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Variety is the Spice of Business
By Jennifer McGuiggan, Communications Coordinator
Trudy Barefoot believes in variety. As the co-owner and CFO of H. Fred Barefoot Trucking, Inc. in Bedford County, Pa, she is also president of another transportation business called Sweet Express, Inc. Add to that a candy store and real estate development, and you've got a woman full of entrepreneurial ideas.
Barefoot and her husband Rick began working in her father-in-law's trucking company in 1980. The business had been around since the late 1960s when the elder Barefoot, a farmer, decided to haul his own milk and bought the first tank truck in the county.
As her father-in-law looked toward retirement in the mid-1980s, Barefoot and her husband began contributing new ideas to the business. "We just started working here," she says. "And eventually, [we began] having different ideas from my father-in-law and [he said], 'Okay, if that's what you want to do, you have to make it work.'"
Barefoot recognized the need to diversify the business and began developing a new transportation division. In addition to hauling milk from farm to dairy, Barefoot Trucking began transporting liquid food and food grade products such as corn syrup, cream, condensed milk, and peanut oil. Among their "tasty" clients are Snyder of Berlin, Land o'Lakes, and Hershey's Ice Cream. A third division of the business was later established to transport feed and dry bulk to farmers.
Eventually, Barefoot and her husband worked their way up to the top of the company. "We actually earned our way up," she explains. It was a gradual process that included part of their salary being automatically applied toward buying the company.
With a High School diploma and 35 college credits, Barefoot isn't concerned that neither she nor her co-owner has a college degree: "I think a lot of it is common sense and hard work. The third thing is having good people work for you."
"When you start, you don't have the employees. It was just my husband out there doing the delivery and I was home running the offices, looking for loads, and he'd come home and service the trucks," Barefoot reminisces. "You have to be willing to do whatever it takes. There are no set hours in business. But that's good, because it makes you a more flexible person."
Now, with 33 employees, Barefoot takes her responsibility to them seriously. She strives to provide them with the best living that she can and is proud to note that in her 24 years with the company, they have never laid off an employee.
With so many employees, it comes as a slight surprise when Barefoot admits that they run the business out of their basement. "We live where we work," she says. "It's got its good side - I can come down in the middle of the night and catch up on paperwork." The bad side, of course, is that they're always on call. But even that allows them to do what they do best: "We try to provide good service, because that's all we have to sell."
How does it feel to be a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field? Barefoot definitely notices it, but, she says, "I don't pay attention to it. I ignore it. I ignore people who don't want to deal with me. I just let their attitude lay and I keep working. Eventually they forget that I'm a female." Barefoot believes that "raising a ruckus" about the gender issue is the wrong approach. "I just don't address it, but you can always sense it," she says.
Barefoot's commitment to service and positive attitude have been recognized in several ways. In 2002, Barefoot was named one of Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business. "[This] was such a wonderful recognition that I never dreamed of," she says. "First off, I don't expect recognition, and to have that come as a state award…I was humbled by it."
Barefoot was also honored in 2001 and 2002 as a Friend of Education by the Pennsylvania Education Association. Additionally, she serves as the School Board Director for the Chestnut Ridge School District and is President of the Bedford County Junior Achievement Board.
In addition to her dedication to education, she is heavily involved with the Bedford County Chamber of Commerce and the Bedford County Development Association. "Economic development is important," Barefoot says. "Small businesses [those with 50 or fewer employees] are 80% of Bedford County's employment business. It's nice to be on the economic development board and it's a way to help other businesses. I think it's a vital part of the county."
After the successful diversification of the trucking business, Barefoot has recently looked toward adding more variety to her list of business accomplishments. She says she thought, "If the trucking company goes kaput, we need something else." In 2000, Barefoot bought Fay's Candies, a maker of "fine chocolates by hand." Soon she moved the business into a new building and added a line of gourmet coffee.
She is currently looking to lease out the original building that housed Fay's Candies, and is also in the process of developing a small multi-tenant strip plaza on a plot that came with the new property. Over half of the 9,600 square feet is already leased out and the building is still under construction. Barefoot acknowledges that her various businesses are strange bedfellows, but says, "Hopefully maybe they'll balance each other."
This diversification strategy is also part of her husband's plan to retire at a relatively young age. "My husband wants to live on a sail boat and sail the Caribbean during retirement," she says. "You've got to have dreams, and hopefully they'll become reality."
For Barefoot, the path from dream to reality consists of hard work, patience, and persistence. "I truly believe that anyone can do anything they want if they work hard enough at it," she says. "It takes time. It truly takes hard work. Do it right and do it well."
Reflecting on her business success and future goals, Barefoot says that she is reminded to take a moment to appreciate her accomplishments. "Sometimes you're so busy building it, you're not looking at the big picture. Sometimes you need to do that - step back and go 'Whew!'"
February 2004 |
