On Wednesday 2/8/23, the class that the pleasure of visiting Blesch Brothers Equipment Company located in Odon. The class got to speak with Brandon Hess about the company. Blesch Brothers is a farm equipment dealership. It has two different locations, one in Odon and one in Holland. It is an employee-owned company, and the Odon location has 16 employees there full-time.

Brandon gave the class a lot of advice about owning and running a business. He shared with the class the best advice about business he had ever received. The advice was, “Quality product at a reasonable price with outstanding customer service,” and it was given to him by Abe Knepp, founder of K&K Industries. Brandon shared that as a business owner you always need to educate customers on the value of your product. He also told the class that you need to sell your entire business, not just your product. Also, he emphasized that business is a lot about building relationships, before you worry about the dollar. One good business transaction can set the tone for your entire business and that relationship with that customer. Brandon spoke on how he experienced this, and how he always focuses on forming good relationships with his customers. He also spoke on how a business owner must know their customers to sell their products. He also stated, “Don’t ever judge your customer on their outside appearance.”

Another topic Brandon talked about was revenue centers. He helped inform the class on what revenue centers were if they were unsure and talked about all of his revenue centers for his business. He spoke on the three sections: whole goods, parts, and services. For Blesch Bros. the whole foods section is new sales. The parts section is repair parts, accessories, and technology. Then, the service section is maintenance, upgrades, repairs, and trucking/delivery. He helped the class think of what their revenue centers were and how knowing them can help their business.

Thank you Brandon for taking time out of your day to speak with the CEO class!