The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 9 with The Longenettes and TJ Stewart

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Welcome back to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson, as always, with Wendy Anderson, and we've got three special guests with us for this episode. We've got three entrepreneurs in the room. We were talking, we noticed we had this kind of crowd out in the other room and we were like, you know, it would be interesting if we just pick the brains of three entrepreneurs and just got a kind of an entrepreneurial showcase for one episode. We've got Doug and Stacey Longinette and TJ Stewart, who has talked to us previously and we're hoping to get some incredible insight on what it's like to own a business and open a business and go through that entire process. So, Doug and Stacey, first of all, thank you guys for coming on so much.

We really appreciate your time. And we're excited to talk to you guys. You're welcome. We are just – we listened to – during our break, we were listening to you three talk about owning your own businesses and the struggles that you had. And we really thought this is something that we couldn't miss. So we wanted to bring you on as all three of you together, which this is something different for us, to talk about the local business, your businesses, because you all three have businesses. We already heard from TJ about his business. What's your business? We own Route 40 Lumberjacks, which is an axe throwing venue that's

also a pub. And it's, as the best way described, it's an adult's playground. And also children can have fun too. We have air hockey, ping pong, pool tables, dart boards, the old 24-foot shuffleboard. We have, of course, the axe throwing. We have a portable axe trailer. Dunk tank. Dunk tank now. And we have a lot of new things coming.

We have a lot of games that we haven't even set up yet. We've emptied out some of the storage units. We're adjoining up to the pub and made an outdoor venue. And we got the turf off of St. Clair's old football field. They were throwing away, and we put it outside. And even still has the 20-yard line number two on there. And it's getting some great reviews. And we have live bands on Fridays and Saturdays.

And we have karaoke on Fridays. And Stacey does all the scheduling, all the booking and all everything. I will say, as a Harrison Central football player, I always want to know on that field that you guys now have. 2019 was a long time ago. But I want to talk to you guys about how you treat ideas, because when you guys do so many different things, and it's kind of just just a variety of things and TJ, you could speak to this as well.

There's always that sense that, okay, I have an idea. How do I want to treat it? How seriously do I want to treat it? And you guys seem like every idea that comes to you, you just put it into action and it seems to work out incredibly well for you. So what's that process like kind of internally in your mind? It's a lot of thinking. We do a lot of talking. And what's funny is when Stacy and my niece would go away on trips,

they went to Charleston, South Carolina, and they went to a bar and had garage doors and it was really neat to make it an outdoor venue. So they sent me a text saying, hey, we've got to do this. And what's amazing is the old building had windows there prior. And there used to be a bar back in the 70s called Scotty's, and it was a bowling alley. So we took an old building and we converted it into something a lot newer, and it really worked out well.

So whenever they go away somewhere, it always costs me a lot of money. It makes me work a lot harder because they all get great ideas. But a lot of them are just customers. We listen to the customers. What do you want? That's good. What do you like to hear? You know, the old air hockey was big when we were young.

Oh, yeah. We have an old air hockey game there. It's just fun stuff. So do you have people that say, oh that like negative Nellie's like no no that's not gonna work so how do you I like I said TJ I read this letter that was a negative Nellie letter and how do you guys put up with negative comments from people it's hard and I it's, but we just don't pay attention to it because there's so much positive.

There's so many people saying good things about all of our businesses, and we just don't listen to it because it'll just get you down. It'll get you caught in that rut, and we have a few of them, and they know who they are. I don't know how they look. And they're just not, they just, I don't know how they look in a mirror in the morning sometimes because they get up in the morning just to make someone's day bad. And we're just the opposite.

We're here to help people. We're here to do things. We have great employees. We have a couple great businesses going there. We have the laundromat, which is Sudger Duds, and we also have Rustic Roots, a hair salon, and then we have a small campground, and then we also have storage units. So the storage units surround the actual pub itself, and we've eliminated some of the storage units and

made it part of the pub. So our liquor license go all the way around the building and it makes it very nice so how hard is it not that i have any ideas at all but if i had an idea to start a business in downtown st clairsville how hard is it what do you have to go through and are there people that stop you from getting to that ultimate end which is opening your business so how hard is it to open up a business you have an idea right but i was listening to you guys talk i i don't it's it wasn't as near as hard for us because we've had previous businesses ourselves even before stacy and i were together she had businesses and i've had businesses. Always had side businesses.

But what we would like to do and what TJ and I were talking about, it would be nice if it was a one-stop shop where, hey, I want to start a blah, blah business. Go to someone in the county and they can tell you who to see in the state, who to go, what license you need, all this and that and everything else. Now, when we started our pub i cannot say this enough but the health department was great to us the liquor control was great to us the people that but we you know they we had to be informed on who all we needed inspected by and what type of licensing and things like that kind of after the fact yeah and and we had to find out the hard way you know one person would say oh you need

this from the liquor you know and just from the health department you need this from you know and and there's just such such major expenses to an initial startup business i i feel bad for anybody wanting to try to do it just because they have to listen they they're going to come across expenses that they don't realize they have to do as far as permits and some they don't have to do some some are unnecessary expenses because you don't know right it's uh you're plumbing you're electrical everything has to be inspected because you're commercial. Great. I understand that because there's a lot of people trying to just get through, you know, do things the wrong way.

But you've got to pay an architect to come do your drawing. I was going to say an architect. Yeah, a drawly. Then you have to submit it to the state for the approval. And then you wait. And wait. Everything is timed. the state for the approval and then wait and wait everything is time and then and they all everybody works together which which again i understand it but we're just a small little business trying to start up and it's not like we're investing millions of dollars like these

like just say the new truck stop they're putting out there i mean those people have a lot of money for just us little hometown guy people it's it's rough i mean it's uh it would be nice if there was something to help generate businesses in the valley and say you know let's help the ones that are here yeah and let's start let's start doing some things for the the you know like tj tj started how many businesses also we've you know we and stacy had a uh tanning business before she's had numerous others she had a cleaning business the same time i had a cleaning business and we probably were bidding against each other on jobs and we didn't know each other back then that was and then once we got together and then she's like i said she's my right and left arm she

does all the books she does all the ordering for the bar. She does, I mean, she, she's, she gets, what's bad is everybody thinks I own the place and we own the place. I was introduced by, to one of our customers introduced me to his girlfriend as the owner's wife. My head was spinning. Did you correct, did you correct him? Oh yeah.

I bet you did. Yeah. Yeah. And somehow I feel like I got in trouble on that. You did. So how important is it for you guys to stay in the Ohio Valley? And the Ohio Valley to me is Ohio, West Virginia, and the bordering counties that we have and the bordering states. How important is it for you to stay here in the Ohio Valley?

This is home. We were raised here, born and raised here. When I graduated high school, it seemed like 100 years ago, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia for just a short period. And there's no place like home. And truly, that's what brought me back here the people known people knowing your neighbor like tj and i we probably don't talk to each other other than we see each other out casually but i know he's a true friend if i need something

i know i can call tj and he knows he can call me right that's what you don't see in the bigger cities and that's what i love about the Ohio Valley. I totally get that. I'm totally on board with that. Yeah, we want to encourage the young people to stay here and we need to have businesses that they want to work at and you know, so. There's so much of there's nothing to do. I hear that all the time from the young people. And you guys are a perfect example. Oh, yes, there is. Look for it. Find it. You've got to find it.

If you build it, they will come. And they have. They have. Pretty awesome. Thank you. You even had it on a trailer. And you brought it in downtown St. Clairsville. Not only did you bring the axe throwing, you brought a rug.

You brought a ottoman, you brought checkers, you brought the Jenga, you brought all of that. That was like, it was like you brought your basement, you know, up to St. Clairsville, which was amazing. Well, it's not just amazing. I'm going to plug you guys here. It's not just amazing. They're not making any money doing that. Right. Oh, yeah.

They're not making money doing it. They're doing that for the community. All of that is not, they're not coming in there walking away with cash in their pockets from that. They're doing that because they care about making events nice like you have uptown. And there's credit due to that. There's a lot of credit due to that because it used to be that way. It's not that way anymore. So if you find a business that does that, treat them like they're treating you.

And that's why we say all the time on this show that there's nothing more important than giving back to and reinvesting in your own community. And that goes super, super far. And I don't know that you guys look at that as a sacrifice, but you look at it as kind of being charitable and just giving back. And that's certainly appreciated, and it helps the community all the way around. And we appreciate that as well. What we're doing out there is we're reinvesting every penny we make. And Stacy's a full-time realtor with a holding agency,

and my real job is United Dairy. So I've been there 32 years and truly we work out there eat Stacey works during the day and she shows houses during the evening and and I work at the dairy during the day and I'm out there in the evening so it's and then we were lucky enough our kids are couple of our kids are involved our youngest son helps us with a business and our middle daughter Chelsea she she not only runs a beauty shop she helps us with books so it's a family affair and it's a it's helping we couldn't do it without everybody and

again i can't overemphasize about the employees so that's another thing like stacy started to hit on that we need to keep people around here that want to work. I mean, this stuff of people saying there's no jobs out here and there's no, trust me, there's jobs out here. United Dairy is hiring all the time. But it's work. And you've got to come in there and you're going to be low man on the totem pole and you're going to work the harder job at first

and you're going to work into a better job. Same way with us. We're always looking for good people and we have roughly 20 employees out there now. Wow. And now they're all part-time, and everybody's got other jobs. But, again, we have a gal, Char, she runs our laundromat, and she's the manager there, and she keeps the employees straight there

and keeps it going. And Chelsea runs the beauty shop, and she does our books. Other than that, the rest fall on Stacey and I, but with but with great employees i mean we can't overemphasize that and that's why we need to help educate help you know show these young people there are things to do and let's help them start their business i mean we've helped a few um a couple of them can't get out of their own way they don't realize it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time. And I actually used to speak on the Governor's WEA Board for a little bit, the Workforce Investment Act, years and years ago.

And I spoke to young kids. And I would tell them, hey, go home and look in the mirror. And in 10 years, look in the mirror again. That's the only person you can blame where you are today. Because here I am, just some dumb high school educated person you know we're not millionaires or we're not you know we work hard for every penny we have but we have nice things but we work very hard for it too so i think that's awesome i and you know and i love the idea that you both give back to the community i know that that you guys have people coming in, groups that are coming in.

You always do everything that we ask you for Rotary, even though I make the wrong date. Yep, then I'll never forget that. And that's what's nice, because then you bring more people's eyes to your business. And that's what I think is important because we need to get more people to come, like I said, come through St. Clairsville, but to travel on 40. We have so many wonderful things going on, businesses that people just don't see. And you're right. They can't get out of their own way. And I mean people, because they're focused on getting to from A to B. Take a breath.

Take a time just to go follow Route 40. Or anywhere else, if you're traveling, go the back roads, because there's so many different things to see. And you guys are making it so easy um for people just to i mean you've got a great parking lot and you know i know i when the oil and gas industry was like booming your suds and you said your duds was exploding i i mean you guys were doing but it's such a cool concept i don't. I don't know anyone that does that, but you guys started that. We talked about with TJ on the previous one about traffic

and traffic being deviated from the interstate onto 40 and people having to pass through there not by choice but because they have to. Do you sense that you get more folks when there's an accident or whatever and folks have to get off on 208 and they have to go through 40 and go between Morristown and St. Claare'sville do you sense that more people stop through is that is that something that you guys pick up on or or do you get many outsiders people not from the area i think we're kind of hidden like people don't know we exist right and we don't know how to get the word out the only advertising we really do is on facebook um but Facebook but once people realize what we are then we kind of have a hook like

word of mouth has been yeah yeah I mean we had some people from Epworth Park that were here for two months and they were three days ready to go back to Florida and they happened upon our place and they're like we drove back by here I don't know how many times and we finally really finally stopped in and they're like we drove back by here i don't know how many times and we finally real we finally stopped in and they were there every night until they left oh wow so it's you know i don't know how to get the word out you know have you guys ever ever i'm not saying you should do this or you know it's bad that you're not but um i just wanted your opinion on have you ever looked into to a billboard i just would like to know how effective they are if you guys have looked into that at all we did have a billboard we did the billboard going

coming across right there coming into Bridgeport okay when you come across the interstate yeah I would say we had a few new people maybe came in but not a lot word-of-mouth is our best form of advertising I mean marketing is you know here we are at the radio station but I used to sell radio ads as well. But, you know, it's an intangible, it's hard to determine how people hear of us. But the best thing is word of mouth for us, honestly. But truly, with the type of business, utilities crush us. I mean, propane is amazing.

Propane and water. You know, everything that's going on and everybody's private homes are happening to our businesses as well everything's gone through the roof i mean we have not raised prices to the level that we should have just because a lot of people using our laundromat are people that don't have the washers and dryers at their house for us to raise it to what we really needed it would be too expensive for these people to use so we're trying to we're kind of doing a service there for the community as well i know people don't see it that way because they say it's still expensive

but look around i mean it's uh it's gonna do what you gotta do yeah and uh utilities again if you know you see what it's done at your house oh Oh, yeah. Imagine what it's done with our businesses as well. And I just hope that the federal government, I hope the local government, I hope everybody comes up with an idea and ask the three of us, what can we do to help? Because I've had commissioners say things to me. What can we do to help? But when it comes down to it, there's really

nobody out there has ever said, we weren't business long enough to get all the free money from COVID in the state. We were six months shy over the two years. We only had two real employees and that was all fresh on our businesses. So that would have

been the only handout that we would ever receive from the government. But I just feel if we could all get together, let's small businesses in the Ohio Valley, I don't care if you're in Wheeling, where you are, let's all get together, all the chamber of commerce. Yeah, absolutely. And we belong to Barnesville and St. Clairsville.

And let's all help each other. That's what we need to do. Her and I talk about that on almost every show, how important it is to reach across the aisle or go over the river, literally, and work with different businesses and different people and build those connections on either side of the river and all throughout the valley. Especially when, of course, the way costs are, and I don't know, maybe TJ, I didn't get a chance to ask you this either,

but I don't know if there's much room for an advertising budget. That's got to be quite difficult for you. It's rough. And so word of mouth is really your vehicle. And because of that, what's very important, and I'm sure you would agree, is the kind of connections that you can build. You know that somebody can come through and enjoy themselves at your place, and you can have faith in them to go tell their friends and recruit five of their buddies to come

and show up the next night. Yeah, there's so many things, you know, that people don't realize the underlying cost. Workers' compensation. Yeah. You can get in a group and it'll help you, and that's a whole nother show, I'm sure we could sit and talk about.

Yeah. And there's groups out there that do help you, that help you a little bit more affordable price. But you have that. You have your taxes. You have your sales tax. Every time you turn around, there's somebody else. You know, your property tax has gone up.

Everybody had a notice. And if, God forbid, you're late on any of those, you'll find now they hold the liquor license hostage. Really? If you're late on anything, they'll suspend your liquor license. Really? Oh yes, absolutely. They'll suspend that in a heartbeat and you cannot function until everything is satisfied. So if you have a period where you're struggling and you can't keep up, you better keep up or you're going to get further behind. It's rough. So you have to make

some sacrifices, I'd imagine, in times like that, and you might have to find a way to maybe not spend as much in a certain period of time. And where usually, I don't know if that's ever been the case for any of you, but if that's ever been the case, where do you usually go in terms of we need to save a little bit of extra cash because we're in a tough spot right now? Well. Our own pocketbook.

Yeah, we're the bank. Is that it? Well, because you don't want to hurt the business and you don't want to take away from the customers. I get that. And the quality, you don't want to, you know, shorten the quality. And raising prices is not the answer either.

Right. They'll notice. And someone down the street will, you know, And raising prices is not the answer either. Right. It's just not. Yeah. Wow. They'll notice. They'll notice. Yeah. And someone down the street will, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's all around hard. It just really is. But we're in it for the long haul. I mean, we're.

It's worth it. I was going to say, the payoff must be. It's worth it. Yeah, it is. And you think about it. Every day, you feel like it's Groundhog Day was going to say the payoff must be it's worth it yeah it is and you think about it every day you feel like it's groundhog day

when you get up and oh I gotta you know she's gotta go do the liquor order this afternoon and she's gotta do this do that and then we have

Queen of Hearts tonight and it's up to over $15,000 but that's been a big you know Monday night really there's nothing going on and we keep ours

we give out more of the money and so we don't want that big pot like some of these other locations so it gets it gets uns it just gets unsafe really that many people crammed in a little place so we just try we we want to make more people happy and we'll give away more of their own we we're just giving their money back is all we're doing we don't make any money off the Queen of Hearts. No, it's 100% payout. Well, I think three of my favorite people,

and I truly am very grateful that you stayed, TJ, to listen to this and to give us your opinion. It really is important. It really matters to the Ohio Valley and to each one of you guys so um drake yeah i'd say we're about out of time for this again tj we really appreciate you coming on and appreciate everything you do um and you guys as well we uh we hope to have more conversations with you in the future uh but we've had uh doug and stacy longinette tj stewart wendy anderson and i'm drake watson as always for our viewers, you can, with any kind of feedback or suggestions,

you can reach us at ouepodcast at ohio.edu. That is ouepodcast at ohio.edu for any comments or suggestions. Once again, I'm Drake Watson, Wendy Anderson, TJ Stewart, Doug, and Stacy Longinette. And thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.