Jim Oelschlager and his wife, Vanita, made headlines throughout Northeast Ohio last month when the couple donated $2 million to Akron’s Children’s Hospital Medical Center. But what you may not know is that Jim Oelschlager, who owns Oak Associates, an investment management firm in Bath, has been promoting charitable giving within his business for years.
Oelschlager matches any charitable gifts his employees make, dollar for dollar. The Oelschlagers also established the Jim and Vanita Oelschlager Center for Child Advocacy last year to help provide community services for children at risk.
The Oelschlagers hope that their recent $2 million contribution will inspire others, and have agreed to match any contribution made to Children’s Hospital for child advocacy programs through the end of the year.
Big bucks, big risk
Maybe you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can spot a risk taker by the entries in his checkbook register.
Russ Vernon, president and CEO of West Point Market, says that, in 1986, he got quite a rush when he wrote the biggest check of his career to pay contractors for the largest of the market’s seven expansions.
The payment was for a quarter of a million dollars.
“I’m a risk taker, and to be able to sign off on numbers like that gave me a good feeling,” he says. “When you’re going 100 miles an hour in the right direction, you can be exhilarated by the thrill of the chase. You’re looking at the opportunities it will bring and the life it will give to your business.”
Rick Worrell, vice president of Wingfield Bennett & Baer, says he and his partners took a similar risk four months ago when they issued a check exceeding $200,000. The draft was for the down payment on the firm’s new building on Springside Drive in Fairlawn.
The sum was “a very big deal” to the marketing and public relations firm, but Worrell says he and his partners weren’t wringing their hands when it was time to sign the check. Conversely, he says, “It was as if we’d ripped our handcuffs and chains from the mortar and we were free. We knew that now we were going to be in charge of our own element.”
Brad Powers, president and CEO of CASNET, says the biggest check he’s ever written was for a sum he didn’t intend to pay.
When he first negotiated to buy a bankrupt Cleveland document management company to augment his existing business, Powers says he took the risk because “it was a strategic fit and the price was right” — even though the selling party was “sort of a questionable character.”
Powers says that at the bankruptcy hearings, two of his competitors showed up unexpectedly and bid against him, boosting the selling price at the last minute.
“I ended up paying twice as much as I’d planned,” he says, confiding that it was more than a half million dollars.
In retrospect, the risk was worth it, he says. The business is going well and growing stronger.
Working in the dark
Now Jennifer Downey can say she does her best work in the dark.
Downey, president of Ambiance, The Store For Lovers, has plenty of experience launching new store locations. In 18 years, her business has grown from a shop-at-home venture to a flourishing five-store retail operation throughout northern Ohio.
But Downey was in the dark when she launched her sixth store in Akron’s Chapel Hill last month.
“We’ve never had a problem opening a store, but we were several weeks late in opening this one,” she says.
First, the lighting manufacturer didn’t ship the fixtures in time for her grand opening. Then, the track lighting rods were damaged in shipment.
The delays didn’t daunt Downey, though. She opened in time for Sweetest Day, with limited lighting. And it didn’t hinder the ambiance of her store at all — nor did the setback daunt her customers.
“Tons of people were knocking on the doors even before we opened,” she says.
Downey says that since her 2,000-square-foot store is next to Blockbuster Video on Howe and Buchholzer, the traffic pattern is high and prospects for success are bright.
“I think the Akron store is going to be super because it’s right in this whole shopping mecca,” she says, noting that last year, with five stores, Ambiance sales topped $2.6 million.
What’s your technique?
There’s no foolproof formula for recruiting the best sales people. Even when you scrutinize their resumes and sales records to gauge sales experience, there’s no guarantee they’ll successfully sell your product.
Judy Casey, president of Casey Publications in Akron, says a technique she uses provides greater insight into a candidate’s sales aptitude. During job interviews, she’s asked applicants to demonstrate their technique by trying to sell her on a product.
“That’s when I realized those people either did or didn’t have what it takes,” she says.
When an applicant fidgets or talks too much, failing to listen or communicate well during an interview, Casey says those are “red flag warnings” that the candidate is a poor risk for a sales position.
But even if applicants pass the interview phase with flying colors, Casey says they don’t always turn out to be winning sales people.
“It would be great if they would go out and sell the product as well as they sell the employer on how good they are. But so often, they just don’t do that,” Casey says.