14. What is G&K - the Tony connection?
The Tony connection?.
In the early 1990?s, the one thing Tony and I had in common is that we both worked for industrial laundry companies. Tony was the general manage of the Atlanta operations of a Fortune 500 industrial laundry company (to see Tony?s full Ambush Interview, check it out here:
http://www.ambushinterview.com/58/interview58.html). I was a sales manage of a company called G&K Services.
After I left Acme, I went to work for G&K to sell uniform services to industrial operations. Think of any industrial plant or service facility and the uniforms that they wear and you have the idea of what I sold. Tony worked for a competing company.
G&K was very good to me. They knew that I was in law school trying to better myself. Of course, they could have fired me on the spot, but they supported me (I guess even then, I was pretty good at managing a book of business!).
When I left G&K, it was to form my law firm. Tony needed a lawyer and somehow ended up with a referral to me. The reason he choose me is that I had been in the same industry as him! I knew everything there was to know about the industrial laundry business.
I took on Tony?s company as my client in early 1994 and handled a variety of legal matters for his company until he retired to enter this business on a full time basis. I always liked to say that I was on Tony?s team before Teiko!!
Anyway, that is how Tony and I originally hooked a long time ago.
Matt