Thomas Daschle: “I may be a little biased, but I have always believed if you give South Dakotans an even break, they can make a living…”

“I may be a little biased, but I have always believed if you give South Dakotans an even break, they can make a living even under the toughest circumstances. Yesterday I met with a man who proves my point. His name is Randy Boyd, and he was just named South Dakota's 1995 Small Business Owner of the Year by the Small Business Administration. Randy lives in a town of 300 people called Geddes in southeast South Dakota with his wife, Sheila, and their two young children, Cassidy and Vincent. He moved back to Geddes in 1982, after his dad had a heart attack and helped move his father's gunsmithing business from his garage into a 400-square-foot shop, where they worked together repairing guns. Later that year, Randy and his father bought a two-spindle carving machine that could make up to eight gunstocks a day. Today, Boyd's Gunstocks Industries is one of the largest original-equipment manufacturers of gunstocks in the country. It has grown from 3 employees in 1986 to 22 full-time and 10 part-time workers, plus 10 who do contract work at home. Company sales have skyrocketed from $29,000 in 1986 to more than $1 million last year. In 1992, with help from the Small Business Administration, Randy was able to obtain a new warehouse for raw materials, as well as new computerized equipment to improve efficiency. The business now occupies 13,500 square feet. One of Randy's biggest challenges is finding enough skilled workers in a town of only 300 people.”