Today we’d like to introduce you to Shea Uebelhor.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Shea. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After spending the first years working directly for a manufacturer in a sales capacity, my business partner (Cory Johnson) and I decided to branch off from the life of certainty and jump into the unknown world of entrepreneurship and independent representation. Our brand, Level Reps, currently represents multiple brands within the Contract furniture and architectural wall products industry.
Level Reps was founded based on leveraging the individual strengths of each other and our co-workers, as well as our individual brands. We put culture and balance at the heart of what we do as an organization – believing that “The group that hangs together, stays together.” The goal is to simply be the best reps to work within the local contract furniture market. Moving forward, our 2-3 year business plan will hopefully take our business model (and that of our competitors) and completely antiquate it.
Shifting our focus from collecting as many of the best individual manufacturers with different strengths and putting them together in one package, to starting multiple, smaller, more focused rep groups in play to focus and service smaller numbers of complimenting manufacturers and bring a level of expertise back to our clients. This model has not been done (that we know of) by anyone specific entity in our industry, and we hope this approach will add a new level of value to our customers and our manufacturing partners.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha, absolutely not, nor did we plan for it to be. I had an embarrassing small bank account and a family of four to support when we decided to launch Level Reps. Cory and I, along with the amazing support of our spouses (and manufacturers), made it work.
In our first year, we barely paid our bills, but we had a strong belief that we had a good business plan and market strategy – and just needed to work hard to spread our message. Just over six years later, we’ve managed to grow our annual sales 8 times that of our first year, and we truly believe we are just getting started.
While a lot of other challenges have come at us (quickly) over the first six years, none of them surpass that of taking that first leap of faith into the unknown land of commission-only compensation.
Level Reps – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Level Reps started very similarly to our competitors in the independent rep world of Contract furniture. We called on architects and designers along with furniture dealer partners to market and sell the products from our manufacturers. This is a very classic model for our industry has grown accustomed to. However, after 5 or 6 years of strong sales growth and adding terrific co-workers to our team, our team begin to realize high sales volumes, but flattened growth.
Thus, Level Reps has made the decision to not be comfortable in what we and our competitors do, and really double down on our business and market strategy. Our next moves to start several smaller rep groups with a specific market focus and expertise while still working within the overall of Level Reps will allow our team to have a higher level of knowledge and expertise that we can offer to our clients as well as our manufacturer partners.
The goal of which will function within the framework of a team, but to leverage our strengths and market knowledge collectively. This will also help us recruit some of the best manufacturer partners in our industry that need help figuring out a better distribution model for a major market like Chicago.
Currently, ancillary furniture, such as the influx of “resimerical” furniture in the office, or the new standard expectation for having multiple ways of working within the office, is where we tend to focus our energy. The workplace has changed very dramatically in recent years, and it’s showing no signs of slowing this evolution anytime soon. Our goal is to always been learning, and in turn, disseminating this information to our partners and clients. In doing this, we become a much more valuable resource to everyone that interacts with Level Reps.
If there is anything to be the most proud from a professional standpoint, it would the strong partnership and relationship that I have in my business partner – who truly balances our group and our strengths – but has also done so in being a best friend to me. That, and we truly have amazing co-workers at Level Reps. Everyone brings their industry experience and knowledge to the table – and we learn from each other on a daily basis. This is the foundation of a culture-based business.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I once made the joke about a picture that was taken of Cory and I at our annual trade show (Neocon) where we were both in suits (or jackets). As part of my “cheers” on social media to our five year anniversary, I put congrats out to Cory saying, “I’m not sure we’ve worn suits to work since this picture was taken. We must be doing something right”. That, and the escalating sales volumes/number of employees we hired was how I thought of short-term success.
Now, my goals for Level Reps are much different. It’s often talked about that our industry is ripe for – or has to – change. The current model of how products are bought and sold to end users seems overly complicated and often times redundant. It can also lack clarify. There have been truly amazing discussions held locally by CBRE and Contract Consulting Group to open the dialogue around this very touchy subject.
So moving forward, I want Level Reps to be at the forefront of this change. Our unique position within our industry (being entrepreneurial and completely independent) allows us to try new concepts and market strategies when we determined the strategy is sound and ready to implement. I truly hope that the Level Reps that exist today does not exist in 5 years.
Rather, that we have pushed our model and our industry to into trying new ideas while partnering with those that we rely on to make our business work. Someday, if I can look back and know that the efforts that our group went through helped to promote positive change within our industry, and we were able to create really great jobs to those that joined us in our efforts, I’d consider that a successful start-up.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.levelreps.com
- Phone: 312-504-2919
- Email: shea@levelreps.com
- Instagram: Levelreps
- Facebook: Level reps
Image Credit:
Cory Johnson, Paige Stoub, Elyse Wyatt, Ellen Krakos, Megan Matola, Ross Shapland
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