Couples Working Together – Laurie and John Olshefski

FOLLOWING THE SIGNS

Their business relationship began in a small shop in Seaside, Florida. Twenty years later, John and Laurie Olshefski are the renowned owners of four thriving retail locations: Shimmering Seas Jewelry & Gifts at Pier Park and in Seaside, Jake at the Beach at Pier Park, and Fitness Fetish in Seaside. The couple talks about their humble beginnings, their 28 years of marriage, and their commitment to faith, family and work.

PCL: Tell me about the first time you met.

Laurie: We met at a party when I was 16, and he was 19. This was in our hometown in Kankakee, Illinois, 1982. The first time I saw John, I’d just finished a musical , Hello Dolly, and I had my stage makeup on, and my hair was all up and I had all these curls on the top of my head. We passed each other in the hallway, and I guess he was attracted to me, but he was trying to make a joke, and he said, “You look like Medusa.” When I left the party I got in my car, and I told my girlfriends “He was really cute.” A few months later, I saw him at another party on May 28. He made me laugh so much, and that’s what attracted me to him. So, when I met him at that party, I actually asked him out. Our first date was at an amusement park with my parents.

PCL: How long have you been married? Do you have kids?

Laurie: We’ve been married 28 years. We didn’t have children until we were married 15 years. So, we have an 8-year-old daughter, Alina, and a 13-year-old son, Landen.

PCL: What was your first store? How did you decide to go into business together?

Laurie: Our first business was Fitness Fetish, which we opened in 1994. I’m also a fitness instructor. I’ve been an instructor longer than I’ve been in retail for 22 years vs 20 years of retailing. I taught five nights a week after my normal job. We both worked for government contractors at the Naval Base before we started our businesses, and he kept his job as a contractor several years even after we started our businesses. So, I’m one that has to constantly do things. I like change, doing different things. I was working at the naval base in Video Tele-conferencing, teaching five nights a week after work and had the idea of selling fitness outfits out of our home. I was doing all that and my company lost their contract. They had positions open on our network in Orlando and asked if I wanted to move. I didn’t. I had gone on several job interviews, and had offers at TV stations but I didn’t want to stop teaching to be a reporter … they wanted me to do a tri-state area…lots of traveling. I couldn’t fi nd the job I wanted to do without sacrificing my teaching. I searched for 6 months. My parents were in town from Illinois, and we were at church and I prayed at church. I was still teaching and running this small little fitness clothing business from my home.

John: And it wasn’t making any money.

Laurie: No, it wasn’t making any money. And I was trying to find another regular job to help pay our bills. So, we went out to Seaside with my Parents on that same Sunday afternoon, this was in ‘94 and there weren’t a lot of things in Seaside then, but it was a very pretty area and John said, “Laurie, why don’t you see about selling your clothing out here?

John: They were just building the site we were on. It was still under construction. There was nothing there, it was all dirt, but they were little tiny boxes. First building we went into was so small… Laurie: … about 250 square feet. I thought it was God speaking to us, and things were just kind of laid out. That’s been our whole journey in our experience with business. Opportunities have been put in front of us, and I just pray on things, and watch for signs and make decisions. And that’s our story.

PCL: How was that first year?

John: The first year, when I was working all day and then had to go work at the store until 9 o’clock… while she goes and teaches… Laurie: Yeah, he was still working at the base, and I taught in the morning at Seaside, worked at the store all day, then ran back to the Sports Park Health Club and taught evening classes. John: I went to the bank and asked to use equity from my car, and we used credit cards. We would’ve gone out of business the first year, but they were building a little bit bigger spaces on the corner, and we begged to get in there. And they are very picky about their vendors and we had somebody who worked there who was fi ghting for us to get the space.

Laurie: I taught fitness classes in Seaside, and some of the ladies that worked in Seaside took my classes, helped me as a merchant because they liked me as their instructor. I’ve met a lot of people and connections through teaching finess and yoga.

John: So, that first year, it wasn’t working. It wasn’t until we moved into the bigger space that we were able to carry more product and expand.

PCL: Did you think about giving up?

John: We still do.

Laurie: <laughing> No! No…

PCL: Tell me about your decision to open stores in Pier Park.

Laurie: When we opened the stores here in 2008, the economy was bad, and I had people say, “Why are you opening stores now?” Opening here in Pier Park has been one of the best things we’ve done, and all our stores are in the best locations in our two counties.

John: Some people think that if you just open a store in a location like Pier Park, you’re going to succeed or that you are very successful, and that’s just not the case. We were fortunate when we came in here… we had the opportunity to come in at the beginning, but it was diffi cult because it was just dirt, and nobody thought this area could support a mall like this.

PCL: Tell me what it’s like to work with your spouse. Do you have similar working styles?

John: She’s organized, I’m not. It works so that we are semi-organized. I don’t think we have a lot of confl ict or issues, as far as the business operations go, because we’re on same wavelengths… we discuss things to find the best solution. We don’t want to deal with something when we’re upset, so rather than attack it right then, we wait and talk it over. And by the time we’ve ended up talking, we feel like we have a plan.

Laurie: We have a very organized operations director, Jaime, who keeps us organized, too, so we both work to keep his part balanced out. We have different skill sets. I’m more of a spokesperson for the company. I handle more of the employee issues, promotions, marketing, things like that, books. John has an IT background, so he can network the computer systems together, back them up, install security systems, and if anything breaks, he can fix it. I don’t think we’ve ever had to call anyone else besides a locksmith to fi x anything.

John: I don’t do A/C work.

Laurie: Okay, other than A/C and being a locksmith, other than those things, John can do it. And that’s a blessing to our company. I couldn’t do that. And he couldn’t do what I do. So, together we’ve been in business for 20 years. And that helps when you have the skills within.

PCL: Does working together ever become difficult?

Laurie: Sometimes I tell him I’m going to fire him. Sometimes he says he’s going to resign.

John: I tell her I’m going to resign, I’ve already fi lled out my resignation, and she says, “No, you can’t quit,” and I’m joking around and say, “I am, I’m putting it in, I’m done. I’m quitting.”

Laurie: <Laughing> And I’m like, “If you’re done, you’re moving out!”

John: Quite frankly, I don’t have the responsibilities she does. She does more than I do on the business side of it. I do different types of stuff, but I have more flexibility in the things I’m doing, where hers are more deadlined. That’s what I think it is.

PCL: So, what about work/life balance? How do you make time for vacations, especially with the summer being your busiest season?

Laurie: Work comes home every day. Sometimes we have to tell each other to clock out. But we’re lucky because we are business owners. Our son is a soccer player, and to get on the field you have to be there by 3:30  not every job allows you to do that. So, to be able to be there for him, and to be able to get our daughter to dance class, we have to interrupt our day but we’re able to be there for them. Luckily, we’re able to make up that time while they’re asleep or on weekends.

John: We don’t take vacations in the summer.

Laurie: We usually do our things off season. Our kids see other friends going off to different places while typically we will have to work. But they get to do things that other kids don’t, like our ski trips in January, and other things they’ve done. We get to be at all their soccer games and dance recitals…. So, you have to look at your blessings, and try to even it out. I work a lot. And I vowed that the song, the “Cats in the Cradle” song, that would never be my relation- ship with my kids. Never.

John: I think in everybody’s life, there’s always going to be things you have to give up and things you have to adjust, to shuffle. There’s no perfect scenario, no matter what anybody does.

PCL: Could you manage your businesses alone?

John: Oh, I’d sell the businesses. I couldn’t do it all alone.

Laurie: Oh, I couldn’t either.

John: It’s just too difficult. Four businesses with 20-30 employees… I couldn’t keep up with it. I know what she’d do. She’d minimize the businesses, but she’d keep them open. Me, I’d sell what I could.

Laurie: We’ve made a pact. We’re in this together.

PCL: Do you have any advice for couples? Whether they are running a business together or just running a home?

Laurie: Always work on yourself. Don’t let yourself go. Go on dates. There were many years where we didn’t go out a lot, and it was probably more stressful on our relationship. But we go out, and we like to dance…

John: There’s not a particular thing that we’ve said – hey, we’re going to do this, this and this… For some reason, what we do just seems to work. We had power struggles when we started, but I don’t remember those. I’m a guy. I don’t think there’s a way to lay down a plan and say, we’re going to open a business, this is how it’s going to work, and this is how we’re going to be happy. I think it’s either going to work on the way you’re working together, or it’s not.

Laurie: When you’re in business, you have to see who has what skills, and support each other in those things… you have to marry those skills together to keep power struggles down, and learn to compromise, same as with a marriage. As a fitness instructor, I believe that to be a good leader, you’ve got to be in shape, you’ve got to have the stamina to keep up with everything that you’re doing and to keep a good attitude. Same with relationships, you have to keep working on yourself. There are many days when I’m tired, and I’m doing my cardio stair workouts and am thinking ’this is too hard’. But I do it because it keeps me going. It keeps me strong. You can’t get lazy. You have to work on personal development. You have to work on your skills, and you have to do things to keep yourself sane. For me, it’s working out and going to my church. When I’m doing everything that I think that I know to do, and I’m still having struggles, I turn it over to God. That’s been a big part of our success, too… having faith… from the beginning, the first opening.

PCL: What’s your next goal?

Laurie: To get our websites shopable. Our customers are begging for it. But either I do it right the first time, or I don’t do it at all. To me, in store customers are more important.

John: To get Laurie more down time, and get our websites going – well, that’s her goal. Mine is to retire.

Interview by Stephanie Dockery