“If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere... .” Ol’ Blue Eyes sung that about New York, but I keep hearing it said about Johnstown.
People always – and I mean always and for years – have been saying to me: “How in the world do you open a new business and make it successful in Johnstown?”
Sure, it’s tough to start a business, and folks are right to wonder how to do it. But the fallacy in that statement is assuming it’s somehow made more difficult in Johnstown.
Anytime you start something new, especially a business venture, its tough going.
My first business was started in 1982 in Portland, Ore. If you can remember 1982 well, you’ll recall the economy was tough. High unemployment and rising inflation were making life difficult for many.
It was not unlike today’s economy – only much more severe.
Katie and I opened Lasky’s Video Library, which turned out to be one of the first 500 video stores in the United States. We were concerned we were getting into a new thing too late.
Of course, by the early ’90s, there were probably 50,000 places to rent a video cassette in America.
But getting in and getting started was really tough. Bankers had no familiarity with home video, it was too new. Banks don’t tend to loan money for something they don’t understand.
Landlords were reluctant for the same reason. Even finding an insurance agent who would write a policy or an accountant who wanted to figure out things like depreciation schedules for a rental item with unknown shelf life was all but impossible. (There is quite a story to the accountant bit; that I’ll save for another time.)
These and many other issues were challenging. But all of it was made more so by the fact that we were 3,000 miles from home and did not know a soul.
Not only did we not have a single acquaintance to help us professionally, we didn’t have any built-in customer base by acquaintance. So there we were, starting a business that no one understood in a place where no knew us.
Fast forward to 1993, when we returned to Johnstown (after 11 successful years in the video business, I am proud to say) to open a new concept movie theater. Our idea was novel and, consequently, unfamiliar to banks, landlords, accountants and lawyers.
The big difference is they were not unfamiliar with me.
Both my lawyer and accountant were old family friends and professional confidants. The banker who agreed to lend us money used to wait for the school bus to Bishop McCort with me in the early ’70s.
My landlord and I first met in the first grade and toasted one another the night of our high school graduation. My insurance agent then and now was an old friend from Boy Scouts (Troop 13 at Our Mother of Sorrows) in the ’60s.
I still have my Troop 13 shirt hanging in my closet, and it fits me like a glove – which is to say I can get it on one hand. But, like an old glove, there was and is a comforting amount of support you can enjoy in your hometown.
In my experience, it makes the tough act of opening a new business a little easier – to say nothing of the built-in customer base of old friends and family.
Johnstowners encourage local entrepreneurship.
Over the past 15 years of being in business here, Katie and I have known the comfort of friends and neighbors rooting for our success.
In the tough world of working for yourself, that comfort is priceless.
These are some of the reasons why I try to encourage people at any opportunity to be a local entrepreneur.
Perhaps we should rewrite the song: “If you can make it anywhere, you can make it here. It’s up to you Johnstown, Johnstown.”
Andy Lasky and his wife, Katie, own and operate City View Bar & Grill and Westwood Plaza Theatre, both in Westmont. You can reach him through The Tribune-Democrat at tribdem@tribdem.com.
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ANDY LASKY | Brand new start of it
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