OCR Text |
Show Page A3 tEfre (?Iimrg-,31tthcpgtthc- Thursday, August 12, 2004 nt This Business for Sale: it's a familiar story in Moab Continued from page 1 camping. Desert Dogs was bought by a Federal Express carrier, and the Rio Colorado by a former UPS mechanic. Ralph Smith, a California attorney, bought the Apache Motel this spring although hes never owned or run a motel. Smith says hes confident because hes been a businessman for a long time, and made sure the deal included the staff. Apaches long-tim- e His connection is family in Richfield and a visit to Moabs 2003 where a few days had Smith and his outdoorsy family looking for opportunities. Smith now spends a few days a month overseeing renovations, and hopes to move here when he and his wife retire. p of Kaleidoscoops, a Baskin Robbins, was opened in 2003 by Sherri Stoeffer, whose husbands dirt-bik- e habit got them to Moab. She went into the enterprise with her parents and her brother, who wanted to get out of the bar business. It may have been more work than she expected - just Half-Maratho- n, co-o- 24-h- r. I Find I I All movie info. our Show Times on the Webl hollywood.com shows before 6 p.m. $5.00 tarts Friday, Aug. 13 Vs 1 Nightly 7:00 9:00 Sun. Matinees 1 :00 & 3:00 . & . Sat. & Garfield kSat. & Nightly 7:00 & 9:00 Sun. Matinees 1 :00 & 3:00 The Bourne iSuprcmacy Nightly 7:00 Sat. & & 9:00 Sun. Matinees 1 :00 & 3:00 c ' after opening, she said about the store, Im going to be here as long as I live - but the ice cream parlor got through the winter and is still scooping. Allan Fogg got into the bar business when he bought the Rio Colorado restaurant and bar from Paul and Peggy LaFontaine in 2001. It was a took personally, and Fogg had to build his clientele nearly from scratch. A steady stream of tourists and the addition of Fat City Smokehouse have helped. As of last January 2003, I was surprised I was still here, marveled Fogg. I havent had to borrow money from the Rio, I just borrowed some from savings and replaced it. Thats how Ive been doing it, a little bit at a time. I want a million dollars a year, sure I want more money! But Im happy; I love it here and am able to make a living and enjoy it here. connection is brother John, owner of Allstate Insurance and the Moab Fitness Center. Johns Foggs my only family, thats all there is of us. Allan Fogg had visited from Denver for years, and loved the area, but as the economy went down I jumped on UPS. He stayed there for 20 years, helping finance vari- ous friends businesses and learning what he could along the way. When he did finally plan the move, Fogg said he was looking for something smaller than the Rio, but the price was right. He said the biggest surprise was staffing. I didnt realize how hard it was to get good reliable staff. At UPS, its military style, where if you dont like it, heres the road, theres a thousand people behind you. The employees with me now have been the biggest part of making the Rio work. If I didnt have the crew I have now, Id really be struggling. Fortunately, while Moab consumers may be fickle, theyre also forgiving - as long as they can find you at the shop. Part of a businesss fail- - FRESH GROUND COFFEE Whole Bean or Custom Ground Coffee of the Month: Fredv Baked goods from, Red Rock Bakery! organic, decaf, flavored coffee & tea Jetvet accessories " $5' an offer and it was accepted. We did that for two years and it was a lot more work than we thought, so we didnt have the family time we anticipated. Still, the Martins fell for Moab and didnt want to go back to the city and the life associated with the city. We had 45 days to decide what to do once we sold the RV park, and we found a house we liked and went on a search for a busi- change many Rio regulars csSiartyour day with Vavei f'f'V and stumbled across the Portal RV Park in Moab and made chocolate covered espresso beans hand-lettere- ure can be not being there, Stephanie Brewer. When things start to go bad, people get depressed and stop showing up. Theres a million things you can do to make your business better, and you cant ever get stagnant. Brewer, who recently opened Bliss Skin and Body Works, is all for taking risks, provided people are willing to put in the effort. If you have an idea and think its going to work and have done the brainstorming, go for it. If it doesnt work, what are you out? And even if it doesnt succeed for a while, stick with it. Ive been doing this for 5 years and am finally thinking maybe this can be my career. If Id given up 2 years ago, who knows where Id be says (COMB MAUI week when Randy and Rachael Martin showed up, fresh from selling the Portal RV Park. Arches Book Company followed soon after, with the Martins and former residents Marjorie Kittle and David Williams as partners, and Nettell has been tweaking ever since, adding a cafe and operation, online purchas- While she was deciding what to do, Brewer worked in ing, game nights, customer specials and, above all, an intense focus on service. While the purchase of Back of Beyond might alarm a few BOB regulars, Nettell is quick to point out that he worked there a few years back and I love the vision of Back of Beyond. He and his partners intend to keep both shops open and operate them as other peoples salons and juggled that with raising her young son and a second job tending bar. It just became a lifestyle. Finally in order for my business to work, I had to give up my other job, thinking this is as far as I can go, I either haye to jump in or not, and trust myself." Brewer is part ofthe group that knew her trade ahead of time. Ive been an esthetician for five years, so I guess I was kind of a business owner. This was definitely a bigger step because its more space and more work, but I sort of already had a clientele so I knew people wanted the service. Shed also been cutting her start-u- p costs by working at other places. Ive been buying individual pieces of equipment, getting bigger each time, so the financing for this wasnt that much money, and I got private loans. Brewer did have a few surprises, including the fact that the majority of her customers quasi-competitor- h I EVERYDAY I s. dont think people in town are going to notice that its the same ownership group, except for me running back and forth across the street now and then. Visitors are often surprised that Moab supports two independent bookstores, but Nettell believes the market is there for both BOBs regional focus and ABCs more general flavor. It seems to make sense from a business point of view to me at least, in terms of the store we set up here being pretty different in feel and mission from what Back of Beyond is. are locals, rather than tourists, that she and her masseuse partner are Because we were competitors, out of necessity we had some overlap, and by doing this but keeping the stores identities, we can strengthen what both stores are doing, lessen the overlap and put that money into new product. The Martins have also been involved in a variety of businesses, sometimes out of necessity. Randy Martin said the family moved from the Chicago area because they wanted a change in lifestyle. My wife and I both love camping and thought an RV park would be a fun business. We started looking in 1998 y already outgrowing their facilthat owning a business can be an proposition. When your business - or businesses - are about maintaining the lifestyle you want, building and changing them seem to come naturally. Andy Nettell, who with his Arches Book Company partners just bought Back of Beyond Books, is a good example. Nettell left a job as a park ranger in 1997 and bought Music of ts E3EC3 VO with Cowboy Singer Dave Stamey! Thursday, August 12th Another fun event at the Bar-- Main Chuckwagon. Open at 6 p.m. Gun fight show at 6:30, Supper at 7:00, Stage Show follows supper. The Bar-Chuckwagon will open the show with Dave Stamey. Tickets are $22.95 plus tax for supper and show. Kids 0 are half price. 4-1- 259-63- 19 last year, service businesses like the Advertiser can be a hard sell. On the one print-sho- p hand, they dont have the equipment that makes for at- ness, and stumbled across Music of Moab. The Martins had looked at two other stores and a bed and Fleenors own philosophy. Printers since 1962, they bought their Moab operation breakfast, but just felt that the music store fit us really well. My wife and I love music and movies, and being able to go home and lock the door at nine p.m. and not have campers knocking on our door. Rachael now manages the renamed Main Street Music full-tim- while Randy has e, worked stints as Chamber of Commerce director and at Canyonlands Advertising, as well as running for city council and now serving on the Chamber board. Some of his moving around has been about economic reality. I think we knew all along that it wouldnt support us with the income we needed for a family of five, and with a small staff, if we both worked it would be really hard to get away. So we replaced my position with two part-tim- e positions, so its very flexible, and we can run away for short summer vacations. Even though the stores revenue is steady compared to tourism-baseoutfits, Martin to hard its says get ahead. Its to difficult create wealth really for yourself in a small retail store on Main Street in Moab. full-tim- e d He and Rachael hope to sell for a profit when their youngest daughter graduates from high school, and probably relocate to a larger community where as an established business and got involved in the community as they built their customer base. they wont sell to just anyone. We could advertise more nationally and possibly be picked up by an investor or a newspaper group, but wed prefer to sell the business to someone, even if theyre just moving here, who is already familiar with Moab, in order to keep the tone of it. We dont feel its the kind of business where we can just say nobodys going to buy it and we can just sell our stock and close down. Its important to a lot of people in Now, out-of-sta- te Moab. From publishing other peoples ads, Fleenor knows theres a tempting syndrome that can grip business owners, where in periods of frustration, you put it up for sale for a year, then things smooth out and it didnt sell so you forget it, and it goes back and forth. So far, 2004 has been a fairly strong year for the local economy, and most of the people selling businesses now are doing so for those personal reasons. While it may take a while for them to change hands, chances are good theres no shortage of newcom- ers already scanning the classifieds. there are greater economic opportunities. Coming from Chicago where jobs were so plentiful, with good pay and with benefits - boy, it would be nice to find a happy medium without the problems and still make $30,000 a year with benefits and have choices. The trouble is that a community like this can get hold of you, as Marge and Larry Fleenor know too well. Owners of The Advertiser, theyve been in the printing and weekly publication business here for 20 years, starting in Moabs darkest economic days and riding out a lot of changes. Now, with their two children gone and the printing operaemtion sold to long-tim- e ployee Lynn Shafer, theyre ready to sell. As Marges ad You need them, and we have them at T--I Maps 29 E. Center big-cit- y Attention Summer Readers!! Participants of Grand County Public Librarys Summer Reading Program, Discover New Trails Your Library," are invited to a BarGeque Saturday, Aug. 14 5:00 p.m. at the Library All reading logs must be turned in by Friday. Any questions, call Tracy at 259-- 1 111. fiHll SI G0MIREBESS The works wide wait s officially over because Preas High Speed Internet was made for speed1 With c mmwimn and blazing speeds, there s no waking and no need for an extra phone tne Proas, youll get an always-oAnd now, you cm GO WIREL ufl- 31" your Precis Internet connection wih al the PCs fi your home Connect j anywhere without being bed to your modem rom your couch, porch or bedroom Cal today for more irformabon1 Special offer expires June 30 Preas Cable TV customers get 110mo. off regular rate! M M 574 N. though Shafer bought the tractive loan collateral, and on the other, prospective buyers often believe its cheaper to start from scratch than to buy a reputation and customer list. Another obstacle is the CONCERT AND COWBOY SUPPER fresh mexie SPICING YOUR LIFE AAAA SINCE 1981 AAAA took the chance. After moving, and expanding the stores offerings to include more electronics, music and movies, Nettell was ready for a change in 2001, and had listed the store for about a coffee-roastin- g fora fs experience with Kokopelli Productions, and now? salary-and-benefi- fcQ related ity, and DAVES When jyou'r Moab mainly because he wanted there to be a music store and the previous owner wanted out. He said giving up the security of a regular job was scary, but he had some Moab-raise- d luxury-hungr- The pot's always fresh... and so's the conversation! 401 Mill Creek Drive Open 6am to 10pm Modern touch: A recent for sale sign competes with the Outlaw d markers. Daniel Black, behind the bar Saloons many for nearly 20 years, says regulars will just have to wait and see what the future holds for their favorite watering hole. Photo by Lisa Taylor says, I want to retire! Its not that easy, though. The Fleenors have been looking for a buyer since 2002, and Chuckwagon is located 7 miles north of Moab on Highway 191. Call for reservations. The Bar-- M 259-Bar-- M or 259-227- 6. pi PRECIS communications HIGH SPEED INTERNET 637-681- 3 (in Price) Knnir.Ereclscom.com ! I |