From the Desk of...

Persistent Vietnam Vet,
Business Partner, Form Solid Team

WHAT: A service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that sells paper and packaging products, specializing in bags
WHERE: 1981 S. Cochran Road, Charlotte, Michigan
PHONE:(517) 541-9510
E-Mail:elarinc@sbcglobal.net
OWNERS:Chris Reist and Ed Moor

Ed Moor & Chris Reist

In the late 1960s, Ed Moor and Howard Reist both ended up in the Army, serving in Vietnam. Although they were in Vietnam at the same time, they were in different units and never crossed paths, at least not knowingly.

Decades later, a chance encounter at an entirely different place would put the two men on the same path.

Ed was walking down a sidewalk in Charlotte, Michigan, a small town south of Lansing, when he met Howard's wife, Christine, standing outside a church that she attended and that parishioners were restoring.

When Chris decided to leave the nursing profession, she started working for Ed at a business he owned in Jackson.

Ed later sold that business in Jackson. Chris and Ed in 1996 started Bags Paper & More Inc. in Charlotte. They said it cost them $5,000 to launch the business, and they have continued to keep a tight rein on expenses ever since.

Their new venture initially was run out of the living room of Chris and Howard's home.

"The first delivery was to my garage. That didn't last long," Chris said, as the growing business quickly outgrew the garage.

In 2003, they bought their current location, also in Charlotte. Their "home office" is a restored brick farm house, built in 1852. They also have several other buildings on the two-acre site for storage of products and equipment.

In 2005, they launched another business, ELAR Inc., a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that sells to the state and federal government. ELAR has sold to state agencies throughout Michigan and to the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, Treasury Department and other federal agencies, just to mention a few.

"We're going where the money is," Ed said, referring to the government, which these days appears to have more cash than many businesses struggling in the current recession.

ELAR and Bags Paper & More are distributors and wholesalers of a wide variety of bags, paper and packaging products, from garbage bags to grocery bags to clear plastic bags. In all, they offer more than 10,000 different items. The products are manufactured by other companies and then usually drop-shipped directly to the customers.

"We want everything to go direct. That's the ultimate dream. We don't want to touch or warehouse anything," Ed said.

Ed and Chris have some advice for would-be entrepreneurs.

"You need persistence, and a lot of it," Ed said. "It just takes time."

Added Chris, "Just because you are a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, they (government buyers) won't hand you business. You've have to earn it."

Both recommend face-to-face meetings with buyers and they stress the importance of networking. Even in this age of cell phones and computers, they say, building one-on-one relationships can help grow your business.

Chris and Ed started ELAR and Bags Paper & More without a bank loan.

Neither company owes money to outside vendors.

"We own all the stock, inventory and equipment" Ed said. "We don't even have a line of credit."

"And we don't have a big, flashy, chrome office", Chris said, gesturing around the old farmhouse that serves as the company's headquarters.

Both work in the same corner room of the house, working at desks that they bought for $2 each at a state auction.

"ELAR and Bags Paper & More are not big companies, but we are a hard-working team," Chris said. "Working together as a team offers more opportunities for each of us."

Both said their goal is to take care of the customers, service their needs better than expected and to find quality products at a fair and reasonable cost

And both Chris and Ed say they are willing to assist other vets where they can.

Carl Stoddard
Maj. MIARNG (Ret.)

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