BY MIKE LAVIN DBJ Contributing Writer

Sometime in the early 1980’s, Greg Hood began hand waxing diaphragm calls in a shed outside his uncle’s home. Though customers placed nearly one thousand orders in two years, he never once fathomed what success loomed over the horizon. However, it should not surprise anyone. As owner and chief operator of Southern Game Calls in Clarksdale for the last seven years, Hood has employed a strikingly simple yet distinctive business practice to which he credits his prolonged growth: know your product.
While the manufacture of duck, goose, deer, elk, and turkey calls may strike many as too highly specialized an industry, the regional demands of hunters in the Delta, combined with the legal restrictions on game hunting, has allowed Hood’s business to find its niche.
“There are so many companies in the area, targeting the same group of people,” says Hood. “The competition is so heavy it’s unbelievable.”
Many of the larger competitors possess several seemingly insurmountable advantages, including larger inventories, personnel, and full-scale shipping divisions. However, no business attains its greatest potential without having the proverbial ‘intangibles’ not found in the yearly budget or on the factory floor.
Hood found his key to success by integrating his knowledge of the product with sound business operations. A champion game caller himself, he has made a living using the products he manufactures and distributes. Unlike many investors and the quintessential “businessmen”, he remains an active consumer of his own products.
“Hunters and fisherman, like any other consumer, get to know companies and become captivated by the way they are run,” he says. “Newer businesses try to discover that formula and alter it slightly. I went out and became a champion goose and turkey caller. In many other companies, the developer often remains unfamiliar with the product.”
A consumer-centered business philosophy has certainly helped the company spread its wings. Currently, Southern Game Calls produces nearly 5,000 hand calls per year, including 80 product lines of duck calls, and one deer call adjusted to seven vocalizations. Hood adds that the company imports almost all its wood from California, and direct dealers of hunting products comprise a majority of their business.
In addition to familiarity with the product, Hood’s success as a champion game caller has seeped into business by expanding the breadth of interest in his products beyond hunters. Traveling throughout the country, he’s met several new buyers who find uses for wood products not necessarily specific to hunting.
One such company, Ducks Unlimited, has ordered thousands of duck calls for all demographics. Hood says it’s been a boon for business.
“A tremendous number of people are buying these ducks, from Ducks Unlimited for example, as collectibles. Some want to place them on their mantles at home or show them at the local lodge,” he says.
For the foreseeable future, Hood forecasts nothing but healthful growth. The nine people presently working at night, as well as some work completed outside the factory, will have plenty of extra co-workers if everything goes as Hood plans.
“Within five years, we hope to transfer our operations into a 10,000 square foot building and employ 85 people,” he says. DBJ