slowing down when a larger regional company made an offer to buy their Silent Guard business .
“ We had an opportunity to sell our company back a few years ago ,” Dwight stated . “ We really had no plans on selling our company , but it was a good opportunity to at least start talking .”
But then the Sears ’ couple got a phone call that changed the trajectory of their business .
THE PHONE CALL
“ Out of the blue , about the time we were starting to have some serious conversations with another party [ about selling our business ] Taylor calls and says , ‘ I think I ’ m ready to come home and work in the family business ’,” Dwight recalled .
The Sears ’ were not only excited about having their only son working in the family business , but they knew he would be a great asset to their small business .
“ There ’ s nobody that has a stronger work ethic than Taylor does ,” his father vaunted . “ He is in demand around the country . I ’ d be surprised if he hasn ’ t already talked to multiple people around the country today wanting to pick his brain on something that he ’ s working on .”
When their son came onboard in 2019 , Silent Guard had one location and a total of 17 employees . The Sears couple did not just want to bring Taylor into the business working in the day-to-day operations ; they wanted him to spending his time finding ways to make their business better and more efficient .
“ We told him , you can be as big as you want to be ,” his father recalled . “ So the first year , he traveled the entire country . He went all the way to the west coast , all the way back to the east coast . He went up north and he went down south .”
“ He visited manufacturing facilities , distribution facilities , monitoring stations , companies bigger than us , and smaller than us ,” Dwight stated . “ The goal was to come back with a wishlist and we wanted to start implementing them into our business .”
About that time , the worldwide pandemic put a temporary halt to their business operations and any plans of upgrading . Like most businesses , Silent Guard adjusted to the pandemic restrictions and tried to survive during those uncertain times .
“ The things that Taylor brought to the table allowed us to get through that pandemic ,” Dwight admitted . “ He saw a lot of things that we needed to improve , and being more efficient allowed us the opportunities to work remotely . He created all these new processes . He changed everything . When I say everything , I mean everything from A to Z .”
But the other big task their son did for Silent Guard was doing some upgrades that his parents could never find the time to do with the hectic day-to-day schedule of running a business .
“ The problem was we could only do so much , and we didn ’ t have any more time in my day to upgrade things , like our computer system ,” Barbara stated . “ Taylor didn ’ t really have a lot of day-to-day responsibilities at first , so he had time to do some of the upgrades we didn ’ t have time to complete .”
The Sears ’ couple allowed their son to build his own team , and allowed him to change their management structure by placing employees in new and more productive roles . In the process , the Sears created a family atmosphere throughout their organization .
And just as the local Silent Guard business was taking off in a new positive direction , the Sears learned of another familiar business opportunity .
BACK TO THEIR ROOTS After nearly 44 years building their
JUNE 2024 SEKY - Southeast Kentucky Life • 17