John Dunn This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Destroying the paper trail - 2001-07-09 - Birmingham Business Journal

   birmingham.bcentral.com/birmin - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/9/2001   Last Visited: 7/11/2001

   With an eye for an underserved business niche and a little help from Ollie North , John Dunn has become one of Birmingham's few , established paper shredders.
   ...
   There are people who go Dumpster digging , quips Dunn , 62.
   
   As his brochure states : Confidential records can be as dangerous as they are important..
   
   Dunn picks up sensitive documents -- or any type of office paper for that matter -- mostly from financial , medical , legal and accounting businesses and organizations.
   
   They're carted to his 25-by-150-foot office/work area in the Distribution Center off West Oxmoor Road. There , employees unload paper from the back dock and onto a conveyor belt/shredder , where it's slashed by a grinder with more than 50 teethy belts. The mesh is bundled in 1 , 000-pound bales.
   
   A forklift totes the bales to a local recycler's trailer at the front dock. Once full , the recycler drops an empty trailer and hauls away the full one , and the process begins again.
   
   ...
   Dunn also destroys microfilm and microfiche , grinding it into a fine powder. Paper and microfilm customers receive an Audit Trail Certificate of Destruction showing each step in the process and declaring materials have been destroyed.
   
   Dunn can hit home on a sales pitch. If a prospective customer has never had a car wreck , Dunn asks them how long they've had car insurance.
   
   Of course , they'll say they've had it since they've been driving , he says. I tell them they may never have had anyone steal a document or go through their garbage. But this , too , is a form of insurance..
   
   Dunn also has been eager to share his know-how in an effort to build the shredding industry. Bill Cooper of Memphis called Dunn out of the blue in the late 1980s seeking information on how Dunn's business worked.
   ...
   Cooper and Dunn have since bought Haynes out and jointly own Data Shredding Services in Jackson.
   ...
   But I would trust John with anything. I would trust him with my money and not have to sign anything..
   
   Cook says Dunn is well-educated , has common sense and can sit down and talk with just about anybody. He's just a likable person..
   
   A graduate of Ramsay High School who earned a marketing degree and an MBA from Mississippi State , Dunn got the shredding idea while serving as vice president of operations for David Tire Co.. He experienced a host of problems ridding the company of sensitive documents , such as personnel records and sales reports.
   
   Shredding documents in the company's computer room seemed to be logical , but paper dust and computers don't mix.
   
   Piling shredded paper in the Dumpster took too much room , and the company's waste services provider wanted extra money to dump the paper. Recyclers wanted payment as well to pick it up.
   
   Meanwhile , Dunn had three children approaching college age. He was contemplating a career move to start his own business and make more money.
   
   He weighed his education , experience , contacts , likes and dislikes , and he established parameters for a job change.
   
   It was almost like a light went on one day , Dunn says. If I started this business , it fit the parameters I laid out..
   
   After seeking advice from several business acquaintances , Dunn took the entrepreneurial plunge in 1985.
   
   About a year later , former Lt. Col..
   ...
   That probably did more for the shredding industry than any one single event , Dunn says.
   
   At about the same time , a prominent waste disposal service was raising awareness locally with a mobile shredding pilot project in Birmingham.
   
   Those two events really made a big segment of the Birmingham business community aware that , yes , somebody does it here , Dunn says.
   
   His business became profitable after three years , and the rest is history.

2. 2. Destroying the paper trail - 2001-07-09 - Birmingham Business Journal

   birmingham.bcentral.com/birmin - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/11/2001   Last Visited: 7/9/2001

   With an eye for an underserved business niche and a little help from Ollie North , John Dunn has become one of Birmingham's few , established paper shredders.
   ...
   There are people who go Dumpster digging , quips Dunn , 62.
   
   As his brochure states : Confidential records can be as dangerous as they are important..
   
   Dunn picks up sensitive documents -- or any type of office paper for that matter -- mostly from financial , medical , legal and accounting businesses and organizations.
   
   They're carted to his 25-by-150-foot office/work area in the Distribution Center off West Oxmoor Road. There , employees unload paper from the back dock and onto a conveyor belt/shredder , where it's slashed by a grinder with more than 50 teethy belts. The mesh is bundled in 1 , 000-pound bales.
   
   A forklift totes the bales to a local recycler's trailer at the front dock. Once full , the recycler drops an empty trailer and hauls away the full one , and the process begins again.
   
   ...
   Dunn also destroys microfilm and microfiche , grinding it into a fine powder. Paper and microfilm customers receive an Audit Trail Certificate of Destruction showing each step in the process and declaring materials have been destroyed.
   
   Dunn can hit home on a sales pitch. If a prospective customer has never had a car wreck , Dunn asks them how long they've had car insurance.
   
   Of course , they'll say they've had it since they've been driving , he says. I tell them they may never have had anyone steal a document or go through their garbage. But this , too , is a form of insurance..
   
   Dunn also has been eager to share his know-how in an effort to build the shredding industry. Bill Cooper of Memphis called Dunn out of the blue in the late 1980s seeking information on how Dunn's business worked.
   ...
   Cooper and Dunn have since bought Haynes out and jointly own Data Shredding Services in Jackson.
   ...
   But I would trust John with anything. I would trust him with my money and not have to sign anything..
   
   Cook says Dunn is well-educated , has common sense and can sit down and talk with just about anybody. He's just a likable person..
   
   A graduate of Ramsay High School who earned a marketing degree and an MBA from Mississippi State , Dunn got the shredding idea while serving as vice president of operations for David Tire Co.. He experienced a host of problems ridding the company of sensitive documents , such as personnel records and sales reports.
   
   Shredding documents in the company's computer room seemed to be logical , but paper dust and computers don't mix.
   
   Piling shredded paper in the Dumpster took too much room , and the company's waste services provider wanted extra money to dump the paper. Recyclers wanted payment as well to pick it up.
   
   Meanwhile , Dunn had three children approaching college age. He was contemplating a career move to start his own business and make more money.
   
   He weighed his education , experience , contacts , likes and dislikes , and he established parameters for a job change.
   
   It was almost like a light went on one day , Dunn says. If I started this business , it fit the parameters I laid out..
   
   After seeking advice from several business acquaintances , Dunn took the entrepreneurial plunge in 1985.
   
   About a year later , former Lt. Col..
   ...
   That probably did more for the shredding industry than any one single event , Dunn says.
   
   At about the same time , a prominent waste disposal service was raising awareness locally with a mobile shredding pilot project in Birmingham.
   
   Those two events really made a big segment of the Birmingham business community aware that , yes , somebody does it here , Dunn says.
   
   His business became profitable after three years , and the rest is history.