We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tyler Youngs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tyler, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

Red Warrior Technology (RWT) was originally founded by Bill Chavis and later added myself and Mike Ferger after falling outs with other companies that we worked for at the time. Bill had spent months, developing vendor partnerships, establishing business protocols and essentially getting RWT in a functioning state. At the start of 2021, when Mike and I joined we had very distinct roles, Bill was the CEO and ran the business functions, I was the Sales/Accounting Manager and Mike was the Technical Manager who would lead any future technical resources and ensure our services were deployed optimally. This was a well oiled machine and each of us were very comfortable in our roles from previous experience, so we gained customer traction quickly and were off to a very fast start.

First came another technical resource to assist, then an accounting coordinator, and another technical resource in August of 2021. At the start of August, Bill was going to take some vacation and travel down south with his wife, but it was put on hold as they both did not feel well. Within a few short days, Bill was hospitalized and over the next month he continued to decline, eventually passing in September. Our colleague, the CEO and most importantly our friend was no longer with us. It was such a weird process during the time of Covid as we couldn’t go see him in the hospital and shortly after arriving he could no longer communicate with us. We operated for a month expecting him to get healthy and back to work before the realization hit us that our roles needed to change quickly to adjust to this new normal for RWT. Our employees were unsure of the impact Bill’s passing had on the company and if we could continue, there were so many questions.

Our first goal was to reassure our employees and customers that nothing was going to change with RWT. In hindsight, having Bill run the back of the house helped reduce strain on our customers as he was only involved in a few at the time of his passing. Our employees were relieved to know that Mike and I had ownership rights within the company and that our legal proceedings ensured that Bill’s shares were just spread out to the two of us. The stress however that was put on Mike and I was hidden behind the scenes, dealing with the vendors, banks, government to transfer his name to mine as I took over as the CEO. This was a daunting task that took an egregious amount of time and effort to accomplish. It has been almost 2 years and there are still items that come up requiring this process.

Our grief became our mission, to continue the company in Bill’s honor, remembering him every day when we look at the name. Bill was 50% Cherokee and thus he lives on in Red Warrior Technology. We never expected that to happen, wished it didn’t happen, but it shaped our future know that it could happen. Welcome to entrepreneurship!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Up through college, I lived in Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Arizona & Georgia, some changes taking place during important milestones of my life. These moves, into very different states, helped me grow as an individual and learn to adapt to my surroundings. While this didn’t change me as a person, I have learned that my travels have allowed me to find a commonality with about 95% of the people I come across in my professional life. As an athlete growing up I learned the skills of teamwork, leadership and hard work. This provided me the fortunate opportunity to play D1 Baseball and earn a college degree. My original intent was to graduate with a Major in Business Management, ironically fitting into my current role at RWT, however due to transferring from a junior college I lost too many credits and was going to lose a year of eligibility if I did not change my major to History…..yes, History.

Having graduated with a degree that was useless to me, I had to find a way into a professional field. I landed a entry level sales job in IT with a company that was trying to expand into the Washington, DC area and off I went. I gained promotions, changed to a company in Baltimore when my wife and I moved further north. Having left IT for a bit while I worked in the audio visual industry, I was being called back to work directly with customers, impact their business positively and build relationships beyond just business. This was going great with an IT company that I worked for until Covid hit. My wife and I had our 3rd child in July of 2020 and as the end of the year approached, I could not meet the demands of that company based upon the Covid restrictions and my wife’s job. Ironically or magically, that was also around the time when Bill told me about his company and that he wanted me to work for him. I had a good paying job w/ benefits, I was respected (sometimes) and I have a newborn. What better time to go work for a startup that has zero customers!

I knew one thing, the leaders/bosses that I worked for in the past shaped me as a leader. I knew the good and the bad, consciously aware of which direction I was headed based upon the situation. This helped drive our remote workforce situation, it has made me more open with my employees on the business, more appreciative of their work and hopefully, dedication to work for me. My biggest accomplishment to date is merely the open policy we have with our clients. We do not hide the work we do, we do not hide behind our PC’s when a “bad” situation comes up. We truly believe that our work, business ethics, and our people create a positive environment for our customers to want to work with RWT. Of course their is a need for IT services, but there are plenty of companies out there in our backyard alone. We have a differentiator in our business practices that in my opinion defines us as an organization and develops the trust required with our customers.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This scenario was a big sticking point for our spouses when RWT launched. You’re not going to have a salary? Where are you going to get the money to get started? How much money are you going to need? All relevant questions and concerns, the same that we had, but we wanted to take a leap of faith, exit toxic environments, and in the end, be our own bosses.

Bill had already complete the paperwork for the company, registration, web domain and so forth, so we had him provide receipts for all of those items to assess what he already invested. This would be a 3-way process now that we have started, so it was Mike and I’s turn to assist. In all he had invested close to $1k once we got involved. So now you have a company, what next?

First decision was to avoid having an office. Thanks to Covid, this was not an insane idea and we are an IT company, we should be able to pull it off. Check box, we decided to avoid rent, internet, furniture, hardware and all the other requirements to put an office together. We would use our own computers, set up spaces in our homes for an office and in the end, only invested in a VoIP phone system so we could setup a phone number and our call routing for sales/support. We did a rental on the hardware and kept the cost below $100/month.

Next we needed a bank account, checks, business cards, marketing material and our email accounts. Since I was the VP of Sales, I took over this part and we got it started. QB Online was our accounting answer, so we did a 12-month subscription to take advantage of the discount, the same decision on the emails and I did my research on business cards, found deals online and started minimal with sales/marketing material. Now I was in for my $1k.

To the technical side, most vendors allow you to create partner accounts with them for $0, you get hit with costs when you start actually deploying their services, needing to purchase bulk licenses or sign agreement terms paying for it up front to then invoice your customers to recover your costs. We were lucky and did not perform as a normal startup IT company. Our relationships throughout the years created a very good following due to their unhappiness with other IT companies, so our costs were covered quickly in this regard. We also decided very quickly that we were not going to purchase any equipment to host services/data directly, we would use our Partner Vendors for this, completely eliminating large upfront expenses or purchases just to do business. In the end, Mike was in for his $1k and we were all even.

I certainly realize that our situation might not be the norm, however our planning can help show future entrepreneurs that it’s not all about the money you need upfront and that proper scaling should be taken into consideration. Don’t get caught up in the mindset of “looking” and “feeling” like a business with a brick and mortar shop or office. There are many different ways to do business nowadays and be successful. As bad as Covid was for business and so many people personally, it also brought a new wave of acceptance to varying degrees of business. Harness that, plan accordingly and you might surprise yourself with how little money you need to get started. Within 3 weeks of starting, we cut ourselves a $1k check each to cover our initial expenses and then got into a standard payroll process. Was it as much as we were making before, no, but it got to that quicker than we expected and putting the proper plan in place, it guaranteed initial revenue to quickly cover our minimal, yet required costs.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

This is always a tough topic and one that is highly subjective based upon your business model, as well as employee type and their demographics. In short, different things have different meaning and value to different people. Step one for morale was to define a true employee handbook, get it all out on the table so it was an even playing field. Without this you can show favoritism or have perceived favoritism, which in either case is a bad scenario. Step two was developing a true review process. We complete ours mid-year and then end-of-year to help outline raises/bonuses without it being a surprise. Having measurable and defined goals and objectives is crucial to avoid issue during review times. Build a solid foundation with the handbook and keep the structure sound with the review structure.

After that, items are always fluid based upon the employee. I have found through my career that one sign of unhappiness from employees or colleagues can be found through their limited responses during the review process. An employee that is challenged yet respected, mentored and valued should inherently have a higher morale and typically will provide much broader and extensive feedback regarding themselves, the company or even you. When responses become stale, cookie cutter or lack emotion, don’t be fooled if the words are still positive. We all know that you aren’t going to tell your boss to his face that you are unhappy and looking for another job, so don’t be fooled when you are the boss.

Truly creating an open door policy, investing time in knowing your employees on a personal level (without becoming their friends) and understanding that their personal lives are ALWAYS more important to them than the job they have should be at the top of your priority list. The personal connection to them will help you understand if an occasional PTO day for working some extra hours would be appreciated, or if they would prefer a monetary reward instead. You typically have to wide of a variation between individuals to create a one-size-fits-all solution, so don’t do it. Find the wants of your employees and follow through when the time is right. Actions speak louder than words and we must not forget that as Managers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.redwarriortech.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/redwarriortech
• Facebook: facebook.com/Red-Warrior-Technology-LLC-100386032203406
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/red-warrior-technology-llc/?viewAsMember=true

Image Credits
Victoria Yassem, Red Ball Consultants