A local business developed by Troy University students has blossomed into a citywide phenomenon.
QuickFix offers Troy University students and Troy residents alike access to food and goods delivery, the first service of its kind in the area.
It all started with an idea developed in 2016 by TROY students Peyton Kirkley and Michael Talerico, who saw a need and felt the entrepreneurial spirit to fill it.
“Being in Greek life, we saw a huge need, because people were so hungry, they wanted food but didn’t want to go get it,” said Kirkley, a marketing major who takes classes online while working at a recruiting firm in Atlanta. “Out of the blue, Michael was like, ‘Why don’t we start a delivery business?’ I thought it was a great idea.”
Both Kirkley and Talerico had experience in the business world through internships and jobs, and they felt a calling to create a new business that could help their fellow students.
“We’re both marketing students, and while taking courses we’re thinking of ways we can implement the things we learned in class, and maybe make some money,” said Talerico, who graduated in May 2018 with a global marketing degree and currently works as a recruiter at Insight Global. “One of the things we learned in service marketing is whenever you see a need, you can develop something to fill that need. We made a post on social media, and it blew up from there — we started making deliveries that day.”
From there, they acquired a business license, and QuickFix was born.
Soon, they hired drivers consisting of their fraternity brothers and other students, and the business quickly found a niche delivering on campus.
However, with Kirkley moving away from Troy and Talerico graduating early last year, QuickFix was in danger.
The two friends wanted to keep the brand alive and leave it in the hands of someone who they trusted.
Enter Clay Copeland, a senior marketing major from Selma who had a vision of the company’s potential.
“We really wanted to get the company in right hands, wanted the service to grow and prosper, because we thought it was a boon for the whole community,” Kirkley said. “We’ve been friends with Clay for a long while, knew he was a great guy from a great family, and he wanted to do some amazing things with it, some different things than we did. We sold it to him in September, and he has just done some outstanding things with it, really expanded it, put in a ton of blood, sweat and tears.”
The service, QuickFix, gives customers the option to text or call with their name, what they want delivered, where they want it purchased and where they want it dropped off.
Copeland expanded the service to include groceries and other items delivered to residents in addition to college students.
For guidance, he turned to TROY’s Small Business Development Center.
“The SBDC helped tremendously in the start-up of QuickFix,” Copeland said. “They provided templates for our business plan, marketing plan and accounting. The biggest help was the legal and tax issues. I was blind to copyright laws, how tax forms work and how to create an LLC. They walked me through those step by step.”
The Sorrell College of Business plans to house the SBDC in the new Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Accelerator (IDEA) Bank downtown in the old Regions Bank building.
“Clay Copeland is the perfect example of the student entrepreneur TROY’s new IDEA Bank will serve and develop,” said Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Walter Givhan, Senior Vice Chancellor for Advancement and Economic Development. “He’s creative, perceptive, and persistent in seizing a business opportunity he sees. As the IDEA Bank opens this fall, we will look to Clay and others like him as the foundation for this accelerator.”
In October, QuickFix completed 55 orders. Halfway through January, the company has already completed 644 orders along with numerous catering orders for the Trojan football team.
Copeland said the average orders per day jumped from eight to 15 in November, which led him to hire three new drivers and develop a chain of command including managers to help ease his workload.
“The overall business has run a lot smoother since the development of that chain of command,” he said.
Copeland currently has eight employees – two managers and six drivers.
Now, the young entrepreneur has his eyes set on expansion.
“My plan for QuickFix is to capitalize on the market in Troy and be the go-to delivery service even when competitors come in,” he said. “I plan to expand to small colleges and campuses across Alabama like TROY’s Dothan Campus, Huntington, Alabama State and Montevallo. I want to give students like myself the opportunity to challenge themselves by becoming regional managers at an early age. As QuickFix expands, it will be the go-to service for college students due to the simple fact that it’s for students and by students.”
