“Serving fine concessions since 2008”
That’s the branding statement for the Homerun Hut. It’s the concession stand at a local athletic club.
After some years of inconsistent operations, a young couple took on the operation for the summer. Her dad is the club president and opened the door.
They are a good pair. They’ve been dating for almost four years. She goes to school in Chicago, he in Fort Wayne.
The young man put up the cash for the inventory at the beginning of the summer. They have a typical menu of snacks: walking tacos, hot dogs, candy, freezer pops, popcorn, and soft drinks, sport drinks and water.
Every item is priced thoughtfully, shopped carefully and selected strategically. In fact, suggest a product and they will have an answer as to why they do or don’t carry it.
After a few bad Monday nights ($15-$30 gross) they closed the stand for those nights. But Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, they are open.
Andrew is 21. He’s been working for a few years in a soccer store. He’s on his second owner, for the store that is.
He was full of ideas when he started. (We had visited the store a lot.) He runs the website, runs the eBay store. He added a blog to the store website as a way to keep it updated.
He’s on his third major in school, but this one makes the most sense. (He has another three semesters in school.) Because of this major, he has an internship at the local paper this summer.
If you are keeping track, this 21-year old has three jobs this summer. He’s working in ebusiness for a bricks and mortar store, he’s a small business manager, and a starting journalist.
And he’s a normal nice kid.
There are young people who are driven. There are people who are millionaires at 13. There are people who grow paper routes into massive money machines. There are a handful of those kind of people.
There are, however, a lot of kids like Andrew. Laid back, hard workers, responsible, flexible. Normal. Next door.
But they are full of creativity and wisdom for the small business owner who decides to listen to the ideas of a 21 year old.
After all, they know a whole lot more about 21 year olds…than you do.
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Jon has been a regular reader and occasional contributor around here since 2006. Jon works as a pastor, but he understands business better than many so-called business people. He gets that it is about people, relationships, service, and yes, even love.
And his first article in his first week is about…a tournament where the concession stand is. An intuitive sense of personal brand integration.
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807110305
Jon, these are the stories that I love to find. They help me believe that there is many more positive things in our future than not. They teach me to continue to learn and push myself. They show me that we need to remember to listen to those strong, confident young voices more often.
We all remember being young and full of energy and ideas – but we tend to forget parts of that. Our youths were also in a different era… much as we tried to explain to our parents, grand parents, bosses, and such when we were that age. I want to have learned from that and help walk that fine line to protect & empower.
Kudos to Andrew for all the hard work – the rewards will follow in life.