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Caldarella's continued whose first job was in used."In order to make a profit, you have to be very selective," he says. "The secret to success in used is very simple: You get what you put into it and we have a pretty good reputation to live up to." So much so that repeat business tends to span generations. "Some of our customers are the children of my father's customers," says Joe's sister, Ellen, who heads the sales department."One of them,a bakery owner with a few stores in Mexico, often talks about the used Hobart mixer my father sold him many years ago. He promised him that if he bought it, it would last forever.That was 40 years ago and the mixer is still working." "Our sister city became a ghost town…" Before the drug wars, Caldarella's relied heavily on a steady flow of sales from neighboring city, Juárez, Mexico, but that business abruptly disappeared in 2008, when the violence escalated and its customers were forced to close their doors. "Our sister city became a ghost town due to the horrible murders that were occurring daily,"says Ellen."As a result, we experienced a large decrease in sales and lost the customer base that we depended on. But we were able to survive because we cut costs, kept a really close eye on how we were purchasing, and changed our focus to our El Paso customers." Within the last few years, Caldarella's and other small businesses throughout El Paso also have received a much-needed lift courtesy of the expansion of U.S. military base Fort Bliss. Along with the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, it pumps nearly $6 billion into the economy every year, according to the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. Add to that an infusion of civilian families and El Paso's numbers continue to swell, a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by Caldarella's. More people are eating out, more people are trying to go into business themselves, and it's getting to the point where "Caldarella's needs more space," saysTessa."We need more space to refurbish used equipment, we need more continued on page 41 12 FEDA News & Views Moving the Business Forward Staying in business for 115 years is a team effort, says the Caldarellas, who recently redesigned the showroom above to create a more appealing space for customers. Below are a few practices third- and fourth-generation family members, Joe, Ellen and Tessa Caldarella, are implementing to lay the foundation for another 115 years. Offering Incentives for Training "I've been trying to develop a learning environment by offering mandatory product training once a week, as well as safety training, demos, and rep presentations," says Tessa, who also is a big advocate of promoting learning outside of the business. To encourage higher-level management to participate in industry-related and business courses, Caldarella's pays for all expenses incurred. Hourly employees also receive overtime and gift cards for any training they attend. Matching Needs & Benefits "We didn't use to stock a lot of electric food processors but now we're stocking more and more, along with other products to help our customers save time in the kitchen," says Ellen. "Many of them do a lot of dicing by hand for things like salsa and Pico de Gallo, and have been very resistant to change. However, with the help of weekly demos, we've been able to demonstrate how using certain products can make their jobs easier. It's taken about three years, but more and more are willing to make a change. Thanks to the weekly demos, we're doing well in this area." Striving to be More Efficient "Right now, I'm focusing on how we can help our employees be more efficient by reviewing internal processes," says Tessa. "Recently, I went through every department—purchasing, sales and receiving—and I was able to find ways to cut out a few steps in the process. Investing in a new computer system and taking the time to learn how it works has helped in this area as well." Presenting Their Best "I am a clean and organized person, and I don't want to shop anywhere that is not the same," says Tessa. "To stress the importance of keeping the showroom clean, we clean daily as a staff.