Business is Simple: From a Family Cottage Business to World Processing and Markets

Business is Simple

By Professor Sterling Haynes

Nearly 6 million new businesses will launch this year. Within five years, half of them will permanently close their doors. The economy isn’t to blame, says veteran CFO and longtime business owner Terry Conway. He has spent decades building, scaling and competing in business, and now he’s sharing three simple keys to survival.

Conway grew up with a loving supportive family. His father was a trial lawyer practicing at Kansas City Missouri. Being taught the values of building trust in relationships and pursuing a formal education.

He holds an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon. He is an Eagle Scout, a veteran and a Kona Ironman. He lives in Salisbury, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore with his wife of 63 years. Since his recent retirement, he is Executive Consultant to the Board.

Earlier in his career, Conway was a business adviser with accounting firm Touche Ross; an investment analyst for Laird & Company, a Wall Street private equity firm; and Chief Financial Officer of Perdue Farms Inc. He has lectured on managerial accounting at Carnegie Mellon University and on international marketing at Johns Hopkins University.

Conway acquired sole ownership of Handy Seafood in 1981. A small company with one phone line and no plans for expansion. Transforming it into a thriving international business operating across 17 countries. Handy grew into a prominent multinational brand with sales reaching $60 million in 2024. He has been Executive Chairman since 2016, when he transferred voting control to his five adult children.In his new book, Business is Simple: From a Family Cottage Business to World Processing and Markets, Conway shares the three-part structure he developed while building businesses under pressure and navigating decades of competition, uncertainty and growth. He retraces the risks, fierce competition, regulatory hurdles, betrayals, and costly mistakes he encountered and how he overcame them.

Part memoir, part business manual, part survival story, Business is Simple delivers a wealth of wisdom and strategies for accountants, entrepreneurs, business leaders, family-owned companies and recent college graduates. Anyone looking for real-world applications of business principles.“Many businesses fail because they lose focus on the fundamentals,” Conway said. "You have to continuously improve the quality of your products, produce them at a competitive advantage, and surround yourself with people who know how to close the deals. That’s the essence of business.”

To learn more visit www.terryconway-bis.com.  

Cartoon Characters Maurice, Bostwick, and Gregory are created by Sterling Haynes. To learn more visit sterlinghaynes.com