Time With The Boss - Jeff Snell, Sneller Creative Promotions

Jeff Snell
SNELLER CREATIVE PROMOTIONS

Website: www.snellercreative.com

Industry: advertising and marketing,
custom promotional packaging,
custom marketing materials

Education: MBA, marketing concentration

Family: three kids, Emily (19), Jackson (17), Olivia (10)

What is your mission?  
I lift weights and walk every day. My kids. Ohio State football. Glen Lake, Michigan.

What was your first job?  
First real job was as a co-op student at Kettering University as an assistant product manager for The Atapco Office Products Group. First job as a kid? Marco’s Pizza in Toledo, Ohio.

What was your worst job?  
Any job where I had a boss. Each job and each boss got better, but self-employment was and always will be the goal for me. I love my boss! Me!

What led you to your industry?
My co-op job in college working in marketing at Atapco Office Products. I started selling promotional products while in college, and after graduation I moved from marketing to sales at a sister company that manufactured custom packaging. That was in 1991, and I have been doing it ever since.

What was the smartest thing your company did in the past year?  
Expanding sales nationwide.

Who is your industry role model?  
None. I am it, and I work to reinvent myself and my company every day. My business follows the money and adapts as needed.

How do you try to differentiate your business from others in your industry?
It’s all me! Tireless work ethic. Twenty-four-hour availability. Amazing ideas. Never say no and never fail. Ever. One point of contact from start to finish, and my customers know I will spare no expense to make sure they are thrilled!  

What’s the hardest part of your job?
Doing it all. From customer service to sales to marketing to accounting. All small businesses get it. It’s a thrill and all-encompassing. And I would never, ever, ever go back.

What’s the best part?  
Thrilling customers and the complete and total freedom of schedule. My boss – me!

What best advice would you share with new entrepreneurs?
Don’t hesitate. Just begin. Fail. Fail again. Don’t stop. Don’t have regrets. Self-employment has an unlimited ceiling and unlimited floor. I have seen both. It’s worth it!

What’s your favorite place in St. Louis?  
Old St. Charles at Christmas.

What book is on your nightstand?  
SBM, of course.  

What has made you successful in your industry and in St. Louis?  
My work ethic has been the same since high school. I never stop thinking and working in my mind. I am the same day to day and year to year. I always say, “The only thing you can control is your work ethic.”

What do you like to do in your free time?  
Self-employment is my dream. Marketing is my passion. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I could walk and talk and started more businesses than I can count. I’ve been producing supercool custom promo packaging since 1991.