Turning a Gut-Punch into a 7-Figure Retail Business with Stuart Benjamin

Podcast

Episode Transcript

Chris: Well, all right. Well Stuart Benjamin, welcome into the Everywhere Small Business Podcast.

Stuart: Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me.

Chris: we're so glad to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.

Stuart: Stuart Benjamin is a jewelry store. I'm a designer, jeweler, manufacturer. family has been in San Diego since nineteen forty nine. And in nineteen ninety seven the family sold the family business and I wasn't part of the sale. So at thirty seven years old I kinda got pushed out of the nest and said, Go fly and

Stuart: It's been very successful ever since.

Chris: That is fantastic. So I want to start about that origin story, Stuart. so your family had a family business. I was thinking that, especially if your dad or someone had it, that you would just assume the mantle and fold right in. But that didn't happen. That wasn't the case.

Stuart: No, that wasn't the case at all. actually I started the I star I started to work for the family in nineteen seventy eight. right out of high school. I actually was on my way to Tahoe to become a waiter and go skiing and doing all that other stuff. You know, that you do when you get out of high school, that or go to college. but my parents and my grandfather and my father, my uncle and my brother asked me to come and work in the jewelry business.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Stuart: my grandmother just passed away and they needed somebody to work with my grandfather, being part of the manufacturing design aspect of their business. They were wholesalers and retailers to the public. And so I said, Okay, you know, you don't need to go to college. This all one day will be yours. And being, you know, s eighteen years old, it was like, Okay, let's go.

Stuart: You know, that's what I expected. And

Chris: And so you so you jump in at eighteen. So that must have been pretty interesting, Stuart. Well you're eighteen, you're actually in the family business working. Some kids go to college, some kids go to the trades. as you started to grow up into your twenties being a part of that family business, did you see that as being unusual based on your peers and your cohort that you were growing up with?

Stuart: No, I thought it was I didn't know what to think. You know, I had no idea the concept of of working in a family business, going to college, getting a degree, getting going to work for somebody. I thought it became normal. You know, and I've learned over the years

Chris: Mm.

Stuart: it was normal to go into this type of industry with the family. and I've also learned twenty years later that it was normal for a lot of the businesses being sold

Chris: So as a family business, that must have been it's it's all that you knew 'cause it was the only job you had. But I mean it's a pretty interesting to work with your family day in, day out. Do you bring the work back home? Do you talk about work at home? Do you try to separate it out?

Stuart: I separate I didn't know.

Stuart: Parents got divorced, you know, when I was thirteen. So I really never expected, you know, I knew we had the jewelry store, but I never really expected to go into the business. I really actually had no clue about it. that was gonna happen. And when they asked, I felt it was the right thing to do. You know, it was still I I before that I was a waiter

Chris: Sure.

Stuart: at sixteen and seventeen in a five star or four star restaurant. So I was around people that had that liked design and and back then it was, you know, keeping up with the Joneses and I liked the tableside dining and I was attracted to that. And even before that I actually did like jewelry. You know, I I gave

Stuart: you know, girlfriends in school, I made little rock pendants and stuff like that. That that it was I I enjoyed it. I enjoyed as we say, I enjoyed the pretties. And

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Sure. So you you know, it's interesting that even that first part of it though, you talk about enjoying being even on the wait side, you know, service, talking with people, engaging with customers. I would imagine that that's kind of a through line in you and your business. We'll talk about that a little bit later with the personal service, but talking with people, understanding what they want, that seems to come pretty naturally to you.

Stuart: It does come natural. especially when you love what you do. You know. And I love having people open the designing having people open gifts, you know, at Christmas time with your name on the box. You know, a and everything else like that. There was just a lot I just enjoyed waiting on on the customers and designing.

Chris: Right. Right. Right. Right.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. So in so as the family business grew and you grew into the family business, you said you were thirty seven when the when the business sold. That's a lot of years between eighteen to thirty seven. That's twenty years of working in the business itself, probably thinking that it was just gonna pass on to you. as you started to work for twenty years, Stuart, what are the things that you learned in terms of the business? How did you start accumulating more skill about how to run the business?

Stuart: I learned I I worked with my it's kind of my father ran the showroom with my uncle and my brother. My grandfather ran the manufacturing part and the designing part at a shop with where they manufactured it. So I graduated to that gradually went into that with my grandfather. And it wasn't about back then God, back then,

Chris: Okay.

Stuart: they they really didn't teach you about the business. It was trial and error. If you did something wrong they let you know. You know, it wasn't about, well, go to school and learn this. It was on the job training. It was all about on the job training. So working with my grandfather and then in the showroom, I I it kind of came natural to me. You know, how to wait on customers, how to do the designing and

Chris: huh.

Stuart: If I did something wrong they let me know. So I didn't do it that way anymore. if I did it right, they didn't let me know.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: They just expected you to do right. So it's actually pretty interesting. So your grandfather worked in the back of the room building the designs, kind of the manufacturing. Your father worked on the show floor, kind of engaging with the customers. It sounds to me like you went back and forth. You did the design, you also did the customers.

Stuart: So

Stuart: And and I also you know, I also did the design. And and worked with customers. So I did all of it. From from back room to front room to, you know, sweeping the floors. I mean that's

Chris: Right.

Chris: Yeah. Now I

Chris: Of course. So so d with with that, was did you I I'm assuming that you found that that that balance actually to make you better prepared to run your own shop when the time would have come, right? Because you understood the manufacturing and design, you understood how to sell and talk to customers. Having both of those skills I think are critical to owning the whole business.

Stuart: It was critical. Especially when, you know, I went out, you know, I left the business a few times, you know, once at twenty four I left for a couple y two years and and what we called hustle jewelry and worked for another wholesaler. but when I when it ninety seven when they sold the family business, my father came to me and he said, I'm selling the business

Stuart: And I said, Great, I'll make you an offer. So I made him a couple offers and came back to me two weeks later and said I sold the business. Yeah. You know, so it wasn't I really wasn't prepared for it. because for years and years and years it was always about, you know, one day this will be yours. And then one day it wasn't.

Chris: No way.

Chris: Correct. That's the message.

Stuart: And what I talked about before is

Chris: Wow.

Stuart: I was grateful because I learned both aspects of the business. And all three aspects was the money, the bookkeeping part, okay, the front room, this sh which we call the front room or the sh the showroom, how to display jewelry and and how to work with clients and how to keep track of everybody's jobs and the backroom part of it.

Stuart: being the manufacturing and designing part. And knowing that aspect of the business pretty much was what saved me because when I went after I left the business in ninety seven or when they sold, the new owners came in and one of the it was a family that bought it.

Stuart: And one of the younger guys in the family went and took some merchandise out of the case to wear a gold watch. And I said, You can't do that, that's inventory. And he goes, I c well, we own the business now. And I called a friend of mine and said, Hey, this is what happened And she goes, Well, what are you gonna do? Says, Well, you know, I don't know. So we the we had a meeting with the new owners and I made them an offer and

Stuart: They told me that they were gonna pay me what my father was paying me and I'm going, That's fine, 'cause it was my father. You know, a and so I said, That's not gonna work. And they sep we separated ways.

Chris: Ugh.

Chris: Separated ways. So you had to at that point, you had to basically take all of your institutional knowledge, all the craft that you had learned, but you actually didn't have a place for it. You didn't have a business to apply it. So you had to make your own business.

Stuart: So I had to make my own business. I had a business partner in the beginning. She was a client of ours and I became friends with her family. And

Stuart: She goes, you know, she actually came over to the house and we were talking and she goes, Well, okay, well, what are we gonna do today? You know, and I says, We're gonna go open a jewelry store. It was you know, I I had a tie on and she goes, I guess we're not gonna go run around town. And I No, I said, We're gonna open a jewelry store. So

Chris: That's a great thing to do today.

Stuart: we called the San Diego Business Journal. It was a business paper here in San Diego. And they had a thing called the List. And the List was a series of banks that do SBA loans. So we called Bank of America, they never called me back. And we called Bank of Coronado. And her name was Aunt Nancy who answered the phone. And I explained to Nancy what happened

Chris: All right.

Stuart: and or what's going on. She says, Well come on down, we'll talk about it. So Barbara was my partner and she goes, Okay, well I better go change. So she went home, changed, came back, put a tie on, I put a tie on, and went down to the bank and told them the story and she goes, Well, you know, how much money do you need?

Stuart: And then I go, I could use a hundred thousand dollars. She goes, How did you come up with that figure? And I'm going, Well, here's how much a safe cost, here's how much showcases and everything that went down that I've learned in the past.

Chris: Sure, all of that all that ex all that institutional knowledge, everything you knew about it. Mm-hmm.

Stuart: All the institutional knowledge. And she goes, Okay, well let's see what we could do. And so she gave me a list. She goes, Do you have a business plan? And I said, Like, okay, what's a business plan? You know, I didn't know any of that stuff. That's the stuff I did not know. And she goes, Well, here's what you have to do. So she gave me a list of things I had to do.

Chris: Sure.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Stuart: And I went to seminars, went to score senior corps of retired executives. We already had a little location picked out, you know, right across from a SUSE restaurant where we used to eat lunch. And, you know, came back to her and with as much paperwork as I had. Learned how to type on Mavis typing, because everything was DOS back then.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Stuart: You know, and I got no help from my parents, my father. I I had a big resentment against my father. You know. So we didn't talk for three years.

Chris: Wow.

Chris: Sure.

Chris: I would right, I would I would think that that's the case. I I I think that that's where that squirrely part of the family business comes in because, you know, your dad you had a clear set of expectations, your dad, you know, had some expectations but from a business side decided to do something else, then you can see how it ruptures a personal relationship for a while.

Stuart: Yeah, i i it it really did.

Stuart: You know, and and I wasn't expecting it at all w when that happened. It was wow, that's a shock, you know, what am I gonna do now?

Chris: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: But you certainly did. So you got you got your business plan and you opened up shop.

Stuart: I got my business plan, we opened up shop, I had excuse me one minute.

Stuart: Let me turn this off. And I opened up shop. But we went to

Stuart: San Diego State College at the time, or now it's university, to the marketing department. And I told them what happened and they put together a marketing plan for us and a nice booklet this thick. Man, I'd love to find out, you know, for yellow pages and we designed a logo with them and they they at the end, you know, they put a presentation together in front of the class.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Chris: Nice. That's excellent.

Chris: That's you know, it's great for them and great for you, right? They want real hands on opportunities to do some marketing and you needed the help.

Stuart: Yeah.

Stuart: And I needed the help and they were a big help. You know, and the Bank of Coronado was a big help. I went back to the bank and she goes, Well, we need of some more information. And I'm going, This is all I got. And they go, Well, I go, how much is it for fifty thousand? That'll buy my showcases and and do a little remodeling the space we found.

Stuart: And she goes, here, fill out this piece of paper. So I filled out the piece of paper. I got an SBA loan for fifty thousand dollars. That's a start. I borrowed money from Barbara's husband. And so he got it the miles on his credit card.

Chris: That's a start.

Chris: Nice. Nice. You know what? You know, but that but that I think that's such a great story, Stuart, because here you are literally starting from scratch, zero dollars, and you've and you know how to do the you know how to run the business. You just need some help getting started in a practical way so you can actually operate the business that you know how to do.

Stuart: Yeah.

Stuart: Right. And it goes back the story'll go on, but when I was eighteen we used to do trade shows with the family for jewelry shows 'cause they were wholesalers. And the first show I went to my grandfather had a woman there who had a showcase that he gave her. And it was called Old World Chain. She just started in the business and my grandfather helped her out by giving her a showcase to sell her chain.

Chris: good.

Stuart: And I said, that's nice of you. So twenty years later, I go back to the same trade show and she's very successful. And I needed merchandise. And I went to her, her name was Madeline, and explained to her what happened and she goes, Whatever you need.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah.

Stuart: Your grandfather helped me. I'm gonna help you.

Chris: Yeah. You know, I what I love about that, that's a beautiful story, Stuart, because there's this thing that happens I think in the universe and of course why wouldn't it happen in business as well? That there's you put some energy out there and some, you know, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago it doesn't matter. Your grandfather made that overture, right? Put that energy out to her. Madeline brings it back.

Stuart: It put that energy out there and and Madeline brings it back because I picked out like five necklaces. And she goes, No, you can't sell five necklaces. Go pick out thirty pieces. And I brought back on a signature.

Chris: Right.

Chris: wonderful.

Stuart: P all she goes, All I ask is painting when you sell it.

Chris: Wow.

Stuart: So I did. And I went to other vendors and told them my story, my sad little story. And they goes, Shut up, man. It happened to all of us.

Chris: Get out of here with that sob story. That's hilarious.

Stuart: Yeah, she they go they go, You're the rule, you're not the exception here. And everybody helped me.

Chris: That's that's pretty funny. You know, I right, right. They they helped you. I I loved Madeline's story of saying, Look, when pay me when you sell it, don't worry about it, because she's extending that back again like she got the grace from your grandfather's extending the grace to you. so you started your business and now you've been when you started those first that first year plus must have been a real challenge for you and maybe it wasn't though. Maybe you just moved right in.

Stuart: Correct.

Stuart: I you know ignorance is bliss. I didn't I didn't know you know, I came back with a ton of merchandise and we opened up the store and I still re a friend of I still remember the first dollar. someone came in that we knew and

Chris: huh.

Stuart: I told here, you want to be my first customer? And he he couldn't find anything. And I'm saying, fine, okay. Then a a a friend of mine who came in and the first thing I ever saw was a pair of pearl earrings. And I asked him, I go, here, be my first customer. And he goes, That would be an honor.

Chris: wow.

Stuart: You know, and and they still and we're friends today. We were friends twenty years before I opened my own store. But he goes, Man, I'd love to be the first dollar in your safe.

Chris: That is awesome.

Chris: I love that.

Stuart: And from that day we took off and we did business. I mean it was I always believe in I don't lie, I don't have my grandfather kind of put this into me, instilled it in me. Because it was more that I worked with my grandfather that these people helped me than I worked with my father.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Okay.

Stuart: they are different aspects of the business. And my grandfather always told me, he goes, you treat people right and you and you give the quality in there and they'll come back and see you. And that way you don't have to worry about what you sell. That's the honest truth behind me. It's you know, we I sell what I love, the customers love me.

Chris: Right.

Stuart: Thank you. And I love my customers and I've seen that generational. I'm on third generation engaging wedding rings with people.

Chris: That's beautiful, Stuart. And and you know, it's so funny because you're in a business that is very personal, right? The jewelry bus it's the very few businesses as personal as jewelry, right? And that you don't just buy a product, you buy an heirloom, right? You buy something that is treasured for generations and then like you said, if you can get multiple generations to come to you, so you see entire families grow through their journeys through the jewelry that you make for them.

Stuart: yeah, I I I have I got one family in particular that my father well my grandfather sold the his engagement ring. I sold the kids their engagement ring. And now they have grandkids. They're not that old yet, but it's generational. It it and

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Yeah, that's fantastic. You know, and and I think though that you come by this really naturally because like you said, you were in the manufacturing, you were in the showroom. I think that, you know, are you now for well, first of all, I I guess a question before I ask the other question is do you have how many people are on your s team, right? You have you have people now that you've hired in the business.

Stuart: We have five five staff members. Okay.

Chris: Wow. And and and so as you learn from your grandfather, are you showing these staff members the right way to do things is through your own day to day?

Stuart: I'm showing the right way to do things and my grandfather was was stern. They all were stern, you know, product of the depression. And I've learned that that doesn't work these days.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Ha ha

Stuart: You know, and and for me I didn't want I was treated sometimes I was treated very poorly. It's your grandfather, what are you gonna say, you know? And was somebody here gonna come protect me from this man? And everybody goes, No, nope, you're on your own. Sorry. You know, we've dealt with them, now you can. and then they'll ask me what's for lunch. You know, after that. So

Chris: Right.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Right. Sure.

Stuart: with the staff, I I like to be a teacher. I've coached ice hockey for and play for many, many years. And I coached for twenty years. So I like the the staff d I like to teach the staff that the way we like to have things done.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Stuart: I really didn't have to be taught the way to treat people. I just I treated my customers and my staff opposite the way I was treated growing up in this industry. And

Chris: Right. You know, it's inter you right y that you learned who you didn't want to be and decided to be somebody else and to be the person that was probably truest to yourself anyway.

Stuart: Right. Correct. Yeah, i my temperament and everything else, you know, I grew up with stern people in the industry. And that's the way they were back then. And and today I d I don't want to be that person. And so I'm not that person. I I I want my staff to come in and enjoy the customers, enjoy the pretties.

Chris: Yeah.

Stuart: it's an elegant industry. It's elegant people. It's not a one time sale. you can't service everybody and if they walk out

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Stuart: They're never gonna say a ki a bad word about us.

Chris: Right. Yeah. No, I I love that that ethos, Stuart, because even if they don't become a customer, they leave feeling good about who you are and what you represent as a business. And they may not be a customer now, but it doesn't mean they won't be a customer or refer someone else to you.

Stuart: Yeah. And I've had people come in and say, I was referred by this person or that person You know, and they didn't get anything from you but they just said you're a real nice guy and your staff was was educational and and they bought from us.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Sure. So especially now, I think that with all the information that's on the internet and you know, there's a bunch of stuff on TikTok and Instagram and the like, there's a lot of misinformation out there as it relates to jewelry. what is it about you and your team? you just mentioned education, how education's such an important piece of what you do with the customers to let them know what might be best for them or what they might need to stay away from.

Stuart: We we look at it of what to stay away from, what's best, best practices. Look at we f I've been in this industry, you know, since seventy-eight. So we were here when I remember buying our first fax machine. Okay. You know. I remember when the internet came out and and things like that. So

Chris: Yeah.

Stuart: It was we fought the internet and now we embrace it, you know. It was like, okay, I'm gonna stand behind the wall and yell at you like you do when you're on the internet. And people used to bring in a file of all this jewelry and and diamonds and everything else and you know, now in the beginning you fight it and then you go, you know, wait a minute, that's silly. This is this is here to stay.

Stuart: The more education my customers have, the

Stuart: I am fine with that. I I'd rather have be educated. That way we could educate more.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Sure, and they're open to it. You know, it's an interesting thing. You talked about the three aspects of your business earlier. You talked about kind of the money and the business side, the manufacturing and the showroom side. For jewelry in particular, it seems like there's this interesting tension between art and commerce, right? There's the the craft there's a craft of it, but there's also the business side. Which which of these sides do you like most or do you like them all the same?

Stuart: yeah.

Stuart: good question. As they always say. I like the craft and the artistry side of it. I like waiting on the customers, you know, and helping them find something they love. The b and the business aspects, there's something about that too. You know, th it's something that needs to be done.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Stuart: You know, it it and I had I was I operated for ten years before I brought in a you know, once a week bookkeeper to do the the the balancing of the banks. You know. I did it all myself. And my grandfather once again used to come in on Mondays on well no Sundays and do inventory and tag rings and things like that and I used to come in and help

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Okay. You did it all yourself.

Stuart: So i I like all three aspects, but I in my weighing years, I I like now the designing aspect of it and and the waiting on the clients is one, two and the bookkeeping is three.

Chris: Mm.

Chris: Sure. Well, there's a I would think that there's this really beautiful emotional moment where your craft and artistry of the design fits exactly what a customer would want and you know they're gonna bring that into their home and most importantly bring it into their lives, right? They'll p probably be wearing the piece every day of their life. And so to have your art on someone's hand every day, it's actually a beautiful that's a beautiful moment. It's a beautiful thing.

Stuart: It's Jewelry is beautiful. You know, jewelry is it's just not a piece of jewelry that you, you know, come come here and we're gonna give you sixty percent off and you know, come pick up this Valentine's Day gift and and it that's all done through marketing. But for me, jewelry is

Stuart: She gets dressed up, or he gets dressed up, and they go over the jewelry box and they pick out the final touches, the cherry on the cake, or the cherry on something, and they put it on and it tops off the wardrobe. And that's what I love about it, because I'm part of that. You know, and if you don't have a good experience buying a piece of jewelry for your loved one,

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: You are.

Stuart: and your partner or whatever it is, it defeats the purpose of of anything. I mean that's the whole idea behind it is is to open up the box and, you know, see a beautiful piece of jewelry that she could put on or he could put on and get compliments from, you know, the their friends. You know.

Chris: Sure. Well and also also too, I think what what I think is interesting is you start managing this business now. I mean, you started a a long time ago and you began in ninety seven. Now it's well it's gonna be twenty twenty seven. It's a long time, thirty years. Lots have changed. You know. I would imagine at some point. so I

Stuart: Yeah, no kidding. It's a long time. It's a long time. And I and I have to admit, I'm I'm a little tired.

Chris: question for you, Stuart. Do you s you do you work still full hours? I mean, are you still in the office, you know, X number of days a week?

Stuart: I'm still I'm still in the office. We're open Tuesday through Saturday. close Sunday Mondays, since that was a COVID thing. And I'm here on a Monday. But I'm here on a Monday picking diamonds, designing, putting different jobs into the shop. it's like hold on, you know

Stuart: going through you know, pieces like this. Okay, or

Chris: Wow.

Stuart: You know, these all get to be designed and get to put in the shop. So that's what I get to do on a Monday and and I don't mind it.

Chris: wow.

Chris: Sure.

Stuart: You know, we have trays of of gems, you know, with with color chain sapphires and all the different gems and things like that that I buy at gem shows and then I design around them. And that's what I like doing on my days off.

Chris: Wow.

Chris: Sure.

Chris: Right. Well you know what? It's funny it's an interesting thing, right? Because the business is your life and your life is the business. I mean, Stuart, the business is your name, right? It's Stuart Benjamin Jewelry Designs.

Stuart: It's Stuart Benjamin jewelry designs and that's you know, I I feel

Stuart: I was that's kinda like I was put on the planet to to do. You know, that's make people happy, enjoy it. I enjoy it. all businesses have trials and tribulations and ups and downs and staff members get sick and and and things like that that happen. businesses get sold from underneath you.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: But it gives but you know it's interesting though, I'm wondering if you wouldn't have been able to achieve what you've achieved now if you were still in the family business, right? If this by starting, even though you didn't want to at the time, but by starting from scratch you could actually have your own vision of what you wanted to do.

Stuart: Which actually

Stuart: I've actually yes. I used to admire people that came in the store, contractors, accountants, they built their own business, you know, and and I've always thought I had an easy way. and I admired those guys, self made people. And it took me a long time to realize that I'm one of those guys now.

Chris: Yeah.

Stuart: You know, I I we built the business and I couldn't build it by myself. I couldn't have done this without my partner Barbara.

Chris: Sure, but that happens with every business. No one does it by themselves. They have

Stuart: Noah could do I had I had a great team behind me from the teenagers from San Diego State to the guys from Score, who saw us, Well, you're crazy to open the jewelry store on a second level. And I go, I didn't you guys aren't here for to tell me not to. You're here to tell me how to.

Chris: Mm.

Chris: Yep.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Right. Tell me how to do it.

Stuart: And and that's my my teachers is is and and my mentors are in this industry. and

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. You know, i I love that. I love that you've become the person that you admired when you were younger. You've become a self made man.

Stuart: I have become a self made man. I have become

Stuart: I I don't like the term you know, I I've done it in a time where I thought I was a workaholic and then I realized no, I'm not hiding behind anything. I enjoy what I do and my customers enjoy what I do. And I'm learning to now trying to get a staff behind me. We've had some changes in staff. that I wanna do take a little time off. I do wanna travel a little more. I'm six months

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

Chris: Sure. And and and you know, that's what's interesting to me too, is the question now is you might not even know the answer to it, but the legacy of your business has already been established. The question is when you choose or when you figure out when you step back, right? When you stop doing certain things and maybe you only do the jewelry design, maybe everything else you leave to your staff. I'll be curious to see this next transition for you.

Stuart: Me too. Me me me me too. I it's you know what's funny because I sit in the showroom and and someone will go, Well who's Stuart Benjamin? You know, are you a chain or wh where are you guys? And my employ my employee's been with me for twenty years. And he goes, No, Stuart's sitting right over there behind the desk You know, and I go out and I say hello and I wave to him and say, Welcome

Stuart: You know, it's kinda like breakfast at Bernie's, you know. I I don't wanna be that guy but

Chris: Yeah, but but you wanna be there 'cause you're the f you're the face of the business and

Stuart: I I I'm the face and and I still I still love the business. I get annoyed sometimes but I still love the business. The clientele has changed because a lot of the younger people, you know, we got a lot of trials going on. But as long as I keep doing what we want to do and the service and the quality is there,

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Yeah.

Stuart: There always will be clients and those are the clients I like because they appreciate what we do.

Chris: Yeah.

Chris: Hundred percent. Right. That I was gonna ask about the changing dynamic of the new customer type. But if they if you're still providing that bespoke quality, that these designs that they can't get anywhere else 'cause you made them and that's something that they appreciate and like, then they'll always be a market and they will always be customers.

Stuart: There's always a and there'll always be customers. Now, you know, th there's customers, they're they they call i it goes from customers to clients to guests. You know, everybody comes up with this, you know, this term and and I still look at they're all customers. I provide a service, I make something and and they come in and they like to buy it and they're they're customers.

Chris: Right.

Stuart: They're friends, their family. I been to you know, from from a brisk to Wakes. And weddings and everything else, I I and I just walked a client of my a customer of mine, they the family's been with me for for thirty years. And I just kinda walked her halfway down the aisle. And it's like

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Chris: Wow.

Chris: that's marvelous.

Stuart: Me? Why why me? Because Stuart, you've been with us you remember you were there when I was born. So that's what I like.

Chris: That's beautiful. That's what fantastic. Well, I think you're an awesome business. I think you're an awesome man. And I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us here on Everywhere Small Business.

Stuart: Okay. Thank you very much. I enjoy it and I'd love to come back and do it again sometime. Bye bye.

Chris: Sounds great. Take care. Bye bye.