I had fallen into a career I truly loved, selling floor care, cleaning products, and equipment. It came on the heels of me losing a job with United States Steel, Duquesne Works, in Pittsburgh. The mill closed, and I thought that was it for me, but my mother taught me to have a good work ethic, so out hunting work, I went. I found two jobs being a janitor. I had to provide for my family, so I did what I had to do. Fast forward 18 years after a very successful career. I loved the work, I loved serving others, and that’s what sales is – serving others. After 18 years with a great national brand of floor care products, Hillyard, Inc, they were changing how they went to market. They were slowly removing company sales representatives like me and moving towards independent distributors. I was the last of the company salesmen, and I knew my career was about to change. I was very frightened. I did not want to work for someone else. I had been relatively independent for 18 years and had built a book of customers of over two million dollars. So faced with a decision and scared to death I decided I would start an independent distributorship. I had never done anything like this, but I thought long and hard and wanted to leave something for my three kids. I wanted to leave a legacy and a business for our children, should they want it.

So I got some outside help and put together a business plan. I scheduled a meeting with the owners of the company I worked for and flew out to St Joseph, Mo. to Hillyard Company to present my business plan to the owners suggesting I’d become an independent distributorship, and the rest is history. That was September 10th, 2001. They quickly agreed. I ended my employment with them and took into the work of building Fagan Sanitary Supply Co. Some 20 years later, my children successfully run the company, and I sit here retired on a beach in the Bahamas. It was a frightening but great decision!