Q&A: Cameron Campbell

(Photo provided)

Cameron Campbell is a general partner with both Artents and Super Sam’s Fireworks and a managing partner with Play It Again Sports in Jonesboro.

At the helm of several business endeavors, Campbell is well-versed in all things business-related, from the joys of success to the fear of trying something new with the chance of failure.

How did you get started with these businesses?

Artents and Super Sam’s Fireworks — I grew up in those. My family got into fireworks in 1969, and my dad had a couple of locations. Then I came along and decided, ‘Hey, let’s try to grow this thing to be something bigger.’ So we revamped it and started a partnership with Artents and Super Sam’s between the two of us and took it from there.

Artents is a well-known business and has worked with some impressive groups such as Arkansas State University, the American Cancer Society and Walmart. What all does the Artents brand consist of?

It’s a full-scale event rental. We started out as a tent company, and we would rent tents of any size and do backyard parties and weddings and things like that. Then we quickly learned that we needed to add tables, chairs, linens and floors — everything you can think of, we try to carry or accommodate for any type of event.

Today, we carry about 300,000 SF of tent and do some of your very small birthday parties all the way up to … all the tailgating for Arkansas State University and the University of Memphis. We do events like the Duck Gumbo Cook-Off in Stuttgart.

Two years ago, we acquired Elegant Party Rental, and that takes care of the rest of it. So I always tell people we went from tent to table, and when we bought Elegant Party Rental, we covered the tabletop. So we do place settings and dishes and flatware … to where it does indeed become a full-scale rental of products and supplies.

You’re involved in the leadership of more than one company. How do you manage being a part of each of them?

I’m a firm believer in doing what you like to do, so I wanted to add the sports company. I developed a theory a few years back. What I tell my employees is that I fly at 30,000 feet, and my main guys will fly at 15,000. Then our entry-level employees, whether it be for the store or the rental company, they’re on the ground. So I need them to manage those folks on the ground. I will intervene if I have to, because at 30,000 feet you always have to land and refuel. But mainly my priority is to see everything from that perspective and to be able to be in contact and run things through them and let them do their job — let them do their work to make things flow better.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in all your entrepreneurial endeavors?

Making sure I don’t get ahead of myself and that I’m actually keeping on pace with where things need to be. I’m a big idea guy, and I think, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this?’ Sometimes, if I’m not careful, I will overextend ourselves. So making sure we’re managing the scale of things as they should be… that we don’t grow too big too fast, or become complacent and not get the growth we should. We’re always looking to push and grow as fast as possible, we just want to make sure that we don’t drop anything in the meantime.