Digging their way out of a hole

Just 20, Markwayne's first full day running Mullin Plumbing was a "beaut". The insurance agent that was there said, "Markwayne, at midnight tonight you don't have insurance and you owe $15,000."

The secretary affirmed Mullin Plumbing didn't have money on hand to pay for the insurance necessary to operate the business.

Markwayne said, "So I need to get into our accounts receivable and I start making phone calls. By the end of the day he had collected about $20,000. He went and knocked on doors and collected the money, put it in the bank, and wrote the insurance agent a check.

Fellow plumbers weren't sure what to to make of Markwayne, so they picked on the boss's son, the "whippersnapper".

During off hours Markwayne dug deeper into the books finding not only uncollected accounts, but also evidence Jim needed to fire a top manager. The evidence was also there that Markwayne had accumulated business aptitude beyond his years. Jim put the 20-year-old in charge of Mullin Plumbing the fall of 1997.

" I never felt I was totally going to get out of the business, " Jim recalled, "but he had the heart for it. He had a business mind, was cool and didn't get rattled." Jim, in his straight-talking manner, told his employees during a meeting at the Tulsa shop; "Guys, this is your new boss and if you don't like it, there's the door." Four of the 12 plumbers left right then and soon others left until Mullin Plumbing was down to four plumbers, plus Markwayne & Jim.

Just Jim had been down men before and believed they'd come out just fine. The new boss wasn't so confident, "I was scared out of my mind", Markwayne said. I was working until at least 9pm each night and taking classes to get my Contractor's License.

Christie and I were living in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and commuting to Tulsa each day where she worked for Mullin as a dispatcher.

Working seven days a week around the clock, Markwayne answered all the overtime calls and all the night calls. "I figured all the jobs I could do would be 100% profit for us, granted I got the work ethic from my dad." Markwayne said. At this point I didn't know what else to do because we were $250,000 in debt.

In the office they trimmed employees to just Christie and one secretary. We instituted better methods of estimating job costs and collecting. It became evident it was going to be a learning experience for everyone.

"I started hiring whoever I could put in trucks, which was a huge mistake, and ended up being the most valuable lesson I could have learned," Markwayne said. Not hiring the right people for the job taught me to be more selective and realize that a bad worker can poison the workplace.

"Good people want to be with good people,"Markwayne said. "You get a whole bunch of good apples you'll be faster to throw out the bad apple because the bad apple stands out more."

Markwayne did learn from his mistakes, and from the ones his dad and his brothers made before him.

"I had three brothers and a Dad who have all been successful, but they all made mistakes and I have, too. But I didn't have to make the same mistakes they had," he said.

On February 15th, 1998, less than a year after Markwayne took over the company, Mullin Plumbing had paid off its debts. Never since, he said, has the company been behind on its bills or carried much debt, even through years of expansion.

In 1999, another company offered to buy out one of Markwayne's big brothers, who was operating Mullin Plumbing in Oklahoma City. To preserve the family name, Mullin Plumbing bought out the brother and moved into the Oklahoma City market. For the next three years, until right before he suffered a heart attack, Jim Mullin commuted to OKC two days a week to oversee the operation.

In the decade-plus that Markwayne has ran Mullin Plumbing, the company started doing new construction plumbing work - without ever giving up the bread and butter of service and repair - and bought a construction company that does big remodeling jobs in high-rise buildings.

Running the company is just one of many things that keep Markwayne busy. He rises early in the morning to do a fix-it radio show, House Talk, on KFAQ in Tulsa, and guests on another show. Markwayne also does radio and TV spots for Mullin Plumbing.

He speaks to business and church groups about making good decisions in life, decisions based
on the realization that we're only here and able for a short time, that we must get out of our comfort zones. Each year he ventures to Peru on a mission trip.

"I still get to carry the tools and I still enjoy it," Markwayne said. "At 2 o'clock in the morning if my phone rings, I'm available. Everybody that works for me understands that if I'm available , so are they."

"I loved to watch, him, loved to watch his mind work, "Jim said. " I knew where he was coming from. I started this other business when I was young, and my mind was running just like his runs. He had work ethic, he had the morals."

"Not only does he show up, he gets the job done, "said Jim, the proud father. "He don't ever leave you hanging. Every plumber here feels and says that about him. Well, I already knew that. I was just tickled to death that everyone else started recognizing it."