Gaylen Young column: Often it’s who you know
| Tuesday, Jun 30 2009 06:05 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Jun 30 2009 06:05 PM
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Kevin and Terry Gutierrez are owners of Big Star Solutions. They specialize in moving large and highly specialized items. They have moved aircraft but did not move the helicopter in the photograph.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Clay Koerner, president of Human Resources Outsourcing Inc., sits in his office in northeast Bakersfield Monday afternoon. Koerner works with companies who contract him to take care of their human resource needs instead of hiring their own personal HR manager or employee.
I suppose it’s true that we rely on friends to give us the best service at the best price. Perhaps that’s why so many people network via breakfast groups, the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce or Facebook, Twitter and Plaxo.
Last month, I looked to my community contacts for help. My kids, who’ve lived with me in Bakersfield since my wife died, had to move to Utah for work. I needed a reliable moving company.
A few years ago I did a story about the Gutierrez family, owners of Reliable Moving and Storage, as the business moved to an expanded warehouse at the old Costco building east of Buck Owens Boulevard. I called upon Kevin Gutierrez, who has helped his brother and father run the business, and he helped me arrange my family’s move.
I learned Gutierrez and his wife are starting their own company that will focus on moving large or specialized items — even oil rigs. How’d he think of that? He got the idea years ago when Six Flags announced it might sell Magic Mountain.
“I always wondered what it would take to move the Colossus roller coaster, something of that scale, which got us thinking about these services now,” Gutierrez said. “We plan to launch this summer or fall by moving a lot of high-end items or big items or high-risk items like airplanes, helicopters, oil rigs, armored cars and military equipment. You name it and we can move it.”
They’ll also transport priceless items such as the Rembrandt paintings they once moved.
“You can’t just move such things in the back of a pickup with some college kids. You have to have controls and protections in place,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said he and his wife will broker services around the world, serving as middlemen so clients don’t have to deal with several companies.
“You know if you’re moving a yacht, the people you broker to help you with that move will be totally different than if you’re moving a museum piece. Our tag line is, ‘in the air, on land and sea. We can move it,’” he said.
By the way: You won’t see them wearing suits.
“We do business wearing cowboy hats! That’s because my wife’s from Texas, the Lone Star state, and that’s where we got the name for our company, Big Star Solutions,” Gutierrez said.
Even with great help out there, many people try to do things themselves. In this economy, business owners may be so consumed with just selling enough to make payroll that they don’t think about important issues that hit the bottom line. Think human resources. That’s why Clay Koerner of Human Resources Outsourcing expanded his business into outsourcing human resources functions.
“There is just so much new law dealing with HR, that we just try to keep the employers abreast of all the changes, trying to make sure they’re in compliance or to see if they are at risk in some way, and that’s really the key,” Koerner said. “Our program gives them the tools that they need to be sure they’re in compliance.”
He notes that smaller businesses may add responsibilities to the work of their HR managers, or delegate HR work to employees who aren’t knowledgeable.
Koerner first moved to Bakersfield in the mid-1980s to work with Blue Cross of California. Later he became an insurance broker of record for another company and eventually became an insurance agent.
“Just being an insurance agent today isn’t going to cut it for a client. The client needs human resources programs, payroll programs, time clocks,” Koerner said. “They need assistance today that they never had before. Everything has become so technical, so government-driven with rules, regulations and requirements, you can’t just sell insurance anymore and be successful.”
He said he’s a “value-added-reseller. But we’re not restricted, we can go anywhere in the nation.
We have several clients outside of California that use our systems,” Koerner said. “We do sexual harassment training, as an example, we do COBRA administration, we do cafeteria health plans.”
What else? He offers training to help guide clients’ companies, builds online handbooks, delivers current human resources forms and training tapes and more.
It’s amazing what you can discover here, if you just ask your friends a few questions now and then.
