Mike McCann, Owner, JaxCo Furniture Company and Community Philanthropist
This is a transcript from The Floridaville podcast. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence so it may not be an accurate account of what was recorded.
Rosanna Catalano 0:04
This is the Floridaville. Get to know the people behind the Florida names you know, I'm your host Rosanna Catalano. On this episode we get to know Mike McCann, a Jacksonville entrepreneur with a very successful Furniture Company, Jack's Co. Mike is a big believer in tithing and uses the platform of his business to give back to his beloved community on the first coast of Florida.
We are recording remotely today. I'm in Tallahassee, and our guest today is Mike McCann, who's speaking to us from his home office in Neptune beach. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. You own Jack's co furniture in Jacksonville, Florida. Can you tell us about your business?
Mike McCann 0:58
Sure. So we started in 2008 With three employees and one delivery person, including myself, in 2019, was our first full year of business and we were about $2.3 million in sales. And if you fast forward to today, we have nine employees plus me and three delivery guys and they're all off duty firemen. So most of the people that we serve in our community are going to be first time homebuyers or people who are even come in coming into just that extra accessory or maybe that spare bedroom mattress. We've got a wide broad base of customers.
Rosanna Catalano 1:29
Now obviously, we have just lived through a pandemic. We're still living through part of this pandemic. How did that affect your business?
Mike McCann 1:38
It was it was very challenging, like many other businesses, but fortunately, we're a small enough operation to where we could adjust and we could change kind of our paths and our focus. So immediately when we went into quarantine, there was still some people who had moved during this they didn't get any kind of warning, and they still needed bedroom furniture, mattresses or living furniture, whatever it was, so we still had to continue to be able to Serve them. But we also shifted our focus in ways to be able to help out other people for their immediate needs. Because a lot of people, for example, had to start working from home. And with two kids at home plus a spouse, they didn't have a home office. So we our desk sales have gone through the roof in the past few months. So we did anything that we could to adjust and, and really just like I said, serve the community in the ways that they need to be served.
Rosanna Catalano 2:21
What kind of furniture can people expect to see when shopping at your store and your online store?
Mike McCann 2:27
Pretty much anything that they need to furnish their home including mattresses, bedroom, furniture, living and dining room sets, we even have outdoor furniture and kind of a growing category for us too, as we find the right vendors who can supply them is also accessories. So maybe that coffee table and maybe that new throw or maybe that kind of piece of artwork, those kinds of things are really a growing, you know, piece of our business as well.
Rosanna Catalano 2:47
How did you get into that furniture business?
Mike McCann 2:51
It started off as just being money in college I knew a husband and wife who were selling mattresses out of the back of an office building and they took me in kind of gave me a job to be able to learn. And as they grew, my own responsibilities grew so I literally started sweeping the floors, and helping the delivery guy put out mattresses into people's homes. And as the company grew from one store, and about $60,000 in sales over the course of approximately seven years, I stayed with the company, I stayed with the husband and wife, they were CEO, CFO, I was the director of operations, we grew into 50 plus operational stores and over $25 million in sales and I learned the entire business top to bottom inside and out throughout throughout that course of time. So it was it was like my apprenticeship is what I like to refer to it as.
Rosanna Catalano 3:36
A fellow podcaster AJ scales put you on my radar and suggested to me that I interview you. Shout out to his comedy podcast called "AJ presents the gr8tr good." AJ told me that you do amazing community service through your business. Can you tell us about that?
Mike McCann 3:51
Definitely. That's a big part of what we do. So a little backstory before I was back into the furniture business. I gathered some friends and family and part of what we do Not really part of an organization or anything like that was we we fed families on Thanksgiving. And then we adopted some kids during Christmas holidays because if they didn't have food to eat on Thanksgiving, they thanks for didn't have any Christmas gifts. So I was blessed to be able to be the one who actually went out and made some of the donations to the families. And I found out that one family is a military family. I had a young daughter who was basically sleeping on pallet blankets, and it did rip my heart out that I couldn't go into a warehouse and grab a mattress and donate that to them because I wasn't in the business at that time. Fast forward about a year and a half and Jack's co furniture is open and I made it my personal mission and kind of built it into the business that this is what we're going to do. I grew up in church. So tithing is a part of what I do as a Christian and and the way that we tie into our community is that we donate mattresses to families, we still donate meals during Thanksgiving and we still adopt kids at Christmas time. But now that it's not just me, I have the power of the store and the leverage and the outreach of the store. We've been able to exponentially Bro what we're doing and have a larger community impact. In 2019 alone, we donated over 75 mattresses to families and veterans in need. And out of all the things that we've done, that's the thing that I'm most proud of.
Rosanna Catalano 5:11
That's wonderful. I have read on your website that you also use your store for some community activities.
Mike McCann 5:19
We do, we've started to, we started off doing that. And it's been kind of a challenge with finding the right operations who need a store like ours, but we're in the process right now, for example of actually having community listening physical therapists and chiropractor command to be able to kind of run operations and meet customers who potentially have mattress needs, but also have backups and things like that. So we try to partner with other people in the community, who are going to be able to you know, we can kind of cross market and we can kind of really do things together to multiply our forces.
Rosanna Catalano 5:52
So on top of being an entrepreneur, you are an author, tell us about the books you have written and what they're about.
Mike McCann 5:58
So around is something that just it, I didn't grow up wanting to be a writer. But at some point I remember hearing a mentor of mine, he gave me an article to read. And one of the lines in that article was, you should write the book that you've always wanted to read, you should open the business that you've always wanted to, you know, go be a patron up you should, that's what you should do with your life. And there's this story from when I played football in college, our second year in school was just an incredible story, something that you would see on ESPN or a 3430 year old or, you know, even, you know, a movie that would be made out of this. And nobody outside of my small little 3,300 undergrad student school Charleston Southern had ever really heard about this. There's some folks in Charleston where the school is located that kind of knew what happened. But the story was incredible. We had a teammate of ours who passed away just before the season started and we dedicated the season to them, and the way that the season ended and the way that the book ends is nothing short. Have a miracle. And it was a story that people didn't know about. And a ticket is my mission. There was a certain point in life when I left the previous furniture company that I talked about, and I didn't know what I wanted to do next. But I knew that this was just burning inside of me to be able to put that book out there. So it's on Amazon now and it can, it can be picked up by anybody on Kindle or on actual paper.
Rosanna Catalano 7:21
Tell us the title of your book.
Mike McCann 7:22
Believe EG21: Play Like There is No Tomorrow.
Rosanna Catalano 7:27
Great. And what prompted you to start writing? Were you always a writer?
Mike McCann 7:34
I haven't always been a writer. But I did figure out I've in a little bit later in life, that writing helps me to clarify my thoughts, you know, so you walk around all day long, and you've got a million thoughts that are running through your mind and maybe we have a nice, you know, calm conversation like we are now and I'm able to put some of those thoughts into words. But then if you look at a transcript of an audio conversation, it may have some ohms and ahhs and other And I'm working through my thoughts and verbally. But when you write something down, you have to really clarify what you're trying to say. So that the reader has no, no interpretation, you don't have to interpret it, you understand exactly what I'm trying to say. So I thought that the more that I read, the more that I wrote, The clear my thinking plus, so ever since then, when I decided I wanted to start writing, it's been hundreds of blog posts and the books and everything that's come out of it has really helped me to understand really a lot of ways who I am and what my thoughts are on different topics.
Rosanna Catalano 8:34
When did you start writing?
Mike McCann 8:36
I was about 20 or 25 years old when I first started writing and I'm 34. Now so I've got, I've got a few years under my belt.
Rosanna Catalano 8:44
Let's talk about your childhood. Tell us about your parents.
Mike McCann 8:48
So my father was a high school football coach. He actually coached professionally for a couple years. That was a majority of what he did. And that had a huge impact on me. Like I said, I played football in college, so football was very formative in my life. And that brought me into, into interactions with people who I probably never would have met had not been for sports. And it was something that taught me a lot of life lessons. My mother was, there is he still is a personal trainer. So she's always been the fitness and exercise industry. She's someone who's kind of carved her own path, much more of like an entrepreneurial spirit. And so I get that from her.
Rosanna Catalano 9:25
And do you have any siblings?
Mike McCann 9:27
I do. I have one. I have one younger brother, one older stepbrother. My younger brother was, like me, grew up playing football and he's a larger version of me.
Rosanna Catalano 9:36
Now I read that you not only played football, but you also were a lifeguard. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Mike McCann 9:43
Sure. So I grew up in I grew up in Neptune beach and Neptune in Jacksonville Beach actually where I live today. And throughout the seasons of being in school and playing high school sports. There wasn't a lot that I could do while I was in school but my summertime so free and they were open and one of them Coaches was the captain over at the Neptune beach lifeguard station today, you'd be great at this once you come out and try out and ever since then I spent most of my my childhood summers or my teenage summers, at least, as a lifeguard in Neptune beach. And it was a wonderful experience because I got to really, you know, I was younger, but I got the opportunity to really make a difference and literally save people's lives. So very cool experience.
Rosanna Catalano 10:25
Very cool. You have an undergraduate and graduate degree from Charleston, Southern University, what led you to CSU
Mike McCann 10:33
Football led me to see us. As I mentioned, football been a big part of my life that coming out of high school, I had the opportunity to be able to earn a scholarship and I was offered a few different scholarships in different places. And CSU had this tug on me it was a little bit smaller school than the other schools that offered me scholarship opportunities. But I had the opportunity to play early and I had the opportunity to build something from scratch because the year that I committed Going to school the year before I got there, the school was the football team was one and 11. So they only won one game. They weren't very good. But I was recruited in the promise that you can help us build something. And sure enough, I was a part of the first winning season in school history, I was a part of a 14 game win streak that went back to back with two seasons, and a nine win season, which was a first ever in that, in that context. And since then, the football program has grown tremendously. And it's something that I'm extremely proud to have been a part of.
Rosanna Catalano 11:31
Building things up and being part of something new and building it up seems to be a recurring theme in your life. Have you noticed that?
Mike McCann 11:40
I have noticed that yes, it seems like I like to take on very big, very large projects. And I'm a very patient person. I know that not --Rome isn't gonna be built in the day, but that way and I have no problem with going to work day by day and putting, you know, brick on top of brick to build something that's long lasting. That's long term because that's the way I think I think about things in a very long, broad context. And that's what I like to do is I like to build things up so that I can look back and say I was a part of that big thing all at once.
Rosanna Catalano 12:12
After college, you worked in South Carolina, but you eventually returned to Florida's First Coast what brought you back.
Mike McCann 12:19
Family brought me back. My, my father passed away a couple years ago. And it was, it was an opportunity that I had for work to come down to Jacksonville, and I thought that it would be a temporary stay, I thought that it would only be for about a year and then I moved back to Charleston, but it turns out that my family needed me here and I really realized at that same time that I wanted to be here. And so after after, I'd already determined that I was going to stay in Jacksonville. That's really when JaxCo's Furniture opened up and since that's been opened, that's gonna keep me here for quite a long time.
Rosanna Catalano 12:49
For a time before starting your furniture business. You worked in healthcare IT. How did you get that job?
Mike McCann 12:56
That speaks to the power of networking and networking alone. When I when I was finished writing the book and I didn't know what was going to be next for me, I had this all this experience in furniture, but I didn't feel like I needed to be back in that industry. I wanted to try some new things. And I reached out to some friends who were recruiters and some friends who own different companies. And it turns out that some of them were based in Jacksonville, because that's obviously where I grew up and had a lot of connections still. And it was an interesting came in opportunity that I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into, but a great learning experience.
Rosanna Catalano 13:32
On the show, we talked to a number of people with an entrepreneurial spirit, what kind of mindset Do you think you need to become a successful business owner?
Mike McCann 13:41
I think you need to be prepared to hustle. First off because there's no there's not always a nine to five set schedule. And there's not always a roadmap for where you're going and what you're trying to do. So you have to be able to be flexible, and you have to be able to work hard and it might not look like that. Exactly what you planned it as. But if you can remain flexible and always keep your eye on the prize, and just like I said, Put one brick on top of the other, then you'll be able to be successful. But you also have to have that exact patience that I talked about, because it's going to be very difficult. There's going to be days that aren't as easy as others.
Rosanna Catalano 14:22
What advice do you have for first time business owners trying to finance their business in a business like yours in furniture? Obviously, you need a lot of inventory. So talk to me a bit about what advice you'd give folks trying to finance their business and trying to get their hands on some inventory.
Mike McCann 14:44
Very true. Our business is a very asset heavy business because we do keep stock a lot of product that obviously has to be paid for it. So my best advice no matter what industry you're going to be in is keep more operating capital than you think you need. Because there's going to be something like a COVID-19, that's going to come up and you're not going to have enough money in the bank to last for three, six months, whatever it is. And that's the lesson that we've had to learn over the past few months when we went into quarantine and our sales took 60 plus percent. The the fact that we came into this business and we were financed properly is really the only thing that's kept us afloat throughout some of the challenges of the first couple years in business.
Rosanna Catalano 15:27
I knew from personal experience that growing a business is hard work. On a number of occasions, the thought of throwing in the towel has crossed my mind, what would you say to a business owner who is experiencing a crossroad or disappointment?
Mike McCann 15:42
I think that you have to go back before that before you even open up before you, you know, made that leap. There's an excellent book by one of my favorite author, his name Seth Godin. And the book is called the dip and in the dead, set talks about how in every entrepreneur experience and maybe a you know, a project such as writing a book, anything like that there's going to be challenges. And if you determined ahead of time, what will just be a challenge and what's going to be a quitting point. And that's how you get through it. For example, again, I'll use that football analogy. You don't quit in training camp, because at that point, you've already committed to the season, you've already committed to saying that I'm going to be here, I am going to do this. But if you're not committed to it, you're going to quit at the earliest sign of adversity. And as an entrepreneur, you're going to face a lot of adversity.
Rosanna Catalano 16:38
We like to end our show with a little fun by asking all of our guests the same seven questions. What would people be surprised to know about you?
Mike McCann 16:50
That I'm actually pretty introverted. I really like to just snuggle up with a book and go down to the beach and read that's how I recharge.
Rosanna Catalano 16:58
When you have guests in town. Where is your favorite place to take them?
Mike McCann 17:05
If the day is right, I love to take them over to Hotel Palms, which is just up the street from us. It's a small boutique hotel owned by a friend of mine and they have the best coffee on the weekends.
Rosanna Catalano 17:17
What is the name of a book you recently read? Excuse me? What is the name of a book you recently read that you could not put down or the name of a show you enjoyed binge watching?
Mike McCann 17:27
A book that I've just finished and it's been on my shelf for months because I've been wanting to read it. I had such high expectations is Flow, The Psychology of Optimal Experience. And I'm going to completely ruin the author's name but it's by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Rosanna Catalano 17:47
Among your close family and friends, what are you best known for?
Mike McCann 17:53
Unfortunately, for the amount of time that I've put into work, I think that my work is been something that I've always taken pride in I think that's defined me in a lot of ways.
Rosanna Catalano 18:05
If you have a nickname Who gave it to you?
Mike McCann 18:09
I do have a nickname. It's actually been like, ah, like Marty McFly and that picture and I was given that nickname many years ago when I showed up for a soccer tryout and I was much larger than most of the other soccer players because I came straight from the football team.
Rosanna Catalano 18:29
If you knew you could not fail, what would you attempt?
Mike McCann 18:34
I would do exactly what I'm doing right now.
Rosanna Catalano 18:37
What are the top three things he love about living in Florida?
Mike McCann 18:43
Oh, that's easy. sunrises. In the mornings, no matter what it looks like. Always beautiful rainstorms in the summertime in the springtime read about not being inside hearing that on the roof of my house and the third is being able to be out on the water. We're very fortunate to be surrounded by water and have a number of friends and boats and others are my favorite days.
Rosanna Catalano 19:08
Well, Mike, it has been an absolute pleasure. Speaking with you today, can you tell folks where they can get ahold of furniture from you?
Mike McCann 19:19
Sure. The easiest way to find this is online at JaxCoFurniture.com. That's jaxcofurniture.com. And then we're also all over social media. We put tons of videos and content up on Facebook and Instagram and that's where we present a lot of our newest pieces.
Rosanna Catalano 19:33
Well, I'm in need of a new coffee table so I may have to go visit you. Thanks so much for being here today. We appreciate it and you have a great day.
Mike McCann 19:43
Thank you too
Rosanna Catalano 19:51
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