Guest Post: Ken Cook – Arizona Daily Star
I want to tell you about Kameron Norwood because he is a thriving entrepreneur contributing to the economic health and growth of Tucson. How this came about is the story I want to share.
Early on in his life, Norwood was selling. He had a lemonade stand as a kid. He sold products on eBay when the platform was in its early days. He owned his first stocks at the age of 11.
A University of Arizona grad, Norwood worked his way through college. While in school he got his real estate license, started a landscaping company, delivered papers and was the manager for the track team for five years. Whatever it took to sustain and move forward, Norwood did it.
After graduation, Norwood moved to Chicago, and jumped right into the job market in the toughest way possible — full commission selling. Not happy with a full commission position, Norwood went in search of opportunity.
He called 10 of his best friends from the UA and asked what they were doing now. What were they earning? Were they happy in their jobs? The top two answers were staffing and medical jobs. Not being medically trained or inclined, Norwood went to work for Insight Global, a worldwide staffing firm headquartered in Chicago.
He started at the bottom of the ladder, making $31,000 per year. In four years, he had climbed the ladder as a top producer, earning over $125,000 per year.
While there, Norwood identified an unfulfilled market for Insight Global. Part of Insight’s business model was working with and through contractors. Surveys of contractors showed 10% approval for their relationship with Insight Global.
Norwood proposed a Contractor Relations Division. They called every contractor and worked to solve problems and uncover new opportunities. In just a few years, the approval ratings went from 10% to 60%. Plus, their efforts helped generate $100 million in new business.
Norwood was a ripe 30 years old at this point, and was looking for something that he could own and grow. Market opportunity showed the way.
Hemp is used in all types of products. At that time, 100% of the hemp used in the U.S. was imported. Norwood and his brother departed Chicago on a Friday afternoon and drove to Kentucky. Why Kentucky? Because Sen. Mitch McConnell was advocating conversion of tobacco farms, and the 2013 Farm Bill would help with those conversions.
Norwood and his brother formed a co-op with the farmers who owned around 50,000 acres of tobacco farms. They grew hemp on those acres. Starting a hemp co-op farm would seem for many to be enough of an enterprise. Norwood saw it differently.
Hemp is a core ingredient of CBD. The hemp farm was the gateway to starting a CBD company. Named Half-Day CBD, they would buy a kilo of hemp from the farm co-op for $600. They turned the kilo into over $50,000 worth of products, at a 10% cost of manufacturing.
Business was booming. The company would pitch a tent at fairs and festivals, and sell over $20,000 in product in one weekend. Then COVID hit. Business literally came to a standstill.
Ever the scrambling entrepreneur, Norwood quickly learned how to sell more products online. In two months, they went from $2,000 per month in online revenue to $120,000 per month in online revenue.
COVID, however, was not done impacting Half-Day CBD. Online sales require logistics to get products to the customer’s door. With so much business moving online, the logistics fulfillment companies were overloaded.
The logistics companies, by necessity, prioritized their customers. Masks, gloves, anything to help people deal with COVID, were top priority. Then volume of shipments received priority, with over 50,000 orders per month and above becoming top tier.
Half-Day CBD shipped about 10,000 orders per month. Hence, about 70% of their orders did not ship on time, and customer complaints rose rapidly. Norwood’s solution — start his own fulfillment company. Pack-Dash was born.
Pack-Dash gave Half-Day CBD full control over packaging and shipping. Costs per order went from $20 per package to $5 per package. Within three months of opening, Pack-Dash had 13 new clients since 93% of online businesses ship less than 50,000 packages per month.
Our journey has brought us back to Tucson. Pack-Dash needed a second location, and Tucson was the natural choice, opening south of downtown at 830 E. 16th Street. The business had grown to over $2 million per year in revenue.
For Norwood personally, the travel demands of the business were becoming more than he and his family wanted to handle. Consequently, Norwood and his partner are looking at what the logical next stage should be for the company, while Norwood looked for something that keeps him close to home.
Norwood focused on a market need here in Tucson — commercial real estate. Tucson is growing. New business start-ups are increasing. Business brokers have more out-of-state buyers than they have inventory to sell them.
Larger companies are locating in Southern Arizona in increasing numbers. Every one of these businesses will need commercial real estate to operate. Right up Norwood’s alley — a market need that needs to be addressed.
Norwood joined PICOR, the market leader for Tucson commercial real estate. PICOR is an environment that empowers Norwood’s entrepreneurial bent, only this time functioning as an intrapreneur.
In his first year, Norwood completed more transactions than his CEO had previously seen by a new agent. He has four sales that closed, three in escrow due to close, and 12 new leases. Most people who enter the commercial real estate field close few deals in their first year.
Norwood is contributing to Tucson’s economy, both in an entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial way. He teaches us that meeting unmet needs, and finding open market opportunities, is the path to sustainable growth and profits.
SOURCE:
Cook, Ken. “This Tucson Man Is in the Business of Identifying and Meeting Unmet Needs.” Arizona Daily Star, 2 Aug. 2024, tucson.com/news/local/business/kameron-norwood-pack-dash-tucson-business/article_8650d2a4-4ae4-11ef-bf96-03ae5c58fc46.html.
