Growth Wheel Assessment Provides Company Focus
Company Profile
In 1953, Richard Fluker founded Fluker’s Cricket Farm, Inc. while he was on a mission to supply crickets to local bait shops in order to help fishermen. Today, Fluker Farms has expanded to become the nation’s leader in live cricket production, accomplishing the original mission and so much more with a hatching area, production room, mealworm facility, and shipping facility. Since the 1950s, Fluker Farms has expanded the original plan of selling live insects for fishing bait to selling feeder insects and supplies for pets. With demand and growth, Fluker Farms went from a 500-square foot building to a farm where they raise live feeder insects as fish bait and prey for birds and reptiles. The selection has grown from the basic cricket and mealworms to also include super worms, fruit flies, hissing cockroaches, and black soldier flies.
Situation
In February 2018, MEP of Louisiana’s Business Development Manager, Scott Uffman, was seeking out food manufacturers and reached out to family-owned businessman and President David Fluker after a long-standing relationship. As a family-owned business who has been extremely innovative, they were interested in learning ways to expand from an outsider’s perspective on ways in which they could improve. To get a more in depth look into their business processes, Uffman performed a 360° Growth Wheel Assessment with David and Business Developer Vance Noland at Fluker’s Cricket Farm. The 360° Growth Wheel Assessment performed by Uffman is a visual way to look at areas of a business-like Fluker’s Cricket Farm who are already experienced entrepreneurs. In return, the assessment helps entrepreneurs build their businesses through simple action-focused processes that stay true to the way most entrepreneurs think and work.
Solution
For a business whose leadership was trying to do everything all at once, the Growth Wheel Assessment provided Fluker’s Cricket Farm an opportunity to truly assess their strengths and areas of concern one at a time. Once completed, the assessment has allowed the Company President to jump start other opportunities within the business and experience company growth.
- More focused on setting & achieving goals
- Made more decisions as a team
- New sales
- Cost savings
- New products
"MEPOL’s 360° Growth Wheel Assessment allowed our decision makers to take a step back and objectively look at each strength and weakness of our business. Once we completed the assessment, it allowed us to easily create a roadmap and work toward improving our weakest segments. Scott and the entire MEPOL team were great to work with and we could not have made this progress without them. "
—David Fluker, President
Results
As a result of the 360° Growth Wheel Assessment, Fluker’s Cricket Farm was able to get focused on their goals, set an agenda, make decisions as a team, and take action to achieve their goals.
Cost savings
Increased/retained jobs
New products
New investments
New Sales