William (Bill) Heussler, owner of H&H Wood Products, Hamburg, New York, runs his company as a niche business and has taken an innovative approach: he got rid of most of his customers.

            Bill said, "Custom size just does not lend itself to automation," William noted. There are ways to increase revenue without relying on high volume sales and automation, and he has been quick to adopt them.

            "I used to have 60 customers," he said. "I fired all but two over the years. I got rid of the low volume customers. I got out of the box business."

            Bill determined that carrying many small volume customers added to costs in accounting, inventorying, shipping and receiving without necessarily adding significantly to the bottom line. He decided to pare the business down to his biggest customers and sell more to them by meeting more of their needs. In short, he envisioned doing more business by doing business in a more focused way.