This month, we are happy to spotlight Matt Roeloffs. Matt is a member of our WIBN Princeton Chapter and a key contributor to its’ success and outreach within the New Jersey wrestling community. Matt and his mother own and run a Crown Trophy franchise, which sells trophies/awards, apparel, and promotional products.

Background

Matt grew up in New Jersey, specifically in Rahway. 

He started wrestling at a very young age, but his start was a bit inauspicious. In one of his very first practices, he broke a finger! 

He would stick with it, though, and ended up wrestling at Robbinsville HS in Mercer County. Matt was a grinder, and while he didn’t have tremendous success, he loved the sport and greatly values the lessons he learned.

In 2007, when he was about 16-years-old, Matt’s family purchased a Crown Trophy franchise and opened a store in Mercer County. 

Crown Trophy is a national brand with franchisees across the country. Matt helped out around the store during the early years doing anything/everything and learning the business. As he graduated high school, he decided to go in a different direction. He went to college, worked at a series of other jobs, and would eventually end back up at the store when he was 23, and he began to take over more and more responsibilities associated with running the store.   

Just two years after returning to the store, Matt began running all sales and marketing responsibilities. The store started experiencing dramatic growth, and year-over-year sales significantly grew. By the end of 2019, the store had climbed in the Crown rankings and was a near top-10 franchise. The future was looking very, very bright. And then came COVID.

COVID

COVID threatened the very existence of the store. 

Mid-2020 was a dark period for the store and saw nearly a virtue shut-down in operations and sales. The “busy” time of the year in this industry is March-May. Well, during this period, the store saw a nearly 95% reduction in sales. Month after month, sales dropped, and where a typical work week consists of 12-hour days/6 days a week, the store was only generating enough business to require 1-3 days of work per week.  

Luckily, business has rebounded, and while the volume isn’t on par with 2019 numbers, it is quickly returning to similar numbers. 

At the time of our discussion, the store had eclipsed all 2020 sales and was on a trajectory by 2023 to far surpass historical sales figures.  

COVID certainly affected Matt and the store. 

I asked him how he had been able to get through this catastrophic event. Matt provided a wrestling analogy to help describe the attitude he had to have over the past 18 months. He equated the survival of the store with a stand-up. “A stand-up (and escape) is the easiest move in wrestling, worth the least amount of points. But it isn’t easy and requires as much attitude as technique. A stand-up is usually all about attitude. It is a decision that you can’t be kept down. We had to hit a stand-up. And that’s what we did. We made the decision that we weren’t going to be kept down.”

Entrepreneur Advice

Matt offers two bits of advice for anyone looking to start a small business. First, develop an attitude where quitting or failing is not an option. He again used a wrestling analogy describing the mindset you must have. Running a small business is similar to having an opponent with a deep half-nelson. You can either get turned or get to your base. 

But it frequently is about attitude and not quitting. If you want to run a successful small business, get to your base and have that attitude.

Second, Matt recommends anyone starting a small business should read, read, and read. A book that changed his life is The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure, by Grant Cardone. If this book resonates with you, then you likely have the DNA to venture into entrepreneurship. Another book that was valuable to Matt was The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field, by Mike Michalowicz. While sales books were vital to him, he also stressed reading books on accounting.  

Wrestling Impact

When I asked Matt how wrestling has helped him be successful, he didn’t hesitate. Two things immediately came to mind: “Diet and Exercise” and “Never Quit.” The grind of running a business can take a toll. Maintaining a healthy diet with regular exercise has significantly helped him keep up with a high op-tempo, work through long and demanding days, and helped him to make better decisions.

The “never quit” attitude prevalent among all wrestlers has also really helped him. Even daily, one can make decisions to stop working, take some time off, or get it done tomorrow. But that isn’t the way wrestlers think, and that is the same attitude he has taken at Crown Trophy Mercerville.  

Matt at WIBN Princeton

Matt is super appreciative of WIBN and the business it has helped generate for his business. More importantly, he greatly values being surrounded by impressive leaders who represent excellence across every industry. These people have been highly influential in his life and taught him so much that he has applied not only in his life but also in his interaction with other professional organizations of which he is a member. It is clear, though, that while Matt thinks he gets more out of WIBN than he gives, the opposite is true. We are super thrilled to have Matt in our ranks!

Crown Trophy

Crown Trophy Mercerville specializes in trophies and awards. They also sell apparel and promotional products. Their bread-and-butter, though, is trophies and awards. Of this category, approximately 40% of their business is in trophies, and 60% is in engraving crystals, acrylics, and plaques. 

Contrary to popular opinion, Matt lamented, not everyone does get a trophy! The business employs 3-4 employees, depending on the time of year and volume.

He is always seeking new business and referrals. 

The website for his store is https://www.crowntrophy.com/store-141. You can also contact Matt at (609) 838-1296 or by email at crowntrophy141@gmail.com.