I am the owner along with my partner, Nick Pruner, of the Indianapolis North Franchise of The Alternative Board (TAB).  This is my 2^nd business ownership venture in the Indianapolis area where I have lived all of my life…..66 total years, 40 of which have been in the Carmel area.

I have always had an interest in and appreciation for the mentor concept….having a trusted advisor to share their experience along life’s way.  I’ve also always had a sincere interest in kids and their development.  Because of that, I spend most of my volunteer time and effort with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and my 5^th Little Brother over the past 25+ years.

I believe very strongly that owners of privately held businesses are the backbone of any successful community.  They employ the majority of workers in America and are the catalyst for so many of the jobs that support families, drive the economy and cause the communities they operate in to grow and thrive.  I became involved with The Alternative Board because of my passion for working with and helping business owners deal with the inherent challenges of business ownership and achieve their own visions of success.

Much of that passion for working with business owners comes from being a small businessman myself.  Prior to TAB, after graduating from North Central High School and with a Business Degree from Butler University, I gained a tremendous business foundation over 4 years as a Branch Manager for a large Indianapolis Bank. I then owned and operated, for 33 years, 1-3 locations of DirectBuy, North America’s largest and most successful private buying organization. I have been consistently successful at what all small business people do, namely everything, and whatever it takes to get the job done and bring meaningful value to their customers and staffs.  That involved developing multiple locations, personal sales, marketing, planning, building and developing a professional, well-trained staff of leaders, sales people, customer service reps and operations support people.  Over the years, we built to a point of being the number one Franchise in the organization in terms of sales with many awards for sales, service and operations.  We became known in the organization as a “Model Franchise,” that being one that others looked at and said, “That’s how it’s done, successful from most any perspective, consistently profitable, it’s a tremendous place to learn and grow, the owner does it with tremendous balance in his life, and they have fun doing it.”  After an initial retirement, I then spent 7 years working for DirectBuy, Inc. as a Business Consultant.  In that position, I worked closely with franchisees throughout North America coaching Franchise Owners to optimize their operations and maximize their opportunities.

All of that culminates in a strong desire to coach and help other like-minded business people who are sincere about growing their businesses. The Alternative Board is the ideal vehicle for achieving that.