.

To cultivate employee loyalty:

• Show your work ethic and learn from employees. Be visible to employees. Walk the floor and show that
you care about the business.
• Thank employees publicly but criticize in private. Treat people well and give them a chance to learn
from their mistakes.
• Pay attention to what’s important. In service-oriented businesses, remember that frontline employ-
ees like truck drivers and customer service representatives are the face of your company.

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Yes Is More Howard L. Brown

• Offer to help employees. Become friendly with employees and offer assistance if they encounter
problems in their personal lives. When you treat people well, they’ll be loyal to you.

Be Loyal to Your Vendors

Long-term, loyal relationships are beneficial for companies and their vendors alike. Loyalty goes two
ways. When companies commit to buying from specific vendors, those vendors, in turn, should sell
products and services to them at competitive prices.

Brown’s work with various vendors highlighted the importance of three best practices:

1. Stick with vendors who stand by you. As your business evolves, you’ll find that loyal vendors will want
to keep your business, even if it means lowering prices to match the competition.
2. Ask for help when you need it. During tough economic times, you may need to ask vendors for as-
sistance. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for example, Brown asked his vendors for more lenient
payment terms. His loyal partners gave him extra time to pay.
3. Get to know the right people. Try to deal with the highest-level person as possible in the vendor orga-
nization. Over time, you’ll develop trust and loyalty.

Differentiate Your Products

In the office-products business, Brown quickly learned that he needed to deliver added-value services
to differentiate commodity products. He identified three ways for companies to enhance their competi-
tive advantage:

1. Differentiate your business in innovative ways. Brown’s companies focused on becoming a one-stop
shop for customers, expanding their product and service lines in response to customer needs. Over
time, his businesses added services like shredding, warehousing of custom office products, printing,
and more to their portfolios.
2. Find new approaches for staying in touch with customers. Brown’s companies grew far beyond office
supplies to selling products like office furniture and fixtures and computer supplies.
3. Be the “go-to guy.” Brown’s philosophy was to supply whatever specialized services customers need-
ed. For instance, his company created a weekly menu of sale products for Tractor Supply Company.
The deeper you can partner with customers on their purchasing needs, the more difficult it will be
for them to end their relationship with your company.

Stay on Top of Market Shifts and Look for New Opportunities

In addition to offering outstanding service, Brown’s companies differentiated themselves by expand-
ing their product portfolios. They were always open to new product categories like coffee, promotional
products, janitorial supplies, and more.

Brown suggests four ways to stay on top of market shifts:

1. Listen to your vendors. They know what your competitors are selling. This is how Brown’s company
expanded into the janitorial business and cultivated a large customer base among hospitals.
2. Create new divisions to handle ancillary product lines. Brown’s company created separate divisions
to handle different product lines, such as computer supplies. Each division name included “A Hi-

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Yes Is More Howard L. Brown

Touch Company” to let customers know it was part of the HiTouch umbrella brand and included in
HiTouch’s one-stop shopping experience.
3. Think about customer needs. The better you know your customers, the more you can sell.
4. Stay current with new technology and ways of doing business. You must pay attention to new market
trends. Brown’s company, for example, recognized the significance of e-commerce early on and em-
braced that technology.

Know Your Financials: Make Sure You’re Profitable

Entrepreneurs must understand the financial details of their businesses. This doesn’t mean, however,
that they need to handle the company financials. One of the keys to a profitable business is hiring a
competent person to manage the financials. You must find a skilled and reliable chief financial officer
(CFO). It’s impossible to run a business with talented sales and marketing people alone.

Brown offers two finance-related suggestions for company owners:

1. Don’t be cheap—hire the best financial people you can find. In addition to a good CFO, you need a
strong accounting team to generate financial information, complete bank reconciliations, and up-
date the balance sheet. As your business grows, you’ll need to hire more sophisticated financial staff.
2. Be sure to get timely financial updates. You must receive accurate numbers for your company in a
timely manner. This information is critical for making decisions about business strategy, hiring, and
employee compensation.

Learn How to Evaluate a Business You Want to Buy

Over the course of his career, Brown bought around 40 companies. He’s identified three lessons other
entrepreneurs can utilize to expand their businesses:

1. Make sure the company is a good fit with your existing business. Synergy is the most important point
to consider when buying a company. Stick to what you do well already and grow your business
through acquisitions.
2. Don’t make an offer until you know what the seller is looking for. Bear in mind that the seller won’t give
you a low number, but your knowledge will put you in a stronger negotiating position.
3. Engage in due diligence. Look carefully at the books and other records of the company you want to
buy. They may not be accurate, even if they’ve been audited. Estimate the costs you can save by
acquiring a new business, such as eliminating redundant overhead.

Decide When to Sell Your Business

After Brown purchased and built up various businesses, he then sold them for a significant profit. When
reflecting on his career, he identified four tips for deciding when to sell a business:

1. Consider the future of your industry. The decision and timing of when to sell your company depend
on the nature of your business. If the business sells patented products, you have greater control over
when to sell. In service businesses, the industry will eventually change or consolidate. These events
may indicate that it’s a good time to think about selling. Consider industry and economic cycles, as
well as competitor activity.

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Yes Is More Howard L. Brown

2. Don’t let past success lull you into a false sense of security. Be cautious of success. If you aren’t con-
stantly on the lookout for market changes, you may be caught unaware. At that point, it may be
difficult to sell your business. The time to sell is when the market is changing, but you’re still in a
strong position.
3. Look for the right buyer. As you look for buyers, think about them as customers. You must know your
audience and sell to them. If you want to sell to a public company, you can gather intelligence by
listening to public analyst calls.
4. Decide when the time is right for you to sell. If you enjoy your work and don’t need to cash out, you
may not need to sell your business. However, don’t wait too long to sell. Ask yourself how long you
want to wait to enjoy your life. Always listen to anyone who expresses an interest in buying your
company, even if you don’t think you’re ready to sell. Keep an open mind.

About the Author

In his over 40-year career, Howard L. Brown has purchased, grown, and sold numerous office-product
companies. In May 2010, he created HiTouch Business Services, Inc., which became the parent company
of Rentacrate and Shred-X. Later that year, HiTouch Business Services, Inc. purchased My Office Prod-
ucts, Inc. Brown’s team successfully grew HiTouch and sold the company in 2018 to Staples.

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