146: Outsourcing your Manufacturing to Survive in the 21st Century (w/ Mike Ryan of RSP Inc.)

Background on Mike Ryan of RSP Inc:

Mike Ryan is the CEO of RSP Inc., an end-to-end solution provider offering engineering, prototyping, production, logistics, warehousing and order fulfillment. RSP's core product offering includes membrane switches, plastic injection molding, silicone rubber molding, printed circuit boards, electronics manufacturing, packaging and turnkey contract manufacturing. RSP has over 120,000 square feet of manufacturing and assembly in the US and China to serve their global customer base. Their customers include start-ups and Fortune 500 businesses and their markets include automotive, outdoor, medical, telecom, wearables, agriculture, consumer, IoT and industrial.

RSP, Inc was founded over 50 years ago as Ryan Screen Printing, Inc. The company was established by Robert Ryan and his brother John Ryan in the basement of their parents' house. Their father, Norbert Ryan, saw the success his young boys were having and joined the business for a number of years, helping the company to expand and invest in new-and-improved equipment. The first products produced included real estate signs and advertising banners for Schlitz Brewing. Over the years, the company worked with a variety of local manufacturers and businesses including Harley Davidson, Rockwell Automation, Miller Brewing, Johnson Controls, and many more!

In 2005, RSP ownership and operations were passed to the next generation, Mike Ryan and Paul Ryan. This is a business built on family values, integrity and trust. The new owners broadened the company's offerings to include plastic molding, rubber molding and electronics. As these new products became a substantial part of the business, the company name was officially changed to RSP, Inc in 2009 to reflect the variety of offerings while at the same time providing a tie to the company's history.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[1:06] Mike Ryan is the CEO of RSP Inc, which is a custom contract manufacturer that utilizes plastic molding, silicon molding, metal fab, printed circuit boards, and full turnkey products. They are projected to have about $10 million in revenue this year.
[4:08] Some of the products they have manufactured for their clients are robotic fishing lures, sensors in telephone lines, medical products, user interface in microwaves, remote controls, and a whole lot more.
[11:02] The company was founded by Mike’s uncle, John Ryan and they were originally in the print screen business.
[13:04] Being challenged and creating new products make it a lot more fun and exciting for Mike.
[15:25] Mike tells the story of how he left his consulting job and joined RSP in 2005.
[19:40] He had to sell his condo in Chicago and move to Milwaukee when he joined the company. There was a lot of challenging moments for Mike and his family during this period.
[22:51] When Mike joined the company, he decided that in order for the business to find new and better opportunities, he would have to go to China.
[30:09] During the early years when Mike joined the business, there were a lot of issues and hurdles that he and his brother had to overcome.
[36:13] Mike doesn’t waste his time when he is on a 16 hour flight to China. During his flight, he tries to create new business ideas, think about different strategies, and read books.
[39:08] His father and brother did not realize the advantages of looking for vendors overseas. After a few tries, Mike was able to find the right people in China to work with.
[43:22] In 2008, their largest client went bankrupt and they lost a lot of money in the process.
[45:39] After losing their biggest client, Mike didn’t dwell on it too much and just focused on steadily growing their business.
[47:40] In terms of business, Mike offers a glimpse of how it’s done in China.
[55:40] In 2008, Mike was diagnosed with melanoma. He underwent chemotherapy but he still goes to work during that year.
[1:00:38] Mike truly loves what he is doing in the business and he doesn’t see it as work.
[1:03:03] Mike emphasizes on the importance of planning and being prepared for anything that could happen in the business.

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Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Culture by Design by David Friedman, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Amazon Fresh – so easy / so fast
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? FileMaker Platform
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Resources; we develop produce most product in-house, we have scaled up in a very intentional manner, now that pieces in place, we are searching for BIG project(s)

Key Point from the Interview:

“Every single day I’m learning something. There’s not a day that goes by were one of my clients does not challenge me to do something new, or try something different, or find a solution to some problem they’re having. It makes it a lot of fun.”

Resources Mentioned:

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