Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 9 with The Longenettes and TJ Stewart

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
We've got three entrepreneurs in the room.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
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 picked
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

(00:47):
on what it's like to own a business and open
a business and go through that entire process. So Doug
and Stacy, 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.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
We are just we.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Listen 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 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

(01:24):
heard from TJ about his business. What's your business?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
We own Route forty Lumberjacks, which is an ax throwing
venue that's also a pub, and it's the best way
to describe. It's an adults playground and also children can
have fun too. We we have air hockey, ping pong,
pool tables, dart boards with all twenty four foot shuffle board.

(01:49):
We have of course the acts throwing. We have a
portable ax trailer, dum tank dunk tank now and we
have a lot of new things coming. We have a
lot of game that we haven't even set up yet.
We've emptied out some of the storage units were adjoining
up to the pub and made an outdoor venue and
we got the turf off of Saint Clair's old football

(02:10):
field they were throwing away and we put it outside
and even still has the twenty yard line number two
on there. And it's some great reviews. And we have
live bands on Fridays and Saturdays, and we have to
have karaoke on Fridays and we had tried, as Stacey
does all the scheduling, all the all the booking and
all everything.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
So I will say, as a as a Harrison Central
football player, ilways want to know on that field that
you guys now have. But 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 a variety of things. And tej you could
speak to this as well. There's always that that sense

(02:50):
that Okay, I have an idea, how do I want
to treat it? Do I want to how seriously do
I want to treat it? And you guys seem like
every idea that comes to you just put it into
action and it seems to work out incredibly well for you.
That process like kind of internally in your mind, it's.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
A lot of thinking. We we do a lot of talking.
And and what's funny is when my Stacey and my
niece would go away on trips. They went to Charleston,
South Carolina, and they went to a bar and had
had garage doors and it was really neat to make
it an outdoor venue. And so they sent me text
say hey, we got to do this, and and uh,

(03:24):
what's amazing is the old building had windows there prior
and it used to be a bar back in the
seventies called Scotties, and it was a bowling alley. So
it was we took an old building and we converted
into something a lot newer, and it's it really worked
out well. And so whenever they go away somewhere, it
always cost me a lot of spend. It makes me

(03:45):
work a lot harder because they all get great ideas,
but a lot of them are just customers. We listened
to the customers, what do you want, what do you
like to hear? You know, the old the old air
hockey was big when we were young. We have an
old air hockey game there. It's a it's a it's
a fun stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
So do you have people that say, oh no, that
like negative Nelly's like no, no, no, that's not gonna work.
So how do you I, like I said, TJ, I
read this letter that was a negative Nelly letter, And
how do you guys put up with negative comments from people?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
It's hard, but now it's hard, 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. You get your caught in that rut.
And we have a few of them, and they know
who they are and they're just not They just I

(04:46):
don't know how they look in a mirror in the
morning sometimes because they get up in the morning just
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 we have a great
businesses going there. We have the law that we have
the laundromat, which is Sujet does and we also have

(05:07):
Rustic Roots, a hair salon, and then we have a
small campground, and then we also have storage units, so
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 does and it makes it very nice.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
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 Saint Clairsvo, 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,

(05:50):
But I was listening to you guys.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Talk, I don't It wasn't near as hard for us
because we've had previous businesses ourselves. For Stacey 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 were it'd
be nice if it was a one stop shop where hey,

(06:12):
I want to start a blah blah business, goes someone
in the county and they can tell you who to
see in the state, who to go, licenses, 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

(06:32):
great to us. The people that but we you know,
they we had to be informed on who all we
needed and inspected by and what type of licensing.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
And things like that kind of after the fact.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Yeah, and we had to find out the hard way.
You know, one person would say, oh, you need this
from the liquor you know, need this from health department,
You need this from you know, and and there's just
such a such major expenses to an initial startup business.
I feel bad for anybody wanting to try to do
it just because they have to listen, they're going to

(07:08):
come across expenses that they don't realize they have to do,
as far as permits.

Speaker 6 (07:13):
And some they don't have to do. Some are unnecessary
expenses because you don't.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Know right it's 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 got
to pay an architect to come to your drawing an architect.
Then then you have to submit it to the state

(07:40):
for the approval. 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

(08:03):
got 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, say, you know, let's help the
ones that are here, and let's start. Let's start doing
some things for the the you know, like TEJ TJ started.
How many businesses also we've you know, we and Stacey

(08:23):
had a tanning business before she said, numerous others. She
had a cleaning business the same time I had a
cleaning business. And we probably have been 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.

(08:45):
What's bad is everybody thinks I owned the place and
we owned the place.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
I was introduced but to one of our customers introduced
me to his girlfriend as the owner's wife. My head
was spinning.

Speaker 4 (08:59):
Yeah did you did you correct him?

Speaker 5 (09:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (09:02):
You did?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, yeah, And somehow I feel like I got in
trouble on that, but you did.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
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 you know in the bordering
counties that we have in the bordering states, how important
is it for you to stay here in the Ohio Valley.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
This is home.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
We were raised here, born and raised here. When I
graduated high school, it seemed like a hundred 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 knowing people knowing your neighbor.
Like TJ and I. We probably don't talk to each

(09:52):
other other than we see each other all casually, but
I know he's a true friend. If I need something,
I know I can call TJ. And he knows he
can on me. That's what you don't see in the
bigger cities, and that's what I love about the High Valley.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
So I totally get that. I'm totally on board with that.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
You know, we want to encourage the young people to
stay here, and we need to have businesses that they
want to work at.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
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. Well, yes,
there is look for it, find it.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
You got to find it.

Speaker 5 (10:30):
If you build it, they will come and they have.

Speaker 6 (10:33):
They have pretty awesome.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
You even had it on a trailer and you brought
it in downtown Saint Clairsdo not only did you bring
the axe throwing, you brought a rug, you brought a ottoman,
you brought uh checkers, you brought the Jenga, you brought
all of that. That was like, it was like you

(10:55):
brought your uh, your basement, you know, up to Saint Clairsville,
which was amazing.

Speaker 6 (11:03):
Well, it's it's not just aming. I'm gonna I'm gonna
plug you guys here. It's not just to me. They're
not making any money doing that, right, Oh yeah, they're
not making money doing They're doing that for the community.
They all of that is not they're not coming in
there walking away with cash in your 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.

(11:25):
There's a lot of credit due to that. Because 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.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
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 that that.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Goes super super far.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
And I don't know that you guys look at that
as a sacrifice, but you you look at it as
kind of being charitable and just giving back and and
that's certainly appreciated, and it helps the community all the
way around, and we appreciate that as well.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
What we're what we're doing out there is we're we're
reinvesting every penny we make. And Stacey's a full time
with the whole agency, and my real job is United Dairy,
So I've been there thirty two years, and truly we
work out there. Stacy works during the day and she
shows houses during the evening, and I work at the

(12:15):
dairy during the day and I'm out there in the evening.
So it's and then we we're lucky enough our kids
are a 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 helping.
We couldn't do it without everybody, and again, I can't

(12:36):
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 there's stuff
with people saying there's no jobs out here and there's
no trust me, there's jobs out here in United Dairy's
hiring all the time. But it's work, and you got
to come in there and you're gonna be lowman on
toteal pole and you're gonna work the harder job at first,

(12:58):
and you're gonna work into a better job. Same way
with us. We're always looking for good people. And we
have roughly twenty employees out there. Now wow, now they're
all part time and everybody's got other their jobs. But again,
we have a guy that shar She runs our beauty
or laundromat and she's the manager there and she keeps
the employees straight there and keeps it going. Other than

(13:21):
Chelsea runs the beauty shop and she does our books.
Other than that, the rest of fall on Stacy and I.
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.

Speaker 6 (13:41):
Help of them.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Can't get out of their own way then, don't realize
it takes a lot of hard work and a lot
of time. And uh, and we've we've I was on
the I actually used to speak with on the Governor's
we aboard for a little bit and work force Investment
Acts years and years ago, and I spoke to young
kids and I would tell them, Hey, go home looking
at me, and in ten years look in a mirror again.

(14:02):
That's the only person you can blame where you are
today because here I am just some dumb a 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.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
So I think that's awesome. And you know, and I
love the idea that you both give back to the community.
I know that you guys have like people coming in
groups that are coming in like you always do everything
that we ask you for the road for rotary, even
though I make the wrong date, yep, then I'll never

(14:39):
forget that. But you know, 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
Saint Clairsville, but to travel on forty. We have so
many wonderful things going on businesses is that people just

(15:01):
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 the route forty
or anywhere else if you're traveling, go the back roads
because there's so many different things to see, and you

(15:23):
guys are making it so easy 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 sud your duds was exploding.
I mean, you guys were doing but it's such a
cool concept. I don't know, I don't know anyone that

(15:45):
does that, but you guys started that.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
We talked about with TJ on the previous one about
traffic and traffic being deviated from the interstate onto forty
and people having to pass through there, not by choice,
but because they have to. And do you sense that
you get more folks when when they're as accident or
whatever and folks have to get off on two of
eight and they have to go through forty and go
between more sounds Saint Clair's, Well, do you sense that
more people stop through?

Speaker 5 (16:07):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (16:08):
Is that something that you guys pick up on or
or do you get many outsiders people not from the area.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
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. But once people realize what we are, then
we kind of have a hook.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Like word of mouth has been there.

Speaker 5 (16:30):
Yeah. I mean we had some people from Epworth Park
that we're 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 drive back by here,
I don't know how many times, and we finally, really,
we finally stopped in and they were there every night
until they left.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Oh really.

Speaker 5 (16:48):
So it's you know, I don't know how to get
the word out, you.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
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 I just wanted your opinion on have you.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Ever looked into to billboard.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I just would like to know how effective they are,
if you guys have looked into that at all.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
We did have a billboard.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
We did the billboard come across right there, coming in
the bridgeport, when you come across the interstate. I would
say we had a few new people maybe came in,
but not a lot.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
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 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.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
With the type of business utilities crush us. I mean
pro paane is amazing water. You know, everything that's going
on and everybody's private homes or 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 launder

(17:58):
matter people that don't have have the washers and drivers,
the house for us to raise. It's 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 it's yeah and utilities. Again.

(18:21):
If you know, you see what it's done at your house,
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 we can ask the three of us what can
we do to help, because you know, I've had commissioners

(18:41):
say things to me, you know, 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 only we were six months
shyt over the time.

Speaker 5 (18:56):
We had two real employees and so that.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
Was we were and that was all fresh on our businesses,
So that would have been the only pandout that we
would ever receive from the government. But I just feel
if we could all get together those small businesses in
the High Valley. I don't care if you're wheeling where
you are. Let's all get together, all the Chamber of Commerces. Yes,
and and we belong to Barnesville and Saint Clairsville and

(19:22):
let's all help each other. That's that's what we need
to do.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
I mean, her and I talk about that on almost
every show. You know 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, and especially when when, of course, the way
costs are and I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Maybe t J.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
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
rough and so word of mouth.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Word of mouth is really your your your vehicle.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
And because of that, what's very important, and I'm sure
you would agree, is 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 and and show
up the next night.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yeah, there's so many things you know that people don't realize.
The underlying cost workers compensation. It's you can get in
a group and it'll help you. And that's a whole
other that's a whole that's a whole other show. I'm
sure we could sit and talk about. 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, you have

(20:30):
every time you turn around there's somebody else. You know,
your property tax has gone up, everybody has had a notice,
and if.

Speaker 6 (20:37):
God forbid, you're late on any of those, you'll find
you'll find now they hold the liquor license hostage. If
you're late on anything, they'll suspend your liquor license. Really,
oh yes, absolutely absolutely 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 you can't

(20:57):
keep up, you better keep up or you're going to
get further behind. It's rough, so you have.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
To make some sacrifices.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
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 and where usually
if that's 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 we're in a tough spot right now.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Well yeah, we're the bank, so.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
That but well, because you don't want to hurt the
business and you don't want to take away from the customers.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
I get that, and the quality, you don't want to
you know, quality.

Speaker 6 (21:40):
And raising prices is not the answer.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Wow, they'll notice, they'll notice. It's and and someone down
the street, you know, I don't know. Well, I mean
it's just it's a hard It's it's all around hard.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
It just really is.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
But we're in for the long haul.

Speaker 6 (21:59):
I mean it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
The payoffs must be.

Speaker 6 (22:02):
It's worth it.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah, it's it's it is, and that you think about
it every day. You're you feel like it's groundhog Day
when you get up and oh, I gotta you know,
she's got to go to the liquor orders afternoon and
she's got to do this, do that, and then we
have Queen heartst tonight and it's upped over fifteen thousand dollars.
It's but that's been a big you know Monday night.
Really there's nothing going on, and we keep ours, we

(22:25):
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 und It just gets unsafe
really that many people crammed in a little place. So
we just try. We want to make more people happy,
and we'll give away more of their own We're just
giving their money back, is all we're doing. We don't
make any money off the Queen Arts payoffs.

Speaker 5 (22:47):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Well, I think I three of my favorite people, and
I truly am very grateful that you stayed in TJ
to listen to this and to give us your pinion.
It really is important. It really matters to the Ohio
Valley and to each one of you guys.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
So Rake, 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 and you guys as well.
We hope to have more conversations with you in the future,
but we've had Doug and Stacey Launette, t J.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Stewart, Wendy Anderson, and I'm Drake Watson.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
As always, once again, for our reviewers you can with
any kind of feedbackward suggestions. You can reach us at
OUE podcast at Ohio dot edu.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
That is OUI podcast.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
At Ohio dot edu for any comments or suggestions. Once again,
I'm Drake Watson, Wendy Anderson, t J. Stewart, Doug and
Stacey Luninette, and thanks for listening.