Persistence Takes Calvin Mills from Rags to Riches

Baton Rouge, LA (BlackNews.com) - Add a cup of determination and a cup of persistence and a teaspoon of positioning and you have the recipe for what Calvin Mills used to develop a meal of winning possibilities.

Six years ago, Calvin Mills Jr., now chief executive officer of C&V Technologies of Louisiana LLC, was selling computers at Best Buy and trying to figure out his career path when a poor family walked into the store and inadvertently handed Mills the map. They were looking for their first computer, but they didn't have a lot of money. "So I got with my partner, one of my best friends, Valdez (Gant), and I said, 'I have an idea.'" Mills said. "I want to start helping families that can't really afford to come into these stores and buy computers." Mills figured he could build desktop systems at prices affordable to lower-income families. The market was largely ignored by major manufacturers and big-box retailers, but Mills, who grew up poor in New Orleans, had a lot of experience with the segment's customers and their needs.

C&V Technologies of Louisiana, LLC opened in 2003 with only $1000.00. The company made $6000 its first year and lost that much the next. Last year, the third year of the company's existence, Hurricane Katrina happened upon his hometown of New Orleans. Calvin Mills wanted to do something to help. Using the expertise of his business, Mills set up a call center for the Legislative Black Caucus and began attending the caucus's weekly updates, looking for ways to help. Caucus members suggested Mills look into becoming a vendor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. So Mills went to the FEMA Website, learned the process for doing business with the agency, and signed up as an emergency responder, listing his firm's inventory and abilities. One morning around 7, Mills' mom burst through his bedroom door. "She woke me up and said, "FEMA's on the phone!" If she hadn't woke me up that day, you know who knows what may have happened?" Mills said.

It turned out that a FEMA small-business specialist had emailed the Black Caucus looking for minority businesses to help with rebuilding. Mills' firm was the only information technology company on the list of minority vendors. C&V ultimately won a $350,000 contract from FEMA to supply technology and assistance to schools and governments in the affected areas. "We worked around the clock, 24 hours a day. They were constantly feeding us orders. Everything that they asked for, in the next 24 hours we had," Mills said.

The company earned the Department of Homeland Security's Small Business Outstanding Performance Award for its work following Hurricane Katrina. C&V is a wholesale technology distributor. The company provides information technology services of all kinds, from customized systems and networks to maintenance and repair. Although the bulk of its customers remain consumers, the company generates most of its revenues from commercial customers, government agencies and schools. At present, the company is building a Wi-Fi system for Dillard University in New Orleans so students can have wireless Internet service while on campus. C&V Technologies were able to toot $500,000 in revenues for that third year. By 2008, if C&V Technology continue in it's growth pattern Mills want have any problem obtaining his goal to double its 2006 results and reach well over the $1 million mark in revenue.

As remarkable of path as his business has taken, it does not fall outside the realm of what Calvin Mills aspires for himself. Mills has never been the sort of person who lets obstacles stand in his way. Told by one high school coach he would never play college football, Mills took a Greyhound bus from his home in New Orleans to Baton Rouge and cold-called Southern University's football coaches, basically talking his way onto the team. During his career, Mills went from walk-on to starting fullback by his senior year. Mills followed a similar route in establishing his company.

Mills said now that C&V has reached a certain level of success, he is hoping to give something back. He hopes to establish a center where underprivileged students can go for math, science and computer tutorials. The building would also house C&V's offices and computer maintenance and repair facilities.

"I want to help kids have the opportunity to understand and get a feel for what computers can really do for you," Mills said. "It's not just understanding a computer and knowing how to work it but understanding the technology behind it because that's pretty much where we're going at this point."

The key will be to catch students' attention while they're young and still interested in learning, Mills said. It wouldn't hurt for the kids to be around young African-American men who are succeeding in professions other than athletics and rap. "If you catch them while they're young, while they're still interested, that's the key," Mills said. "You can have a huge impact on them and their futures."

Mills has been featured in the Baton Rouge Advocate Business Section, Capital Region Annual Report (Profiles of Success), Honored as the SBDC Client of the Year by the Nation's # 1 Small Business Incubator, InfoWorld Get Technology Right Magazine, 2006 Hot 100 Entrepreneur Magazine, C&V Technologies of Louisiana receives Official Statement of Recognition for their U.S. Dept. Homeland Security Award from Governor Kathleen Blanco.