We recently connected with Jerry Kirksey and have shared our conversation below.

Jerry, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

The question of whether I would be happier working a regular job never comes up until there’s a crunch of some kind. Whether it’s a money crunch, a time crunch, or a relational crunch, it always prompts us to look for an escape. However, those are the moments that make us into the business owners that we want to be. I believe that business owners are better people because of these moments. If I remember correctly, I had a lot of the same issues arise when I was just working a steady job and drawing a steady paycheck. It just didn’t have such far-reaching impact as it does as a business owner, but it was the same problems. In business, these moments affect not just me but employees, clients, and our reputation in the community. There’s so much more at stake in owning a business then just our personal lives.
Our business grew at least 15% annually for 7 years straight. Then, in 2023, our sales plummeted by 50%. This happened just months after our biggest hires. We were preparing to “blow it up”. Instead, it nearly blew us up. When the big clients didn’t call and we held on to employees just a little bit too long because of our commitment to them, I was ready to file chapter 13 and apply for a job. Granted, I could have probably attained a position that I couldn’t have before business ownership. But it just felt wrong. It felt like giving up on life itself. This was the way forward. I was not willing to go back and live out my life in failure.
We have still not fully recovered from that year and sales haven’t picked up to where they were, but we have pivoted. We gained new certifications and added a security division to our audio-visual business. It’s exciting. Who knows what tomorrow holds but we have a say in it, don’t we? I can’t imagine punching a clock today and watching it until it hits 5. Instead, today I’ll be dreaming of Blue Sky and inventing ways to get us there. There’s no better life for me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We are a technology company that has been in business since 1906. When I tell people that, they roll their eyes. Then I explain. Bensberg was founded in 1906 as a phonograph store. Later, under the leadership of our founder’s son, Thomas Edison Bensberg, it became a music store that began installing PA systems as early as the 1940s. Video systems were added in the 90s when I came on board with the title of “attic monkey”. I pulled cable through old church attics in the middle of summer and whatever else no one wanted to do. Those were formative years and I learned all the aspects of the business. When the music stores ran up against the online music industry boom of the ’90s, the decision was made to close shop. We decided at that time to become the fourth owners and pivot yet again into communication technology. Today, we are South Arkansas largest communication technology firm. We specialize in audio-visual, stage lighting, networking, security, and automation. Last year, we added our class E unrestricted alarm licensing and shifted from commercial only into residential as well. We have plans this year to add a commissioned sales team and launch into marketing like never before.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Before we own the business, I managed the installation division. We had a staunch competitor in our area named Billy who was well respected and people just loved to work with. He was extremely nice. I was not. I would gain access to proposals that he had submitted and undercut him. I tried every Cutthroat way to wrench business away from him but found that people would go with his proposals even when they were more expensive than mine. This was a great mystery to me until Billy retired. After his retirement, I received a call from a former customer of his. When I arrived for a consultation, they informed me that this former competitor had written a letter of recommendation for our company. It turns out, it wasn’t the only one. Upon his retirement, he sent a letter to all of his customers recommending that they begin to use our company instead. This recommendation meant more to his clients then anything I could have offered to gain their business. I had new customers blatantly tell me that I was only there because of Billy’s recommendation. I learned that relationship is everything. It’s super seeds pricing and even quality of work. People want to work with someone. They don’t just want a product.
We brought Billy on as a consultant and began to compensate him for referrals. Leveraging his reputation after his retirement opened doors that were shut to us for many years.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Right now, I’m reading Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. It’s been impactful to my perspective on growing a business. The premise is that by hiring to replace yourself in menial tasks puts you back at the helm where you can do the most good for the business. When you really care about your employees, it feels selfish to ask them to do things that you wouldn’t want to do yourself but it is the way forward.
Before that, the book, The Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni changed everything for us. It has become our new standard for hiring and assigning tasks.
I always have an audible going because there are people who have already walked the walk and found success. If they’re willing to tell me how they did it, I want to learn!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bensberg.tech
• Instagram: Bensbergtech
• Facebook: Bensbergtech
• Linkedin: Jerry Kirksey Jr.
• Youtube: AVMadeEasy