Change happens in business the way it does in life. It can be intentional or unforeseen, large or small, conspicuous or subtle. Four business owners who were previously profiled in this column over the past five to nine years recently shared their stories of change.
Ralph Weickel
When he was profiled in August 2005, Ralph Weickel was the owner of Performance Management, an executive coaching business he started in 1998. He still owns the business and has added two other entities to his resume: Corporation for Positive Change and the European Center for Positive Change.
Weickel is doing more consulting work than before, focusing on a strength-based approach to change, leadership development and employee engagement. Using an “appreciative inquiry process,” he works with companies in manufacturing, health care, academia, research facilities, logistics facilities and state and city governments. The biggest change Weickel has undergone in the past few years is that his business is global now.
“In 2010 I attended a conference in Budapest, Hungary, and I made a decision I wanted to work overseas,” Weickel said.
The next year he was working with clients in Amsterdam. He now spends five or six months of the year in various cities in Europe, working under the business he formed called the European Center for Positive Change. In December 2013, Weickel went in with partners to purchase the Corporation for Positive Change, now based in Lexington. He is the president of the company.
Bill and Jackie Powell
Profiled in November 2008, Bill and Jackie Powell are the owners of Serif Group, a creative marketing agency they started in 2000.
Two summers ago, the Powells moved their company from a 900-square-foot office on Reynolds Road to a much larger building on the corner of Walton and National avenues. They share space with photographer Shaun Ring and are able to host functions for AAF Lexington (Ad Club) and art showings for local artists.
“We have a full-time graphic designer on staff now,” Jackie Powell said. Previously relying solely on subcontractors, the company has grown to allow the owners to hire a full-time employee. As a creative marketing agency, Serif Group is more than an advertising agency and more than a design firm.
“We’ve grown in our offerings,” Bill Powell said, citing larger clients and more Web work than five years ago. “The maturation of how websites are done is always going to change; we’re changing with it.”
Masten and Dingus Childers
Former restaurateurs Masten and Dingus Childers were profiled in February 2006, two years after they opened Belle’s Bakery in a former carriage house on South Ashland in Chevy Chase. In March 2013, they closed the business.
“We could not fathom giving people a two-week notice,” Masten Childers said. “We just shut it down, with no warning.”
Dingus Childers had been running the bakery alone for the previous year, while her husband was graduating from law school and taking the bar exam. He has been practicing law at McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland since June 2013.
“We do miss the bakery,” Masten Childers said. “There isn’t a day that goes by that we’re not talking about it. What facilitated the fortune I’ve had with my law career is the relationships that placed formed.”
He said it worked in their favor for the couple to close the bakery.
“It was a big part of our lives that came to an end,” he said. “Dingus is at home raising our girls [11 and 4]. She’s having so much fun. She’s busier than I am.”
Cedric Jenkins
With a background in basketball and banking, Cedric Jenkins purchased GNC Hamburg in late 2008. Since appearing on the pages of Business Lexington in August 2009, he has obtained his real estate license and is a Realtor at Keller Williams Bluegrass Realty, in addition to owning a General Nutrition Center franchise.
“It continues to grow,” he said of the store in Hamburg. “We are seeing more families and people that are proactively trying to take care of their health.”
Jenkins had been a mortgage broker, commercial lender, landlord and homeowner, so it made sense to him to come full circle and start selling real estate. He is also passionate about helping people with his GNC store and is glad he can do both. During the early years of store ownership, Jenkins was on site almost daily, building revenues to a level that he could pay a manager.
“We’ve grown,” he said. “Things are headed in the right direction, and I am able to pay a manager — and the right person.”