121: Taking Over a Family Business & Leading it to New Heights (Matthew Nix of The Nix Companies)

Background on Matthew Nix of Nix Companies:

Matthew Nix is the President of the Nix Companies. Matthew started working at the family business at a very young age, sweeping the floor and cleaning machinery for $5.00 a Saturday. Later, Matthew began working in the shop as a summer intern learning the ropes. In addition to learning the technical aspects of the job, he credits much of his customer service and business development to the lessons learned working with his father and grandfather.

Matthew began working full time for the company in 2004. He enjoys and thrives on great challenges, and his autonomous management style embraces the strengths of his team to compliment his visionary leadership. Matthew is passionate about building a company known for excellence in both people and products. He is also passionate about working with other small business owners to help each other succeed (specifically family businesses) and adding value to the community.

He is involved in multiple groups and activities to support this mission; some notable ones are Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce – Board of Directors, Family Business Alliance – Board of Directors, Tri-State Manufacturers Alliance – Board of Directors, Posey County Economic Develop – Board of Directors, “Forum 4 Growth” – Charter Member, and Junior Achievement – class room volunteer.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[1:48] Matthew Nix, 33 years old, is the President of Nix Companies, which is a family business that is located in a small town in Indiana.
[3:36] Matthew already had that entrepreneurial drive at a young age.
[4:35] Matthew explains in detail what his company is all about. He describes Nix Companies as a diversified metal solutions provider.
[10:21] A big opportunity came to Matthew and his company when a customer asked them to build a custom yacht made of steel.
[11:15] Molekule is re-imagining the future of clean air, starting with the air purifier. Molekule destroys indoor air pollutants in the molecular level, completely removing them from the air you breathe. Molekule uses photoelectrochemical oxidation, also known as petco nanotechnology, to eliminate allergens, mold, bacteria, viruses, and airborne chemicals. For $75 off your first order, visit: millionaire-interviews.com/molekule and at checkout enter code Millionaire.
[15:22] Matthew talks about some of the problems and frustrations he had when he started working in their family business. He considered leaving and doing his own thing.
[16:46] Matthew took on a big project that contributed to the major growth of the company.
[19:29] Matthew’s brother is a co-owner but also works for him and runs one of their operating division.
[22:36] Matthew talks about being in this group of businessmen who share common goals and practices. There are several advantages of having a group composed of like-minded entrepreneurs.
[26:00] In 2012, his company made that huge growth in terms of revenue, manpower, and facilities. However, their problems also became more challenging.
[31:17] In his early days, money was not really the main motivation for Matthew. He wanted to prove to himself and to other people that he can do it.
[33:19] When Matthew started a new coating division in their company, they started losing money. They had to hire a manager to fix this problem.
[35:51] Gusto is making Payroll, Benefits, and HR easier for small businesses. In fact, 9 out of 10 customers say Gusto is easier to use than other payroll solutions. Gusto also saves you time – 72% of customers spend less than 5 minutes to run payroll. To help support the show, go to: millionaire-interviews.com/gusto.
[39:04] Matthew gave some insight on some of the things he did to make the company grow.
[43:50] Matthew talks about an acquisition they made and how they bought this other business.
[46:59] Matthew talks about the growth of the company from 2016 to 2019. This year, they made their second acquisition, which they considered their next big step.
[50:38] Matthew shares the lessons they learned from previous challenges and mistakes they made.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Built to Last & Good to Great by Jim Collins, Rags to Riches by Richard T Farmer, Man's search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, The Five regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? All the above mentioned books.
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Trello and Pipedrive
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Finding skilled labor force and scaling our first level leadership team (foreman & group leaders)

Key Point from the Interview:

“Positive energy and forward momentum is so powerful. I think that’s something that we don’t talk about enough in the business world.”

Resources Mentioned:

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