03/10/2026
15 years!!!!!!!!!!!
It's hard to believe that we've been in business for 15 years but thanks to hard work, good luck and two of the best employees a business could ask for, here we are. I've shared our story before but here it is again for people that might not have heard it.
I had worked at General Motors for 10 years as a Tooling Analyst and was planning on working there until I retired. Unfortunately, when GM filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by the government, my position was eliminated. I immediately went to work for a rigging company managing their assets but that didn't work as planned. So, with very few prospects at the time I had limited options.
15 years ago today I took a giant leap and started my own business. I had a handful of parts, some contacts and a little bit of knowledge and started Greenjak in the garage of my house. I had a shelving unit, a folding table a laptop and a couple of hundred dollars to get started.
Within a year, I leased a few hundred square feet of warehouse space in Flint and put in grueling hours to try to make this crazy venture work. What few people know is at first, it didn't. I was making sales but not enough cash flow to keep it afloat AND pay my bills. I received an offer to go work as an engineer at a robotics company and I took it to try to save my house from being foreclosed on.
I kept the company going at night while I got caught up on my bills and saved my house. Six months later they eliminated my contract position at ABB and let me go (on my birthday). I was actually relieved to have it happen. Over that six month span I took a hard, honest look at what it would take to make my company succeed. I then decided to double down and put everything into making this thing work. It would either succeed or go down in flames, but it wouldn't be because I didn't try.
I saw things start to turn around and then a started going back and forth between Flint and Adrian every weekend due to my dad's failing health. I decided to look for a new location in Lenawee County to relocate the business and be closer to my family.
I learned about a great opportunity for a building in Morenci that was formally the site of M&S manufacturing. The price of the building was a great deal but it was more than I had and I knew that it would be impossible to get a business loan. My grandfather had always taught me about the evils of debt and I had at least kept my business debt free since the start. I made a cash offer of every penny I had which was about half of the asking price and they accepted. Now I felt like a dog that spent his whole life chasing cars and now finally caught one. What do I do now? Now I move my business out of 1000 square feet into two buildings totaling 25,000 square feet.
Luckily, I immediately landed a consignment contract with another recycling company that boosted the business to the next level and I had to hire a full time employee to keep up.
I won't bore you with the details but after thousand of hours of hard work and lots of adversity, Greenjak is still going strong and debt free! Thank you to all of you that have been so supportive over these last 15 years, especially my awesome employees, John and Chris that are a huge part of Greenjak's success. I would be lying if I said that I never thought about giving up and getting a "real job". Luckily my parents didn't raise a quitter. To all of those that have been wishing for me to fail, I'm sorry but this ride has just started and there are no plans of stopping now. You might want to pack a lunch.
A big thank you also goes out to my big brother Eric who worked here a good deal of these years and was a huge help before his passing.
