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And up next, an American Dreamer's story. And the series is brought to us by our great friends at Job Creators Network, who work hard every day to help small businesses become big ones by fighting for policies that make it easier to do just that. Today, Alex Cortez brings us a unique American voice.
Okay, I was born at an early age in Rochester, New York. We're listening to Tom Galasano. My father was from the old country, Sicily. My mother was born in the United States. I had an older sister and older brother.
When I was in high school, my mom and dad had their financial difficulties. They had to go through bankruptcy. My father after World War II, went into a business. converting coal furnaces to gas and oil furnaces. and my brother older brother Charlie.
also worked for my father. Then he got called off to the Korean War, and unfortunately he didn't come back. He was there three days. was put up on the front lines and He was with a company of men that was attacked by a battalion of Chinese. and didn't come back.
So after that event, my father's business kind of went to hell. He went to work for a Macaroni Company that was based in Rochester as a salesperson. But as a salesperson, it also drove a truck and delivered. to these small grocery stores. One day I went out with them.
I think I was a junior or senior in high school. And before he went out on his route, we stopped in at the corporate office. and his boss came out in front of me and several other people completely laid out my father verbally. Very nastily. And I observed that and it made a lasting impression on me.
One of the things that came out of it, of course, I said, gee, if I ever get in a management position, I'll never treat people like that. It was the worst thing in the course. fact that he did it in front of other people. I also kind of made the decision I think I wanted to have my own business. Freedom.
control my destiny, maybe unlimited earnings. That type of thing were the things that interested me. Tom put himself through college, worked several jobs, and in 1968 landed at EAS, Electronic Accounting Service, which processed payroll for larger companies in an era before. the internet. They did several things different.
One, they didn't take phone calls. You had to fill out forms all the time. Then you had it. get them to deliver to the payroll company or they pick them up. and they've had very high minimum charges.
So I'm thinking about that as I'm driving down Main Street. anywhere. Most businesses had less than 100 employees. Went to the library and found out 98% have less than 100 employees. 95% with less than 50 employees.
Also, EAS was not doing the payroll tax returns.
So I said, D is this whole un tapped market out there. that somebody should go after.
So I started thinking about the phone call, the tax returns, and the lower pricing. Could we make money?
So I went to them one day and I said to the manager team, I said, look it. That's former division. I'd love to run it. and we'll go after the low end of the market. I think we can do really well with it.
We don't think CPAs will like us doing payroll tax returns. I said, I think you're absolutely dead wrong. They will appreciate us doing the returns because payroll tax returns are very timely. They're tedious. They can't bill out their time at a value they think it's worth.
and they don't like doing them.
So My thesis was that It would be a very strong referral point. They turned me down and said, no, it's not a good idea.
So I sat on it for a couple of months. Went in again. Same reaction.
So now I'm a little determined. I went into uh BAS with my resignation and said, I'm going to start a company called, actually, it was called Paymaster first. I like the term paymaster back 50 years ago. because everybody generally knew what it meant. The armed services always got paid by the people in the services called the paymasters.
Today nobody knows the term. Eventually they landed on a name that you might have heard of. Paychecks. Not to pick on our major competitor, ADT, which nobody knows what that means. But at least everybody understands the word paychecks.
If you were a five-person company, the minimum charge for you probably in 1970 would have been. $28 a P period. That's a lot, $19.70. And we came in at about a dollar a piece. five to seven dollars of your awesome.
We were able to really cut the price. Plus, all our competitors are going after the 100-person payrolls. They know who all the 100 person plus companies are in your community.
So you're always fighting those guys. Nobody was interested in at least the 50 and below. I decided to start. They had $3,000. A few credit cards.
I said, now I'm going to use that $3,000. I'm going to send out a bunch in direct mail in November. Let's see if I can sign up 60 clients. which is what I needed to sort of get by. to start processing the 1st of January.
Well, I sent out the direct mail and I sold six.
So there it was with six clients. Needless to say. The credit cards got used. very much utilized, the fact they eventually got all taken away. I'll never forget, I took a bunch of employees out to dinner one night at a steak stockade.
I had it in my American Express card and he came back torn in half. And he said, sorry they made me do this. I said, well, I'll tell you what, you're a client. We bill you every month. How about if I take, you take my bill and...
Give me credit, I guess. Your bill, and he said, Okay. But it was embarrassing in front of the employees. But anyway, We struggled through. Fortunately, I had some friends and the banking business.
They'd helped me get consumer loans, which were really business loans, but they called them consumer loans because they can't make business loans to a guy like me. and EAS was doing our processing. the company I worked for. And the reason they like the deal and I like the deal. The reasons I liked it are obvious.
The reasons they liked it. They were taking all of our little clients and treating them like one large client. It was very profitable to them too because they had no customer contact and zero sales expense. One day we decided we were going to get into our own equipment.
So I hired a contract programmer. We were writing our programs around the IBM System 3. Got in a little over our head with the cost of producing the software and so forth. And I was really up against it again. Went over to my sister who was a widow with three kids.
Her husband died at the age of forty-one. And I said, Maria, I need some help. She says, Tab's insurance money, her husband's insurance money is in the bank. It's 41,000. Take what you want.
Just like that.
Now, here's a single woman with three kids and a handicap. She lost her right hand. when she was working in that beat. Department of a Supermarket. when she was 15 years old.
Anyway.
So she loaned me the money. We got by the. Program Her and her kids now are all significant shareholders of paychecks. You can guess how that happened.
Now It's time to convert. He says it's ready. It can't we can't run it. It doesn't run. We can't produce the checks of all things, the most important thing.
So we got IBM engineers in. Other outside programmers, everybody's working on a simple program. But they couldn't solve it right away.
So We were supposed to cut off at EAS Fourth of July weekend. It was there. It's now Wednesday, 4th of July, is Friday, so Everybody's got to get their payroll by Thursday. They were really up against it.
So I called up EAS and I said And Jim? Maybe two partners. I said, we need your help. He says, okay, we'll send somebody over. And they were going to run our perils.
instead of us converting to our system.
So we got through the night and I had about 10 relatives and friends delivering checks on Thursday morning. Including one guy in a motorcycle. That was funny. I don't know who brought him. Anyway, but we got them all delivered, we didn't lose any clients.
But it was a hell of an experience. That whole week, I never went home. I slept right on the floor of my office. and I lost about 10 or 12 pounds. The pressure, when you can't deliver payroll checks, that's pressure.
You know, clients are calling. That's pressure.
So we finally got it fixed and I came home and I just So I ran out of bed. I think it was three o'clock in the morning. And I I'm sure I just cried.
So I know I got into a conversation with Glory, I said, I think we, I don't know if I want to keep going with this. And she just said, one foot after another, just keep going, one foot after another. That's great advice. Pretty simple with great advice. My original goal was 300 clients in Rochester, New York.
It took me four years to get there.
Now Paycheck sells 2,000 a week. Yeah. That's no representation of my sales ability. But obviously we have over 3,000 salespeople now. And great work as always by Joey and Alex on that piece.
And you've been listening to Tom Galisano's story. He's the founder of Paychex. Tom Galisano's story, a true American dreamer's story, as always brought to us by the great folks at Job Creators Network. here on our American stories. The countdown is on for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Lyke.
Catch all seven rounds three days live from Pittsburgh, April 23rd through 25th. Watch every pick live on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfL.com for terms. Get ready for the wildest sight your lawn has ever seen. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
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