我叫瑪麗·艾倫·希茨，以前從沒想過要從商。

我在美國密歇根州小城奧克莫斯長大，母親是護士，父親經營幾條小巴專線。當時的女孩子長大后要么當護士要么當老師。

雖然考入了密歇根州立大學，但我其實只想嫁個好老公。20歲那年，我嫁給高中時代的男友，生了三個孩子，也沒讀完大學。

1980年，我離婚了。兩個兒子喬恩和布里格都在念中學，他們都想周末賺點零用錢，手邊正好有前夫留下的卡車。于是，我和孩子們用Two Men and a Truck的名頭在本地報紙上打了一條小廣告，很快就有客戶打電話來。生意好的時候一天接到12通電話。

1985年，兩個孩子上大學離開家，還是總有客戶打電話來，我想也許能開家搬運公司。孩子們支持我創業，我請了兩個員工喬和埃爾默，又花了350美元買下一輛破卡車，總是出故障。

在那之前，我從沒管過人。喬問我能不能開卡車回他家，我說可以。我不知道他沒有駕照，有一天警察打來電話，說他在蘭辛城內開車狂飆。

I never intended to go into business.

I grew up in Okemos, Mich., where my mother was a nurse and my father owned some small bus lines. Back then, women either became a nurse or a teacher.

I went to Michigan State University but I really wanted a “Mrs. degree.” So at 20, I married my high school boyfriend, had three children, and didn’t finish college.

We divorced in 1980 when my two sons, Jon and Brig, were in high school. The boys wanted to make some spending money on the weekends, and my ex-husband had left his truck behind. So we put a little ad in the local paper for Two Men and a Truck, and people started calling. We got as many as 12 calls a day.

In 1985 the boys were away at college, and I still kept getting calls, which led to this idea to start a moving company. My boys said go for it, so I hired two men named Joe and Elmer, and paid $350 for an old truck that broke down all the time.

I hadn’t ever supervised anyone before. When Joe asked if he could keep the truck at his home, I said okay. I didn’t know he didn’t have a driver’s license, and one day the police called me, saying he had been racing around Lansing.

我只能去取回卡車，找別人把喬那趟差事跑完。又有一次，兩個員工在卡車駕駛艙里打了起來，客戶打來電話投訴。他們兩人在我手下干了一年，后來喬決定離開。我當時肯定昏了頭，他們比起現在的搬運工太不專業了。

那時候市場推廣很簡單。我們在卡車身上寫著“Two Men and a Truck?…?又快又便宜”，就好像活動的廣告牌。我做了些可以撕下的宣傳單，貼在雜貨店和洗衣房的布告欄里，還在本地報紙上打了兩行字的廣告，一周廣告費約兩美元。

每個工作日，我白天在州政府做程序員，晚上接搬運的活，周末也干搬運。我喜歡這門生意。州政府辦公室的同事拿我開玩笑，說我的公司永遠不會成什么氣候。

可后來，公司第一次掙到了1000美元，我感到干勁十足。我開了十張支票，每張100美元，然后統統捐給本地的慈善機構。第二年，我們掙了18萬美元。

我又買了一輛卡車，新招了三名員工，之后每年5月都添置車輛，后來我媽媽家的后院停了五輛卡車。公司的營業收入逐年增長，1989年達到56萬美元。

后來，州政府一次升職機會沒給我，我就辭了工作，全職開公司。我曾經聽到有人議論說，“她才不會走呢”，但我實在受不了了。

一些大搬家公司討厭我們。他們的卡車容量大，通常做跑遍全國的遠途業務。我們只做短途搬運。上世紀90年代初，美國經濟不景氣，大公司就盯上了我們的生意。搬運行業是個排外的圈子，大公司為了搶生意制造了各種壁壘。

我一點也不懂搬運方面的法律。有一天，州警察局的人上門找我查看文件資料，發現有七趟活沒有獲得搬家執照。我只得上了法庭，為七次違法經營業務支付罰款100美元。我成了罪犯，照片還上了蘭辛地方報紙。

那時候，搬家執照是家族傳下來的，外人想要就得找人買。大公司不希望我們拿到執照，我們就成立了一家名叫Busy Bee Movers的新公司，買到搬家執照后轉讓給Two Men and a Truck。

公司的生意越做越大，很快加盟連鎖店開遍了密歇根和佛羅里達。前十家連鎖店是我的三個孩子、一個前男友和一些做生意過程中認識的人開的。

1994年，共和黨找我競選密歇根州的參議員。我就讓女兒梅蘭妮接手特許連鎖經營的搬家公司，兒子喬恩負責密歇根本地的搬家公司。公司有22名員工，在一棟只有一個衛生間的老房子里工作。

我喜歡和孩子們共事。但意見不一致時也很容易吵起來。我的辦公室里總是放著面巾紙，大多是自己用的。當時壓力真的很大。

后來我決定不去競選參議員。回到公司后只擔任顧問，女兒繼續當總裁。2008年經濟衰退以前，公司年收入增速高達30%，現在年增速回落到10%。

2017年，我接受了股權買斷協議，然后正式退休。能創立一家增加工作崗位并且能回饋社區的公司，我感到很驕傲。

女性的職業生涯無疑有天花板。工作中，女性必須拿出105%的精力奮勇前進。我不知道職場天花板會不會有一天徹底消失。我的應對方式是創業開公司，結果還行。我鼓勵其他女性也找到屬于自己的事業。

最佳建議

瑪麗·艾倫·希茨

Two Men and a Truck創始人

無視懷疑你能力的人。有一位當地大學的教授對我說：“你沒有什么可以授權加盟經營的。”有位律師告訴我：“你得把業務做到幾十萬美元才能搞加盟連鎖。別費心思了。”要我說，千萬別被這種人打擊信心。

盡可能彌補過失。如果在搬家公司搬運過程中損壞了東西，通常的賠償標準是每磅（約合0.45公斤）0.06美元。可如果弄壞一張十磅重的桌子只賠0.6美元，其實并不合理。我們的做法是送給客戶一個寫著“很抱歉”的盒子，里面裝一只咖啡杯和一張禮品券，并且盡量修補損壞的物品。這樣客戶的感覺就很不一樣。(財富中文網)

本文首發于2017年12月15日期《財富》雜志，原文標題為《一位女士、兩名男士和一輛卡車》。

譯者：Pessy

審稿：夏林

I had to get the truck and find people to finish that job. Another time, the two men got into a fight in the cab of the truck, and a customer called me to report it. They continued working for me for a year until Joe decided to leave. I must have been nuts. They’re not the kind of movers we have today.

Marketing was simple. We had signage on the truck, which said, “Two Men and a Truck?…?Fast & Cheap,” which was like having a billboard. I’d make tear-off strips and put them on bulletin boards in grocery stores and laundries. A two-line ad in the local paper cost about $2 a week.

I was working for the state as a programmer during the day and set up moves at night and on the weekends. I loved owning my own business. People at the office made fun of me, saying it would never amount to anything.

But that first year I made $1,000 and felt so empowered. I sat down and wrote 10 checks of $100 each, and I gave the money away to local charities. The second year we made $180,000.

I added one truck and three employees every May until we had five trucks parked in my mom’s backyard. Annual revenue grew every year. In 1989 we made $560,000.

I quit my day job and went full-time after being overlooked for a promotion. I heard somebody say, “She’ll never leave,” and I couldn’t stand it there anymore.

The big moving companies hated us. Their trucks were big, and they did moves cross-country. We did small moves, but when the economy got bad in the early ’90s, they wanted our business. The moving industry is a good-old-boys’ network, and they put up all kinds of barriers to stop me.

I didn’t know anything about moving laws, and one day the state police came and looked at our paperwork. They found seven moves done without moving licenses, so I had to go to court, and I paid a fine of $100 for seven misdemeanors. My picture was in the Lansing State Journal for being a criminal.

Back then, moving licenses were passed from father to son, and you could only get one if someone sold it to you. The big guys didn’t want us to have a license, so we incorporated as Busy Bee Movers, bought a license, then immediately transferred it to Two Men and a Truck.

The business grew, and soon we had franchises across Michigan and Florida. The first 10 franchises went to my three children, an old boyfriend, and other people I picked up along the way.

In 1994 the Republican Party asked me to run for the Michigan State Senate, so I asked my daughter, Melanie, to take over the franchising company, while Jon would run the local moving company. We had 22 employees working out of an old house with one bathroom.

I loved working with my kids, but if you had a disagreement, it was very emotional. I kept a box of Kleenex in my office, mostly for me. It was very stressful.

I decided not to run for office, but my daughter remained president when I returned to the company as an adviser. We had 30% growth annually until 2008, when the recession hit. We’re back up to 10% growth annually now.

I took a buyout in 2017 and retired. I’m really proud of building a company that creates jobs for other people and gives back to the community.

There’s definitely a glass ceiling for women. Women have to work 105% to get ahead. I don’t know if that glass ceiling will ever break. But starting my own company worked for me. I encourage other women to do the same.

Best Advice

Mary Ellen Sheets

Founder, Two Men and a Truck

Ignore doubters. A professor at a ?local college told me, “You have nothing to franchise.” An attorney told me, “You’ll need hundreds of thousands of dollars to franchise. Don’t bother.” I say, don’t be dragged down by people like that.

Make it right. The standard reimbursement for moving breakages used to be 6￠ a pound. If we broke a 10-pound ?table, we’d be liable for 60￠, but that’s not right. So we used to give an “I’m sorry” box to customers, with a coffee mug and gift certificate in it, along with fixing whatever we broke. It made a big difference.??

A version of this article appears in the Dec. 15, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline “One Woman, Two Men, and a Truck.”