"We are an Authorized Dealer"
Kim Valenta Interview
Kim Valenta is Vice President of Finance and Operations with Offix. In the summer 2003 she started coming into the office because her husband, Steve Valenta, needed extra help at the time. Steve decided that she was such a great help that he hired her full-time! Kim tells us, “My background put me into the role that I am in at the moment because I have an operations and finance background. I am an operations-type person. That’s what I’ve done for the last 10-12 years.” Before starting at Offix, Kim was managing several major contracts for a large government contractor. In addition, she had gained financial experience as a comptroller for another company, where she dealt with pricing, costing, and cost-analyses. She brings over 30 years of solid business experience to Offix.
Kim knows that she also brings to Offix the special gift of a shared history. Having been married to Steve for 18 years, she remembers the times before he owned his own business. “He was a service manager, which is basically what we have here. We also service customers in the same fashion as when he was a service manager, except that he was working for someone else then. I feel that I can help Offix because I’ve seen how he has serviced the customers and how he has cared about them, over these years, and I understand exactly how he wants to run his business; therefore, I can help his clients.” Kim adds, “I honestly love working with my husband. I know that a lot of husbands and wives can’t do that, but I think that we know each well enough so we can work together well. I also understand that he’s been in the business for many, many years. I’ve learned a lot from him, and I’ve enjoyed learning it from him. I think because I’ve had to go through the learning process, it makes it easier for us to work together, as well.”
Kim knows that the best part of working at Offix is the family environment, telling us, “We like to stay regimented and follow rules, but when it comes to employees, we always want to take care of them. I believe that’s why we have very little employee turnover. The employees are comfortable here, and they know that we care about them.”
The biggest and most rewarding challenge that she has successfully managed is getting the business to run smoothly and putting processes in place. Kim comments, “We had 14 employees a little over a year ago, and we now have 30, so we’ve doubled in size. One of the biggest challenges is not only going from 14 up to 30 employees, but also watching the company grow, and being able, as head of operations, to evaluate the processes to see where the issues are and to have the ability and the authority to fix and to make things run smoothly, which makes our customers very happy. An example is how we process toner cartridge orders. We have a lot of customers who have service contracts for copiers, and they are supposed to have a spare cartridge by their machines, but they sometimes forget to call when they put that last one in. When they begin to run out of toner ink, we do whatever it takes to make sure that they have what they need. Cartridges usually are shipped out in 2-3 days, but we ship them out the day they are ordered, and the customer receives the toner cartridge by 10:30 a.m. the next day. Our customers are now much happier than they were four years ago, and that is because we take care of them as quickly as we do.”
Kim is enthusiastic about the reasons others would want to work and be affiliated with Offix, commenting, “We are a professional, but a very comfortable company. That “family” word comes back around. We have a flexible family atmosphere. We are a flexible family.” What’s more, their employees want to be a part of Offix’s incredible growth. They want to personally and professionally grow right along with Offix. Kim says that clients and investors also seek involvement with Offix because of its “smart service” and determined motto, “We will not fail; we will succeed; we are going to grow.”