Entrepreneur Archive:
Able Products

Specialty Furniture Becomes Solid Line for
Business Vets Seeking New Challenges

Able Products — Joplin, MO
Assisted by:
Lisa Robinson, Missouri Small Business Development Center at Missouri Southern State University

Remember the old tongue-twister involving the woodchuck chucking wood?

Well, at Able Products they don't chuck wood. They turn solid, fine-quality red oak into attractive pieces of furniture, such as curio cabinets, deacon's benches and hall trees.

The guys behind Able Products, Steve Fuller and Pete Ramsour, each have more than 30 years of business experience on their resumes. But the high-quality wood furniture game is a radical departure from the previous ventures of these two business veterans.

Ramsour entered the wholesale beer business in the Joplin area in 1971, spending 31 years dealing in a variety of beer brands. He decided to sell his share of the suds venture a couple of years ago when beer wholesalers began to consolidate locally.

Fuller devoted the first 15 years of his career to the financial printing business in New York. In 1987, he moved his family to the Joplin area where he marketed and sold a variety of tech products for Allied Devices, Inc. Shortly after that move Fuller struck up a friendship with one of his new Joplin neighbors, Pete Ramsour.

Senator Gary Nodler visits with Steve Fuller, co-owner of Able Products of Joplin at the Business Showcase and Legislative Breakfast Feb. 10, 2005, at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

Last year, after the two found themselves at similar career crossroads, they took advantage of timing and opportunity buying Able Products from its founder, Tom Burns. When they took over the 15-year-old company in April they had four employees. Since then they've doubled to a workforce of eight, which serves clients in 14 states.

"We're testing the theory that two heads are better than one," says Ramsour of the partnership he and his long-time friend have established. So far they're proving the theory correct, but with one corollary: sometimes a third head really comes in handy.

That third head belongs to Lisa Robinson, counselor with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Missouri Southern State University. Robinson has helped the two sales and marketing veterans tackle business tasks they hadn't encountered previously in their extensive business careers.

Taking on the challenge of an existing small business meant the new owners had to simultaneously tackle and rejuvenate multiple aspects of the operation.

"Pete and Steve needed to develop all of their systems for marketing, customer management, inventory management and accounting," says Robinson.

While Ramsour and Fuller had a good handle on marketing and customer relations, Robinson advised them on business management and accounting. During their first three months in business Robinson was a regular consultant helping them with computer hardware and software selection and implementation. She also assisted with financial data management, brochure creation and website development (www.ableproductsinc.com).

"We have decades of business experience between the two of us, but we couldn't have pulled this business together without her help," Ramsour insists. "Lisa and the SBDC are great assets, and frankly have saved us a lot of money."

Though Robinson concentrated her efforts with Able Products in the early months of the ownership transition, she still checks in periodically with the two woodsmen.

"We'll occasionally have questions regarding data input in our QuickBooks (computer software) program or for the website. I guess I haven't talked with Lisa for at least the last 45 minutes," Ramsour jests.

Pete Ramsour, left, co-owner of Able Products of Joplin – a manufacturer of fine oak furniture – visits with Rep. Ron Richard (center) and U.S. Small Business Administration regional administrator, Sam Jones, at the Business Showcase and Legislative Breakfast Feb. 10, 2005, at the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City.

And because of the entrepreneurial spirit and success demonstrated by Fuller and Ramsour, Able Products received an award and a legislative resolution at a recent event in the State Capitol in Jefferson City. At that February gathering — the Missouri SBDC-hosted Client Showcase — Able Products and more than 20 other outstanding Missouri companies met with legislators to discuss their products and services, and to receive recognition for their contributions to the economic development of the state of Missouri.

"Our visit to the SBDC Client Showcase was productive for us, too," says Fuller. "We made a couple of solid new contacts as a result of our visit to Jefferson City."

For more information on the services of the MO SBDC program, call Lisa Robinson at 417/625-9575 or e-mail her at robinson-L@mssu.edu.

Able Products
6636 Highway C
Joplin, MO 64804
Phone: 417-623-6478
www.ableproductsinc.com

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