Wall Street once beckoned like a siren, promising a life of potential financial fortunes. Kent Smith was pursuing a college degree to conquer the world of high finance, but the scent of fresh-cut cedar proved harder to scrub off than he expected. Today, Kent is the president and owner of South Side Lumber and Design Center in Herrin, a community of 12,000 people in Williamson County.
“This place is the builder’s dream. We provide building materials for southern Illinois,” said Kent with pride. “In the store, you’ll find anything to build a home from windows, doors, cabinets and even the hammer.”
Building from the ground up
Kent is the third generation in his family to run South Side Lumber and Design Center, taking over the business in 1990.
“My grandfather started this business in 1946, right after the war,” Kent recalled, “My mother was engaged to my father, and she came down and became the cashier. Then my father joined the business in 1951, and we grew ever since.”
Kent’s grandfather, Claude Sr., built South Side Lumber from modest beginnings, knowing this area was hungry to grow and build.
“They would take one truck, go to Arkansas, pick up material, come back and dump it,” explained Kent, describing the early days of the business. “Started with just one guard shack and one little lot.”
Decade by decade, the operation expanded. Kent’s father, Claude Jr. eventually took the reins, continuing to evolve and grow the business into the full-service design destination it is today.
“The home design store really evolved around the 1990s,” Kent noted. “The builder wanted to be able to purchase at one store. We were able to supply the entire house from one location. So the builders would just shop at one location.”
For Kent, South Side Lumber is the foundation for his life in Herrin, starting with childhood.
“My earliest memories of the store was in a previous store in front, and when we would basically play in the nail bins and help customers pick out lumber and carry them to their trucks,” Ken recalled with a grin. “I was actually in the store from somewhere about age six up and helping customers. I was usually, in trouble somewhere along the line.”
For a short time Kent went on to chase bigger dreams and left his hometown.
“I went to school (at Baylor University) to go to New York in finance,” Kent remarked. “Originally, I was not coming back to southern Illinois.”
However, everything changed after Kent said he received sound business advice from a trusted mentor.
“I had a long time professor say, ‘Why do that? You can do your business, and you’ve got every part of business, marketing, management, finance. And, that’s why you went to school, to learn business.’
“I’m so glad I made it back to Herrin versus going to Wall Street,” Kent explained. “I really enjoy the retail industry. I believe working in retail can be very rewarding. You develop lots of relationships, gain people’s trust and that’s very rewarding.”
More than a business
There is a special sense of pride of ownership that goes beyond holding a title or signing a paycheck. Kent understands that relationship quite intimately.
“The draw for me to come back to southern Illinois was to be able to own and operate a complete business, to be able to do the marketing, the management and all aspects of business,” explained Kent. “It’s amazing that most people are not familiar with what it takes to run small businesses.
“Running a small business? You do take it home at night, and it’s tough on the family many times, but it’s something you really enjoy and want to do. Running a small business can be twenty four seven,” Kent observed with a smile. “But, it’s all about the relationships. You want to take care of your customers.”
Conquering competition
South Side Lumber and Design has weathered competitive pressures to succeed and stay relevant.
“Over the years, we’ve had competition from many independents,” Kent noted. “But then, in the early 80s, three big box stores entered (the market in southern Illinois).”
New competition became the ultimate challenge for Kent and his staff. Kent explained that the secret of the store has never been pricing, but the people who work at South Side.
“We’ve been able to thrive because of our employees,” said Kent. “Many of our staff have built homes over the years, have been contractors, and so now they come in and help the homeowner, step by step showing them how to build their homes. Our staff becomes a coach to the homeowners.
“Most of our clients are in projects, and they need advice or help to understand how the best method to do the project,” Kent continued. “We set up a meeting originally and go over the homeowners dream, and then sit down with them and design from the studs all the way through the roof.”
It is a process that Kent finds fulfilling, even after all these years.
“I think that’s one of the biggest pleasures,” noted Kent. “We don’t actually build the house, but we’re supplying and seeing that homeowner’s dream to the end.”
Walk the floor at South Side Lumber on any given day, and you will encounter something that is increasingly rare in modern retail. South Side employs roughly 50 seasoned professionals who speak the language of the craft, because they have lived it. The store is one of the larger employers in the town of Herrin.
“I believe most of our success comes from our staff and the employees,” Kent observed. “Over the years, they’ve stayed with me. We’ve got a lot of seasoned employees that have been here 20 and 30 years. It becomes a relationship business. Our builders are homeowners. Our staff become friends over the years.”
Holding on to good people in a challenging state economy requires intentionality according to Kent.
“It’s a challenge to find employees in Illinois with the tax system and the ability for people to go to neighboring states very easily,” Kent acknowledged. “So you really have to become a family with your employees. You have to provide wages a little bit above some in the area. You have to have lots of trust and give flexibility to your employees.”
When hiring employees, Kent says he knows precisely who he is looking to hire.
“We look for honesty, the ability for people to communicate, and the ability for people to help others,” Kent explained. “You have to have communication skills in retail. You have to be able to build relationships in any style of retail.”
From that single guard shack and a single truck making runs to Arkansas, South Side Lumber and Design Center has grown into a business that would have been difficult to imagine in 1946. Today, the operation’s top-selling categories are lumber, windows, doors, and cabinets in approximately 30,000 square feet of sales space. South Side also has a fleet of 22 trucks that can deliver products a radius of roughly 60 miles.
When it comes to advertising South Side Lumber, Kent believes in using the power of traditional methods and harnessing the power of social media as well. Today, it’s Kent’s daughter, Cecily, who handles marketing.
“We’ve marketed for the last 40 years, basically starting out on television, newspapers and then a lot of special events. We do a lot of car shows, builder shows,” noted Kent. “We’ve turned to a lot of social media recently. We now have to market in many different ways. It’s not just word of mouth anymore. You basically have to be dynamic and doe a lot more social media marketing.”
A level playing field
Kent is not a man given to complain, but spoke about the challenges he believes smaller businesses face in Illinois every day.
“If I had a chance to talk to lawmakers about retail, I would try to get some of their own regulations out, reduce the taxes and the work comp rates,” Kent said plainly. “It’s hard to attract employees in the state of Illinois.”
The geography of the problem is inescapable. South Side Lumber sits within reach of neighboring states of Missouri and Kentucky where the regulatory and tax burdens are considerably lighter on small business owners.
“We’re up against border states that have a lot less regulation and less taxes,” explained Kent. “So it’s much easier for those businesses across the rivers to gain our customers. We counteract the obstacles to business by building relationships with our customers. However, that causes us to have a higher cost of operations. And so therefore we don’t make as much money as our counterparts do in the states neighboring us.”
A little wisdom
With nearly eight decades of family history, a Wall Street education and a retail career rich with experience, Kent has very simple guidance to other aspiring business owners.
“If I was to give advice for somebody going into retail, I would tell them to learn how to communicate, not just in writing, but verbally, and also how to build relationships,” advised Kent. “Ask people about their stories. Because people want to know how much you care before they know how much you know.”
Built to last
There is no arrogance in the way Kent Smith talks about what South Side Lumber and Design Center has accomplished.
“If my grandfather was here, I think he would be impressed with how large the footprint has grown to and how far we’ve come from that one truck that he had,” Kent said with quiet pride. “I feel South Side Lumber matters, because we help provide employment in a small area, and we provide materials for people to build their dreams.
“We hope that when customers leave South Side Lumber, they feel satisfied and they realize that a small business can help them even more than some large stores can. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care about them.”
