Paul Aultman learned life skills growing up with two brothers on his family’s farm in Midland County. His father worked full time at Dow Chemical. He also farmed in the evenings, often late into the night, to the chagrin of his neighbors. No matter his father’s schedule, Paul’s mom made sure the family had dinner together almost every night.
Farming was Paul’s first love, and he attended MSU to learn more about agriculture. Upon returning home from college, he worked the farm and took on some accounting tasks for local businesses during the winter months. This experience led to an opportunity for a job in plastics manufacturing. He accepted the offer.
After 10 years working for this company, Paul got a chance to buy a different plastics manufacturing plant in Standish. It had six employees and no clients, but Paul is a strong believer in God, and he took a leap of faith. Almost immediately after closing the deal, he got his first client. Now, 28 years later, Vantage Plastics employs more than 300 people across five business units.
Forming better lives is part of Vantage’s mission statement, and Paul enjoys seeing employees work their way up from the floor to become plant managers and designers. “It’s fun to watch things grow, whether it be crops or people,” he says.
His advice for entrepreneurs is to seek counsel from everyone, including banks giving you loans and the auditor going over your financials. Paul also cautions those who listen to leave their stress at the office. You should always be thinking about your business, but when you are home, you need to be fully engaged.
Paul started supporting the Mackinac Center because individuals and private businesses spend their money better than the government does. The bureaucracy has become so out of control that even politicians have a hard time reining it in. The government doesn’t innovate. Entrepreneurs do, and we should let consumers pick the winnersand losers.
Think tanks use hard data to back up their policy recommendations, while the government uses a feel-good approach. Paul hopes that people will look at what is underneath the feel-good policy positions imposed on us by the government.
