Aaron J Hudson
AMN195
Prof. Silverman
April 29th, 2006
York & Sons Eyewear
1. What kind of business do you own and operate?
Gregory York, Jr. is a licensed Optometrist and he owns and operates an
eye wear store.
2. How many locations do you currently have?
There is just one location right now in Harlem.
3. What is the history of your business?
Greg is a second generation Optometrist. His father, Gregory Sr. was
also an Optometrist and the original owner of the store. Greg has a
younger brother who was also suppose to follow in the family footsteps
and become an Optometrist but, he decided not to do so. Hence, the name
of the store was York & Sons. The name never changed but Gregory Sr.
put in his will that if either son became an Optometrist, he would have
sole ownership of the business. If both sons were to become Optometrists,
they would go into business as a partnership. Ultimately, Gregory Jr.
became sole owner of York & Sons Eyewear! He hopes to one day pass
on his business to one of his children. His two oldest children, Michele
and Gregory III are both in college for Optometry as of now.
4. How many employees do you have working for you?
He has 7 employees currently working for him. One Optometrist, two
technologists, four sales associates.
5. How long have you known that you wanted to own your own business?
Greg’s father always talked to him about taking over the family business
after he was gone. Greg feels that it was just his place for as long as he
can remember to take over the store for him to carry on the family
business.
6. Why did you choose the field you are in for your business?
Again, he always knew he would follow in his father’s footsteps. He grew
up knowing that daddy was an Optometrist and one day he would next
in line to run the business.
7. What goals did you set for yourself once you took over the family
business?
Greg wanted to continue the same family customer service his father
always provided. His father had a clientele that was loyal and helped
bring in new customers whenever possible. He wanted to keep the same
customers by running the store the same way his father did. He wanted
to remain a profitable business and he hopes to one day retire and only
focus on his store without having to work other jobs simultaneously.
8. Did you build your business on your own or did you go in with a partner?
Everything was already laid out for him. His dad left specific
instructions in his will. If one becomes an Optometrist, sole ownership.
If both were optometrists, partnership! Though his brother did not
become an Optometrist, he did help him run the business from time to
time. He did actually employ his brother as Senior Sales associate at one
point.
9. What obstacles did you cross while building your business?
Greg’s biggest problems were finding trustworthy employees. As
longtime employees left and he brought new ones on, he found that he
was losing money. He found out that some of the employees were
steeling from him and charging customers less than they were suppose to
charge. Another problem was the crime rate in the area he was in. His
store was broken into on three different occasions, he has had to replace
the store front windows and various store equipment due to the
robberies.
10. What is your background? Degrees? Certifications? Licenses?
Greg has a 4-year degree from SUNY’s State College of Optometry
located in Manhattan on 33 W. 42nd Street right down the street from
Grand Central Terminal. He has the required licenses by the city and
state of New York to operate a business. His establishment is certified by
OSHA as a safe and hazard free environment for employees to work.
11. What was the start up cost of your business?
Since this business was inherited, it did not cost Greg Jr. anything to
start it. He is not sure of the cost his father had to front to start the
business. He would not share the exact amounts with me, but Greg does
have to maintain certain fees with the city and state to continue
operating in good standings.
12. Did you have to take out any loans or were you financially able to do
without?
At one point, Greg was going through a financial hardship after 9/11 and
was almost forced to take out a loan just to maintain the current bill for
rent, supplies, fees, wages, and insurance. Fortunately for him, he was
and still is smart with his finances and avoided that route. He had to dip
into his personal finances and investments to save the business from
going under, but he did it and now he is back in the positive. It took him
a minute to get back where he wanted to be, but he did it.
13. Do you have plans to expand your business?
Greg always has aspirations to expand his business but at this moment,
he is not financially able to open another store. He has been shopping
around for a partner to maybe go into business with but he is not sure if
he wants to go into a partnership with anyone just yet. He has thought
about talking to the Optometrist that works for him, but he hasn’t taken
that step yet to do so. Ultimately, yes, he wants to expand his business.
14. What were the steps needed in order to make your business a reality?
The reality was already in place, Greg just needed to make sure that
when the time came, he was able to take over the business and keep it
running. For example, all the licenses and certifications were in his
father’s name, not his. So he had to go through the whole process of
reapplying and waiting for everything to go through before he could
continue the business legally. There was a brief period where his store
could not operate legally. During that period, he decided to shut down
until all the required licenses came through, and renovate the store. At
the time, he had extra money set aside to maintain the rent and fix up the
store. It was the first renovation since his father started the business.
15. How did you promote your business to the public?
His customer base was already deep from his father’s day. In order to
get the word out further, Greg placed adds in local papers, he made
flyers and passed them through local neighborhoods, word of mouth
through friends and family, and he passed out business cards every
chance he was given. He is big on networking. It seems that his tactics
are paying off. His customer base has grown since he took over the
business.
16. Was there ever a time where you felt discouraged and were ready to
give up?
NEVER! Greg’s father always taught him to never give up no matter
what. He always told him to look for that silver lining and to always
realize that someone else out there always had things worse than
whatever he may have been going through at that moment. There were
times where he thought that the business had a chance of failing but he
never let that stop him, he pushed through those times and never gave up.
17. How do you oversee day to day operations in your business?
Greg is as the store everyday but because he does have a second job, the
other Optometrist at the store oversees the store when he is not around.
Because he only has a few employees, Greg is everything. He does the
human relations to include the hiring and firing, he does the payroll, any
problems between the employees, any problems with customer
satisfaction all go through him.
18. What training and qualifications are needed for employees to work for
you?
It depends on the position the employee works. Obviously, the
Optometrist must be licensed, but he also requires that he/she has had at
lease a year experience in the field. The techs must have attended an
accredited school, graduated with a 3.0 GPA or better, and also have had
a year of experience in the field. He allows their internships to count as
experience. As far as his sales associates, he doesn’t require them to have
too much knowledge about the eyewear industry, but they must have 2
years experience in a customer relation based field. He does place them
on a 6 month probation period where they must gain considerable
knowledge of their position in the store and the products and services
they offer.
19. Do you see your business staying around for the long haul?
YES! He has no plans of closing shop. He is comfortable with his
customer base now and foresees no decline in sales. He plans to stay
around for the rest of his life time, at lease, so he can hand the business
down to his children.
20. How successful has your business been to date?
Though I tried to get some actual figures from him, Greg was playing
hard to get. He did say that he is satisfied with the profits that his
business has brought in. He has noticed a slow increase in customers
walking through his doors, very few to no complaints from his
customers, and he has tried to keep his employees happy as best he can.
He feels that he is running a fairly successful operation.
21. Did 9/11 affect your business’s success?
Yes. Financially, Greg went through a terrible hardship after 9/11.
That’s the period where he almost drained his personal savings and
investments to bell the store out of a hole. Sales were down, customers
lost there jobs, cancelled appointments, and the outcome was less
business for us. Like everyone else, Greg still had to pay the bills. This
was the period when Greg thought that the business was going under. It
took him almost two years to dig himself out of the hole 9/11 caused.
Though the store wasn’t directly affected by the debris, Greg had to shut
down to save on the utilities. Business was bad all around at that time
and at York & Sons Eyewear, it was no different.
22. What are the headaches you’ve come across running your own business?
Greg says that his #1 headache that he deals with is the growing rate in
health insurance for his employees. He only has a few employees to
worry about but, he thinks about the future and the growing # of
employees he will one day have. HE tries to provide a good program for
his employees but the price per person is growing at insane rates and it’s
getting hard for him to keep up. He doesn’t have to provide this service to
his employees but this is one way that he tries to keep his good employees
to stick around. Providing benefits and decent wages are what he uses as
his weapons.
23. How fierce has the competition been n the “real world” with regards to
your field?
The competition is not that vast, but, the competition that is out there is
more widely known. Therefore, Greg has to fight to retain the customers
he has and at the same time try and attract new customers. The location
where he is, there is not another eyeglass store that offers the products
and services that he does, so that’s a benefit in his favor. He does fear
that if a bigger corporate store moves into his neighborhood, he may
eventually have a problem, but he says that he will cross that bridge
when he gets to it.
24. Do you have any standing contracts with other businesses for continued
work?
Not as of yet. He has been trying to talk to some local business in his
neighborhood about providing ongoing services for them, but no takers
have bitten the bait as of yet.
Greg York is a former sailor in the Navy. We work together at Deutsche
Bank as Security Officers for Allied-Barton Security Agency. He has always
approached me and offered me a free eye exam whenever I needed one. He
seems to have a pretty successful business going on here. I have known him
for four plus years now and he is still in business. He seems sincere when he
says he wants to maintain the highest quality of customer satisfaction he can
to retain his customers. By his rigorous requirements and qualifications of
his employees, I would say that he fully intends to retain the most
knowledgeable employees as well. It’s amazing, the high standards he holds
them to. It seems he has gone through some up and downs running his
business, but he is still here, so that should say something. I think it is very
noble of him to want to keep his father’s business going and he has definitely
worked hard at trying to do so. Though his major was not business related,
he has definitely done his homework on the laws and ethics of how to run a
business. Good job, Yorky!