He Thinks Young Because He Is : A Businessman Who Eschews Tradition
The sign read “Boss Parking Only,” and as Paul True nonchalantly wheeled his Volvo station wagon into the slot, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Seems appropriate.”
Inside his Anaheim business, True’s secretary told him about the calls he had waiting, and his workers went about their tasks.
But True is not the stereotypical, suit-clad proprietor of a high-tech business.
The La Habra native, who favors slacks, boat shoes and open-necked sports shirts, owns and operates Mytec Specialties, a firm that cleans and repairs videocassette recorders.
He founded the company when he was 17.
Now he’s 20, and business is expanding.
“A lot of young people view business as a name instead of people and envision working for one of those names,” True said at his desk in a back room office. “I saw myself as being one of those names.”
The young entrepreneur is moving his $200,000-a-year company from quarters in a converted apartment building to a store-front building, where a wall-size picture window will afford True a view of busy Lincoln Avenue while at the same time increasing Mytec’s public visibility.
True says that when the new office opens May 1, Mytec will continue its current business of cleaning and repairing VCRs but also will begin retail sales of “different brands of VCRs and accessories. Everything needed for a VCR except rental tapes because there’s (a rental store) on every street corner. It’s not profitable, the market’s saturated.”
It was a video rental store that gave birth to Mytec. Customers would leave their recorders for repair at the shop where True worked as assistant manager, and the machines would be there for days.
“Being in electronics, I knew that wasn’t right,” True said. So, after taking a couple of business classes and a VCR repair course at Fullerton College, the Whittier Christian High School graduate scraped together $10,000 from his savings, a gift from his grandmother and a bank loan.
He used the funds to buy tools and a van and began servicing video machines in his clients’ homes.
The clients became like True’s extended family, and while he no longer makes house calls--offering free pick-up and delivery instead--True said “people still call and invite me to dinner and guys call and ask me to take out their daughters.”
Despite such perks, True says he’s not “locked into the video business. This is the first of many businesses I hope to start.”
But he says he has had problems getting others in the business world to take him seriously--because of his age. There have been some awkward business conferences and uncomfortable meetings with insurance agents, parts makers and suppliers.
“Even when you go in there and put your money on the table, they’re still laughing at you as you walk out the door,” True said.
But, he adds, there are some who see him and think, “If this guy’s doing this at 20, I want to know him when he’s 30.”
Marion Anglin is one of those people.
She was the manager of the video rental shop where True was working when he founded Mytec. Now, Anglin is the company receptionist and secretary.
Working for a 20-year-old “didn’t faze me at all,” Anglin said. “I have a lot of respect for Paul. When we worked together at the video store, he would tease me: ‘You’re going to be my secretary.’ ”
Customer and Backer
It was one of True’s first steady customers, Carl Sprague, who helped finance Mytec’s move to larger quarters.
And Sprague, who still confesses to occasional doubts about True’s ability to make it in the often cutthroat world of business, also has become an important investor and silent, limited partner in Mytec.
“Paul wanted to prove a point that business could be done in a very up-front manner,” said Sprague, owner of Custom Auto Sound Inc. of Anaheim, a $2-million-a-year company whose exclusive business is installing high-tech stereo systems in antique cars.
“He’s very righteous and sincere, and, in a way, I wonder if he can make it.”
Nevertheless, after watching True in action, Sprague, 57, says he had no hesitation in investing in a company run by a 20-year-old. “He finds good people in specific fields rather than just trying to poor-boy it,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot from him, and he’s almost young enough to be my grandson.”
True says his business sense is something he “absorbed” from advice given him by his father, brother and sister, all of whom have started successful enterprises, and a lot of reading.
Aside from Car and Driver, a magazine that reflects True’s second passion--a love of fine automobiles, customers waiting in the Mytec reception area may browse through recent magazine editions of Inc. and Business to Business.
“You have to find a market gap where there’s room for a business to get into,” True said.
The Wunderkind seems to be filling a pretty big niche. These days, True lends VCRs to customers whose machines are being repaired. “People can’t do without it for a day,” he said. “They’ve got to record those soaps or they’ll go crazy.”
