Hazleton Area Business Citizen July 2014 | Page 11

Greater Hazleton’s Business & Arts Magazine

talk about working in your business versus working on your
business. I would say from a business standpoint that, if
an owner gets too close to operations, where they run into
the area of having an issue where they say “I’m too busy
cutting wood to stop and sharpen the saw,” that’s a very
big thing for small business to back up and orchestrate and
plan ahead of time how they want that business to look. If
they enjoy the work and that’s where they want to be, there’s
absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, I would
much rather help others excel, and that is my success.
HABC: Do you have a favorite book?

HABC: But before that you were in the banking
business?
Marlin Duncan: It was more like bookkeeping. I took
care of, and managed, bank accounts, made deposits, and
took care of everything for a non-profit organization.
Then I moved. I was in Connecticut, and in 1986, I bought
and opened two auto glass franchises, which I eventually
sold off—so, yes, a totally unrelated industry. In fact, that’s
the reason a franchise is so important to me, because I
could not have imagined this industry on my own. And so
it came with a plan.
HABC: How did you get to Hazleton?
Marlin Duncan: We had family living in the area. And
from that we moved. And then more of our family came
here, so that I have all my family here. All my children are
here in Hazleton.

Marlin Duncan: Probably about ten of them. I keep lots
of books going at all times. Currently, the books I have,
one’s called Necessary Endings, and one is called E-Myth
Revisited—I think it’s more of a starter book but extremely
important—and Organizational Development. These are things
that really help me make sure everything is done when it’s
supposed to be done and how it’s supposed to be done.
HABC: So business management isn’t something
you just do professionally, you enjoy it.
Marlin Duncan: Well, I do. I do. When we say management,
the word management comes from moving people. What do
people do? Who does what? To make sure everything is
being done and everyone is accountable to somebody else.
The matter is, if you’ve got growth, you’ve got problems.
But those problems are challenges and growing pains are
real. If you take a business and triple the business in size,
you’ve got triple the amount of challenges. And that’s a
good thing. Some people will rise to the challenge and some
people will say “I want to stay small so that I don’t have to
deal with these things.”

HABC: What advice best influenced you both
professionally and personally?

HABC: We exist in what’s known as a free market.
What does that mean to you and how free is the
market in which your business operates?

Marlin Duncan: I think the philosophy of taking care of
your people is very important because, if you take care of
your people, they take care of your clients. I think if I can
be a great support for my current staff, I can see that as a
success. I, like any other business, like to see my business
grow. I find that exciting. However, I think that issue of
working, and I know it’s become kind of cliché, people

Marlin Duncan: I think the market is becoming less and
less free all the time. It’s sad to say. There’s a balance that
exists here, and because we’re working with people in a
very intimate way in the home, there needs to be certain
regulations. Most of those regulations have come about
because of people in the home not doing what they’re
supposed to do. And when that happens, people have a

HABC

July 1, 2014

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