Sandy Hunter
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This Wednesday’s company spotlight is on Hunter Hawk, Inc. and its founder, Sandy Hunter. Hunter Hawk is headquartered in Concord, Calif. and is a custom manufacturer and provider of industrial products and services for the oil refining, power, biotech, chemical, marine, and municipal industries. Women in the oil industry are so rare that the Pacific Energy Association once named Sandy Hunter "Man of the Year."
About the founder, in her own words: I became inspired to start my own business after being laid off from my job in the industrial marketplace, but at the same time I was nervous about being completely on my own. I went to bed on March 31, 1994 and had a dream about a mama bird encouraging her baby birds to fly from their nest, which was perched on top of a cliff.
If they failed to fly, they might fall to the rocks below. Even if they flew, they might get picked off by a hawk circling them from above.
I awoke, unsettled. The more I thought about it, I realized I was not the mama bird or the baby birds - I was the hawk, and it was time to take action to feed myself. Hence, our company name: Hunter Hawk.
Why is Hunter Hawk so successful? Eight years ago, a customer complained that some very expensive parts for their turbines, compressors, and pumps were being shipped and stored in nailed-together crates.
Sometimes parts got damaged during transit or went missing from their containers, so they weren’t there when needed. It can be very time consuming to pull all the needed parts off shelves and some inventory might not be housed in the warehouse.
So we came up with our “kit box” system concept. Basically, this is a custom-designed, long-term storage container that we fill with customer-supplied critical parts. The kit boxes allow planners to advance-order parts for planned maintenance and emergencies.
Recently, there was a fire at an oil refinery that had purchased one of our kit boxes to house critical compressor components. If they had to order parts, it would have taken between 2 to 10 weeks to get all the parts. They also would have paid a premium for expedited delivery. They would have lost about $250,000 a day. Repair time with the kit box was just four days, so they saved a minimum of $3 million using our kit box system - now that’s a good investment.
Sandy’s words of advice: Loving what you do makes all the difference. It gives you that extra boost necessary to work hard at distinguishing your company from the competition.
You also have to be tenacious and persistent. Always find ways to provide more services for your existing customers while continuing to pursue new client opportunities.
Be as helpful as you possibly can to your customers, even if it means introducing them to another vendor. Everyone remembers someone who helped out in a pinch, and people like to return those kind of favors.
For more information about Hunter Hawk and Sandy: You can reach Hunter Hawk at (925) 798-4950 or info@hunterhawk.com.
Hunter Hawk is a sponsor of the WBENC 2009 Women in Business conference.
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