May 26, 2023 • 10 mins
Jim McKinney is the CEO of EZ Management Solutions, which is based out of Mansfield, Ohio. Jim started the company in 2011 and a software company for auto recyclers. Logistics and part processing are two of the main areas with the business reaching all across the U.S, and to a good amount of Canada and as far as the U.K. Jim is married and is from the Shelby area. Learn more about the company on the podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week CEO Jim McKinney, CEOof Easy Management Solutions. Jim,
first of all, good morning,Good morning Aaron. Great to see you.
And this is kind of exciting becauseyou're going to tell the story of
(00:22):
your business. People may not knowa lot about it and all the great
work you do. So let's beginat the top. If you would tell
us what you guys do, tellus all about your company. So the
company is Easy Management Solutions. Itwas a spinoff, if you will,
of Millaron Auto Parts. You know, most people don't know Easy Management Solutions,
(00:44):
but they do know the name MillaronAuto Parts if you're in Richmond County
and Grant Millarons started Millarns in nineteenfifty four, and this was an idea
I created. Why was the generalmanager there. We decided to start a
company and it took off well.If you would, could you explain what
Easy Management Solutions does. Yes,it's a software company for auto recyclers.
(01:07):
So we fix problems and guide processesfor auto recyclers, mostly wrapped around logistics
and part processing. Do you havemaybe an example or something for somebody.
I think things. People don't understandthe auto recycling industry so much. It's
kind of this perception of the oldjunkyard industry. But the reality is it's
(01:29):
a very technical, very highly efficientmachine, if you will. But one
example might be, we delivered partsout of Millar and autoparts to Cleveland and
Columbus in areas every day. Weweren't efficient and how we were delivering those
parts, so I created a systemto plan and track the deliveries. Another
(01:51):
case that people probably don't know about, there's a lot of auto recycling groups
in the country, large groups suchas PRP or Midwest Trucking that maybe two
hundred and sixty auto recyclers are apart of that are essentially semi is going
down the road trading parts between autorecyclers, and we manage all of that
(02:12):
almost like a FedEx or UPS Logisticswould. And then the third part of
our software is part processing. Weguide yards through a process management tool that
we have that kind of provides almostan Amazon like experience to the end customer.
I guarantee there's people right now hearingthe voice of Jim McKinney going I
didn't know you know this was herein Mansfield. Great to learn about it.
(02:35):
Now, when did the company actuallystart? Easy Management started in twenty
eleven? Okay, two thousand andeleven, so really been rolling strong?
And then huh yes, yes verymuch so okay, so how long have
you been CEO? Since the beginning? Since the very beginning? Now,
something I asked you when you camein share with our listeners. You don't
(02:55):
just serve right here locally Mansfield,Ohio. This stretch is pretty far if
you would talk about the reach,right we're all over the United States,
we're in a good portion of Canada, and we're in the UK. Wide
array there, yeah, wide swathfor your company, but based right here
out of Mansfield, based in Mansfield, yes, And where are you guys
(03:17):
located? We are at twelve twentyNorth Main Street, right across from Hales.
Okay, all right, good tolearn all about Jim McKinney, this
week's CEO. You should know heis the CEO of Easy Management Solutions E
and the letter Z Management Solutions.All right, so we've learned about the
(03:38):
business. How did it come tome? I know there's got to be
a great story on how this happened. Yeah, So, our dispatcher at
Miller and Auto Parts had left whenI was the GM, and I grew
up a mechanic in my dad's shop. But I'm also really good with computers.
So I have this unique skill setin our industry where I knew cars
(04:00):
and I knew technology. And soI wrote something in Excel to plan and
track our deliveries. And I toldCarl Millern that I thought we could sell
it. He said, well,let's start a business. We'll be partners.
So we started a company and kindof did a test pilot and it
took off. You know, sinceit was built by an auto recycler,
(04:20):
other auto recyclers saw it and theyunderstood it. You know, it's like
speaking their language. So we decidedto hire a web based developer to take
it web based and take it tothe next level. We hired a local
company here to do the development,and it just took off. All right,
Well, terrific again to learn thestory of Jim McKinney this morning and
(04:44):
his company, Easy Management Solutions.All right, so let's step away from
work and find out a bit moreabout you. So let's step back to
the beginning. If you would tellus where was Jim McKinney Bourne born and
raised in Shelby? All right,and where did you go to high school?
I assume I want to Shelby,Shelby whip it. So as you're
(05:05):
growing up and you're going to school, Yeah, I know you mentioned you
know your dad and you know workingwith cars and things like that. Was
what was the aspiration when you weregoing up? What did you want to
be? Did you you want toget into the car business those kind of
things, If you would kind ofkind of walk us through how to get
you got to worry? You alwaysdid? I always did. I was
always very entrepreneurial and I knew Iwanted to do something on my own or
(05:29):
build something, and and uh,working with my father and his shop,
I kind of had thought maybe I'dwant to take it over someday and that
that just family business. Didn't panout, but ended up at Millarns as
a dismantler. And UM, I'mliving proof that if you work hard and
put your put your head down,you can do great things. UM,
(05:50):
achieve your dreams if you will,as I certainly have. I now am
co owner of Millarn Auto Parts.So from Dismailer at the Learns to Coal
Owner as well as CEO of EasyTerrific Story. So, you know,
it's kind of interesting hearing you talk, you know, growing up and you
think about you love cars, butwhere do you feel you you picked up
(06:14):
computers and things like that. Youknow, it's kind of interesting you mentioned
it to be really good at both. Yeah, so my dad having a
shop I grew up from the timeI was a kid working there. I
always had an interest in technology fromthe time I was a kid, and
I probably got a lot of thatfrom my mom. So I kind of
got both sides of the world frommy family. You know, you think
about technology, you know nowadays youthink you can you know, so many
(06:34):
things you can do via computer.You think about when you started in the
auto parts business and now I'm surethat's changed a lot, right, night
and day, Yeah, night andday. It's it's kind of crazy with
the Internet. I'm sure with youguys in your company, you're helping people
all over the world, right becausebecause of the Internet. No, absolutely
the Internet. Without the Internet,we would have difficulty existing. Well,
(06:56):
it's terrific to learn your story.Let's find out a little bit more about
you, so you know from Shelby. I don't know if you're married kids.
If you would tell us a bitmore about Jim McKinney and the family.
I over kicked my coverage in themarriage department. My lovely wife,
Tammy and I have been married forthirty years. We have three children,
j D, Tiffany and Mitchell,and we have eight grandchildren ranging from five
(07:23):
months to I think six years.All right, so my next question was
going to be what do you doin your spare time. I'm sure it
involves grandkids, but running a business, you know, co owner, all
that kind of stuff. I'm sureyou don't have a lot of spare time.
But when you do have a fewminutes where you're not working, what
are you elected. We like tocamp, we enjoy, we enjoy our
(07:44):
horses, and I play pool.So all right, that's terrific when I
have time. That's it. JimMcKinney is in the studio for a few
more minutes. He is this week'sCEO. You should know. He is
the CEO of Easy Management Solution.So can you ballpark staff members for your
company? Roughly? How many peopledo you guys employ? It's surprisingly small
(08:09):
for the size of business we are. We have six employees counting myself,
and then, as I said earlier, in my development is contracted out.
Currently we're adding three more employees rightnow. We're budgeted for maybe four or
five over the next few years.So you talk about adding employees, I'm
sure you have to love the growthyou guys have had since you started.
(08:31):
Yeah, it's been amazing, andwe've been fortunate that in the software business
we can be efficient with technology.Most of our support comes in through chat
things like that, so it doesn'ttake as much labor, you know,
to provide service to a high volumeof people. Well, Jim, before
I let you go, I mentioneda couple of things quickly. You know,
I'm sure when you started this company, Easy Management Solutions, and you
(08:52):
were thinking about you know, I'msure across the stateable hoighbit across the country.
Do you ever think this would stretchbeyond the US Canada? Oh no,
I never. I never thought itwould get this big. You know,
you set out with this dream andgoal, if you will, and
all of a sudden you're you're lookingfor the next goal and looking for the
next goal, and you just don'texpect it just kind of sneaks up on
(09:15):
you. Um, it's very humbling. Oh, widely this has been adopted.
Yeah, it's been great to learnthe story. You know, on
this program, you know people fromNorth central Ohio, Shelby Mansfield and companies
that they built and just all thesuccess you're having. So it's great to
hear the story. If somebody wantsmore information about Easy Management Solutions, do
(09:37):
you have a website phone number?How can they reach out? It'd be
best for our website. Aaron letterE letter z dash Suite so Lettere letter
z, dash sui te dot com. All right, Jim McKinney in studio
this morning, CEO of Easy ManagementSolutions. Did I miss anything that you
(10:00):
want to let people know about youguys? Anything we missed? I know
we kind of did an overview ofwhat you guys do. Did we miss
anything this morning? I don't thinkso. I think for a lot of
people, they hear your story andit's really really cool the success you've had
in your company. We wish youcontinued success and thanks for coming in to
morning. Thanks for having me.Jim McKinney, CEO of Easy Management Solutions,
(10:24):
the CEO you should know rid abio, see a photo and hear
the extended interview at wmanfm dot com. This is John Roby of RF and
ME Insurance. This said that agood leader sets the bar high because he
or she wants to reach goals andmake the best of their teams. We're
proud to introduce you to some ofthe community's leaders on the CEO series.
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week CEO Jim McKinney, CEOof Easy Management Solutions. Jim,
first of all, good morning,Good morning Aaron. Great to see you.
And this is kind of exciting becauseyou're going to tell the story of
(00:22):
your business. People may not knowa lot about it and all the great
work you do. So let's beginat the top. If you would tell
us what you guys do, tellus all about your company. So the
company is Easy Management Solutions. Itwas a spinoff, if you will,
of Millaron Auto Parts. You know, most people don't know Easy Management Solutions,
(00:44):
but they do know the name MillaronAuto Parts if you're in Richmond County
and Grant Millarons started Millarns in nineteenfifty four, and this was an idea
I created. Why was the generalmanager there. We decided to start a
company and it took off well.If you would, could you explain what
Easy Management Solutions does. Yes,it's a software company for auto recyclers.
(01:07):
So we fix problems and guide processesfor auto recyclers, mostly wrapped around logistics
and part processing. Do you havemaybe an example or something for somebody.
I think things. People don't understandthe auto recycling industry so much. It's
kind of this perception of the oldjunkyard industry. But the reality is it's
(01:29):
a very technical, very highly efficientmachine, if you will. But one
example might be, we delivered partsout of Millar and autoparts to Cleveland and
Columbus in areas every day. Weweren't efficient and how we were delivering those
parts, so I created a systemto plan and track the deliveries. Another
(01:51):
case that people probably don't know about, there's a lot of auto recycling groups
in the country, large groups suchas PRP or Midwest Trucking that maybe two
hundred and sixty auto recyclers are apart of that are essentially semi is going
down the road trading parts between autorecyclers, and we manage all of that
(02:12):
almost like a FedEx or UPS Logisticswould. And then the third part of
our software is part processing. Weguide yards through a process management tool that
we have that kind of provides almostan Amazon like experience to the end customer.
I guarantee there's people right now hearingthe voice of Jim McKinney going I
didn't know you know this was herein Mansfield. Great to learn about it.
(02:35):
Now, when did the company actuallystart? Easy Management started in twenty
eleven? Okay, two thousand andeleven, so really been rolling strong?
And then huh yes, yes verymuch so okay, so how long have
you been CEO? Since the beginning? Since the very beginning? Now,
something I asked you when you camein share with our listeners. You don't
(02:55):
just serve right here locally Mansfield,Ohio. This stretch is pretty far if
you would talk about the reach,right we're all over the United States,
we're in a good portion of Canada, and we're in the UK. Wide
array there, yeah, wide swathfor your company, but based right here
out of Mansfield, based in Mansfield, yes, And where are you guys
(03:17):
located? We are at twelve twentyNorth Main Street, right across from Hales.
Okay, all right, good tolearn all about Jim McKinney, this
week's CEO. You should know heis the CEO of Easy Management Solutions E
and the letter Z Management Solutions.All right, so we've learned about the
(03:38):
business. How did it come tome? I know there's got to be
a great story on how this happened. Yeah, So, our dispatcher at
Miller and Auto Parts had left whenI was the GM, and I grew
up a mechanic in my dad's shop. But I'm also really good with computers.
So I have this unique skill setin our industry where I knew cars
(04:00):
and I knew technology. And soI wrote something in Excel to plan and
track our deliveries. And I toldCarl Millern that I thought we could sell
it. He said, well,let's start a business. We'll be partners.
So we started a company and kindof did a test pilot and it
took off. You know, sinceit was built by an auto recycler,
(04:20):
other auto recyclers saw it and theyunderstood it. You know, it's like
speaking their language. So we decidedto hire a web based developer to take
it web based and take it tothe next level. We hired a local
company here to do the development,and it just took off. All right,
Well, terrific again to learn thestory of Jim McKinney this morning and
(04:44):
his company, Easy Management Solutions.All right, so let's step away from
work and find out a bit moreabout you. So let's step back to
the beginning. If you would tellus where was Jim McKinney Bourne born and
raised in Shelby? All right,and where did you go to high school?
I assume I want to Shelby,Shelby whip it. So as you're
(05:05):
growing up and you're going to school, Yeah, I know you mentioned you
know your dad and you know workingwith cars and things like that. Was
what was the aspiration when you weregoing up? What did you want to
be? Did you you want toget into the car business those kind of
things, If you would kind ofkind of walk us through how to get
you got to worry? You alwaysdid? I always did. I was
always very entrepreneurial and I knew Iwanted to do something on my own or
(05:29):
build something, and and uh,working with my father and his shop,
I kind of had thought maybe I'dwant to take it over someday and that
that just family business. Didn't panout, but ended up at Millarns as
a dismantler. And UM, I'mliving proof that if you work hard and
put your put your head down,you can do great things. UM,
(05:50):
achieve your dreams if you will,as I certainly have. I now am
co owner of Millarn Auto Parts.So from Dismailer at the Learns to Coal
Owner as well as CEO of EasyTerrific Story. So, you know,
it's kind of interesting hearing you talk, you know, growing up and you
think about you love cars, butwhere do you feel you you picked up
(06:14):
computers and things like that. Youknow, it's kind of interesting you mentioned
it to be really good at both. Yeah, so my dad having a
shop I grew up from the timeI was a kid working there. I
always had an interest in technology fromthe time I was a kid, and
I probably got a lot of thatfrom my mom. So I kind of
got both sides of the world frommy family. You know, you think
about technology, you know nowadays youthink you can you know, so many
(06:34):
things you can do via computer.You think about when you started in the
auto parts business and now I'm surethat's changed a lot, right, night
and day, Yeah, night andday. It's it's kind of crazy with
the Internet. I'm sure with youguys in your company, you're helping people
all over the world, right becausebecause of the Internet. No, absolutely
the Internet. Without the Internet,we would have difficulty existing. Well,
(06:56):
it's terrific to learn your story.Let's find out a little bit more about
you, so you know from Shelby. I don't know if you're married kids.
If you would tell us a bitmore about Jim McKinney and the family.
I over kicked my coverage in themarriage department. My lovely wife,
Tammy and I have been married forthirty years. We have three children,
j D, Tiffany and Mitchell,and we have eight grandchildren ranging from five
(07:23):
months to I think six years.All right, so my next question was
going to be what do you doin your spare time. I'm sure it
involves grandkids, but running a business, you know, co owner, all
that kind of stuff. I'm sureyou don't have a lot of spare time.
But when you do have a fewminutes where you're not working, what
are you elected. We like tocamp, we enjoy, we enjoy our
(07:44):
horses, and I play pool.So all right, that's terrific when I
have time. That's it. JimMcKinney is in the studio for a few
more minutes. He is this week'sCEO. You should know. He is
the CEO of Easy Management Solution.So can you ballpark staff members for your
company? Roughly? How many peopledo you guys employ? It's surprisingly small
(08:09):
for the size of business we are. We have six employees counting myself,
and then, as I said earlier, in my development is contracted out.
Currently we're adding three more employees rightnow. We're budgeted for maybe four or
five over the next few years.So you talk about adding employees, I'm
sure you have to love the growthyou guys have had since you started.
(08:31):
Yeah, it's been amazing, andwe've been fortunate that in the software business
we can be efficient with technology.Most of our support comes in through chat
things like that, so it doesn'ttake as much labor, you know,
to provide service to a high volumeof people. Well, Jim, before
I let you go, I mentioneda couple of things quickly. You know,
I'm sure when you started this company, Easy Management Solutions, and you
(08:52):
were thinking about you know, I'msure across the stateable hoighbit across the country.
Do you ever think this would stretchbeyond the US Canada? Oh no,
I never. I never thought itwould get this big. You know,
you set out with this dream andgoal, if you will, and
all of a sudden you're you're lookingfor the next goal and looking for the
next goal, and you just don'texpect it just kind of sneaks up on
(09:15):
you. Um, it's very humbling. Oh, widely this has been adopted.
Yeah, it's been great to learnthe story. You know, on
this program, you know people fromNorth central Ohio, Shelby Mansfield and companies
that they built and just all thesuccess you're having. So it's great to
hear the story. If somebody wantsmore information about Easy Management Solutions, do
(09:37):
you have a website phone number?How can they reach out? It'd be
best for our website. Aaron letterE letter z dash Suite so Lettere letter
z, dash sui te dot com. All right, Jim McKinney in studio
this morning, CEO of Easy ManagementSolutions. Did I miss anything that you
(10:00):
want to let people know about youguys? Anything we missed? I know
we kind of did an overview ofwhat you guys do. Did we miss
anything this morning? I don't thinkso. I think for a lot of
people, they hear your story andit's really really cool the success you've had
in your company. We wish youcontinued success and thanks for coming in to
morning. Thanks for having me.Jim McKinney, CEO of Easy Management Solutions,
(10:24):
the CEO you should know rid abio, see a photo and hear
the extended interview at wmanfm dot com. This is John Roby of RF and
ME Insurance. This said that agood leader sets the bar high because he
or she wants to reach goals andmake the best of their teams. We're
proud to introduce you to some ofthe community's leaders on the CEO series.
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