| Brown Does for Him |
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Page 1 of 3 The local franchise of the UPS Store chain, which has nearly 6,000 outlets worldwide, opened July 7 and business has been steadily increasing, Rivers said. He and his wife Stephanie own the franchise, an outgrowth of their wanting to remain in the Steubenville area to raise children. As Rivers says, he met his wife when she was studying for a masters in theology and he was studying for a masters in philosophy at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. "That and $2 will get us a cup of coffee," Rivers quips. Dig a bit deeper, and Rivers will tell you there are opportunities to serve with such degrees, in youth ministry or other functions for the church, but it becomes a question of being able to move and wondering what such jobs will pay to raise a family. Rivers and Stephanie married nearly two years ago. Her husband, a Navy pilot, had been killed during a 2002 flight training accident over the Gulf of Mexico. She and her two children have accepted Jason into their family and the family is anticipating the arrival of a child in this month. Rivers said with family in mind, he and Stephanie began looking into franchise opportunities to allow them to stay in Steubenville, which he said is an excellent place to raise a family. "Stephanie had suggested the UPS idea," he said. She had experienced using the store as a Navy wife in Pensacola, Fla., and said she missed the convience of having the service locally. Rivers said he kept studying other franchise opportunities and kept coming back to The UPS Store. "I should have listened to my wife in the first place," he said. "When you look into it, the business services, freight, shipping and printing and all the things we can do out of this little store, it seemed to be a great complement for the area." So, the Riverses sent an e-mail to UPS off the franchise inquiry area of The UPS Store Web site, and 14 months later, out popped their smells-like-new store. Except it wasn't quite that simple. Rivers explains the process included the initial contact, development of a business plan and then seeking bank financing and then finding a good location for the store. Developing a business plan wasn't something Rivers had done before, but he says it wasn't something that should keep prospective small business people from moving forward with their proposals. He said he received assistance from Joe Belinsky of the Small Business Development Center, whose services are available locally through the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce office. Further, he bought a copy of "Business Plans for Dummies," read it, studied it and set to work. What he produced was about a 10-page business plan from which the bankers asked for a bit more detail, which he provided. |