Scott L. Williams has worn many hats throughout his professional life. From retail management to sales and marketing to small business development, Williams ultimately gravitated towards one of his earliest passions, education. Coming out of high school and entering college, he wanted to be a biology teacher.
Soon after starting college, Williams’ focus shifted towards business and it was then that his love for education, business and entrepreneurialism came together to set him on a path to form S. L. Williams & Associates, Inc., a company that provides assistance and instruction in marketing, sales, business start-ups and expansions.
Williams was born and raised in Hobart, Indiana and moved to Portage after returning from school at Indiana University in Bloomington.
“Coming back and attending Indiana University Northwest was a good thing because that’s where I met my wife, Viki,” Williams said. “It’s kind of a cool story.”
“We both enrolled in the same geography course,” said Williams. “I’m always early, and I’m sitting there waiting for the professor and this young lady comes in and she’s a little upset. She sat down in the row behind me and I turned around and said ‘what’s the matter?’, and she said ‘we have to have these maps for class and some guy went into the bookstore and bought the last two maps they had. Why would somebody buy two maps?!’ Well I was the person who bought the two maps! So I turned around and said, ‘you’re right, here take one of mine,’ and she turned beet red. Forty-five years later we’re still married.”
A major theme that Williams described that has come back to him time and again is ‘Don’t ignore an opportunity when it slaps you in the face’. One of his first big opportunities to come along was with Art Lukowski, who had come to the U.S. from Eastern Europe with nothing, and built a very profitable business in Oil Express National, Inc. that had 52 locations. Lukowski was having trouble finding and training good managers so Williams developed a plan that would work to attract and train people to be managers. This was the birth of his first business.
“Things were going great,” said Williams. “One day the president of the company came to my door and told me what a great job I was doing but that they’d have to let me go. I realized then that I need to position myself to one day own my own business.”
Williams then went to Kankakee Valley Workforce Development where he worked to build a new division called ‘Worksmart’. The program was different in the sense that it created a for-profit division of a non-profit. Williams would go in and set up training programs for businesses and then bring in a third party trainer to go in and train the employees. In 2001, Williams had been with Worksmart for six years and he felt like it was time to move on.
“Since 1996. I had been doing some part-time teaching in career development through a program operated by the Institute for Career Development,” Williams said. “I was also teaching at Purdue in their Continuing Education Program. Around this time, the United Steel Workers asked me to come in and teach some business classes through their own Career Development program. This is how S.L. Williams and Associates, Inc. was formed.”
“The United Steel Workers, in 1989, included in their contract a ‘Nickel Fund’ that puts a nickel in a fund for every hour worked by an employee for them to take classes that the union would organize and offer to their members,” said Williams.
After teaching one class, Bethlehem Steel asked Williams to take over the program. He was soon teaching business classes in steel mills all over the United States. In one year, Williams made twenty-six round trips to Sparrow’s Point, Maryland. Along with trips to Maryland, Williams traveled to Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Wisconsin, Alabama and Ohio.
Williams continued to teach union members part-time until 2001 when he was at a crossroads. He accessed the level of interest in the classes and made the decision to take on teaching through the USW Career Development full-time. William’s wife Viki had one question for him, ‘Is it going to work?!’
After nineteen years, S. L. Williams and Associates is still having an impact on union workers, and non-union entrepreneurs who are looking to learn about starting a business and everything that comes with it.
“I really encourage people to take classes and learn about these things,” Williams said. “It’s a reality check for many of them. When I start talking about taxes, permits and all the things it takes to start a business they say ‘Wow!’. I really let them know not to get discouraged. Take all the information I give them and start their dream.”
These days things are winding down for Williams on the professional side of things. He is now transitioning into more personal, one-on-one consulting to help people grow their small business and start-ups. Along with teaching and consultation, Williams is running for the City Council for the Portage 3rd District.
“I love teaching,” said Williams. “It’s my passion. I love helping people achieve their hopes and dream. Now we’ve been working a lot on the campaign. My wife, Viki, is a retired school teacher and has worked so hard. I’m ready to give back and serve my community that I’ve been a part of for the last forty-three years.”