Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nathaniel Mathis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nathaniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

After working as an operations manager for the majority of my home improvement career I became keenly aware of some common problems that the industry shared. After 30 years and 4 different companies, I noticed that delivery/logistics was always changing and a constant source of problems. I also saw an increase freight being delivered from the stores and knew that the current infrastructure wasn’t big enough to sustain or remain competitive. In other words, if the company wanted to remain competitive they had to come up with other ways of delivering their products to their customers. I saw first hand as customers were disappointed at having to wait 3-5 days to get their items delivered and I knew that there was a market for faster delivery, especially for smaller items.

Nathaniel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I attended North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University for my undergraduate studies and later Strayer University for my MBA. While at NC A&T I worked part time at Home Quarters ( a Virginia based home improvement company). Later Home Depot came to town and recruited me off of the sales floor. After college I stayed on with Home Depot until leaving for Lowe’s Home Improvement in 2008. In that time I worked hand and hand with other logistic companies scheduling deliveries and learning the business. I managed deliveries and delivery teams for years and learned the challenges that they were faced with and I heard first hand from customers when we got it wrong.

Later Covid hit and while everyone was working from home, the home improvement industry went through the roof. Every company recorded record sales and I’m sure record employee turnover as the industry couldn’t sustain the demand. It was felt in all areas of the business but no where harder than the delivery/logistic areas. The demand for deliveries escalated from 8 per day to 14-15 and we just couldn’t keep up. That’s where the idea came from. I wanted to essentially become a partner where I assisted in certain deliveries. In July of 2021 I created an exit strategy from the business and birthed the game plan to gain market share in the industry.

I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn’t know how to go about it. The first thing I did was to create an LLC but coming up with a name proved challenging. Every name that I liked was already taken so I thought of a name that wouldn’t restrict me or the business. I liked Mathis Logistics and I added “Unlimited” at the end so potential customers knew that there was no limit to what I did but Days after establishing my LLC, I started getting calls from local courier companies asking me to contract with them. They were attracted to me because of where I was located, which was an hour from Raleigh, 30 minutes from Greensboro and 90 minutes from Charlotte. One courier company even said that I was in a perfect location.

These companies also liked that I had a transit van and after contracting with them all, I selected the more lucrative routes. On these routes I delivered pharmaceuticals to assisted living facilities. Later I contracted with several companies that also did deliveries for Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walmart, CVS, and Sam’s club. Currently I provide courier services for pharmaceuticals, hard goods, auto parts and groceries. The demand is so high that I had to hire two additional drivers.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I reached out to several organizations for funding but was turned down. I didn’t want a loan so I tapped into my 401k and established business credit with several banks. We traded in my wife’s car to purchase the van and I took my time purchasing the necessary supplies for the business. My biggest expense was/is fuel, so getting a fuel credit card was extremely important. Without it the $8000 per month fuel expense alone would have been too large of an amount to afford.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Initially I was too busy to even advertise on social media. I was highly successful with my pharmaceutical contracts and the hard goods that I delivered covered any extra that I would need. That is until one of my contracts lost their main contract. This was unexpected the financial impact was taking a toll. I created several social media pages (FaceBook, Linked-In, WIX) and made to point to highlight each individual that hired me for a small job. This brought attention from several local businesses and one HBCU in Raleigh. The attention created another stream of income and also helped establish other working relationships. Because of these relationships my business was/is shared throughout several social networks.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mathislogisticsunlimited.com
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/mathislog/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-mathis-mba-9bab0458