There is a tiny white building on the corner of 41st Street and Cleveland Avenue in Canton. Within this building is what some would argue is Canton’s smallest business.
A black and white sign outside reads Checkered Records. The sign, the store and the sole employee/owner have remained unchanged for 12 years. George Bertovich sits in the middle of stacks of stock 10 hours a day, six days a week. The only thing that has changed is Bertovich’s mode of transportation, which has gone from an old workhorse Volkswagon rabbit to a shiny black turbo Volvo 740.
Bertovich admits his store is not for everybody. It is small and cramped. His customers, who come from as far away as Columbus and Cleveland, seeking rare and hard to find merchandise, have to step over stock and each other to shop. The system of organization takes a while to get used to. But Bertovich is a living example of why growth is not for everyone.
What is your work philosophy?
No partners.
Take what people are looking for seriously. And use the network that you have cultivated for the last 20 years to your advantage.
Another part of the philosophy is ‘Don’t take anything for granted.’ With modern technology nowadays, X amount of people are not even going to want to leave their house to purchase something. One of the keys [to overcoming this] is service and giving people the feeling that you’ve heard of whoever they’re looking for.
Have reference materials so that if you don’t know something, you can just look it up for someone. It’s not rocket science, just pay attention. And don’t take your customers for granted.
How did you build your customer base?
Your customers have to know that, first of all, you can get what they’re looking for. And in the meantime, I get a feel for what they want and everybody’s happy.
Even though I’ve had almost 20 years’ experience, I’ve learned a lot just from customers expressing what they’re excited about, what they’d like to have, and what they want me to get for them. You could be doing this for a zillion years and somebody will always come up with something you haven’t heard of.
A lot of the stuff I did is based on customer feedback. I have to speculate on some stuff, but that’s normal for any business.
Have you ever had any employees?
I never really had any employees. It’s really a one-man operation. It’s a small store and I just wanted to do it myself. It really eliminated a lot of problems, such as employee scheduling — just all of the ramifications of having people work for you.
What are the advantages of working alone?
You don’t work for assholes.
You pretty much are responsible for what happens in the store. When you take work home, at least you know you’re not being underappreciated by some corporation and you’re doing it for yourself. Some people feel it’s the American Dream.
Has it been all you hoped?
I think it was a good career move, but you have to have the attitude that every day, you’re still going to learn more about your business. The types of customers I have are very aggressive as far as what they’re into and what they’re excited about. They share this information and it can only make a small business better.
You have to pay attention. If you’re not into it, if you don’t pay attention to your customers, you might want to look for another job.
What do you think you would be doing if you didn’t have this store?
I’d probably still be in a rock band.
I’d hate to think I’d be working for some chain, because most of the time you’re limited to what you can do for good customers. I just don’t think it would be as interesting. Plus, of course, I’m spoiled now.
I could see myself definitely getting into other things, but the store takes up so much of my time, that’s something I have to adjust in the future.
When was the last time you had a vacation?
I haven’t taken a vacation in 12 years. I’m planning on it soon … I think I’ll take a week off this year and my customers will completely understand.
Has the emergence of big companies such as Best Buy and Circuit City cut into your business?
Maybe at the beginning it did, but it’s leveled out because these corporate places can only give stuff away so long. Not just myself, but quite a few people have noticed the increase in prices, plus the decrease in inventory.
I don’t know, I just don’t feel like buying a CD and then looking at refrigerators.
It’s strictly music in here. There are no earrings or sunglasses. Like I said, it’s not for everybody, but there’s enough people that pick up on it that are loyal. A lot of my loyal customers see the corporate trend, not just in the music business, but all these other aspects of their lives and a lot of people don’t like it. Probably the biggest reason is service. Who can you talk to? You’re looking for something specific and unless you find it yourself, you may have a hard time finding what you’re looking for.
There might be a lot of people that support these corporate stores, as long as there’s never a problem. But as soon as there is a problem, they start to think twice about why they bought whatever they bought from them.
Have you ever thought about moving into a larger location?
Yeah. It’ll eventually happen, but it just has to be the right place. It has to be the right location. I’m not going to sacrifice a good location for just more room. The neighborhood is still a good location. It’s kind of centrally located, it’s near downtown and it’s near Belden Village.
Do you consider yourself successful?
I would say that I’ve built up enough steam over the years that I have quite a few loyal customers and my customer count has slowly risen. If I would have gone down, it would have been during the first five years. If I wasn’t into music as much as I am, I might not have had the patience in the early days to stick with it. I’m sure that translates to any business.
If you’re just doing it for the money and you’re really not interested in what you’re doing, somewhere along the line, the stress and uncertainty is going to get to you.
If anybody thinks it’s easy running a small business in 1999, then just do it and see what happens.