Veteran Stores
Owner: Christian Staples
Salt Lake City and Park City, UT
“I started out just servicing hot tubs while I was in high school. [I] lived right by Park City [Utah] and all you had to do was put an ad in the Yellow Pages and you had as much spa repair business as you could handle,” says Christian Staples, owner of Arctic Spas Utah.
In 1995 his father encouraged him to open a retail location in a well-known building in Park City and then in 1999 as part of an agreement with Arctic Spas, he opened a location in Salt Lake City.
“A mistake I made when I added Salt Lake, [was that] I had a generic location,” Staples says. “I went off of, ‘what do I think I can afford rent wise,’ instead of, ‘what’s going to bring me in the most business.’” Staples remedied that mistake though and found a location with visibility that helped him cut his advertising costs.
Other ways Staples has learned to keep costs in check is by being careful not to over hire, not being afraid to outsource when necessary and holding everyone, including himself, accountable.
“I firmly believe in personal responsibility, so I’m constantly trying to get the employees to be their own boss,” Staples says. “I don’t have multiple layers of management, so I try to reinforce that all the time.”