Industry Forward – Josh Enger
Under Josh Enger’s leadership, CLA’s trucking and transportation practice has grown from under $500K to more than $10 million in a decade. Clients in this sector take services for granted; it’s genuine industry know-how that they crave. In this episode of “Industry Forward”, Josh tells John how he went from T&T newbie to guru — and how living the CLA Promise made all the difference.
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Transcript
[START]
Narrator: Under Josh Enger’s leadership, CLA’s trucking and transportation practice has grown from under $500,000 to more than 10 million in a decade. Clients in this sector take services for granted. It’s genuine industry knowhow that they crave. In this episode of “Industry Forward,” Josh tells John how he went from T&T newbie to guru and how living the CLA promise made all the difference.
[00:00:36]
John: The essence of the CLA promise is simple: we promise to know you and to help you. So does it really work? Does industry specialization fulfill the CLA promise, create growth, and build careers? Here today with me is Josh Enger, the leader of trucking and transportation group.
It’s a group that experienced some rather remarkable growth. If we go back a little more than ten years, it was perhaps $500,000 in volume. By 2014, it was $4 million in volume, and this year, it likely will top $10 million. Frankly, that’s remarkable. Compounded, that’s got to be approaching 15 or 20% growth over the past decade. A remarkable success story.
So Josh, tell us a little bit about the trucking and transportation group–the industry, the players, the offices. Where are we today?
[00:01:32]
Josh: Well, John, the trucking and transportation group really did start in the Minnesota offices, and as you mentioned, we’re a $10 million group now. We’ve got over 50 people that have some level of contribution or engagement with the industry team, so it’s been a pretty exciting journey, and it really has snowballed for us the last handful of years, and what we found is that the more we understand the industry, the more we’ve been able to grow, help our clients, and really be that industry professional.
Also, it has provided career opportunities for our people all across the country, and where we’re at right now is we are focused pretty heavily in the Midwest, but we have other pockets across the country where were seeing some immense amounts of activity, engagement, people are starting to see the value in getting involved with the local industry associations, and that’s been monumental in terms of some of this growth activity that we’re seeing.
[00:02:37]
John: So what sets us apart? What makes CLA different from other enterprises?
Josh: It’s been very apparent that this industry specialization concept is something that most firms might think they do, but they don’t do it the way CLA does. What we’ve heard from our clients is that we truly are entrenched in industry.
Our clients look at us as the person to go to, as that first call on whether or not they should be buying new equipment or not and what to expect with freight volumes over the next six months, things of that nature, or what’s the transaction deal flow look like right now for trucking companies, and our engagement with the industry allows us to really give value through those questions, so that’s the differentiator to me, is living and breathing industry every day.
[00:03:30]
John: And it’s interesting you didn’t talk about tax or audit or any of the other capabilities.
Josh: No, no, our clients expect that we’re good at audit and tax and accounting, but the first question they ask when we show up in an event or something like that is, “Well, do you understand trucking? Do you understand aviation?” That’s what they’re looking for. They assume we know the other stuff.
John: But it wasn’t always like this. Let’s go back a bit, back to the St. Cloud office, maybe at the beginning of your career. When did you start pursuing trucking and transportation?
Josh: It started early for me, and I think it’s different for all the professionals at CLA, but for me, it was right away, and, you know, Mark Ramsdell really is the visionary for the trucking and transportation group. He saw an opportunity, he went after it, he got engaged with the industry, and really, I watched that, and through working with him and learning from him, was able to get engaged with industry specialization, but it wasn’t a quick progression.
As you mentioned, it took a lot of years for me to learn the industry, and it was pretty clear right away that I had a lot to learn. I had a couple of–not stumbles, but moments where I realized, okay, there’s a difference between saying you’re in the trucking and transportation industry and then really understanding the trucking and transportation industry.
John: Yeah, there was no roadmap, is what you’re implying, so how did you figure this out?
[00:04:57]
Josh: I just knew I needed to get engaged and get involved, and for me, it was starting to attend the local Trucking Association conferences and events, and the first few events I attended, it was very clear. I felt like a fish out of water, right? I was expecting to show up and kind of know everything, and everybody more or less looked at me like a stranger, and, “Who is this guy?”
John: So why trucking?
Josh: Again, working with Mark, I saw the passion he had, and I also saw the opportunity. There weren’t other firms that were really focusing on this industry, and I saw some quick wins right away, just because we set ourselves apart, and I guess I’ve always wanted to try something different.
[00:05:40]
I wanted to go against the grain. I always felt, selfishly, for my own career development and for bringing value to the firm, if I could do something unique or start something that is maybe start something from scratch or has a small start, then that would be a differentiator.
[00:05:58]
John: I have this feeling it didn’t happen very quickly.
Josh: No, it didn’t. You know, I remember the first time I attended a Trucking Association conference. I remember sitting at the bar after all of the afternoon learning sessions and everything, and I was sitting with the owner of a fairly large trucking company, and he, right away, he started talking to me, and I appreciated that, but I could tell right away he saw right through me. He could tell I was pretty young, naive, inexperienced, and whatnot, and he more or less was toying with me.
[00:06:33]
He was pretending like he was interested in our services, and, you know, quite frankly, it was kind of embarrassing after that night, but also, I was kind of excited at the same time, and I went home from that conference–I still remember that conversation very well–and I was eager and determined to get better, and, you know, I can say now, seven, eight years later, that owner is a client of CLA, and he’s a really good client, and I can guarantee he doesn’t remember the conversation we had in the bar that night, but he now looks at me as that industry professional or that person to go to with his tough questions.
[00:07:11]
So that was kind of a turning point and something I always think about from time to time.
John: And you got started early, you said, and it kind of started slow. When did you hit your stride?
Josh: So after that story I just told, after that discussion with that owner that night, I knew I had to get more deeply involved. I really needed to understand this industry, and I called the Minnesota Trucking Association the following week and said, “How can I help? How can I volunteer or become more engrossed in the industry?” And they got me on a couple of committees, and before I knew it, I was kind of a big part of that association along with, obviously, Mark Ramsdell was involved as well, but the two of us together really became the industry professionals in that world, and that’s how I started to finally get traction.
[00:08:05]
I got opportunities where I was actually learning and engaging in the industry and not just going to their monthly golf event or their events that are not necessarily industry-focused.
John: So let’s shift from your personal journey and hitting your stride to the industry group’s journey. Did the growth come right away?
[00:08:28]
Josh: No. The growth unfortunately did not come right away. I just told that story about how it took six, seven years from the first conversation to when we actually landed them as a client, but there was enough small wins along the way, and then once you do become that person, the person in the industry that everybody kind of knows and goes to, it does start to snowball, so as far as, “Does it work?”
Yes, it does work, and these clients, these businesses, these owners, they really do expect that you have an industry background and an industry focus, ’cause, again, they’re not going to you just to get a tax return; they want value-add, and so that’s become very, very apparent over time.
John: So I know a little bit about your story, and you had to make some rather monumental moves or decisions yourself along the way. Tell us a little bit about at least some of them.
[00:09:27]
Josh: You know, probably the biggest one, John, was about six or seven years into my career, I was starting to get more traction from a business development standpoint, as I mentioned with the association involvement, but I started to realize that I had grown up as an auditor. Really, assurance was what I knew, and I was cross-utilizing into the college and university world in the summertime, getting a lot of good audit experience, but if you look at our service mix for trucking and transportation, we do a lot of tax work, a lot of tax consulting, and I knew that if I didn’t gain some level of knowledge in tax, I was not gonna make it, and I was not gonna be able to credentialize at all with what our clients need and what they want, so I did seek help within CLA, just asking for more mentorship from some of the folks that really did know and understand tax, and then we also had some very strong people come alongside, and that was a big thing for me in my career, was just realizing that I had a shortfall, and I needed to shore it up a little bit, and I’m still not an expert with tax, but I can at least understand what’s going on.
[00:10:43]
John: Tell us about something that didn’t work along the way. It sounds like everything was like clockwork, and I know that wasn’t the case.
Josh: No, not at all. Not at all. When you’re trying to build something new, there’s always gonna be slips along the way and times where you got to try something, and it may or may not work, but, you know, if you don’t go to bat and swing the bat, you’re not gonna ever get a hit, and so we’ve had a couple of different things along the way where we thought it was gonna be a really big win or a way for us to really take off, and it didn’t work out that way. You know, another thing is, I think when you are starting your career, you have this vision, and you want to go after one thing, and for me, it was trucking and transportation, but there’s also a business to run, right?
And I realized that I needed to get my chargeable hours, and a lot of people might not care what we’re doing on building trucking and transportation, so cross-utilizing it into the college and university world, and I also worked a lot on some construction clients and manufacturing clients early on, but you do have to stay disciplined, and for me, it was always about making sure that I was gaining knowledge and becoming that CPA, but then all of my business development activity and all my external activities were just geared towards this one industry that I wanted to be a part of growing.
[00:12:05]
John: So what kind of advice do you have for anyone listening who’s considering pursuing industry specialization with a different kind of passion, a different kind of pursuit, maybe an idea they have for a new industry group, or maybe they’re in a group where they feel like they’re just in a group and not moving forward. What advice do you have?
[00:12:26]
Josh: I think the biggest piece of advice would be: you have to try it. You have to step out on that ledge, you have to make a choice, and then you have to go for it and commit to it, and it’s so apparent and so easy to get caught in that trap of being comfortable, going into an industry where you know you maybe already have support or a service line where it’s already very well established, and you kind of know what every day is gonna look like, and if we don’t have that entrepreneurial mindset and aren’t willing to take a chance from time to time, we’re not gonna be able to accomplish some of these opportunities that are laying right in front of us.
[00:13:08]
John: 500,000 to 10 million in 10 years. That’s quite a testament to industry specialization, the building of a career, and many other careers–really the fulfillment of the CLA promise. I want to thank you and the Trucking and Transportation group for what you’re doing and for being part of this podcast.
To those of you listening, it’s not about joining a group. Industry specialization is focused on growth of your career and focused on growth of our revenues. It won’t happen right away; it comes, as Josh related, simply by putting yourself out there and trying something new — something you’re passionate about, something you’re interested in, a place you can make a difference at the firm.
[END]
John is chief industry officer for CLA, and firm-wide leader for the private industries. He is a passionate ambassador for the CLA Promise. CLA exists to create opportunities – for our CLA team, our clients, the industries we serve and our communities. CLA is successful when we fulfill the CLA Promise – we promise to know you and to help you. As a member of the leadership team, he is also an enthusiastic promoter of our position as a professional services firm delivering seamlessly integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, and public accounting capabilities.
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