Published: November 07, 2009 02:27 pm      

Building an empire

Milt Cole has been expanding his business to higher levels since the 1980s.

Succeeding in business

First in an occasional series of stories about successful entrepreneurs



Milt Cole believes small businesses are the bloodline of America.

“If we are going to keep America strong, we need to have small businesses,” he said.

Owner of Cole Hardwood Inc., Cole has learned a lot about small businesses and has seen what it takes to make one successful.

Cole has always been around a saw mill, ever since he was a young boy growing up in Memphis, Tenn. His father used to provide beechwood for Anheuser-Busch.

“It’s all I know,” Cole said.

It only made sense that one day he would end up owning a hardwood business. His business journey began after he decided to move up north and manage Shafer Hardwood Inc. in Logansport.

The business was founded by John I. Shafer in 1929. After some time, Shafer was ready to retire and Cole saw an opportunity.

“I ended up buying it in 1986,” Cole said. “I guess I was ambitious.”

He said he had asked himself many times why he decided to buy the business, but he said he hadn’t regretted the decision. Cole Hardwood Inc. has remained a strong business in Cass County.

“Logansport has been awfully good to me,” Cole said. “I love people and the best way to help them is by owning a business.”

Cole actually started expanding the business when he was still the manager during the early 1980s. He said it was his decision to export goods, and he began to make contacts in England, since there was no language barrier.

“I saw the competition and saw the market was starting to go that way,” he said.

Since he took over ownership, Cole said, the volume of business has multiplied about five times. The company travels within a 150-mile radius to buy the large amount of green wood it dries before shipment to every continent.

In 1990, Cole founded Indiana Dimensions Inc., a “value added” company. His partner, Roy Rentschler, is in charge of running the company.

IDI is a hardwood component manufacturer of cabinet doors and cabinet components, which are purchased by manufacturers of furniture, cabinets and homes.

“I thought the more we could value add, the further we could reach with our product,” Cole said.

The residue left over from products at IDI is processed and sold by DNL Energy and used to run the boilers at Cole Hardwood. This allows Cole Hardwood to save a large amount of money each year.

“That was an early vision we had,” Cole said. “If we didn’t recycle the residue, we wouldn’t be here today.”

In addition to Cole Hardwood and IDI, Cole started the leasing company Triple C, which owns the kilns and canopies the wood is stored under at Cole Hardwoods. Cole also owns 14,000 acres of farmland.

He said no one, including himself, really knows when the time is right to take a risk on expanding a business.

“You are taking a calculated risk,” he said.

He believes people shouldn’t worry as much about the negative things, because they will happen automatically.

“You have to keep a positive attitude,” he said. “The end results are much better with positive thinking. Don’t worry about the negative because they will be there.”

According to Cole, his biggest success has been growing the company to the level it is at today.

“I knew all along Shafer Hardwood was a much bigger name,” he said. “They weren’t doing business at a level they could have done business at. I knew it was a sleeping giant and it had room to grow.”

As owner of Cole Hardwood, Cole meets with all of his workers once a month and tells them how the company is doing. He feels that to be successful in business it is necessary to be open and honest with employees.

“I enjoy sharing news with them,” he said. “They are the ones who make it, not me. People make a company, not a handful of egos.”

If the company is not doing so great, Cole shares that information, too.

“I don’t pad anything,” he said. “I tell them the good or bad news.”

As with any business, Cole admits he has made some mistakes. One of his biggest mistakes was writing off a few bad debts.

“I learned a lesson from that,” he said.

He’s also had an occasional worry about the business.

“When it gets to the point you can’t sleep at night, you know you’ve gone too far,” he said. “I’ve been down that road before. You grow as a person and learn from that.”

If he had the chance to do everything over again, Cole said he would do it in a heartbeat.

“I would love to do it over again,” he said. “I might be a little more aggressive.”

After much success in his own business, Cole feels it is important for other community members to start their own businesses.

“It builds confidence, self-satisfaction and the potential to be able to contribute to charity at a higher level,” Cole said. “You could go broke, but think about all the positive things you could do.”

His best advice to those wanting to start a business is simple.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking you won’t have to work as hard,” he said. “You will work at least one and a half to two times as hard, but the rewards are great.”

• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com