"Tricks are for kids."

Excerpt from: McMyne, Michael. Student Entrepreneurs: Graduating with a Profit. Saint Louis University: 2007

“I might not always say what you want to hear, but I’ll always tell you the real deal” - Brandon Labman. Many companies cut corners in order to grow fast. We don’t believe a company can be great if it does this. We have worked extremely hard the past four years taking the long way. It’s not easy to do when running a small business. Every day there are dozens of times when opportunities to cut corners are dangled in front of you, and doing so is tempting. Sometimes it seems that there is no other choice but to give in and do so. The bottom line is that it will catch up to you and hurt the business in the long run.

Lying to people about your business is a waste of time. Unless you have multiple World Series of Poker championship bracelets, you’re not a good bluffer anyway. Lying about the smallest things like doubling your number of clients will only lead to taking credibility away from the things that you really do great. It’s easy to say that they will never find out, but why risk it. Some of our best clients have come from us being overly honest about our operations. We have clients with three employees and clients on the Fortune 500. Being honest and trustworthy will always surprise you.

There’s nothing wrong with not having 100 people on staff; they don’t need 100 people. They need the least amount of people to get the job done; nothing more, nothing less. When we speak to people, we don’t bring up all the great things we may or may not have done in the past. Really, who cares? It’s over. The only thing that matters is what we are doing now and how we are helping the person in front of us at that moment. We are either ready or we are not, simple as that.

As much as we don’t look at the past to judge our performance, we also do the same with the future. We don’t believe in long-term contracts, set-up fees, or early termination fees. If the customer wants to leave, we screwed up somehow or they found something better. Why should they owe money if they didn’t get what they were expecting or were unsatisfied? Our approach: suck it up and “return their wallet.” If you need clarification or reason why you should always do this, simply take a clean sheet of paper and write down what you think of your cell phone company and what you think they should change.

We have found that entrepreneurship takes hard work but it really isn’t complex: return the wallet, hold doors, don’t upset mom, make a friend, don’t fake anything and don’t worry about being young and inexperienced. These phrases are the foundation to why our company has gotten where it is today. To clarify, we are not a huge company pulling in multi-millions in sales each year, nor is becoming that a big concern to us. We would be bankrupt liars if we said money and sales were not important to the company whatsoever. However, what we do realize is that we don’t control or decide how much money our company will make each year. Our clients do. All we worry about is making sure we provide valuable services and a great experience for our clients. We believe that focusing on consistency and continuous improvements in these two areas gives us the best chance for future success. The rest is out of our hands.

ROCS, Inc. (Responsible Outgoing College Students) is a college-based staffing agency that helps students find jobs relating to their studies and career aspirations while providing employers with a first-hand look at future potential employees.

ROCS was founded in 2003 by Brandon Labman and Tom Moore during their freshman year at George Mason University. They had become frustrated with the typical college job offerings: selling kitchen knives, painting houses, and jobs that use phrases like “residual income” and “make thousands from your dorm room.” They set out to create a place where students could gain “real world” experience and business contacts. Since its inception, ROCS has provided jobs to hundreds of students throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area and has seen a 300% growth rate each year.

Brandon Labman serves on the Board of Directors for the Youth Business Initiative, an organization assisting youth in foster care. Tom Moore is involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program and also coaches youth basketball. Both also serve as guest lecturers and keynote speakers regarding young entrepreneurship.

For more information on ROCS College Student Staffing:
visit http://www.rocsstaffing.com/index.html

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