1

HATTIE: Hi, I'm Hattie Bryant. This is the place to be if you want to learn how business works from the inside out, and if you want to meet some of the country's most fascinating people.

Don Dzekciorius has created hundreds of jobs and generated millions in sales over the 25 years he's been in business. We've come to Albany, New York, his hometown, to meet him.

Step into the Master Class, and learn from the man who makes the stuff that holds together the Empire State Plaza, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

DON DZEKCIORIUS: It's a beautiful entrance into the city of New York.

HATTIE: The George Washington Bridge is 3,500 feet long, spanning the Hudson River between Ft. Lee, New Jersey, and the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

DON: We've got 53,417,000 vehicles in one direction.

HATTIE: Already in the construction business, it was in 1975 that Don recognized the need for high-quality, durable, watertight expansion joints.

DON: This bridge is moving, probably, about three to four feet, as much as seven on a wind storm.

HATTIE: Why is what you've done so important to the bridge?

DON: Well, because it keeps it watertight, and keeps the water from going down through. And, of course, with the lower level, you'd have icicles hanging down in the wintertime. OK...

HATTIE: OK, so they needed a watertight solution.

DON: A watertight solution.

HATTIE: But it wasn't a bridge job that jump-started E-Poxy. It was this impressive structure that is part of the Capitol complex in Albany, New York.

DON: When they opened the forms up, they had holes in The Egg. We got called in because they were looking for a solution to the problem. We were not afraid to take a little bit of risk because we believed in our product. We not only glued it together, we used about 2,000 gallons of epoxy to repair it. I was told there were two others built besides this. I was also told that they're fell down, both of them. They were in Pacific, somewhere in Asia.

HATTIE: They needed your epoxy and your joint.

DON: Well, they probably did. But...

We have the expansion joint that's holding this million gallons of water here. When they were looking for a one-year warranty, here we're looking at this thing 25 years later and we're still the number one expansion joint here. Originally, they caulked all these joints. Not only did the caulk fail, but all the marble failed. Of all this marble a lot of this has been replaced.

HATTIE: Well, that didn't have anything to do with the caulking, though, did it?

DON: Well, because they let the water in. The water got underneath it, and it spoiled the marble.

HATTIE: So it wasn't water resistant.

DON: It wasn't waterproof.

HATTIE: So they called the waterproof guys in.

DON: They called the waterproof guys in.

HATTIE: So this is the reason your business has been grown, because it works.

DON: Yeah. It's a beautiful place to bring clients. And...

HATTIE: It's a showcase.

DON: It's a showplace for our product.

2

HATTIE: Don's company has only 18 employees, but everything they do affects millions of people. E-Poxy Industries is about infrastructure, foundations, bondings that survive the test of time.

DON: Epoxy is a two-component, sometimes a three-component, system, so you have to have A and B to make epoxy. Epoxy, if you say it E-P-O-X-Y, is a generic, and I can't trademark a generic name. So I said, `Fine. Then let's do it E-hyphen-P-O-X-Y. OK?' And it's just different, but it's doing the same thing.

HATTIE: But it sounds the same.

DON: It sounds the same.

HATTIE: It looks the same. So they were able to trademark it?

DON: We trademarked the E. OK? We trademarked the E as a trademark and then we put P-O-X-Y in front of it. So we developed the Evazote 380 which has the Hindered Amine Light Stabilizers, which we call HALS.

HATTIE: Say that word a...

DON: It's Hindered Amine Light Stabilizers.

HATTIE: OK.

DON: And by injecting HALS into this material it gives us the life expectancy that we're looking for because it doesn't disintegrate under UV light.

HATTIE: Great.

DON: And so what we did is we purchased a machine that accelerates sunlight. This is what we classify as a heavy dose of UV in a very short period of time. So in a year and a half what happens to your product is what you're going to see at this time. We're going to be shutting it down now. And you'll see the material is--it's not the heat because it's...

HATTIE: Right. It's warm, but it's not like burning.

DON: It's warm. It's not like burning. OK?

HATTIE: So your product is totally intact...

DON: Yes. HATTIE: ...and the competitors' are eaten up with the UV rays.
DON: Right. HATTIE: Wow! Why isn't everyone doing it?

DON: Because it's proprietary information, and we can't tell you. We really can't tell you.

HATTIE: OK, you're protecting your trade secrets. These are trade secrets.

DON: Yes. That's correct. HALS technology, the way it's done, is a secret. This material is a secret.

HATTIE: So some people patent their products to protect their ideas. But you have not done this to the Evazote.

DON: There's no patent on the Evazote.

HATTIE: So if it's like a recipe...

DON: It's a recipe, right.

HATTIE: ... which is like Coca-Cola, you don't want to write it down. It's a trade secret.

DON: It's a trade secret.

3

MIKE FINNEY: Turning it on.

HATTIE: Mike Finney cuts and builds the Evazote 380 to each customers' specifications.

MIKE: I'm putting two pieces of foam together to make a long joint; that is what I'm doing. It's roughly going to be around 50 feet. It's going to start curling as it heats up, the edges. You take it off and just, basically, jam it together. And then this actual weld should be stronger than the material itself.

HATTIE: He then adds ESP, Engineered Surface Preparation, which doubles the surface area where the adhesives are applied, making a stronger and more lasting watertight seal. Chemical operator Dan Davis mixes materials, measuring by weight. Dan also blends products that have been heated overnight to achieve the proper viscosity for mixing.

DON: I mean, we don't only supply the product, we supply the service to go with it. First, we have a very quick turnaround time for our customers. Second is we have good technical people to support it.

HATTIE: So you don't just sell sticky stuff.

DON: We sell the systems. We sell, in many cases, systems and how to do the repairs on bridges, dams, reservoirs, parking garages, anything that moves. If I'm going to put down a driveway, let's say, a parking garage, and need to put a membrane in, I'm going to put in 20 mils.

My competitor puts in 20 mils of wet. When it dries out, he's only got 10 because the other 50 percent evaporated. OK? With my product if you put down 20 mils, when it dries out you have 20 mils, because it's 100 percent solid material.

HATTIE: So you're considered the high end, the quality provider.

DON: Well, it is because we also stand behind it for five years.

HATTIE: A guarantee, then?

DON: Yeah.

4

HATTIE: I'm Hattie.

LUISA FLORES: Hi.

HATTIE: Don's sale team keeps the E-Poxy name top of mind. Luisa Flores and Miguel Puente work the world. So how do you go about getting people to listen to you? Here you are sitting in Albany, and you're calling on the Philippines, or something.

MIGUEL PUENTE: Yes.

HATTIE: How do you find the people to mail the catalogs to?

MIGUEL: By the Internet. We have our Web site in different languages, especially in Spanish.

LUISA: There are a lot of referrals from one company to another.

HATTIE: So since one company is using you in Mexico, then you get the leads to the others.

LUISA: Yes.

HATTIE: So how did you get to Albany?

LUISA: I started doing an internship here. I'm studying the MBA program at SUNY.

DON: If you're looking for a coffee maker, don't get an intern. Hire somebody to make your coffee. What I mean is, if you're going to bring somebody in, you got to make sure that they learn from what you have to offer, and you learn from what they have to offer. And if you channel them in the proper direction, you're going to be very successful. And that individual, he or she, will be very successful as well.

HATTIE: So do you hope that you can hire Luisa permanently when she finishes her MBA?

DON: Yes, absolutely.

5

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Mary Beth Taylor and Don's brother, Al, maintain relationships with customers closer to home.

MARY BETH TAYLOR: It's a niche market, we're competing at a superior level. And being able to supply a customer with a material that's going to perform, you know, 10 years, 10 years plus, the demand is there. We're able to produce. We're able to put it out in the marketplace.

And we get the calls back that say, `Hey, I know that you guys have Evazote 380 ESP with HALS. Where do I get it? How do I get it? Is there somebody in my marketplace that I can get it from?' So...

HATTIE: So it's fabulous.

MARY BETH: It's fantastic, and you feel great about it. And we just keep building upon it and just keep throwing at them, `Evazote 380 EPS with HALS, and don't forget it.' So...

HATTIE: Don't forget it...

AL DZEKCIORIUS: These are the things that I deal with. These are the competitive products, and this is what happens to brand X.

HATTIE: They fall apart.

AL: They fall apart. And this is ours, and you can see that you can't puncture this. We have this in areas over 20 years old, and it's still working.

6

HATTIE: OK. When did you say to yourself, `I want to own my own business'?

DON: I was working for a privately owned tire firm in Syracuse, New York.You know when you're working for a company, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, you're always looking to better yourself. And I had one of my employees, -- he was working for me -- start his own business, which I was not aware of until a few months later. I ran across him on James Street in Syracuse, New York, doing this construction job.

HATTIE: Which was the company he was building for himself.

DON: Which was the company he was building for himself. And he said, `Well, you know, I'll help you do your own thing,' and, you know, I kind of semi-bought a franchise from him with his ideas. And I started the company here in Albany.

HATTIE: Ah! OK.

DON: Yeah. Yeah, that was...

HATTIE: Was that construction, strictly, or was it...

DON: It was building, cleaning, restoration. It was in that same vein. And so, we were in the contracting business.

HATTIE: All right. When you started, how did you get the money to start the business?

DON: Well, I went to the bank, and I told them I had a dream. And in those days, in '71, they bought the dream. OK? Those were the days where you could walk in, and if you had a great idea and you showed it to them on paper. -- , `Look, I think that ... I know I can do it' -- and they'd look you in the eye and said, `OK. We'll buy it.'

And so I borrowed my first $20,000.

I think the banker is one of the most important parts of your business. You have to really know the banker and the banker has to know you. You have to get a rapport with your banker to make sure he understands your business, make sure that he understands the highs and lows. We put a complete plan together, you know a marketing plan and a result plan.`This is what we're going to do, this is what the results are going to be, and this is what we're going to make, and this is when we're going to pay you back.'

7

Our office was in a phone booth on Route 9W.

HATTIE: You have to explain that. Your office was in a phone booth?

DON: It was in a phone booth. And we, basically, had the gas attendant answer the telephones. He answered the phone...

HATTIE: And you gave him a tip every week?

DON: We gave him a tip every week.

HATTIE: Now did you do that because you just didn't have any other way to do it, you didn't have any cash flow?

DON: We didn't have any money. I mean we were looking to take the money and basically use it for equipment, people and getting the jobs.

HATTIE: OK. That's the $20,000 from the bank...

DON: Twenty thousand.

HATTIE: That was not for a phone. That was not for a fancy office.

DON: No. No.

HATTIE: That was to get the job.

DON: To get work so we can make money.

HATTIE: When you got that $20,000 from that banker, was there something in your heart or your gut, that said, `I will make my payments, no matter what'?

DON: Well, that's a fact because I didn't take a salary for the first year. I did not take any money from the company, period, for the first year.

HATTIE: And you made your payments?

DON: And we made our payments. We made our payments every week, every month.

8

HATTIE: Is it getting easier over the years or harder, Don?

I mean, sitting here on this side of the desk, you look very successful, you have all these wonderful people, this beautiful building and, you know, this wonderful life. And you think, `Oh, my, how did I get here?'

DON: Well, you know, Hattie, it's like this. It's the old philosophy, they bring in faster rats every day. OK? And you have to keep up. And the pace is a faster pace, and you have to be involved.

You have to be involved with the associations, like the ACI, the ASTM ....

HATTIE: Wait a minute. You can't speak in gobblygook. You have to spell it out. You have to say what those mean. What's the ACI?

DON: The ACI is American Concrete Institute. HATTIE: OK.

DON: And they're the leaders, they set the standards, for the concrete industry. You have ASTM which is the American Society for Testing Materials. OK? Then you have TRB, which is Transportation Research Board, and they guide, basically, everything to do with transportation.

We also belong to CEN, which I mentioned to you earlier, is the Chief Executive Network, a major small manufacturing companies under 500 employees in an 11-county area. HATTIE: OK. And so what is the goal of that group?

DON: The goal of that group is to network. And basically, it's strictly for the chief executives.You've got to be a CEO in order to belong to the association, and you have to be a manufacturer.

HATTIE: Have you had a board of advisers or board of directors or any, like, a formal or even informal group of folks that gather once in awhile to give you advice?

DON: Yeah. Well, I do, as a matter of fact. We have a board of directors meeting every Friday. We have an insurance guy. OK? We have a CPA.

HATTIE: A marketing guy?

DON: A marketing guy.

HATTIE: Construction, CEO.

DON: An engineer. We have meetings. If everybody's in town, we have a meeting and we talk. We talk business. We compare notes. We throw odds and ends on the table. We ask, you know, `How would you handle this situation?' Or, you know, `I'm thinking of doing this. What do you think of it?'

HATTIE: Why is it critical that people carve out the time to participate in groups of like-minded folks?Why do we need each other? Why is this important?

DON: Well, it's important because you're sharing your problems. In some cases, you're the solution; and in some cases, they're the solution to your problems.

9

The Lightbulb

HATTIE: Infuse your business with fresh ideas. Don has three techniques for doing this.

First, for 12 years, every Friday, he's had a standing appointment with five or six other business people. They share business problems, and serve as a board of advisers to one another.

Second, he's active in the CEN, Chief Executives Network. In fact, he's the incoming president of the group. These are 85 CEOs of manufacturing companies, 500 employees or less, who every month study business topics together, all the way from human resources to technology.

And third, Don is plugged into the MBA intern programs at local universities.

To keep your business vital for 25 years, you need fresh ideas, and they don't always have to be your own. There's much more at SmallBusinessSchool.com. You can see streaming video of this and all other programs, as well as transcripts and study guides.

10

There's more to life than business. But with Don, it seems life is about working to improve even his own neighborhood.

Unidentified Man #1: Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up!

HATTIE: He put dollars and time on the line to build five soccer fields now enjoyed by over 800 kids nearly every day of the year.

Unidentified Man #2: You're on the wrong side of her.

Unidentified Man #3: Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Go to the ball!

DON: Our fields were pathetic. I made a commitment that we would do something.

HATTIE: How does it make you feel when you see all these kids out here?

DON: Oh, I cry.

HATTIE: You're an immigrant. I mean, does the fear of poverty drive you? Does the...

DON: Well, when you had nothing... You know we came to this country with nothing ... the shirt on my back.

HATTIE: And how old were you?

DON: I was 10 years old. We had horses and a wagon and a dog. And the war was on, so we basically hid during the day and traveled at night.

HATTIE: So four kids, mom and dad. Did you come over on a boat, ship...

DON: On a boat. Yeah.

HATTIE: If I were to talk with her --you have to guess now-- and I'd ask, `Why is it that your children are so successful?,' what do you think she'd say?

DON: Oh...

HATTIE: Hard work?

DON: Hard work, yeah. In a place where you can make your dreams come true.

HATTIE: Making something that works, and works for years, has helped Don land some of the world's most famous customers.

At the Empire State Plaza, the seat of New York state government, Don's work is holding one million gallons of water in its proper place, and his expansion joint anchors what is called The Egg.

The list of bridges where Evazote 380 works is long, including the George Washington, the Golden Gate and the Verrazano Narrows.

Then, there's the woman whose face stops the hearts of the world. Officially called Liberty Enlightening the World and given to us by the French people, the Statue of Liberty has stood in the New York Harbor since 1886.

DON: We used our epoxy resins to grout some of stones around the perimeter of the base of the statue, you know, to make sure it's still standing.

HATTIE: What did you feel when they called you?

DON: Well, you know, the Statue of Liberty is very momentous to everybody in the United States... to the whole world. The Statue of Liberty is something that's precious to me because... I came here as an immigrant. We sacrificed to get here. This is why anybody could do it if you put your mind to it and you work hard.

11

DON: Today, the young people are coming out of universities and colleges... they're so much more advanced than we have ever thought of being. And they've got some great ideas.

HATTIE: Don's son, Joel, is installing plenty of new technology.

JOEL DZEKCIORIUS: When I came here, the computers were antiquated. The building was wired, the network and capability were there; the problem was they hadn't capitalized on it. So the first thing I did was I went out and I got computers so that everybody had them or upgraded the ones that were in existence.

And then we needed to tie it in with Internet access.

And then the final step in that was to get the box up there (server, router and firewall). And it provided business-class e-mail, which before we did not have.

We had used a single, dial-up AOL account. That frustrated me to no end. It was not professional. You know, you're e-mailing somebody you're trying to convey an image of an established company, a company that's been around for years, which we have, and you're using an AOL address. It's just not appropriate.

Now we everybody has their own e-mail account. We have firewall security, which they did not have before. Now we have 24-hour Internet access, seven days a week. So since people can come--we can go out, people can come in. We allow manufacturers' reps to do the same thing. It eliminates some of the time we spend nurturing them because they can do things themselves now... where before they didn't, they had to call us on the phone.

HATTIE: So it's really paying off. You're getting more sales because of the connectivity.

JOEL: We're hitting more contacts, which turns into sales. We have better customer service, which turns into more sales.

12

JIM KING: We're providing assistance to entrepreneurs and small-business owners across New York state, working with about 15,000 a year.

HATTIE: Wow. Jim King is the director of New York State's Small Business Development Centers.

JIM: We've got 23 centers, and we're within 35 minutes of 97 percent of the population of New York state. We do an evaluation of where you are, not just what you think you need, but also what are the rooted problems or opportunities that your business might have. Our counselors are trained to get the information, develop a rapport with you, and then work with you to resolve any problems or take advantage of those opportunities.

HATTIE: OK. Now are most of the services free, or low-cost?

JIM: Just about everything is free. We have training events that we do some cost recovery on, but we always keep the price as low as possible so that no one gets excluded.

HATTIE: So can we find you on the Web?

JIM: You can find us on the Web at nyssbdc.org.

HATTIE: There you go.

(Graphic on screen) New York State Small Business Development Center www.nyssbdc.org

Or look it up on: SmallBusinessSchool.org.

And remember, to keep your business vital for 25 years or more, you need fresh ideas, and they don't always have to be your own. Come visit us at SmallBusinessSchool.org. We'll see you next time.

The Closing of the Show