About Carl

Carl Powell grew up in a family of business minded people. His father was an excellent entrepreneur and salesperson. His grandfather a great accountant. And his great-grandfather was a veteran who, after losing both legs below the knee, ran a dray wagon, a sales wagon and eventually a small store. Entrepreneurship is in his veins. 

He tried numerous ways to make money while going through elementary, Junior High, and High School including: Selling Creepy Crawlers, Mistletoe at Christmas, and newspapers. He collected soda bottles for the deposit money, operated a small candy cabinet in the family business, and sold monogram letters to friends at school. 

After getting a degree in Business from Harding University, he considered options and came back to work in the family business: Powell Electronics. Eight years later, when the store began to falter, he and his dad spun off the Computer Sales department he had built to become Powell Computer Centers. After four years, he sold the company and went to work for the new owner. Then, when the new owners decided computers were not as profitable as they had hoped, Carl was laid off and went to work at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center providing Mac support to about 100 personnel and engineers there. 

Three years later, Apple contacted him to see if he would like to work the whole state of Alabama for K-12 Education Sales. He nearly doubled their sales in just under three years, then started his own consulting company. He serviced and supported Macs and networks for up to 250 computers at numerous businesses, churches and organizations for many years. During this time, he spent about three years working with a group trying to make it easier to sell on eBay. Using those tools, he sold on eBay, Amazon and his own websites for over three years. 

In 2013, Carl got into selling 3D Printers and then got involved with a 3D Printer Filament manufacturer and was part owner, technical support, and sales for the company over eight years. When he stepped down from that, he opened a Bricks & Minfigs franchise store selling LEGO® and aftermarket LEGO sets and accessories. He continues in this endeavor while writing today. 

In all of this, Carl took note of what worked, what didn't work, and why. Most of this is included in his book. Still Standing – How to Build Businesses that Endure.