Couple Power

Photos by Kathleen McNamara

Husbands and wives seem to be thriving when it comes to operating businesses together in Southwest Florida.

This is apparent from a number of "all in the family" teams approached by Southwest Florida Business recently. Although some reveal their marriage/business relationships are tough in the sense that they tend to take business thoughts (and occasionally problems) home with at night, most agree they wouldn't have it any other way.

And, in most instances, their partnerships are all the more solid because they handle specifically designated functions in their businesses and tend to stick to them.

Nevertheless, spouses obviously learn to get a handle on all aspects of their operations, so in effect can double up if one has to go out of town, for example.

Copy shop control

Jennifer Pierson and husband Ken operate K.P. Copier Inc. in Naples. They had been in business together for a while before marrying about a year ago, and they now have an infant daughter, Nicole.

Formerly from Michigan, Jennifer worked as an office administrator, a qualification that would apply itself perfectly to the business, while Ken, formerly from Pennsylvania, had trained as a copier technician right out of school, making the partnership an almost seamless match.

Within the space of a few years, K.P. Copier has flourished to the extent that the couple has added two more people to their staff and are now looking for a fifth person to join their team.

Nevertheless, says Jennifer, it's tough work, not least because she cares for Nicole at the premises in addition to her functions with the shop involving the sale and servicing of copiers and providing copy services, typesetting, the supply of business cards and services such as making color copies.

Jennifer, who prefers keeping Nicole with her during business hours instead of sending her to a daycare facility, also does most of the marketing and advertising for the company. "It's nice to do business for yourself," she says, "but you have to try to switch off business out of your mind when you get home at night."

Still, she says, that's the time when she and Ken tend to do a lot of their creative thinking. "We bat around ideas," she adds.

Traveling by Two

Michelle Reynolds and husband Russell are partners in Gulf Shore Travel, a Naples business they started about two and a half years ago. Originally from Connecticut, they were both unhappy with their previous jobs, and after making the move to Naples decided on an agency on the strength of Michelle's previous experience in the same line.

Russell, incidentally, had sold cars up north, and was appalled by the conditions under which local salesmen have to operate. "No benefits, no salary and no steady sales," she says. "It was tough."

Despite being told the travel business was no cake walk either, the couple plunged in, and according to Michelle, Russell is now a "great" agent. He does the bookkeeping as well, while Michelle sets up trips for and keeps tabs on clients they send out on jaunts, of which cruises are by far the most popular. The couple is now considering hiring some outside sales people. "The business has improved steadily since we started," says Michelle, "and we get lots of referrals from satisfied clients."

According to Michelle, travel to Europe is popular at the moment, particularly to venues such as Italy, Switzerland and England. The twosome try to get in a bit of travel themselves each year, which they sometimes accomplish by chaperoning cruise groups.

Michelle and Russ indeed talk business sometimes at night, but, according to Michelle, it's because "we suddenly realize we haven't spoken to each other the whole day at work."

Computing Couple

Jinger (pronounced Ginger) and husband Hank DeMent operate ACME Computer Services Inc. out of Bonita Springs.

Both are former Southern Californians, she once a corporate headhunter mainly involved with recruiting scientists for companies, and he having worked in the health insurance business. They moved to Bonita Springs about four years ago, having chosen the area partly because "we had to have the ocean as well as the climate," according to Jinger.

Hank had recruited with a company that later went out of business, and the computer business idea surfaced as a direct result of his lifelong interest in computers and their functioning. "He was a computer hobbyist," recalls Jinger.

Hank came up with the idea and set about building custom computers, doing repairs and upgrades, and later, with Jinger's assistance, supplying individual training. Business networking was the next logical step, and what was once a home-based business has now expanded to premises at the Sunshine Plaza on Bonita Beach Road.

In mid-August, Jinger was busily redecorating a small classroom at the premises in preparation for offering training to individuals as well as business groups in various software that is part of the rapidly expanding market. "There's a big need for training in Southwest Florida," says Jinger. "It's like they say 'people only use 10 percent of their brains' -- well, the same goes for computers, which are often totally under utilized."

Jinger is stimulated by the fact that she and Hank (who has three daughters of his own, one about to enter medical school, and also a set of twins on college athletic scholarships) started off in humble fashion, but then progressed steadily. "We're happy, doing well, and we home school our son [Franklin], so he's part of the business as well."

Sewn up,

Southwest Florida's weather was one of the reasons why couple Melinda and Tim Knox exited the cooler climes of Northern Kentucky, and since their arrival about two years ago, they've established Ameristitch Custom Embroidery based in Fort Myers.

Tim and Melinda Knox at one of their embroidering machines.

From a Metro Parkway shop, the two sell their embroidered products locally and beyond. After a few years in the business, they are about to buy their fifth embroidering machine and have five full-time employees on their staff.

Tim, who has a separate business selling material for plastic courier envelopes, plastic bank deposit bags and medical specimen bags, devised the idea of an embroidery business when a friend showed him some examples of poor embroidery on a shirt he'd bought.

Melinda had been in commercial underwriting in Kentucky, but she exhibited a natural flair for embroidery, and before long the couple had bought their first machine. "Besides," recalls Tim, "she wasn't wild about the fact that salaries down here are half what they are almost anywhere else in the country."

Today, Ameristitch specializes in a wide variety of embroidery, including fish designs, which Tim says are extremely popular, as well as corporate and resort des