Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/122656
Don't Pay Unnecessary Fees… Some investment firms charge a fee simply to maintain a brokerage account for you. Stifel offers you account options. Our basic Stifel Prestige® Account has no monthly or annual fee and offers many convenient services. *Annual fees will apply if you choose enhanced account features. Plus, Stifel offers: Financial strength and stability Personal attention from your dedicated financial advisor For more details, call: (478) 746-6262 (800) 735-1522 300 Mulberry Street, Suite 101 Macon, Georgia 31201 Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com 42 l Macon Magazine homes & gardens After Vernon took several months to conduct the needed market research and analysis to complete a business plan, he received a phone call in October 2001. The businessmen told him "thanks for everything you've done, but we feel like you're too young and too inexperienced to be our operating partner, and we wish you the best of luck." "So they went their way and I went mine," said Vernon, merely adding "it's interesting to look back on" and laughing at a request to name the businessmen, "Absolutely not!" A TRUCK AND POOL SUPPLIES Armed with his knowledge and ideas of the pool industry, plus $500 awarded by his college for being chosen as Entrepreneur of the Year in addition to his other hardearned savings, Vernon bought the truck and supplies needed to start his own pool company. That was in 2001. Come 2005, as the company expanded in Macon and as ASP looked for further outreach possibilities, the idea of franchising was introduced. That's when his partner, attorney Tom Swift, came on board. "(As his attorney) I'd already worked with Stewart on franchising the business. He and I probably took a year and a half to research the business, reach the model, put in place operations manuals, licensing agreements, those sorts of things, so I was very familiar, not only with the company but the franchising process," Swift said. Stewart started putting out feelers. He came to Swift as a consultant and told him he needed somebody to take over the operations of the business because it was growing so fast. He needed someone in house. "That peaked my interest, and I reached out to him, and said, 'If you're thinking about bringing on a business partner, I'm interested. "If you would have told me back when I was taking the bar exam that I would be going into the swimming pool business, I would have told you that you were crazy. When I told my parents that I was leaving the practice of law to go in the pool business, they literally said, 'you're doing what?' " Swift said his reasons were simple. He had always wanted to own his own business and he "believed not only in the model, but I believe in Stewart Vernon. I believed in his vision; I believed in his work ethic, and I knew we were going to make this thing successful." The partners realized quickly that it wasn't the knowledge of the pool industry that made for a successful pool company; it was the mind of the business owner. "We realized that our philosophy from the beginning was not to focus on people in the pool business; I wanted to focus on wellcapitalized, intelligent, business-minded individuals," said Vernon. april/MAy 2013