A GREAT WEEKEND FOR MUSKOKA TOURISM

If your local retail business, didn't have a good weekend financially, here in Muskoka, you're doing something wrong. You need to change your protocols. It was one of the busiest Thanksgiving holidays I've seen in a decade. Maybe longer. Even as we mire in the obvious problems we have, in the mainstream business section of Gravenhurst, from ongoing road construction to the unfortunate problems of fire and its aftermath, there were lots of folks visiting our town because it's in one of the most beautiful regions on the planet. Tourists don't come to retail-shop only, but they will shop if and when they choose. But it's the magnificent backdrop of this hinterland our visitors most enjoy. Shopping and residing here for vacation, is a bonus to the local economy. Our own main street business, operated by our two sons, had a solid Thanksgiving week, and will go into the off-season, or shoulder season, knowing they had an above average year, not just in sales, but in their service capacities. They also moonlight at several other jobs, and this has worked out well additionally.

Their success has come at a huge cost. They went right into business, shortly after graduating high school, and gave up a fair bit of social life, and girlfriends, to dedicate themselves to the vintage music and guitar / drum instruction enterprise. Many folks who knew us were highly critical that we didn't insist, as parents, that Andrew and Robert attend college or university, prior to setting up main street shop-keeping. What they didn't appreciate, was that both our lads had apprenticed in the antique business, since they were old enough to know what our buying adventures were all about. They grew up in a museum, literally, as I was manager of Woodchester Villa and Museum in Bracebridge, when they were toddlers, and we had an antique shop on upper Manitoba Street during those same years. When we weren't running the shop, or tending the museum, we were participating in all kinds of antique sales, flea markets, garage sales, and any other interesting venues we could find. They've been buying and selling collectibles, for more than a decade now, five of those years in a shop most expected would fail in its first year. And they told us so! Critics weren't bashful at all about telling us we were wrong-headed, and foolish for backing their enterprise. Those folks who gave them the benefit of the doubt, and supported them in those tough start-up years, are still coming by for a visit, or to get some work done on a guitar, or even to rent or buy equipment, and their opinion is vastly different that when they first met Andrew and Robert, and wondered how these two green kids could survive the mainstream rigors. There was complaining about the shortage of business on the main street then, as there is now, the difference being, some owners have figured out that complaining doesn't bring in business……innovation and entrepreneurial spirit fills in the gaps.

We have long worked behind the scenes with our sons, and proudly so. They have proven they can sell just about anything, from antique tables, and steamer trunks, to vintage drum sets, amps, banjos, guitars, fiddles, mandolins, and noise makers of all sorts, from all countries. Now they're even selling their mother's hand-knit mitts, socks and hats. But they still look like the same two young lads who entered that main street venue, full of anticipation and expectation, but not so much worry. If there's any one thing I admire about these upstarts, it's the fact they don't ever dwell on the negatives, or the criticism swirling around the town…..which seems a perpetual motion kind of thing. While some argue the town is cursed, because of the spate of bad luck and general misfortune recently, they don't carry any burdens other than the tasks for the given day. This past weekend they cut some prices, brought in some pieces that had been in storage, highlighted some other inventory that had been buried by volume, and took some consignment antiques from us. The result was a prosperous family weekend, in business, goodwill, and the stuff that has kept us a close family.

I remember one antique dealer, telling Andrew, one day, that if it wasn't for your parents, "you wouldn't have a business right now." To which he responded, "You wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for your parents." And rather than get into a great debate on the issue, he turned and walked away. When people do say this, to please themselves undoubtedly, I can only offer this retort. We have mentored them, and assisted them financially, including accounting services. What we would have offered them to attend university, was afforded them to start up their business. While I hear some parents bemoaning that their sons and daughters went into a completely different field, than what they were educated in, or that they owe huge amounts of money in student loans, our boys have paid us back inside five years with their earnings. Do I brag? Not really. Why? They're just doing what they're supposed to do as businessmen. Not fancy footwork, no bedazzling, or charade, just the kind of effort that works for customers, and that works well for them. It's not complicated. If you love your business, and you know how to adapt to change, and the dynamic of the local and tourist market, you're going to be around for the long haul.

The boys are often asked what would make the town more prosperous. You'd be surprised who does the asking! And they tell them the same thing every time. It's about the customer and what he or she wants, and that pertains to just about everything we do here in this town. If something isn't working, and there is a consistent failure to improve, and there is no plan to change to meet demand, then why ask questions of those who are successful. You're only going to be told that hard work alone doesn't guarantee prosperity. You can keep a shop open 24 hours a day but if it doesn't have what the customers want and require, then it's a failing business venture. The same can be said for just about anything else that depends on pleasing the public. Yet it is our biggest failing here……that it is considered more productive to argue and criticize within the business community, than to improve business by being intuitive, responsive, dynamic, and doing what it takes to survive and improve. Even though most businesses recognize this as true, they will still argue until the cows come home, and waste precious time, trying to make their point at a meeting……..which adds up to hard feelings and mistrust in the process of business to business co-operation.

While many businesses look to the town to help them out, and provide some sort of milestone direction, to save them from the quagmire of commercial depression, frankly, our family is quite happy to do the work ourselves…..as we know it will get done right the first time, without all the political debate and posturing first. We do prefer our independence because it works. We network when we need to, and we have many business colleagues throughout this part of Ontario, and particularly Muskoka, who we buy and sell on a regular basis. We do what we have to, in order to survive financially, and that has meant considerable sacrifice for two eager lads, who believe education in business, doesn't stop just because you have a vendor's permit.

If you press Andrew or Robert about where they got their gumption, well, (and it will take some coaxing), they will tell you it's a family matter. They might tell you that their family, on their mother's side, were some of the earliest settlers in Muskoka, and that these Ufford / Three Mile Lake homesteaders, had the historic distinction of being known as the "Three Mile Lake Wolves," who for kicks, would come to Bracebridge as a group, lock arms at one end of the street, and walk its length, challenging any one to get in their way. Hey, it's in the history books. The history of the Shea family. Ireland's finest.

It doesn't mean to suggest our boys are fighters. Not really. They are pacifists with big hearts. But don't think for a moment, they don't have a little canine in them, passed down over the centuries. These are the same lads who can boast of having their great-great grandfather's dug-out canoe, proudly on display at the Muskoka Lakes Museum.

Andrew and Robert are happy to be mainstream businessman. Gravenhurst is their home town, and a place they find quite profitable in so many ways.

What a great weekend it was, here in South Muskoka. Hope you had a good time too.